equal sovereignty and nonintervention  would satisfy the fierce desire for respect and security of a small and weak nationstate such as North Korea. In practice, this political stance has caused North Korea to truly become a hermit kingdom because of the huge stigma juche places upon cooperation with outside powers. According to juche as interpreted by the DPRK, yielding to foreign pressure or tolerating foreign intervention would make it impossible to maintain chaju, or the defense of national independence and sovereignty. This in turn would threaten the nation's ability to defend the interests of the people, since political independence is seen as being absolutely critical for economic selfsustenance and military self-defense. Kim Jong Il predicted that dependence on foreign powers would lead to the failure ofthe socialist revolution in Korea.6; 7 Among countries that he considered socialist peers, such as China, the USSR, Cuba and several African countries, Kim Il Sung urged cooperation and stressed the need for mutual support and limited dependence. However, while acknowledging that it was important to learn from the examples of other socialist countries, Kim Il Sung was highly sensitive to the problems of flunkeyism towards Moscow and Beijing and the inevitable Marxist-Leninist dogmatism that he abhorred during his guerrilla days. In constructing the socialist revolution in North Korea, he warned that the North Koreans must "...resolutely repudiate the tendency to swallow things of others undigested or imitate them mechanically." 8 Furthermore, he claimed that his regime's "success" was credited to the independent manner in which all problems


were solved, conforming Marxist-Leninist principles to the specific conditions of North Korea without altering their fundamental substance. Domestically, Kim asserted that it was imperative to build internal political forces to ensure chaju. The pivotal factor in the success of achieving chaju would be the extent to which the people rallied around the party and the leader Kim Il Sung, and later Kim Jong Il himself. This insistence on internal unity of support, stemming perhaps from the elder Kim's disgust with internal factionalism before the Korean War, conveniently helped to justify his consolidation of personal power. Charip: Economic Independence An independent and self-sufficient national economy is necessary both in order to secure political integrity and to achieve national prosperity. Charip  economic independence  is seen as the materialbasis for chaju, or political independence. Kim Il Sung feared that economic dependence on foreign aid would render the state a political satellite of other countries. He believed that it would be impossible to successfully build a socialist republic without the material and technical foundations that would come from an independent national economy. This economy would consist of a powerful base of heavy industry with the machine-building industry at its core, which would equip light industry, agriculture, transport, and all other branches of the economy.9

According to Kim Jong Il, building an independent national economy means building an economy which is free from dependence on others and which stands on its own feet, an economy which serves one's own people and develops on the strength of the resources of


one's own country and by the efforts of one's people.10 Independent food production was seen as being of particular significance because successful farming would provide the people with stabilized living conditions and means to independently support themselves. Just as important to the survival and independence of the national economy was the establishment of reliable and independent sources of raw materials and fuel. Extensive modernization of the economy and training for technically-minded cadres were considered indispensable for the construction of an independent national economy as well. Kim Il Sung was careful to maintain that building an independent national economy on juche principles of self-reliance was not synonymous with building an isolated economy. Looking at the size of American aid to South Korea, which equaled its fledgling economy's gross domesticproduct during the immediate post-war years, Kim Il Sung recognized that North Korea would not be able to survive without significant aid from its communist sponsors. Thus, he encouraged close economic and technical cooperation between socialist countries and newly-emerging nations as an aid in economic development and ideological unity.11 Chawi: Military Independence The last area of independence is self-reliance in defense, a characteristic fundamental in juche philosophy to an independent sovereign state. The North Korean attitude towards military confrontation was summed up in this manner by

10 11

Kim Il Sung: "We do not want war, nor are we afraid of it, nor do we beg peace from the imperialists."12 The decidedly belligerent policy of countering any perceived "imperialist moves of aggression and war" with violence was seen as the


ideologically to cope with war and to make full material preparations to defend the country by relying on an independent national economy.16 Origins of the Juche Philosophy There are three major schools of thought regarding the origins of the juche ideology. The first of these is the instrumental perspective, which emphasizes domestic and international relations factors. The second perspective focuses on the influence of traditional Korean politics. The last viewpoint considers juche to be original political thought stemming directly from the life experiences of Kim Il Sung. Instrumental Perspective The instrumentalist viewpoint focuses on both domestic and foreign political factors as the root of the juche ideology. Some scholars believe

