Mr. Bobby Godsell is Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Polymetal International PLC. Previous experience: Chairman of Business Leadership South Africa, President of the South African Chamber of Mines, Chairman of Eskom, Chief Executive of AngloGold Ashanti, Director of African Barrick Gold and Solar Capital, Chair of the Board of Optimum Coal Holdings, acquired by Glencore plc. Director of Platmin Limited, Member of the South African National Planning Commission. Qualifications: BA from the University of Natal and MA from the University of Cape Town. Other roles: Co-Chairman of the South African Millennium Labour Council. Non-executive Director of the South African Industrial Development Corporation.
Mr. Vitaly Natanovich Nesis is Group Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director of Polymetal International PLC. Previous experience: JSC Polymetal’s Chief Executive from 2003, Member of its Board, 2004-2012. CEO of Vostsibugol, 2002-2003. Strategic Development Director at the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant in 2000. Qualifications: BA in Economics from Yale University; MA in Mining Economics from St. Petersburg Mining Institute. Other roles: Head of the Investment Planning Department at SUAL-Holding, 2001-2002. McKinsey in Moscow, 1999-2000. Merrill Lynch in New York, 1997-1999.
Mr. Maxim Nazimok is Chief Financial Officer of the Company. Experience: Previous roles in Polymetal: Chief Financial Controller, 2011-2015, and Finance Director of Polymetal, 2015-2016. Deputy Chief Financial Officer at Nomos Bank in 2011-2012, Director of Business Planning and Analysis since 2009. Head of Management and IFRS Reporting at MDM Bank, 2008-2009. Various financial positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2003-2008. Qualification: BA in Economics from St. Petersburg State University; graduated with distinction from the Executive MBA-Global Programme at London Business School and Columbia Business School. Fellow member of ACCA.
Mr. Vitaly Valerevich Savchenko is Chief Operating Officer of Polymetal International PLC. Experience: Director of the Production Department, 2007-2009, senior production and technical positions since 2004. Chief Underground Mine Engineer at Priargunskoye Mining and Chemical Company as well as various managing positions at the mine, 1994-2003. Recipient of second and third-category Miner’s Glory Medal. Qualification: Degree with Honours in Underground Mineral Mining engineering, Kyrgyz Mining Institute; MBA from the UK’s Open University Business School.
Mr. Valery Nikolaevich Tsyplakov is Managing Director - Polymetal Engineering of Polymetal International PLC. Experience: Previous roles in Polymetal: Deputy General Director for Mineral Resources, Design and Technology and senior roles in the Production and Technology and Technological Research Departments, 2000-2004. Department Head at the Soviet Union Research Institute of Aeronautical Automation and, prior to this, a quest scientist at Aarhus University’s Physics Institute (Denmark). Research Fellow in the Plasma Physics Department of the Moscow Physics and Engineering Institute. Professional Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (London). Qualification: Degree in Experimental Nuclear Physics, Moscow Physics and Engineering Institute. PhD in Physics and Mathematics.
Mr. Pavel Aleksandrovich Danilin is Deputy Chief Executive Officer - Strategic Development of Polymetal International PLC. Experience: Previous roles in Polymetal: Director of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, Head of Corporate Finance. Head of Corporate Finance at CJSC ICT, 2002 and 2003. Deputy Head of Currency Department and Head of Financial Resources Department at the Kaliningrad branch of Bank Petrocommerce, 1998-2001. Qualification: MBA from the University of California at Berkeley, Haas School of Business. Degree in Economics and Management, Kaliningrad State Technical University.
Mr. Igor Kapshuk is Chief Legal Officer of Polymetal International PLC. Experience: Previously worked in Polymetal as Head of the Legal Department from 2005 and Deputy Head from 2003. Deputy General Counsel, Head of the Department for Legal Matters and Head of Claims Department at the branch of Siberia Energy Coal Company and at Vostsibugol (Irkutsk), 2001-2003. Legal advisor for Pharmasintez, 1999-2001. Legal advisor and acting Head of the Legal Department at the Irkutsk Tea-Packing Factory, 1997-1998. Legal advisor at an insurance company (Irkutsk), 1994-1997. Qualification: Degree from the Law School of Irkutsk State University.
Mr. Roman Mikhaylovich Shestakov is Deputy Chief Executive Officer - Project Development and Construction of Polymetal International PLC. Experience: Chief Engineer at Gold of Northern Urals, 2007-2009; pit superintendent 2006-2007. Mine superintendent at the Okhotsk Mining and Exploration Company, 2004-2005. Mining engineer in the Production and Technical Department of JSC Polymetal Management in the preceding two years. Qualification: Honours degree in Open-pit Mining from the Mining Department of the St. Petersburg State Mining Institute. MBA from the UK’s Open University Business School.
Mr. Sergey Trushin is Deputy Chief Executive Officer - Mineral Resources of Polymetal International PLC. Experience: Chief Geologist at the Khabarovsk Exploration Company, 2008-2010. Chief Geologist at Albazino Resources 2006-2008 and various positions at Albazino Resources since 1998. Geologist with Dalnevostochnie Resources, 1991. Geologist with the Production Geological Association ‘Dalgeology’ and the Nizhne-Amursk exploration expedition in the preceding six years. Qualification: Degree in Geological Surveying and Mining Engineering Exploration from the Novocherkassk State Polytechnic Institute.
Mr. Jean-Pascal Pierre Alexandre Duvieusart is Non-Executive Director of Polymetal International PLC. Previous experience: Managing Partner for Central Europe and the CIS at McKinsey; joined McKinsey in 1992 and worked in Brussels, New York and Central Europe before becoming Managing Partner in Prague. Advised to banks, insurers and industrial companies in Russia and Central Europe. Former Executive Director of Nomos Bank. Qualifications: MBA from the University of Chicago; Master’s degree in Commercial Engineering, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Other roles: Shareholder of PPF Group N.V. since 2010. Board member of Home Credit B.V., the Anglo-American School of Moscow and Charity foundation Foodbank Rus. Member of the European Regional Business Council of the World Economic Forum Davos.
Mr. Konstantin Periklovich Yanakov is Non-Executive Director of Polymetal International PLC. Previous experience: Member of JSC Polymetal’s Board of Directors, 2008-2012and member of its Audit Committee. Various positions at MDM Bank. CFO of JSC Polymetal until 2004. Member of the Board at Piraeus Bank, Inbank, Greek Organisation of Football Prognostics (OPAP S.A.), and Tiscali S.p.A., and non state pension fund ‘Future’, member of the Supervisory Board of Rigensis Bank. Qualifications: MBA from the London Business School; PhD in Economics from the Russian State University of Management; degree in Global Economics from the Government of Russia’s Finance Academy. Other roles: Deputy Director General in charge of Finance at CJSC ICT, Director of ICT Holding Ltd and member of the Board at O1 Properties Limited. Appointed: 29 September 2011. Previous experience: Board member of JSC Polymetal, 2008–2012. Total of 36 years’ experience working in the global mining industry and investment banking, including ten years at Merrill Lynch in London as Head of Global Metals, Mining & Steel Research and subsequently as Global Chairman of the Metals/Mining investment banking team, and during the 1980s and early 1990s in Gold Fields Ltd (South Africa) and Western Mining Corporation in Australia, and the USA. Chairman of Dampier Gold Ltd 2010-2013. Qualifications: BSc with Honours in Geology from Durham University and a PhD from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London. Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining with Chartered Engineer status and Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia. Appointed: 29 September 2011. Previous experience: Board member of JSC Polymetal, 2010-2012. President, CEO and member of the Board of Directors of Centerra Gold, 2004-2008. Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer of Polygon Gold Inc., 2011-2014.
Mr. Giacomo Carlo Baizini is Non-Executive Independent Director of the Company., effective January 1, 2018. Previous experience: EVRAZ plc Group CFO in 2009-2014 and various positions in operations planning and business development since joining the Group in 2005. Prior to joining EVRAZ, Mr. Baizini was a management consultant with McKinsey & Co. in their Milan and Tokyo offices. Qualifications: Summer MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management; MA Hons in Physics from the University of Oxford and a Diploma of Industrial Engineering from the Japan Management Association. Other roles: General Manager of EVRAZ Group S.A.
Mr. Jonathan Gourlay Best is Independent Non-Executive Director of Polymetal International PLC. Previous experience: Over 35 years’ experience in the mining industry. Board member of JSC Polymetal, 2006-2012; Chairman of the Audit Committee of Gulf Industrials; Chairman of Sentula Mining and Bauba Platinum, and member of their nomination and remuneration committees; Chairman of GoldStone Resources; Interim CEO of Trans-Siberian Gold in 2006; CFO and Executive Director of AngloGold Ashanti. Qualifications: MBA from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA), Associate of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries and Administrators. Other roles: Non-executive Director of AngloGold Ashanti Holdings plc and Chairman of its Audit Committee; Non-executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Metair Investments.
Ms. Christine Coignard is re-designated as Non-Executive Independent Director of the Company effective from 25 April 2018. She is currently serves as Senior Non-Executive Independent Director of Polymetal International PLC. She has 28 years’ experience in the banking industry and advisory services world-wide, gained banking experience at Royal Bank of Canada, Société Générale and Citi; International Consultant for the Apogee Gold Fund based in Boston; project manager for Interros in Russia; Director of investments and financing for Norilsk Nickel; Managing Director at HCF International Advisers. Qualifications Business degree from EMLYON , France, and MBA from the Schulich School of Business, Toronto, Canada. Other roles Managing Director and Founding partner of Coignard & Haas GmbH.
Mr. Manuel Lino Silva de Sousa Oliveira has been appointed as Senior Non-Executive Independent Director of the Company effective from 25 April 2018. Mr Oliveira is a chartered accountant, chartered management accountant and economist with over 35 years of strategic and operational experience in the mining industry and corporate finance. He is the Senior Independent Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee at Antofagasta plc and previously held senior executive positions within the Anglo American group, including as Executive Director of Corporate Finance and Head of Strategy and Business Development at De Beers S.A. He also served on the board of Dominion Diamond Corp from July 2013 to December 2015 as an independent non-executive director and Chairman of its Audit Committee. He has over 16 years of experience in engaging with London-based institutional investors, including in the role of senior independent director of a large mining company.
Ms. Tracey Kerr is Non-Executive Independent Director of the Company., with effect from 1 January 2018. Previous experience: 30 years’ experience in the international mining industry. Held the role of Group Head of Exploration with Anglo American Plc, 2011-2015. Before joining Anglo American in 2011 she held technical and exploration management roles with Vale and BHP Billiton, based in Australia, UK, Canada and Brazil. Qualifications: MA in Economic Geology from University of Tasmania, Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors, United Kingdom. Other roles: Group Head of Safety and Sustainable Department in Anglo American plc.