that Kim's unstable power during and immediately following the Korean War caused him to deploy ideological purges in orderto consolidate his political position, using the juche principle of national solidarity as a domestic instrument of personal cult-building.17 To this end, Kim Il Sung forbade any other ideology from being discussed or taught in North Korea. Since the content and application of the juche ideology were very ambiguous until the late 1960s, Kim Il Sung was the only one who could successfully wield and implement the philosophy. Thus, implementing and executing policies based on juche effectively consolidated Kim Il Sung's absolute political power and indirectly provided ideological justification for his dictatorship in North Korea.18 Perhaps more saliently, juche as the guiding principle of foreign policy was utilized as a means of balancing power between the Soviet Union and China, and as a means to curb the Soviet


and Chinese influence in the country. Kim's wariness of Sino-Soviet involvement in North Korean domestic affairs was exacerbated by his personal dislike of the Soviets and the country's national inferiority complex towards major powers. Kim became uneasy about the Soviet Union's gradual movement towards peaceful coexistence with the United States in the 1960s. However, because of the economic and military aid Pyongyang was receiving from Moscow, as well as Kim's professed value for unity in the Marxism-Leninism struggle against imperialism, North Korea continued to support Soviet positions on most issues. Gradually, North Korea began to use the juche tenet of foreign non-intervention and national selfdetermination as an ideological excuse for cordoning off its governance from Moscow and Beijing. Eventually, North Korea repudiated both the Soviet Union and thePeople's Republic of China as a socialist imperialist state, accusing its leaders of abandoning pure

Korea

Marxism-Leninism principles to pursue capitalist gains.19 Traditional Political Culture The second perspective is more long-term and focuses on the influence of traditional political culture in Korea. The scholars in this second camp argue that juche is a reflection of a centuries-old tradition of independence from foreign powers. Strategically located at a peninsular tip of the East Asian continent, Korea has long been a pawn of contention between its two powerful neighbors, China and Japan. From the earliest recorded history, the Korean people have fought fiercely to maintain their independence in the face of multiple invasions by Mongols, Manchurians, Han Chinese and Japanese pirates and samurais. The sum total of these invasions may qualify Korea


as the most oft-invaded territory in the world. Under the Yi Dynasty, which ruled Korea from 1392 until the Japanese annexation in 1910, Korea became a highly defensive state with a foreign policy of isolation towards the outside world. When Kim Il Sung came to power in North Korea in 1945, he arguably reverted to the highly isolationist policies of pre-modern Korea. Furthermore, this viewpoint encompasses the exposition of juche as a brand of Korean Leninist nationalism, a "creative adoption of Marxism-Leninism" peculiarly suited to the Korean situation, described by Kim Jong Il as a difficult and complex revolution which had to deal with the tasks of the anti-imperialist, national-liberation revolution, with formidable Japanese imperialism as the target, and those of the anti-feudal, democratic revolution simultaneously.20 Baek Namideology to the body of philosophical knowledge. Despite Individualism: Kim Il Sung's Original Thought The third viewpoint is the North Koreans' this claim to originality, there is nothing view of juche as a prime example of their late particularly revolutionary or novel in the tenets of the juche philosophy. Kim Supreme Leader's brilliance Il Sung's policy stances on and originality. This last group KIM IL SUNG'S POLICY STANCES subjects such as the class insists that juche was the ON SUBJECTS SUCH AS THE struggle, the idea of the mass intellectual result of Kim Il CLASS STRUGGLE, THE IDEA OF line, the role of the single Sung's highly exaggerated and THE MASS LINE, THE BELIEF IN ONE'S OWN CAPABILITIES WERE great leader in history and the romanticized personal ALL


DRAWN PRIMARILY FROM importance of belief in one's experience as a guerrilla CHINESE AND EASTERN EUROown capabilities were all fighting against the Japanese in PEAN THOUGHT. KIM IL SUNG'S drawn primarily from the 1930s. This immediate GENIUS LAY IN HIS ABILITY TO FUSE THESE ELEMENTS TOChinese and Eastern attribution of juche to Kim Il GETHER TO CAPITALIZE ON THE European thought. Kim Il Sung's personal history is NORTH KOREAN DRIVE FOR Sung's genius lay in his emphasized by his son and INDEPENDENCE. ability to fuse these elements heir Kim Jong Il in his book together to capitalize on the On the Juche Idea. He argues that his father "put forward a juche-oriented North Korean drive for independence. line for the Korean revolution" and that "...this was a historicalevent which heralded the Debt to Maoist Thought Kim's early knowledge of communism creation of the juche idea and the birth of the juche-oriented revolutionary line." 22 Kim Il came from the Chinese communist guerrilla Sung himself had at times maintained that the army with which he trained from 1935 to 1941. juche ideology grew out of two major During this time, he was tutored and influenced frustrations he felt with the Korean revolution by Wei Zhengmin, a superior Chinese political during the anti-Japanese struggle: first, the officer in his guerrilla group. While Kim never revolutionary vanguard had lost contact with acknowledged the extent of his subordination to the proletarian masses and were waging a and affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party, theoretical battle without mass support; and


many scholars contend that Kim was a member second, that "flunkeyism"  seeking Moscow's of the CCP.24 By the end of the Korean War, favor  and factionalism were corrupting the Chinese influence in North Korea had overtaken revolution from the inside.23 that of the Soviet Union. Kim closely followed adoption of Marxism and Leninism, and a peculiar synthesis of nationalism and socialism. Kim Il Sung himself said:

Mao Zedong's political thought and action, which heavily influenced the development of the DPRK's political institutions in the late 1940s and 1950s. One example of this emulation was the North Korean strategy of Chollima Undong, which was inspired by Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward movement of 1958-1960. 25 The multi-year economic plans, stress upon rural self-sufficiency and nationalistic and revolutionary fervorgoal of communism was first stressed by Mao Zedong, especially during the rectification campaign of 1942-44 on the need to "sinify" MarxismLeninism and halt the mechanical and dogmatic acceptance of the Soviet model as the "universal truth."28; 29 Thus, the main tenet of Kim Il Sung's thought can be directly attributed and traced to Mao. Despite the overwhelming evidence, Kim Il Sung was never willing to publicly acknowledge his ideological debt to Mao, especially after the institutionalization of the juche ideology as North Korea's sole political philosophy by the DPRK in the early 1960s. Following this formal linkage of the juche ideology with North Korean nationalism, the inferiority implications of acknowledging such a great debt to a foreign leader was probably insurmountable both for the consistency of the


independent juche ideology and for Kim's personal pride.30 Korean and Confucian Roots The juche ideology that is trumpeted by North Korea as Kim Il Sung's ingenious and original contribution to the body of political philosophy is really drawn from a centuries-old tradition of Korean political thought. Kim himself has acknowledged that he drew the term and idea of juche from Korean scholars in the early twentieth century, who in turn drew inspiration from Confucian ideas dating back to the original state philosophy of independence espoused by Korean rulers. The tradition of strong nationalism among the Korean people coexisted with another tradition called sadaechuii, in which the Confucian palace officials and educated elite groups jockeyed for foreign support through sycophancy.31 Kim's juche ideology may represent his reaction to theslave mentality of sadaechuii as well as an indebtedness to the original nationalistic strain of Korean political culture. Aside from its tremendous appeal to the deep traditional Korean antipathy towards foreign influence, juche serves to intensify the nationalism of the North Korean people, who are told that world civilization originated from the Korean peninsula.32 Application to Society Indoctrination in juche ideology was seen as the primary concern in the revolutionary struggle for chajusong and the subsequent construction of a socialist republic.33 Establishing a juche mindset meant the promotion of the attitude that the