Montero, 22, has less than two full seasons of pro ball under his belt since he was signed out of remote Higuerito, Dominican Republic — a town that never has produced a big leaguer — in January 2011 at the advanced age of 20.
The 6-foot, 170-pounder (a Pedro Martinez-like frame that doesn’t fill the typical power righty mold) made four stops that year culminating in a two-game cameo with the Brooklyn Cyclones. He was named the organization’s minor league pitcher of the year for 2012 — over the likes of Zack Wheeler — after blowing through the low-A South Atlantic League and high-A Florida State League en route to his innings limit (combined 2.36 ERA and 110 strikeouts in 122 innings).
Cameo appearances in major league spring training put him squarely on the radar, and he stoked the enthusiasm in fan circles with his first two starts as Double-A Binghamton’s ace: 11 2/3 innings pitched, eight hits, two earned runs, 15 strikeouts and — best of all — zero walks.
That impressive command, judged the best in the Mets’ system by Baseball America, as much as any pitch in a repertoire of low-to-mid-90s-fastball, changeup and slider, has Montero on what passes for a fast track in general manager Sandy Alderson’s patient development regime. The ongoing refinement of his off-speed pitches will be the bellwether.
Montero’s stifling of Akron in the Eastern League opener on April 4, when he retired 15 straight — including eight punchouts — between a two-out single in the first and a two-out single in the sixth, was a prime example of the upside.
Despite the late start, Montero now is the youngest pitcher at the team’s top two farm levels, five months Wheeler’s junior.
Should Alderson unspool yet another trade in his refurbishing of the Mets major league roster and dip into his supply of attractive minor league right-handed pitching to do so — for an outfielder, goes the conventional wisdom — Montero’s progress continuing at this accelerated pace would make him a chip or a reason to feel secure with what’s left behind.


The presidential oil spill panel is gearing up to release its final report on the BP disaster, and it isn't pulling any punches. Chief among the findings is that one of the primary causes of the spill were "bad management" practices from all the companies involved, and a lack of good government oversight on drilling procedures. Few of the panel's findings will surprise anyone who has even cursorily followed the spill, but they serve as a final confirmation (and condemnation) that companies sought to cut costs and save time by skirting safety requirements, and ended up causing a devastating oil spill. And the report finds that they will likely do so again.The BBC reports that "In a chapter of its final report, to be published next week, the presidential commission said the failures were "systemic" and likely to recur. BP did not have adequate controls in place to ensure safety, it found."
Again, hardly revelatory stuff for BP spill watchers. But the report leaves no doubt that a distinct culture of putting profits before safety had gripped not just BP, but each of the companies involved -- and very probably many companies engaged in deepwater drilling that weren't.
In a response to the statement, the three companies primarily involved in the spill -- Transocean, which owned the rig, Halliburton, which sealed the well, and BP, which oversaw the entire operation and is ultimately responsible -- each predictably issued statements seeking to deflect or diffuse the blame. Transocean and Halliburton maintained that they operated under the direction of BP, and BP said that "the accident was the result of multiple causes, involving multiple companies."
A test of that seal identified problems but was "incorrectly judged a success"
Also in the conclusion of their report, the presidential panel wrote the following: "Whether purposeful or not, many of the decisions that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean made that increased the risk of the Macondo blow-out clearly saved those companies significant time (and money)."
Okay, so the reports does pull some punches -- only a naif would reason that it was mere coincidence that these companies 'accidentally' skipped over expensive, time-consuming safety procedures. But the takeaway of this report shouldn't merely be to demonize BP for ignoring safety requirements in the name of profits -- it should be that all the companies drilling for oil in the gulf, which compete with one another, have had this pernicious attitude towards safety regulations inculcated into them: If Shell (or Chevron, or whoever) isn't following the flimsily enforced rules, why should BP -- it'd only serve as an extra cost that would cut into the company's bottom line.
Safety regulations needs to be powerful, strict, and the punishments for not abiding them feared -- and despite his tough talk, it's doubtful whether Obama will be able to put such rules in place. He has, after all, already let 13 companies engaged in offshore drilling slide on complying with his own policy. Frankly, the prospects of avoiding another such spill in the future aren't looking so promising.


The boy and his helper were found at VivoCity. They are safe.
Stomper John is appealing to the public for help in looking for a boy with special needs and his helper who have been missing since 6am today (Jun 3).
The boy is a member of Runninghour, an inclusive running organisation for integrating people with special needs.
He was supposed to turn up for a running event with the organisation earlier this morning but never arrived.
John has posted a photo of the boy and his helper with the family's permission.
"His parents are overseas right now," John explained.
"His helper usually brings him to our events but we are not sure where they went this time."
According to John, the two of them left their family home in Outram at around 6am this morning to head to the meeting point at HarbourFront MRT Station.
At publishing time, the duo have still not been found.


The Marina Tree and Garden Club will hold its monthly meeting and potluck tonight at the Marina Public Library. The featured speaker is Joe Truskot, features editor of The Salinas Californian, Master Rosarian and author of “The Central Coast Rose Manual.” Using a PowerPoint presentation, Truskot will discuss ways of keeping your roses doing well in times of drought with particular emphasis on contending with sandy soil. The Club topic is gophers. The meeting is open to non-members and free of charge.
Guests are asked to bring their own re-usable service ware and to contribute to the potluck by bringing something others will enjoy.
Also on the agenda is the 9th biennial garden tour which is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., May 17, 2015. This is a self-guided tour of unique private and public gardens in Marina. Participants will discover what grows in sand, wind and salty air. The tour begins at the Marina Coast Water Native Garden on the corner of Reservation Avenue and Salinas Street across from the orange Public U-store fence. Tickets can be purchased day of tour at this Garden and cost $15 or $10 for member of Marina Tree and Garden Club.


Businesses would be given tax breaks to buy electric cars under a Labor Party plan to curb pollution and massively increase the number of battery-powered vehicles on Australian roads.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will today unveil Labor's climate change policy — the plan it will use to reach its target of cutting emissions by 45 per cent by 2030, and ensure half of Australia's energy comes from renewable sources by 2050.
As expected, Labor is planning to expand the Turnbull Government's safeguard mechanism, forcing around 250 of Australia's biggest polluters to cap their emissions — while exempting the farming sector.
After months of speculation, Mr Shorten will also confirm Labor will not use carry-over carbon credits to help meet (and effectively reduce) its ambitious emissions reduction target.
Mr Shorten strengthened his language against the use of carry-over credits on Sunday, describing it as "a particular accounting technique that only the Australian Liberal party and the Ukraine use".
Australia is on track to exceed its 2020 Kyoto target and the Morrison Government last month confirmed plans to count the excess credits towards the 2030 Paris commitment.
Mr Shorten will use today's announcement to paint the Coalition as "a hopelessly divided party" full of "climate sceptics".
But at the same time, he will seek to counter any attack by declaring there will be "no carbon tax and no carbon pricing mechanism" under a Shorten Labor government.
Labor is promising to consult with industry on the emissions "baselines" or limits in the safeguard mechanism and allow businesses to buy international permits to help them meet their obligations.
Trade-exposed industries like steel, aluminium and cement would receive "tailored treatment" under the plan, while the transport sector would be subject to vehicle emissions standards, to be negotiated after the election.
Labor argues transport accounts for 20 per cent of Australia's emissions, which can be reduced while at the same time helping Australians save money at the petrol bowser.
The plan would dramatically increase the number of electric cars in Australia by giving businesses a tax deduction and setting a national target — that half of all new cars sold by 2030 will be electric.
Sensing the shifting sentiment towards action on climate change, the Prime Minister recently announced the Coalition would pour another $2 billion into the Climate Solutions Fund, its rebranded Emissions Reduction Fund.
Labor has labelled that policy a failure and has promised to scrap it, if it wins the election.


Firefighters in Jefferson County said Sunday they do not expect a wildfire burning south of Boulder to grow.
The Dawson Fire burned about 13 acres west of Montana Highway 69, and is 75 percent contained.
The Boulder-Bull Mountain Volunteer Fire Departments said on Facebook that ground crews from their departments and the U.S. Forest Service will keep working the fire until dark.
They’ll return Monday morning to see if the expected rain overnight puts the fire out completely.
Officials still ask the public to yield to firefighting traffic on Highway 69. They ask drivers not to stop on the highway or the shoulder, because it has created congestion in the area.
(1st Report, 12:14 p.m.) A fire burning in the mountains south of Boulder is approximately 13 acres and 75 percent contained.


FiveThirtyEight | Which Economic Indicators Best Predict Presidential Elections?
Which Economic Indicators Best Predict Presidential Elections?
I’ve written quite a bit in the past about the use and abuse of economic indicators in forecasting presidential elections.
In general, my view has been that there’s a lot of “physics envy” in thinking that something as complex as a presidential election can be boiled down to just one or two “fundamental” variables. Many models that attempt to do so suffer from a variety of technical and theoretical problems and their predictions have been mediocre when applied in the real world.
But this obscures a question that is interesting on its own merits: which economic variables have done the best job in explaining the results of past presidential elections?
One complication in evaluating these models is that they usually include other data in addition to the economic variables themselves: variables to denote wartime or peacetime, or various ways to measure incumbency, or polling data, and so forth. There is not necessarily any problem in including these things — I’m certainly a believer in making forecasts based on polls, for instance. But they tend to obscure the question of how much predictive power the economic variables have had on their own.
A related problem is that all of the models handle the economic data in their own idiosyncratic ways. Some take the variable on a per-capita basis while others do not. Some used revised data while others use the variable as originally reported. Some models are applied to elections all the way back to the 19th century, while some look at as few as the eight or ten most recent ones. Some look at the variable for just one quarter of the election year, while others consider longer time periods.
Which economic indicators do best if they are put on a level playing field? Let’s establish a set of ground rules so that we can make some apples-to-apples comparisons.
First, our sample will consist of all elections since World War II — that is, the 16 presidential elections from 1948 through 2008. The reason for this choice is that many commonly used economic data series were first published shortly after the war, particularly in 1947 or 1948. I admire models that go further back than this — if you’re claiming that a variable is truly fundamental, it ought to hold up under a variety of different economic and social milieus. But other than one or two variables like G.D.P. and the inflation rate, there aren’t very many variables available prior to 1947, and our goal here is to see how quite a few different economic indicators perform.
Third, although this is a fairly technical point, we will be using the most recent data revisions for all variables, such as was available through the Federal Reserve as of the week of Nov. 13, 2011.
Fourth, we’ll be looking at how well the variables predicted the incumbent party’s margin of victory or defeat in the popular vote. This is also a fairly minor issue as most models use close variants of this approach (although a few take more exotic attitudes like counting all third-party votes against the incumbent party).
As to which economic variables we’ll be looking at, the answer is … all of them. Well, not literally all of them. But I have retrieved data for 43 such variables, including almost all of the ones that economists and investors use most commonly. What these variables have in common is that they are available dating back to 1948, that they are easily accessible to the public (with a few exceptions, they are available at the Federal Reserve’s Web site), and that they are relatively easy to calculate. I have adjusted the variables for inflation in some cases when the publicly available versions did not, but that is about as complicated as it gets. If you don’t see a variable listed here, it’s because it did not begin to be tracked until well after 1948, or because it has an ambiguous economic interpretation.
What you’ll see next is a chart evaluating the performance of the 43 variables on the basis of their coefficient of determination or r-squared. The interpretation of r-squared is that it describes how much of the variance in a dependent variable (in this case, election results since 1948) can be explained by an independent variable. An r-squared of .30 or 30 percent, for instance, implies that the variable explains about 30 percent of election results (leaving the other 70 percent unexplained). Normally, r-squared scores are always expressed as positive numbers, but I have listed them as negative instead in a handful of cases where the election results have been related to the variable in the opposite of the expected direction. For instance, the incumbent party has actually done better (although not to any statistically significant degree) when the personal savings rate has been lower, perhaps because this variable is a bit counter-cyclical and people tend to save more of their incomes when the economy is struggling.
The first thing to notice is that no individual economic variable has an r-squared higher than .46, meaning that none can explain more than half of election results in the post-war period. If you see models that claim to have more explanatory power than this, it is because they are using additional data (like polling) besides economic variables, or because the model has been jury-rigged to maximize its “fit” on past data in ways that will contribute little to its true predictive accuracy. The economy is hugely important to presidential elections, but there are no magic bullets.
There is definitely a relationship between G.D.P. and election results. But, it isn’t a perfect one. While the election results were pretty much exactly in line with what you’d expect from G.D.P. in many years like 1960, 1980, 2004, 2008 and so forth, it would not have given you a good prediction in 1952, 1956, 1976, or 1992. Overall the r-squared for G.D.P. is .33 in elections since 1948. That is, about 33 percent of election results are explained by G.D.P., leaving about two-thirds of the results unexplained. For what it’s worth, while this might sound underwhelming, the relationship has actually grown stronger over time. If you run the numbers back to 1880 (using Ray Fair’s economic data for years prior to World War II), the r-squared is somewhat weaker at .23.
One popular alternative to using G.D.P. is the variable real disposable income per capita. I made some fun of this variable in my recent New York Times Magazine piece, not because it is inherently ridiculous (it seeks to measure something useful, take-home income) but because its popularity in a number of political science forecasting models probably stems more from the fact that it happened to ‘fit’ the data quite well for a number of elections from about 1960 through 1988. Outside of that window, however, it’s performance has been mediocre. It did badly, for instance, in 1948, 1952, 1956 and 2000, and to a lesser extent in 1992. Overall, it’s R-squared in post-war elections is .30, essentially the same as for plain-vanilla G.D.P.
Even though G.D.P. and disposable income only explain about a third of election results, they do perform better than some other commonly-used variables. The inflation rate during the first nine months of the election year, for instance, has had only a loose relationship to election outcomes.
Another poorly performing variable is the unemployment rate. It has had essentially no relationship to election results at all.
However, while the unemployment rate had told us very little, the rate of change in the jobs market has been fairly meaningful. Here, for instance, is a comparison of election results to the rate of payroll jobs growth — the variable you often see highlighted when the government releases its jobs report on the first Friday of each month.
This variable has had an r-squared of .44 — a fair amount better than G.D.P. or disposable income. Thus, while the raw rate of unemployment has been one of the least useful variables for forecasting election results, the rate of job growth during the election year (whether measured by this variable or by closely-related ones like the net change in the unemployment rate or the employment-to-population ratio) has held up pretty well. So pay attention to those employment reports, as common sense would dictate. I apologize if I’d given you a contrary impression in the past, but I hadn’t dug into the data this deeply.
The broader point — and one thing this evidence is fairly definitive upon — is that the rate of change is what counts. Americans will give a fair amount of credit to a president in an economy that is still below its full productive capacity provided that it seems to be getting better. This can also be seen in the poor performance of the variable actual-to-potential G.D.P. (which tracks output against its long-term trend-line) as compared to the comparatively strong performance of the rate of G.D.P. growth during the election year.
Another class of variables that might be avoided are those related to government activity. For instance, the government expenditures component of G.D.P. has had almost no relationship to election results; it ranks 42nd out of 43 variables and the relationship has actually been slightly negative historically. Likewise, the ratio of net government savings to G.D.P. — essentially, a measure of deficits — has had no predictive power one way or the other.
Meanwhile, the best-performing variable has been the ISM manufacturing index, which is a measure of how much manufacturing businesses are ramping up or ramping down their activity. It has had an r-squared of .46.
The manufacturing index has several things going for it. It is considered a fairly good leading indicator of economic activity in general and of jobs growth in particular, and it represents a composite score from five different component indicators, including things like the employment environment and new factory orders.
So does this mean you should all go out and use the ISM manufacturing index in your forecasting models? Actually, maybe not. It is certainly worth looking at. But when you’re testing 43 different economic indicators over a sample of just 16 elections, the best-performing ones are likely to have been a little lucky.
In fact, the relative rank of the economic indicators has historically been very inconsistent: those that perform best over one set of elections do not do much better over the long-term. We will discuss this problem at more length in a follow-up to this article.


After coming under attack from the doctors' lobby, the newly approved course of BSc (community health) that aims to bridge the gap for health professionals in rural areas, is now being contested by pharmacists too.
The Indian Pharmacists Association (IPA) has written to the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) to intervene in the matter of approval of the course. It feels that with an upgradation course, pharmacists can take over the task of offering over the counter (OTC) drugs in rural area. In its letter to the PCI, the association said, "Launch of BSc (Community Health) is equally against the pharmacists, doctors and nurses. At the same time, with no experience, these BSc (community health) pass outs woll serve only as quacks."
Earlier this month, the Union Cabinet has given a go ahead to the Health Ministry to start a new three and a half year BSc community health programme that would create a new cadre of health professionals to improve the rural healthcare infrastructure in the country. The proposal was pending since a few years, as the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health had opposed the introduction of an undergraduate course on community health. Hence the health ministry had sought the cabinet nod to start the course.
Students passing out of this course would basically serve as community health officers in rural areas who would assist in preventive medicine, and would also be able to prescribe OTC drugs to patients for common ailments.
While the government feels that this would help create a much-needed pool of healthcare providers in rural areas, the IPA feels that in rural areas pharmacists have been dispensing as well as prescribing medicines to patients. States like Punjab, UP, Uttarakhand have allowed pharmacists to prescrive medicine in absence or non-availability of doctors, it said. Secretary general of the IPA, Bhupendra Kumar felt that pharmacists should not have been ignored and a new course being launched altogether.
In its letter the IPA said, "It is our demand to PCI to take necessary steps in this regard. A pharmacist after an upgradation course of just six months will definitely work far better than the BSc (Community Health) pass out. This will not only save national revenue, but public will also receive quality service from experienced pharmacists who are already working in rural and far flung areas."


Q: When is it permitted to use the liturgies from the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary during Lent and Advent?
A: According to No. 21 of the Introduction to the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary and in accordance with canon 1234, the collection can be used at Marian shrines permitted to celebrate votive masses in honor of Our Lady during Advent and Lent. Exceptions are those days indicated in Nos. 1-6 of the table of liturgical days found in most editions of the Roman Missal. In view of that, Marian votive masses for Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter are usually not permitted in parishes.
There are exceptions which allow two of the Marian Masses to be used outside of the assigned season during ordinary time. No. 28 of the Introduction says that the Christmas formula "Holy Mary of Nazareth (no 8)" may be used if a group of faithful desires to commemorate Mary's exemplary conduct at Nazareth. Likewise, the Lenten formula "Mary Virgin, Mother of Reconciliation (no 14)" may be used when Mass is celebrated in the context of seeking reconciliation and harmony.