Korean people could solve all of their problems expenditures, despite the famine sweeping by their own talents and initiative. Cultivating through the populace. Due to the power and a sense of national dignity and revolutionary influence


of one man, the Great Leader, the pride was especially important, as evidenced juche philosophy became inextricably by the great lengths to which cultural aspects embedded in the economic, political, military of North Korean life such as music and and cultural aspects of life in the DPRK. entertainment were monopolized and dictated by the Party under Kim Jong Il, Kim Il Sung's Conclusion Despite the repeated and strong emphasis son and successor.34 The Kim Il Sung regime instructed the on juche's loyalty to the principles of MarxismNorth Korean people in the juche ideology Leninism, juche as philosophical thought does using an analogy drawn from human anatomy. not strictly adhere to Marxist-Leninist The Great Leader is the brain that makes principles as North Korea purports. First, the decisions andissues orders, the Party is the fundamental tenets of juche  that man is the master of all things and nervous system that channels decides everything, and that an information, and the people MARX BELIEVED THAT INDIVIDUAL ideological consciousness are the bone and muscle that FIGURES HAD NO CONTROL OVER determines human behavior in physically execute the THE GENERAL TREND OF PREhistorical development  orders.35 This belief system, DETERMINED HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, AND HE DID NOT GIVE contradict Karl Marx's inculcated in North Koreans MAN AN EXALTED POSITION IN THE proposition of economic since early childhood, made HIERARCHY OF HISTORICAL determinism. Marx believed them docile and loyal to Kim FACTORS OF IMPORTANCE. KIM IL that individual figures had no Il Sung even in the face of SUNG, IN CONTRAST,


SAW HIMSELF AS AN ABSOLUTELY ESSENcontrol over the general trend famines and energy crises that TIAL FIGURE IN THE STRUGGLE OF of predetermined human have devastated the country. THE WORKING MASSES AGAINST development, and he did not The juche ideology was THE OPPRESSIVE MIDDLE CLASS. give man an exalted position in widely supported among the the hierarchy of historical North Korean populace because of the doctrine that the success of the factors of importance. Kim Il Sung, in contrast, socialist revolution depends upon the extent to saw himself as an absolutely essential figure in which the masses rally around and support the the struggle of the working masses against the leadership. When Kim Il Sung unilaterally oppressive middle class.36; 37 declared juche to be the governing principle ofcore of outstanding and policies such as the routing of a huge percentage committed leaders to lead the revolutionary of national income towards military struggle. 39

North Korea's preoccupation with independence and its isolationism have engaged the country in a dangerous game of brinkmanship with the United States. Over the years, this has led to near-catastrophic military tension with the United States and with South Korea, especially along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, which is already the most heavily armed land zone in the world. The DPRK has taken a particularly hard-line stance on the issue of peninsular reunification. Kim Il Sung declared that any cooperation with foreign attempts to mediate or interfere would be unthinkable because it would effectively place the destiny of Korea in the hands of foreigners,


directly contrary to the juche principle of national self-determination.40 In economic and military affairs, North Korea is far from the independence and self-sufficiency to which it aspires. The country is in the throes of famine and is plagued by a chronic energy crisis. Far from relying on its own energy sources and agricultural production, the DPRK has been reduced to a recipient of food aid from South Korea, the United States and other countries in the international community it had previously disdained as "imperialist aggressors." Despite the huge portion of its shrinking GDP that goes to military spending, Pyongyang is still dependent on Moscow and Beijing for weaponry and technology. Domestically, the juche idea has been used to legitimize Kim Il Sung's Koreanization of "Marxism-Leninism" and the consolidationof the Stalinist system under Kim Il Sung's personal power in North Korea. Furthermore, the juche idea has helped to shore up North Korean national pride in the face of politico-economic competition with South Korea. Kim Il Sung used the juche ideology and its emphasis on the supreme importance of man and its message of selfsufficiency to stir up nationalism and revolutionary energy in the North Korean people. Internationally, Kim Il Sung used the juche ideology as a justification for the elimination of the influence of the USSR and the PRC. Political independence from its bigger neighbors has always been a quest of key importance in Korean history. Kim Il Sung understood that as long as North Korea avoided siding either with the Soviet Union or China unilaterally,


North Korea could remain relatively autonomous in its domestic and foreign policy; this careful balancing act of neutrality was expressed in the form of the juche ideology. North Korea marks the last frontier of isolationism in the world today. Because its policies and behavior may be explained by the state ideology of juche, an understanding of the origins, components and philosophical underpinnings of the juche ideology is essential to an understanding of the North Korean state and its people.each other.

And I have not even finished the first book.