Records: Riverdale is 1-1 overall, 0-0 in Region 2-6A. Blackman is 1-1 overall, 0-0 in Region 2-6A.
AP ranking: Riverdale is ranked eighth in Class 6A. Blackman is ranked sixth in Class 6A.
Players to watch: Riverdale: RB Austin Bryant (89.5 rushing ypg), QB Brandon Bea (154 passing ypg, 2 TDs, 2 INTs), WR Jarek Campbell (90 receiving ypg), LB Canaan Owens. Blackman: RB Taeler Dowdy (108 rushing ypg, 3 TDs), QB Miller Armstrong (125 passing ypg, 2 TDs, 0 INTs), WR Darius Simple (61 receiving ypg), LB Tony Ochoa.
Keys to the game: Riverdale's offense has yet to get in sync this season. If it can get its passing game going, it can have a big game against the Blaze secondary. Blackman must pressure Bea, or whoever the Warriors have at QB and make him uncomfortable.
Record: Siegel is 0-2 overall, 0-0 in Region 2-6A. Oakland is 1-1 overall, 0-0 in Region 2-6A.
AP ranking: Siegel is not ranked. Oakland is ranked fourth in Class 6A.
Players to watch: Siegel: QB Jordan Middleton (247 passing ypg, 2 TDs, 1 INT), RB Greedy Howse (95 rushing ypg, 63.5 receiving ypg, 3 TDs), RB Michael Scruggs (68 receiving ypg), RB Rodney Murray (25 rushing ypg). Oakland: QB Brendan Matthews (72 passing ypg), RB Lazarius Patterson (63.5 rushing ypg), LB Jackson Cauthen (21 tackles) FB/DT Chris Onwusmere (43 rushing ypg, 17 tackles).
Keys to the game: It's been an emotional week for both programs with the passing of Siegel sophomore Mason Loupe. Eliminating mental mistakes after a mentally draining week is key. Siegel's rush defense is giving up 370 yards a game through two weeks. Oakland will exploit that.
Records: Smyrna is 2-0 overall, 0-0 in Region 2-6A. Coffee County is 1-1 overall, 0-0 in Region 2-6A.
Players to watch: Smyrna: RB Casey Perkins (108 rushing ypg, 4 total TDs), QB John Turner (127.5 passing ypg, 1 TD), LB Austin Brown (21 tackles, 1 forced fumble), LB Devin Smith (2 INTs). Coffee Co.: QB Alontae Taylor, WR Tyrese McGee, RB/LB Mill Harner, OL/DL Jacoby Lowe.
Keys to the game: Taylor is dual-threat quarterback. He is likely a larger threat on the ground than with his arm. Smyrna's defenders must key on him.
Records: La Vergne is 1-1 overall, 0-0 in Region 5-5A. Columbia is 2-0 overall, 0-0 in Region 5-5A.
Players to watch: La Vergne: RB Nick Jones (197.5 rushing ypg), LB Aaron Jones (23 tackles), ATH Drew Howard (12 tackles, 1 INT), Gulecy Buni (18 tackles, 1 fumble recovery). Columbia: QB Orrin Delk (182 passing yards, 3 TDs in 28-21 win last week over Dickson County); WR T.J. McCoy (93 receiving yards last week); OL Ryan Wagner.
Keys to the game: La Vergne's secondary will be tested this week by Delk. The way Nick Jones is running the football, it may not matter. No one has slowed him down yet.
Records: Franklin County is 1-1 overall, 0-0 in Region 5-5A. Stewarts Creek is 1-1 overall, 0-0 in Region 5-5A.
Players to watch: Franklin Co.: RB Dalton Russell (87.5 rushing ypg), RB Marce Gray (42.5 rushing ypg), LB Jarious Johnson (11.5 tackles), LB Jai Kinslow (10 tackles). Stewarts Creek: RB Zach Long (59.5 rushing ypg), QB Chris Dye (76 passing ypg), WR T.J. York (52 receiving ypg), ATH Cynterius Lyons.
Keys to the game: Both teams have been successful moving the football on the ground. The Red Hawks' offensive line must give Dye more time to throw. It struggled to slow down Smyrna's pass rush last week.
Records: East Robertson is 0-2 overall, 0-0 in Region 4-2A. Eagleville is 0-2 overall, 0-0 in Region 4-2A.
Players to watch: East Robertson: QB James Coleman, ATH Brenden Moore, WWR Adrian Jarrett; RB Hunter Jeen. Eagleville: QB Ethan Cobb (174.0 passing ypg), RB A.J. Garza (34.5 rushing ypg), OL/DL James Witt, WR Graham Hatcher (97.5 receiving ypg).
Keys to the game: Despite being a freshman, Cobb hasn't gotten rattled under center. He's yet to throw an interception. He will have to make quick decisions this week as his line has been banged up this past week.
Records: Jo Byrns is 2-0 overall, 0-0 in Region 5-1A. MTCS is 2-0 overall, 1-0 in Region 5-1A.
Players to watch: Jo Byrns: QB Connor Cathey, ATH Parker Baxley, RB Eric Herring, RB Sammy Earheart; MTCS: RB Tanner Green (164 rushing ypg), QB Joe Peck (106 rushing ypg, 57.5 passing ypg), FB/LB Nick Merritt (43.5 rushing ypg), WR/DB Trey Hickey.
Keys to the game: MTCS showed a better passing attack last week against Red Boiling Springs. That will need to continue against a talented Jo Byrns squad.


More than a year ago, German economist Hans-Werner Sinn discovered a gigantic risk on the balance sheets of Germany's central bank. Were the euro zone to collapse, Bundesbank losses could be half a trillion euros -- more than one-and-a-half times the size of the country's annual budget.
The crucial clue came from the same man whose signature once adorned the deutsche mark: Helmut Schlesinger, former president of Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank. He was the one who pointed Hans-Werner Sinn, an economist in Munich, in the direction of a strange entry in the Bundesbank's statistics: In late 2010, records showed claims on other euro-zone central banks totaling over 300 billion ($400 billion). Curious, Sinn began to dig deeper. What he found exceeded his worst expectations.
"In the beginning, all I had was this number, and I didn't really know what it meant," says Sinn, who is president of the Munich-based Ifo Institute for Economic Research. "The Bundesbank told me those were irrelevant balances. But that didn't reassure me."
Sinn spoke with specialists at various central banks and with colleagues in his field. "Each person knew a little bit," Sinn explains, "and I had to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. It was real detective work."
After weeks of work, Sinn had assembled enough pieces to create a picture that would make any one shudder: Since the 2007 financial crisis, immense imbalances have formed within the otherwise harmless payment system that exists between the central banks of the 17 euro-zone member states. While Italy, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Greece, all hit hard by the debt crisis, show deficits totaling over 600 billion, the claims owed the Bundesbank have climbed to 498 billion.
As long as the monetary union continues to exist, this isn't a catastrophe. The money is virtual, created by central banks, and its existence doesn't mean that an equivalent amount is lacking elsewhere. But as soon as a country leaves the euro zone, or the currency union collapses entirely, things get critical.
"We're caught in a trap," Sinn says. "If the euro breaks apart, we're left with an outstanding balance of nearly 500 billion, owed by a system that no longer exists." That figure, 500 billion, is more than one and a half times Germany's annual federal budget.
This, though, is the worst-case scenario, and would only apply if the euro zone falls apart entirely. A far more realistic possibility is that one country, such as Greece, would leave the monetary union. In this case, all of the other euro-zone central banks would have to bear the Greek central bank's debt together. Germany's Bundesbank, in accordance with its share of the European Central Bank (ECB), would assume about 28 percent. With Greek debt at 108 billion, Germany's share would be approximately 30 billion.
The Bundesbank's claims are set off by massive debts in crisis-stricken euro-zone countries.
Sinn loves to be provocative. In this case, though, it seems he truly has serious concerns. Sitting at a restaurant in Berlin's government quarter with his laptop open on the table in front of him, he uses the tip of his coffee spoon to trace the yellow and blue lines that snake across the screen. These lines are meant to show the extent to which the euro zone has gone off track.
"This is dangerous," Sinn says, his eyes flashing. These outstanding balances owed by other central banks open Germany up to blackmail, he explains. "Now everyone knows we have to save the euro, at almost any cost."
His thesis sounds dramatic, yet so far Sinn hasn't managed to get the general public interested in the problem, which is only slowly spreading beyond economic circles. He has made it into the major newspapers, but the mass-circulation tabloid Bild won't be publishing Sinn's discovery on its front page any time soon.
Sinn certainly isn't shy about making himself heard. He's a welcome guest on talk shows because he makes his case clearly and sums it up in pithy sound bites. But that approach doesn't work with Sinn's current subject, which is too complex for a talk show. Then there's the name of the payment system between the central banks -- "TARGET2" -- which sounds about as exciting as the title of an accounting seminar.


First look at Thor's Frost Giants?
A ton of magazine scans have turned up online, featuring our first look at several of the characters we'll be meeting in Thor. Including Ray Stevenson as Volstagg, Joshua Dallas as Fandrall, Renee Russo as Freya... and a Frost Giant!
Check out some of the coolest images here. The rest are available over at ComingSoon.net.
Frost Giant! At least, that's what we think this is.


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Trump’s government was a very bleak workplace for many. Then it shut down.
Lately it’s cold and gray in Washington. The days are short, the nights are long and the president has vowed to keep the government shut down for months, even years if he does not get what he wants. A southern border lined with “artistically designed steel slats,” apparently.
For so many languishing federal workers — public servants alternately characterized as deep state antagonists or bloated bureaucrats — it’s all too much.
Over two years, the Trump administration has dealt blow after blow to government employees — budget cuts, hiring freezes, inept Cabinet secretaries and, for some, open hostility to their fundamental mission. President Trump promised to shake up Washington, and he has. But the country’s 2 million federal workers have mostly soldiered on, believing in the value of their work even if they question decisions coming out of the White House.
In what some see as the ultimate insult, almost half of them were told to stay home. Do not pass “Go.” Do not collect any dollars.
We talked to six of these workers, some of whom requested anonymity to protect their jobs. They told us about their sleepless nights, creeping anxieties and financial distress. All of it an affront, they said, the nadir of indignation wrought by two years of government work under Trump.
If the president of the United States said anything that made a lick of sense when he toured the smoldering ruins of Northern California last year, you’ll have to forgive this particular federal fighter if he can’t immediately bring it to mind. He hasn’t been sleeping much since the furlough and is frustrated beyond words.
Tight budgets notwithstanding, he said, his crew spends each winter clearing out excess brush and burning it in piles. Taking care of the floors, so to speak.
That’s what he would be doing right now, he said, had the shutdown not cut off the funding and forced his crew to stop.
“We’re not allowed,” he said.
Next summer, there will be that much more kindling on the forest floor, waiting to spark. Waiting for a president to make a photo tour across the wreckage.
These are the things a U.S. Forest Service firefighter thinks about when he can’t work and can’t sleep.
“I enforce civil rights for a living. I try to enforce equality for all,” says Jamie Rodny, a 35-year-old with a law degree, who was recruited into public service under a presidential management fellows program in 2011.
Rodny scoffed when she heard recently that Trump said the government has no problem retaining talented professionals.
The better part of a decade with the National Park Service took a ranger to some of the most beautiful places he knew to exist. His job was to learn about the land and share its story with visitors — to teach them to preserve it for those who would come next.
After Trump became president, nearly 2 million acres of once-protected land were opened up for potential drilling. The new interior secretary spoke of exploiting the land for its energy. Over the past two years, the ranger said, his supervisor warned him against speaking to visitors about the threat of climate change.
Still, he said, he never considered giving up. The job felt like a calling. But on Dec. 22, they gave him no choice.
This staffer, who was attracted to government work because it seemed to offer stability, says she thinks NOAA has been protected from budget cuts faced by other environmental agencies because it operates under the Department of Commerce. But they still feel hostility to their cause.
“Our job is noble,” the worker says.
A lifelong employee of the federal government, she is approaching retirement from deep within the bureaucracy of the Department of Homeland Security in Washington. She holds one of those unglamorous-but-someone-has-to-do-it roles that keeps an agency with a quarter-million employees from disintegrating on a granular level. Her long career is essentially a chronology of abandoned ideals.
She was raised in a family that revered the U.S. government, and she carried that reverence into the federal workforce when she joined it after high school.
She lost that feeling shortly after Trump took office, about the time she noticed a change in department communiques distributed by Homeland Security’s top officials.
Prior to the Trump administration, department leaders sent out emails notifying the entire staff about agents who died in the line of duty. Officials under Trump began sending out notices that seemed overtly political, she said.
Trump’s campaign-promised border wall kept showing up in her inbox. She tried to put it out of her mind and carry on the work. Until last month, when Trump decided the wall was more important than her job.
When she goes back to work, assuming she ever goes back, she isn’t sure what will be left of nobility.
Gary Morton has been an employee of the federal government since 1981. He remembers when he started out and an older colleague promised him it was a good place to work, a place to build a career.
And over almost four decades that’s been true, but he doesn’t think young people will see it that way now.
Morton, who is president of a local union representing EPA workers, says he’s never seen his co-workers so depressed.
Morton worries about his colleagues who have bills to pay. He worries about the Superfund cleanups that aren’t happening and the permits that aren’t getting processed. Mostly he worries that everyday folks will pay the price for political ineptitude.


Tuesday 12.15pm: A cyclist has died following a collision on Storey’s Bar Road in Peterborough on Tuesday morning (23 December).
The collision involved the cyclist and another vehicle, and happened at about 7.12am.
The cyclist, aged in his 20s, died from his injuries.
The driver of the car, a Renault Clio, was not injured. The road was closed by emergency services, and is still shut while investigations continue.


The designer meant "to neither glorify nor condone the culture of drugs," he wrote in the show notes, but instead "to consider the persistent, almost ubiquitous presence of narcotics within our society."
Fashion has been having a bit of an existential crisis as of late, fueled by the struggles at traditional print glossy magazines, flagging department store sales in the face of online shopping, and the rise of fast-fashion retailers offering cheaper trendy alternatives to expensive runway styles.
Recent headlines for stories on the subject have included, "The Death of Clothing" (Bloomberg), "What's the Meaning of Fashion?" (ManRepeller) and "Fashion Is Dead and There's No Coming Back" (New York Post).
Even the seasonal runway shows are feeling the burn, with some New York designers fleeing to the Paris catwalks, and other ditching the runway altogether to show in less-expensive formats, such as short films (Monse) and celebrity-studded look book shoots (Rodarte).
But on Wednesday night at New York Fashion Week Men's, Raf Simons proved that fashion still has something to say about the moment we're living in and how materialism fits into it, and that a runway presentation can be riveting simply by using clever lighting, staging and grocery store props like empty wine bottles, rolls of salami and bunches of grapes, so long as the clothes are good —and they were.
Between his two seasons at Calvin Klein, and the fall 2018 show he presented for his namesake line at a standing-room-only soundstage in Chelsea on Wednesday night, the Belgian designer-in-New York is becoming a powerful commentator on the fading American dream. This season, with a sleeveless sweatshirt emblazoned with the word "Drugs," T-shirts and knee-patches screaming "LSD" and "XTC," he used a fashion show of all things to put a spotlight on America's opioid crisis.
But this wasn't some in-you-face D.A.R.E. promo; instead, it read as a subtle commentary on haves and have-nots played out on a runway that was decorated like a bacchanal with flowers, fruit and meats piled high at the feet of models in motion under roving strobe lights as the audience huddled around looking on, as if watching the cool kids at an underground club.
The inspiration was another time and place in history when boundaries of class and privilege were starkly drawn: Cold War-era Berlin, as depicted in the 1981 German film Christiane F., which is apparently a cautionary tale about drug use and addiction that was shown to German schoolchildren, kinda like Scared Straight. Simons sampled the imagery of the film's teenage antiheroes on T-shirts and hoodies, glamorizing the allure of the dark, destructive rebel spirit.
At the same time, in between the shadows, the spotlight shone on his visionary tailoring — hooded coats and oversize boxy blazers in vivid hues of burgundy, pink, gold and green, worn with glossy long gloves and rain galoshes, contrasted with more street utilitarian pants and sweater-sweatshirt mashups, whose brilliant details revealed themselves as the models went in and out of the darkness and light. "I need everything," fans were commenting on social media even as the 35-minute presentation was still going on.
It's this kind of high-low clash of clothing and culture that makes Simons a compelling showman (at Calvin Klein last season, he looked to Andy Warhol's "Death and Disaster" series of photographs to make a point about America's appetite for destruction) and gives his brands enough entry points to earn fans ranging from A$AP Rocky to Jon Batiste, who on the way out pronounced the show "really good."
Ultimately, Simons meant "to neither glorify nor condone the culture of drugs," he wrote in the show notes, but instead "to consider the persistent, almost ubiquitous presence of narcotics within our society." Part of the proceeds from sales of the "Youth in Motion" collection will be donated to organizations that support those in recovery from addiction.
It was a lot to think about if you wanted to — or simply some pretty dope clothes if you didn't.


While Terrence Howard's portrayal of Lucious Lyon on the hit Fox drama Empire has been met with fanfare – and massive ratings – not everyone is happy with the Oscar-nominated actor's presence on the program.
Daytime talk show host Wendy Williams called Howard out during her show on Thursday, Oct. 1, arguing that Fox should fire the 46-year-old star due to his real life legal problems and "nutty" behavior overshadowing the show.
NEWS: Is Terrence Howard's Role in 'Empire' Being Cut Back Due to Personal Drama?
"Terrence Howard, your personal life has taken over to where if by chance they took you off the show I would be happier than mad," Williams shared. "Between him allegedly being abusive to women in his personal life, him giving an 18-page nutty interview to Rolling Stone magazine where he talked about all kinds of nuttiness…again going back to how he allegedly treats women in his life. It’s usurped his entire situation at Empire and the show could do without Terrence Howard."
Howard has been at the center of domestic violence allegations leveled against him by his first wife Lori McCommas and his second wife Michelle Ghent. In 2011 a judge granted Ghent a restraining order against Howard, and Ghent was granted another restraining order in 2013. Howard has denied allegations of domestic violence.
On Saturday, Howard responded to Williams' comments on Twitter, shaming the talk show host for her "hurtful" comments.
"I have been a fan of Wendy for years. Shame on anyone who speaks without knowing the truth," Terrence tweeted. "What she did was irresponsible and hurtful!"
Several hours later Terrence responded to his own tweet where he changed his tune and forgave Williams for her comments.
"I forgive you Wendy... Thank you for loving the show and supporting Taraji!" Howard tweeted. "To the Empire!!!"
Later Saturday evening, Howard surprised his fans with a sweet photo of himself and his third wife Mira Pak, whom he secretly divorced in July. Howard wrote above the pic, "Happy Anniversary My Life's Love!"
Howard and Pak wed in 2013, however the couple got divorced just one month after Howard shared the first photo of their first child Qirin Love in June.
These new tweets have subsequently raised questions about the status of Howard and Pak's relationship.


They're in the space race 40 years late - and they still might beat us to Mars.
The FDA's on the verge of approving silicone again. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.
A macaque controls a robot arm with its brain. It's played by Roddy McDowall.
AOL is losing a subscriber every 10 seconds. The ingenious fix: Resuscitate Netscape as a cut-rate ISP. WTF?
It's just like the old Napster. Only you pay. And the recording industry approves. Finally, a guarantee no one will use it.


YAMADA Green Resources subsidiary Fujian Wangsheng Industrial Co has pledged its factory and office building in China as a security to China Everbright Bank, as part of a multiple credit facility agreement.
This is in relation to a credit facility of up to 50 million yuan (S$10.1 million) granted by the bank starting Feb 26, 2019 to Feb 25, 2022, the China-based supplier mushroom supplier said in a bourse filing on Thursday afternoon.
The properties are located in Houyu Jingxi Town, Minhou County, Fuzhou City in the Fujian Province and the credit facility has not been drawn down as at Thursday March 21.
The filing added that the facility agreement is not expected to have any material impact on the group’s net tangible assets and earnings per share for the financial year ended June 30, 2019.
Shares of Yamada Green Resources have been suspended from trading since September 2017.