Having said all that, I did some poking around, looking for resources on writing for "after the fall." Here's what I came up with in a few moments of browsing:

– This video, which History Channel aired a few years ago, about what would happen to all of mankind's wonders and civilization if we all suddenly vanished. Sure, much of it is theoretical. But it's a good basis for figuring out how far around the bend your world to be ten/thirty/ninety years after everything goes to pot.

– This set of photos on the website Distractify. Pripyat (the town near Chernobyl) is shown in the second entry. Pripyat is a real laboratory for seeing a city decay. Since the meltdown, the


– the more it affected the characters now living – the more detail I added in. I sketched the timeline of the wars, the scale-up events, and the breakdown of the world.

Again, I kind of made it up as I went. I wrote up the events, made up the names and let fly. But this left me with several benefits:

1) It's consistent. When the characters reference past events, including the ones that led to the protagonist returning home to find it deserted, they all refer to the same events, in the same time frame, and in the same understanding. Having that on paper in advance made it much easier to keep all these babblers on the same page, which is not my strength. Again, in a short story,bitched a little more and the girl sluffed off a little more. They struggled but managed to stay warm enough and eat just enough to stay alive, to be rescued after three weeks.

I thought about this a little further today, in the context of spec fiction. Fiction set in the "after the apocalypse" has become really common in the last decade or so. Wikipedia has entire list of post-apocalyptic fiction (nice, because it's a sortable list). Whatever the reason, after the end of civilization, there is always the struggle to survive and carry on. But watching these two trained survivalists struggle to even build a shelter and feed themselves (I think they ate a snake and a turtle between them in the course of three weeks), it makes


"l," "h," "w" – figured more prominently. In the outlands, the barbarian riders – not of the Empire but of common peoples – usually had short names, where each tribe identified with a single letter which was incorporated in each name.

– Save for Innoria, the town names tended to be English-style conglomerations – Stonebridge, Highgate, etc. – or Latin-ish pastiches. (Gimme a break, at least I was consistent.)

Other nations and cultures had their own "rules" for naming. I had not fully fleshed all of them out but just having those guidelines in place not only made naming my people and places much easier but I think it aided in making the stories more consistent. (Note to longtime readers: the versions out online no longer resemble the revamped versions,of 100,000 people,' Rao says."University of Texas Health Science Center

The cases are rare, but when they do strike a community,
they bring with them a fear of what might happen.

"Testing athletes' hearts dramatically lowered the rate of
sports-related sudden cardiac deaths in Italy, a study
suggests, but experts said it was not clear such an effort
would have as big a payoff in the United States. There are
roughly two dozen sports-related deaths of high school and
college students from sudden cardiac arrest in the United
States each year. Only a handful of schools require
electrocardiogram, or EKG, screening. Since 1982, Italy has
required all athletes to get EKGs for hidden heart problems
before playing competitive sports, and about 2 percent are
disqualified because of heart problems. Researchers from
the University of Padua Medical School analyzed trends in
sudden deaths from


Now Discussing

Salmond Says: Empty Chair PM If She Refuses TV Debate

26 April 2017, 17:38 | Updated: 26 April 2017, 19:30

The SNP MP criticised Theresa May for not taking part in televised debates and suggested it was because she can't think quickly enough.

During the Alex Salmond Phone-In on Iain Dale's drive time show, the former Scottish First Minister said that the Prime Minister, for her many talents, was not "quick on her feet", which explained her avoidance of a live debate.

"I would say I don't think Theresa May, who has, no doubts, many strengths as a politician, is particularly quick on her feet.

"She's fine when she's rousing the Tory troops for another diatribe directed at Jeremy Corbyn, but when she's pinned on a question, she's not quick on herDrunk tourist spends first Phuket night in hospital, police station

An Australian tourist slept off his hangover at the Thalang police station this morning following a black-out first night in Phuket.

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Saturday 29 March 2014, 03:50PM

Phuket International Airport's medical unit had to use mechanical equipment to assist in removing an incapacitated Christopher Boubis, 39, from his Australian Airlines' flight that had landed at the airport around 10pm.

The medical unit then transported the tourist to Thalang hospital, where he woke up and in a drunked state proceded to stumble around, playfully interacting with nursing staff, before passing out again on the floor.