On İstiklal Street, around French Consolate, 200 meters far from police, holding the stones of the beach in one hand and the flag of the revolt in the other you are clshing with the police. A piece of cloth wet with talcid is your gas mask, police is spraying pressured water, throwing gas bombs one and after, you are left in the middle of gas retreating throwing stones you are out of breath smothered, breatheless at that moment somebody run near you, spray water with antiacid on your face, asking “how are you, are you okay?” You are not okay but immediately you get well.
You take a stone of the beach in one hand, taking the flag of the revolt in the other. You lean against the barricade with your half breath. Your breath is refreshing with the freedom of rebellion. Because everywhere there is solidarity, this revolt is adorned with solidarity, you fall but you are picked up, they are asking when you are hitching, you boo at the same time when the sound bomb exploded, you hold your breath together when gas bomb comes. When the blocade fades out you sing together and shout out your rebellion.
Never ending pressure water, gas and resistance. You got tired sit on a pavement to take a breathe one coming with water in her hand and gives you water another one brings a sandwich. You are not either thirsty or hungry because everywhere the people share, there is no “mine” or “ours” here. Everyone is together. There is no slackness, if you were to fall the one next you would not. There is no crestfallenness, if you were to fall your comrade would not. You are getting rid of the fear which the system has created through the years and courage is to do what you are scared of. And you experience this. You are leaning against the police and you move forward as you lean. The police is doing everything they can to stop you. Even though you slow down sometimes the sound of the other clashes are whispering in your ear: “we are moving forward”. You are getting excited and you lean again and again. On the final strike you see that the police is retreating, no you see they escape maybe you are living what you have been expecting for a long time.
\You meet with others on Taksim Square, you are glad to see your loved ones. After hugging each other for a while you start building barricades. Without losing time. The ones with you start to croon a song from 1930’s, the song of spainsh Anarchists. You join in. “For bread, justice, freedom everyone to the barricades...” As the song gets louder the barricades are build; with upside down police cars, police buses, barriers of a “looted construction” Let them come, let them come and see the communion and solidarity is increasing. Everyone wants to move away from selfishness from competition. The tables ar opened the tents are erected. A people’s square is being created. There are a few insincere ones but you dont care. Because every moment from everywhere, from Ankara, from İzmir, Antalya, Dersim rebellion. From Athens, Thessaloniki, Paris, Sofia... The news of solidarity are coming. Solidarity is growing, one’s who share are increasing. The revolt is spreading because we are winning.
Now, a revollt is telling us about herself a revolt is telling us what we had forgotten. Telling us the importance of communion solidarity organisation and most important of all, freedom. Now the never ending cinder in our hands is glowing with a revolt. Now inside the rebellion we are looking into our shimmering eyes in other words to each other. We are holding each others hands which carry the stones of the beach, hold the flag of revolt, which were burned by the gas bombs. We are hugging each others bodies which are carrying our hearts full of revolution. And although we don’t say it aloud, we say thank you to each other with the happiness of sharing this moment. This is a temporary thank you without being content. Without being content we are waiting for tomorrow side by side from today.
The first statement on the uprisings in Turkey written by Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet (DAF, or Revolutionary Anarchist Action) and originally published in Meydan Gazetesi.


KL Rahul was a smash hit during the just-concluded IPL 2018, having scored 659 runs, he finished 3rd on the run-scoring charts. However, post IPL he has been trending for being seen dining with his Bollywood actress friend. While on a break and preparing to make a switch from T20 to Test, Rahul talks to NDTV on memories made during the IPL, Chris Gayle, facing Rashid Khan and his friend Nidhhi Agerwal.


Project Car Hell: IROC Volvo Bertone or Mazda 808?
Stop the presses! Italy has just won the First Ever Jalopnik Project Car Hell Superpower Showdown, with the 1JZ-powered Portuguese Barn Find '59 Maserati beating the Subaru-powered 4CV in a 55-45 split. Today we're going to look at two cars that don't fit neatly into a common category, yet give off about the same number of counts per minute on the Jalopnik Coolness Geiger Counter™.
PCH, Superpower Swap Showdown: Subaru'd Renault or Toyota'd Maserati?
I've been scouring Alameda for a Down On The Street Volvo Bertone for months now, and it's maddening that the only one I can find is in a driveway (dead for years, with a blue tarp over the windows) and thus off-limits to DOTS. Sure, they came with the not-so-great PRV V6, but just look at that reet chopped top! Obviously, an engine transplant is the way to go... and looky what we got here: Why, it's an '81 Volvo Bertone 262C with a Chevy small-block already installed! (Go here if the ad disappears). Sure, it's the not-so-exciting mid-80s IROC Camaro 305, good for something in the neighborhood of 200 horses, mated to the snoresville 700R4 automatic... but that doesn't matter. What matters is that the car is already set up for the ubiquitous small-block Chevy, which means you have engine options sufficient to drive you completely mad. Oh, and speaking of complete madness, this car has a few somewhat troubling issues. First, you can tell from the photographs of the engine compartment, with wires draped higgledy-piggledy, that perhaps the engine swap was not performed with the utmost attention to detail (the seller does allow that the wiring might be a bit funky: "it all works but it looks sloppy." See? It just looks sloppy! Then there's the body and interior, which are probably icky enough for their images to leave a grimy residue on your computer monitor. And are the factory brakes and suspension up to the doubling or quadrupling of horsepower you no doubt have planned?
That Bertone looks like some truly punitive fun, all right, but how can you resist a vintage Mazda? And not just another RX-7; as cool as the classic RX-7 may be, parts obtainment is just too easy! Even RX-3s are too common- but how about the piston-engined version? Yes, a '73 Mazda 808M (go here after the listing gets flagged out of existence as well-deserved punishment for the keyword spam in its headline, hint hint) can be yours for just $1500. It has no engine or transmission, but that's good news. See, it's a crime for an Early Malaise Mazda not to have a rotary engine, so here's your chance to have a who-the-hell-ever-heard-of-it 808 without that pesky reciprocating mass. If you view the additional photos of the car, you'll see that there's some rust, and some missing parts, and a whole bunch of empty spaces where damn-near-impossible-to-find trim pieces once lived. Imagine how you'll feel driving that rotary 808, though, and the years weeks of indescribable agony headaches and tens of thousands hundreds of dollars invested will be worth it!


Sometimes it is just about holding on. Here Citywire Investment Research looks at three of the trickiest markets to get a grip on.
The firm attracted a £1 billion net inflow in 2018, which included a £92 million inflow during the fourth quarter turbulence.
Some of the fund managers rising up the Citywire ratings were among the hardest hit by this month's sell-off.
Should investors really fret about companies getting political or is it all just bluster?


Allen, a native of Leesburg, Va., was second in the SEC and tied for seventh nationally with 12 sacks. He recorded 36 total tackles while leading the Tide with 14.5 tackles for loss.
By retaining Allen, the Tide's defensive line returns a two-year starter who can rush the passer from the edge and inside while also holding up against the run.
Allen joins outside linebackers Tim Williams and Ryan Anderson and safety Eddie Jackson as draft-eligible players returning to school for their final seasons.
Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry and defensive tackle A'Shawn Robinson both declared for the draft on Friday afternoon.
Tight end O.J. Howard has yet to make his intentions public.


Congregants said that they had not been consulted regarding the compromise to save Ayelet Hashachar synagogue.
The government announced Sunday that it had worked out a compromise, whereby a new synagogue would be built next to the Ayelet Hashachar synagogue in Givat Ze'ev that is slated to be demolished. Based on a compromise recommended last week by Periphery, Negev and Galilee Affairs Minister Aryeh Deri, major elements of the existing synagogue will be removed and integrated with a new structure that will be built on a lot adjacent to the current building.
The Ayelet HaShachar synagogue is slated to be demolished this week after a far-left group filed a petition with the Court, claiming that the structure had been build on privately-owned Palestinian Arab land.
The petition had been working its way through the courts for at least three years. Members of the congregation have offered the land's alleged owners a high price for the purchase or rental of the land, but they, and their lawyers, have insisted that the synagogue be torn down. Public officials have rallied behind the synagogue and called to save it, stating that sends the wrong message to Israelis over the character of the Jewish state.
Members of the congregation put out a call to supporters Sunday night, saying they planned to remain in the building overnight in case bulldozers did arrive to tear the building down. According to Rabbi Azriel Cohen, the rabbi of the synagogue, the congregation will only move when a new and better building is constructed, as it is forbidden under Jewish law to abandon a synagogue building unless a more attractive and better quality replacement is available. Until such time, said the rabbi, the congregation will stay where it is.


Garth Brooks has been named the Country Music Association's entertainer of the year. Brooks accepted the award Wednesday at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
He thanked his band, his crew and country music fans, saying, "The most important thing, other than God himself, are you: the people that allow us to be in the greatest music ever, country music."
Eric Church, Keith Urban, Darius Rucker and Lady Antebellum opened the 2017 Country Music Association Awards with a touching performance honoring the 58 people killed at a country music festival last month.
The Wednesday night awards show kicked off with Church singing an emotional version of "Amazing Grace," later joined by the other performers for "Hold My Hand."
At the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, a gunman fired on the crowd from a hotel room while Jason Aldean was onstage. Nearly 500 people were injured.
Reba McEntire, Luke Bryan, Thomas Rhett, Tim McGraw and others joined in to sing along at the Bridgestone Arena, earning a large applause from the crowd.
"This has been a year marked my tragedy ... Tonight we're going to do what families do, come together, pray together, cry together and sing together, too," co-host Carrie Underwood said.
Paisley and Underwood are celebrating their 10-year anniversary — as hosts of the CMAs. They joked at the top of the show about CMA sending restrictions to press about what to ask singers on the red carpet, saying they shouldn't ask about politics or guns. They also riffed on politics, taking shots at both President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Underwood will wear several hats during the show as host, performer and nominee. Last year, she ended Miranda Lambert's six-year streak as female vocalist of the year. Both singers are nominated for the award this year, along with McEntire, Maren Morris and Kelsea Ballerini.
Nominees for the show's top prize, entertainer of the year, include Bryan, Chris Stapleton, Urban, Church and last year's winner, Garth Brooks. Stapleton, Urban, Church, Rhett and Dierks Bentley are up for male vocalist of the year.
Sam Hunt's "Body Like a Back Road," which set a record for the most weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot country songs chart with 34, lost single of the year to Urban's "Blue Ain't Your Color."
Urban and Hunt's tracks are also nominated for song of the year, a songwriter's award. In the category they will compete with Taylor Swift, who wrote Little Big Town's No. 1 hit "Better Man."
Little Big Town is among the country stars set to perform during the three-hour show. Others include Brooks, Stapleton, Bryan, Lambert, Rhett and pop singer Pink.
The night will feature a number of collaborative performances, including Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Ballerini and McEntire, Maren Morris and Niall Horan of One Direction, Paisley and Kane Brown, and Bentley and Rascal Flatts.
Underwood said she's most excited to see Alan Jackson, the artist she first saw live.
"I love it when legendary artists like him perform on the CMAs. I think in our world today and even in country music, it's kind of like ... 'Who's new? Who's hot? Who can we get for the show?' And it's nice when you can have somebody that can go up there and show us how it's all done," she said.
But Paisley said Underwood will have the night's brightest performance.
"I'm telling you if that's not the No. 1 most-talked about thing the next day then I will be as wrong as I've ever been," he said.
Brothers Osborne, Jon Pardi and Old Dominion also will perform. The show is airing live on ABC.


The first trailer for Spectre, the next James Bond film has finally landed, providing a tense but thrilling first look at the 24th official outing for 007.
Skyfall. MI6 headquarters is still in ruins following the attacks in the previous film, while Bond finds himself confronted with damning personal items from his own secretive past.
The teaser also nicely builds the threat of the eponymous evil organisation, without ever mentioning them by name -- only showing a ring emblazoned with an icon that will send chills down the spines of long-time fans. It also suggests Spectre will be another lonely journey for Bond, with plenty of shots of desolate locations as the secret agent is drawn into another globetrotting hunt.
Spectre offers that "a cryptic message from Bond's past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE."
Guardians of the Galaxy's Dave Bautista appears as assassin Mr. Hinx and Christoph Waltz as chief villain Franz Oberhauser.
In Bond creator Ian Fleming's original novels, SPECTRE was an international criminal network with varying aims as the books and subsequent films progressed. Designed as a villainous operation that could morph with the times, rather than directly based on whichever political body was the "bad guy" at the time, it allowed Fleming freedom to pen tales without having to worry about them becoming too dated. How closely the new cinematic take is to its prose origins remains to be seen, but not for long -- Spectre opens in the UK on 6 November.


‘I think continually of those who were truly great,’ wrote Stephen Spender, which must have been awkward when he was trying to read a map, cook the lunch, or write that bloody awful poem about pylons. But I, too, have been thinking, if not continually, then at least often, about two great men, both dead, both much missed. They couldn’t have been more different, but they both played a major part in forming my attitudes, my taste and perhaps even my character.
Philip Balkwill was my English teacher at Charterhouse, and I was reminded of him early in January when I went to re-review Alan Bennett’s The History Boys at Wyndham’s Theatre. The leading character, Hector, superbly played by Desmond Barrit, is one of those teachers his pupils never forget, offering lessons in life that go far beyond whatever subject he happens to be teaching; and PGB, as he was known at Charterhouse, was in the same mould.
He was undoubtedly an inspirational English teacher, who introduced me to Shakespeare, Hardy, Hopkins, Yeats, Larkin and many more with superb freshness and insight. Unlike Hector, and indeed several other beaks at Charterhouse in my time, there was never any wandering-hand trouble with Philip, who, despite a manner and a voice that I now realise were more than a little camp, was enthusiastically heterosexual.
No, Philip’s vice was booze, and it was one he would indulge with favourite pupils. When you were invited round to his house of an evening, ostensibly to discuss poetry or A-level options, you knew that you would roll back to your house later that night gloriously pissed.
Philip talked brilliantly when the booze was flowing. About everything and anything, from great railway journeys to Beethoven’s late quartets. Indeed when I first began to listen seriously to classical music, Beethoven’s late quartets were where I improbably began, purely because I could remember Philip talking about them with such passion. And what he said remains with me almost 40 years on.
But as with all alcoholics, there was a darker side to Philip’s nature. For the most part genial, funny and humane, he could suddenly turn vicious. Rows with his wife could make schoolboy visitors feel they had inadvertently walked into a production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and sometimes Philip also turned on the boys who were his guests. I remember him reducing me to tears one night when he tore into what he saw as the fatuity of pop music and my own inanity for liking it. And he carried out his vicious demolition job with the skill and pleasure of a practised sadist.
I learnt a lot from Philip and, among much that was good, I also learnt how to be cruel. I hate to admit it but that, too, proved a useful lesson to someone who was to become a critic.
If Philip Balkwill taught me the value of discrimination, in everything from poetry to malt whisky, Peter taught me to be open-minded in my tastes. He was equally at home reviewing Shakespeare, jazz, ballet, opera, the avant-garde and light entertainment, insisting only that work should be good of its kind. He never allowed cultural snobbery to affect his judgments, and approached everything with an open mind.
It’s thanks to Peter’s example that I’ve had as much fun at ice shows as at the RSC, and that I see absolutely nothing strange about switching from Mozart to the Grateful Dead.
One field of music that now seems to be a particular victim of snobbery is light classical music, as represented by the likes of Eric Coates, Robert Farnon and countless other almost forgotten names. It is still being written, but is rarely played these days, either on the radio or in the concert hall. Sometimes, however, I feel an intense urge to listen to something that is unashamedly melodic, entertaining, undemanding and nostalgic, and this is where light music comes up trumps.
This is music that has no greater desire than to refresh the spirit and to please, and there is nothing ignoble about that — though even as I write those words I can imagine Philip arguing the toss.
Charles Spencer is theatre critic of the Daily Telegraph.


The flag of Jordan. An anti-normalization group strongly criticized Jordanian officials for participating in a recent Israeli Independence Day ceremony. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
JNS.org – An organization dedicated to opposing Jordan-Israel diplomatic relations strongly criticized Jordanian officials for participating in a recent Israeli Independence Day ceremony at the Israeli Embassy in Amman.
“Everyone who participated in the celebrations organized by the embassy of the oppressing entity on our Nakba Day,” the National Committee Against Normalization said in a statement, referring to the Arabic anti-Israel moniker for Israeli Independence Day.
Israel’s embassy in Jordan hosted 200 foreign diplomats and Jordanian officials on May 17.


NEW YORK — Chris Christie has a book coming out next year and he doesn't plan on holding back.
According to a statement from Hachette, Christie plans to "set the record straight" on his time as a key Trump campaign supporter in 2016 and being "unceremoniously booted" from the transition team after Mr. Trump's upset victory. He will offer "revealing candid and surprising insights into the public and private Trump, drawn from fifteen years of close friendship," the statement continued. He will provide "frank appraisals" of such fellow Trump insiders as Steve Bannon, Corey Lewandowski and Jared Kushner, whose father, Charles Kushner, was sent to prison when Christie was a federal prosecutor.
Christie was first elected New Jersey governor in 2009, and his brash style and ability to win in a Democratic state quickly made him a national star for the Republican Party. He was among a crowded field of GOP contenders for president in 2016 and helped Mr. Trump in two crucial ways — humiliating Marco Rubio in a February 2016 debate that halted the Florida senator's momentum, then dropping out and endorsing Mr. Trump, becoming one of the first so-called "establishment" Republicans to back the real-estate baron and reality TV star.
Mr. Trump had considered Christie as a running mate before choosing Mike Pence, then governor of Indiana, and Christie had expected to lead the incoming president's transition team. Christie has said his reservations about giving the national security adviser job to Michael Flynn, who has since been fired and pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, as a factor in his removal.


The spectacular flight of bats may be aided by long, thin muscles in the skin of their wings.
Bats are an extraordinary evolutionary success, the only mammals to conquer the air. Their flying ability has long attracted the attention of engineers and biologists, and it comes through soft, flexible wings unlike those of birds or insects.
Their wings have long muscles embedded in the skin, running front to back, and not attached to any bones. Scientists had suspected that these muscles probably helped shape the wings in flight, but evidence was lacking.
That evidence was not easy to come by. As they report in the June issue of Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, the team inserted thin electrodes into the muscles to record their activity while the bats were flying in a wind tunnel.
At the same time, they shot high-speed video and coordinated the data.
But they still need to show that the action of the muscles actually improves bat flight. And for that, says Dr. Swartz, they need that staple of the cosmetic surgery industry, Botox.
“By applying a very small amount of Botox in the wing,” she said, they could determine the difference between flying with and without the use of those small muscles.
The research could have some use in designing soft-winged robots, but she said the real reason for the research is that “bats are one of the enormous successes of mammalian evolution.” Understanding these muscles and how their function may vary in different species could illuminate how that evolution occurred.


Samples of bone fragments recovered from the Mannar grave area are scheduled to be sent to the US today. The carbon dating inspection will be conducted by the Beta Analytic center in America.
Judicial medical officer of the Mannar hospital Saminda Rajapaksa and a commissioner of the Office on missing persons will be involved in the carbon dating process.


New mammogram advice from the American Cancer Society says most women should start annual screenings at age 45 instead of 40, a change that moves the group closer to guidelines from an influential advisory taskforce.
The cancer group also now advises switching to screening every other year at 55. The taskforce recommends starting routine screening for breast cancer at age 50, then every other year.
It’s not a one-size-fits-all recommendation; both groups say women’s preferences for when to be scanned should be considered.
The advice is for women at average risk for breast cancer. Doctors generally recommend more intensive screening for higher-risk women.
“The most important message of all is that a mammogram is the most effective thing that a woman can do to reduce her chance of dying from breast cancer,” said Dr Richard Wender, the cancer society’s cancer control chief.
“It’s not that mammograms are ineffective in younger women,” he said, but at age 40, breast cancer is uncommon and false alarms are more likely.
Concern about false alarms contributed to the cancer society’s new guidance. These lead to worry and more testing; they mean an initial result was suspicious but that cancer was ruled out by additional scans and sometimes biopsies.
The latest guidelines acknowledge that some younger women are willing to accept that and for them starting annual exams at age 40 is fine, as long as they know the risks.
The guidelines were developed by experts who reviewed dozens of studies, including research published since 1997 – the year the trusted medical group recommended yearly mammograms starting at age 40 – and since 2003, when it stopped recommending monthly breast self-exams.
The update also drops a recommendation for routine physical breast exams by doctors, saying there’s no evidence that these save lives.
The reverend Jennifer Munroe-Nathans, a church pastor in Millis, Massachusetts, said she hasn’t paid attention to guidelines and started getting annual scans around age 40 on her doctor’s advice. Her mother had breast cancer; so have some of her congregants, and Munroe-Nathans said she has no plans to change course when she gets older.
The society’s updated guidelines say switching to every other year at age 55 makes sense because tumors in women after menopause tend to grow more slowly. Also, older women’s breasts are usually less dense so cancer is more visible on mammograms, said Dr Kevin Oeffinger, chairman of the society’s breast cancer guideline panel and director of the cancer survivorship center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
The guidelines were published on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
More than 200,000 women in the US are diagnosed each year with breast cancer and about 40,000 die from the disease. Overall, one in eight women will be diagnosed with the disease at some point, and chances increase with age.
Oeffinger said women need to be familiar with their breasts and aware of any changes, which should be evaluated by their doctors.
The US Preventive Services Task Force, whose guidelines have historically influenced Medicare coverage, made waves in 2009 when it recommended mammograms every other year starting at age 50, to age 74. In draft recommendations released earlier this year, the group said mammograms for women in their 40s should be an individual decision based on preferences and health history, and that more research is needed to determine potential benefits or harms for scans for women aged 75 and older.
That panel also questioned the value of breast exams by doctors, citing a lack of evidence for any benefit or harm. It will examine the cancer society’s evidence review in finalizing its update, said Dr Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, the taskforce’s vice-chair and a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.
Most health plans are required to cover screening mammograms free of charge as part of preventive care mandated by the Affordable Care Act, and many insurers cover the screenings starting at age 40.
Several doctor groups still recommend mammograms starting at age 40, including those representing radiologists and gynecologists, but the American Cancer Society’s breast cancer guidelines are the most widely followed, said Dr Kenneth Lin, a family medicine physician at Georgetown University School of Medicine.
Lin said he supports the new guidance but that it will make his job more challenging at first, trying to explain to patients the changes and differences with other groups. Lin said he – and probably many other doctors – will probably continue doing physical breast exams, out of habit and because they consider the exams to be an important part of doctor-patient interactions.


ST. LOUIS — Patrik Laine scored five goals Saturday in the Winnipeg Jets’ 8-4 victory at St. Louis, two short of 97-year-old NHL record.
It was the 61st five-goal game in league history. Darryl Sittler of the Toronto Maple Leafs was the last player to score six goals in a game, on April 22, 1976, against Boston.
Brandon Tanev, Blake Wheeler, and Jack Roslovic also scored for the Jets, who snapped their first two-game losing streak of the season.
Laine’s five goal outburst gives him a league-leading 16 goals in 10 November games.
Vladimir Tarasenko, David Perron, Ryan O’Reilly, and Pat Maroon scored for the Blues.
NEW YORK (AP) — Brett Connolly scored the tiebreaking goal with 6:24 left in the third period, and Washington won its season-high fifth straight game.
Alex Ovechkin, Nic Dowd, Jakub Vrana and Tom Wilson also scored for defending Stanley Cup champion Washington, and John Carlson had three assists. Pheonix Copley, starting in place of Braden Holtby, stopped 27 shots.
Jimmy Vesey, Brady Skjei and Ryan Strome scored for the Rangers, who lost their second straight, ending a seven-game winning streak on home ice. Kevin Hayes had two assists and Alexandar Georgiev finished with 23 saves.
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Erik Gustafsson scored 2:32 into overtime to give Chicago the win.
Gustafsson wristed in his third goal of the season to beat Florida goalie James Reimer, snapping Chicago’s two-game overall losing streak and eight-game road skid.
Alex DeBrincat tied it with 2 seconds left in regulation and David Kampf, Patrick Kane and Alexandre Fortin also tallied for the Blackhawks. Gustav Forsling had two assists and Kampf added an assist for a three-point night.
Goalie Cam Ward made his first start since Nov. 12 and stopped 34 shots.
Mike Hoffman, Jared McCann, Aaron Ekblad and Frank Vatrano scored goals for the Panthers. Jonathan Huberdeau recorded a pair of assists.
Reimer made 36 saves for the Panthers, who lost their third straight.
DETROIT (AP) — Sam Reinhart and Tage Thompson scored in a seven-round shootout to give Buffalo its ninth consecutive victory.
Jeff Skinner and Thompson scored for Buffalo in regulation, and Linus Ullmark made 35 saves.
Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha scored for Detroit, and Jimmy Howard stopped 33 shots. Andreas Athanasiou scored in the shootout for the Red Wings.
TORONTO (AP) — Andreas Johnsson had a hat trick midway through the first period and Toronto routed Philadelphia.
John Tavares, Patrick Marleau and Josh Leivo also scored, and backup goalie Garret Sparks made 35 saves for his first shutout of the season and the second of his career. Mitch Marner added two assists.
Calvin Pickard, who was claimed by the Flyers on waivers from Toronto before the start of the season, allowed four goals on six shots for Philadelphia (10-11-2) before being pulled. Anthony Stolarz allowed two goals on 34 shots in relief.
MONTREAL (AP) — John Moore scored a power-play goal with 2:57 left and Boston beat Montreal.
David Backes and Jake DeBrusk also scored to help the Bruins win for third time in four games. Tuukka Rask made 32 saves, and David Krejci had two assists.
Jonathan Drouin and Tomas Tatar scored in the third period for Montreal, and Carey Price stopped 32 shots. The Canadiens have lost four straight.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jake Guentzel scored his first career regular-season hat trick to send Pittsburgh past Columbus.
Tanner Pearson also scored for the Penguins, who have won two of their last three after losing nine of their previous 10. Kris Letang had three assists and Sidney Crosby two. Phil Kessel continued an eight-game point streak for Pittsburgh and Evgeni Malkin has a seven-game run.
Casey DeSmith made 37 saves for Pittsburgh.
Cam Atkinson and Scott Harrington scored for the Blue Jackets, who lost for the second time in three games.
NEW YORK (AP) — Thomas Greiss made 26 saves, and Valtteri Filppula, Anthony Beauvillier, Josh Bailey and Adam Pelech scored for New York.
Brock Nelson, Anders Lee and Bailey finished with multipoint games. It was the sixth multipoint game of the season for Bailey.
Justin Williams scored for the Hurricanes. Carolina starter Scott Darling made 15 saves in the loss. The Islanders limited the Hurricanes to a single goal for the third straight game.
DENVER (AP) — J.T. Compher and Mikko Rantanen scored 45 seconds apart late in the third period, and Colorado rallied to beat Dallas.
Rantanen also had an assist, and Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche. Colorado has won four in a row and is 6-0-1 in its last seven games.
Radek Faska and Jamie Benn had goals, Alexander Radulov had two assists and Anton Khudobin stopped 33 shots for the Stars. Dallas has lost three of its last four.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Max Pacioretty scored twice and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 33 shots to earn his league-leading fifth shutout of the season for Vegas.
It was the second shutout in as many nights for Fleury and marked the first time the 15-year veteran recorded back-to-back shutouts since the 2014-15 season.
William Karlsson, Colin Miller, William Carrier and Alex Tuch also scored for Vegas.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Vancouver rookie Elias Pettersson scored his 13th goal of the season and helped the Canucks snap an eight-game winless streak.
Adam Gaudette and Sam Gagner also scored for the Canucks, and Tyler Motte added an empty-net goal. Goalie Jacob Markstrom stopped 20 shots.
Drew Doughty and Matt Luff scored for the Kings, whose 7-14-1 record is the worst in the NHL. Cal Petersen stopped 26 shots.


I do have the little red numbers that tell me that there are x amount of threads that I have't read, I guess I just wanted you to know that the stickies aren't bold to tell me that specific thread has a post not read. To be perfectly honest, never noticed the red numbers until you pointed them out. Thanks!
I've been married for 24 years and have four wonderful children.
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:37 PM.


As people across the globe wait to see if the world will end Saturday, one evangelical minister says don't panic because it won't happen.
"Nobody knows the exact day when these things are going to happen," Steve Wohlberg, who has written more than two dozen books about the End of Days, told the Daily News Thursday.
Wohlberg believes the theory that the world will end on May 21, a date set by 89-year-old Family Radio founder Harold Egbert Camping, is "flat-out wrong."
"He is misinterpreting the Bible," he said. "He's a false teacher."
Wohlberg argues that Camping is taking advantage of the present climate of fear. From earthquakes in Japan to storms in the southern United States to violence around the globe, people are growing concerned.
"They're looking at all of these disasters and everything that's going on in the planet, and this is creating a climate of deep interest in Biblical prophecy," he said. "I think that Camping is tapping into that interest, but he's wrong."
Wohlberg said the Bible does not give a date for the end of the world and Camping's system for determining the date is based on "speculation" that's a mixture of truth and fiction.
As a result, he "makes Christians out to be a laughing stock."
So why do people seem to believe him?
"He's very charismatic," Wohlberg said. Plus, "the climate that we're living in with so many things happening in the world lends itself to people believing something is going to happen."
The author of "The Rapture Delusions" also argues that "human beings are gullible."
Unfortunately, when Sunday, May 22, comes and the world has not ended, Wohlberg fears the worst.
"There's a danger [his followers are] going to be disillusioned with the Bible," he said. "They are going to give up on God and the Bible and throw in the towel."
And those who surrendered money and property to Camping will find themselves in financial hardships, Wohlberg said.
"In my mind, Harold Camping has quite an account to render with God when judgment day comes," he said.
However, Wohlberg doesn't believe we're out of the woods just yet. The radio host and speaker still believes we are in the End of Days.
"I feel like the signs are thickening around us that we're heading towards a crisis," he said.


University of Florida police used a stun gun on a student taking part in a forum with former presidential candidate John Kerry.
Andrew Meyer was questioning Senator Kerry on why he did not contest the results of the 2004 election.
University officials said he exceeded his allotted time and became disruptive after his microphone was cut off.
Video footage shows police pulling Mr Meyer from the audience and pinning him to the ground before stunning him.
The 21-year-old student can be heard screaming for help as the stun gun is administered.
Mr Meyer was arrested and charged with resisting an officer with violence and disturbing the peace, reports local newspaper the Gainesville Sun.
After spending the night in Alachua County jail, he was released on Tuesday morning, the Gainesville Sun reports.
A spokesman for the university, Steve Orlando, said campus police would conduct an internal investigation into whether the weapon had been used appropriately.


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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Tuesday approved the portfolios for 15 federal and state ministers belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q).
As per a notification of the Cabinet Division, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi would be the deputy prime minister as well as senior federal minister for industries.
Other PML-Q ministers include: Sardar Bahadur Khan Sehar (federal minister for defence production), Ch Wajahat Hussain (federal minister for man power), Ghaus Bux Mehar (federal minister for privatisation), Anwar Ali Cheema (federal minister for production), Sardar Talib Hussain Nakai (federal minister for housing), Liaquat Abbas Bhatti (federal minister for works), Sheikh Waqas Akram (federal minister for professional & technical training), Saeed Khan Mandokhel (minister of state for privatisation), Khawaja Sheraz Mehmood (state minister for production), Rana Asif Tauseef (state minister for works), Sardar Shahjehan Yousaf (state minister for professional & technical training), Malik Nouman Langrial (state minister for housing), Ghias Ahmad (state minister for manpower) and Akram Masih Gill (state minister for national harmony). Jam Muhammad Yousaf has also been given the status of the federal minister, however, he has yet not been allotted any portfolio, said the notification.