It was finally decided to transport the tourist to the police station, where he will be questioned further upon waking up.


matter so much to them; a young boy explained that the reason was that he was so young when his mother was killed. Another young person made a similar comment: "Sometimes it feels unreal. 'Has it really happened?' I ask myself then, 'I don't know either of my parents, I have never seen them.'"

Regarding the perpetrating parent, children also expressed varying views, although these were mostly negative. Several children described that they never wanted to see their parent again. One child described his father as his worst enemy, another said he could 'go to hell,' and a third referred to his father only as 'the fool.' Other children were less strong in their expressions, and one girl expressed a struggle reconciling two sides of her father: "In thethat I could go there and then leave again. Because you go there and ... he sits behind kind of, he sits in the same room ... behind bars. Then he is just there, and I feel safer."

3.3.. Children's perspectives on their broader (family) environment {#S0003-S2003}
-------------------------------------------------------------------

In all interviews, children's living arrangements were discussed. At the time of the interview, nine children lived with family of the victim, two with family of the perpetrator, four with acquaintances of both parents, one with acquaintances of the victim, three in a neutral foster placement, one in a residential care setting, and three independently. Ten children talked about some concerns in their (previous) placements. Most children had moved once or several times, sometimes also between family 'sides.' The reasons for the moves


together. Children mentioned their siblings regularly as a source of strength and support.

Thirteen participants were generally happy with their placement. Some children remarked that they were glad they were placed with people they knew and trusted. One child felt that her new neutral foster family had probably given her opportunities that she otherwise would not have had. Several young people felt that they had had a good childhood at their placement.

The relationship with family members other than the caregivers, and between the two sides of the family, was discussed in virtually all interviews (*n *= 22). Ten participants described these relationships as positive or satisfactory. They spoke about either having good contact with both sides of the family, or no longer having contact and being fine with it. "Actually, theMars discovery shows 'recent' habitable region

Staff writer, 1st November 2010

Brown University planetary geologists have identified a spot on Mars which they say could have been one of the most recent habitable microenvironments on the planet.

The team has discovered mounds of hydrated silica - proof that water was once present - deposited on a volcanic cone less than 3.5 billion years ago. The mounds' location on the volcanic cone provide the best evidence yet for a hydrothermal environment — a steam fumarole or a hot spring.

Such environments may have provided habitats for some of Earth's earliest life forms.

"The heat and water required to create this deposit probably made this a habitable zone," said JR Skok, a graduate student at Brown and lead author of the Nature Geoscience paper. "If


life did exist there, this would be a promising spot where it would have been entombed — a microbial mortuary, so to speak."

The finding adds to evidence that - at some times and in some places - Mars hosted favorable environments for microbial life. The newly-found deposit is located in the zone known as Syrtis Major and is believed to have been left during the early Hesperian period, when most of Mars was already turning cold and arid.

"Mars is just drying out," Skok said, "and this is one last hospitable spot in a cooling, drying Mars."

Concentrations of hydrated silica have been identified on Mars previously, including a nearly pure patch found by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit in 2007. However, this is the first found in an intactsetting that clearly shows the mineral's origin.

"You have spectacular context for this deposit," Skok said. "It's right on the flank of a volcano. The setting remains essentially the same as it was when the silica was deposited."

Cameras on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter detected patches of bright deposits near the summit of the cone, fanning down its flank, and on flatter ground nearby. It appears that hot springs or fumaroles fed by underground heating created these deposits; the closest parallel on Earth would probably be silica deposits around hydrothermal vents in Iceland.

"The habitable zone would have been within and alongside the conduits carrying the heated water," Murchie said.


77 F.3d 470
NOTICE: Fourth Circuit Local Rule 36(c) states that citation of unpublished dispositions is disfavored except for establishing res judicata, estoppel, or the law of the case and requires service of copies of cited unpublished dispositions of the Fourth Circuit.Howard PIERCE, Petitioner-Appellant,v.STATE of South Carolina;  William Davis, Warden;  AttorneyGeneral of the State of South Carolina;  MichaelMoore, Director, Respondents-Appellees.
No. 95-7041.
United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.
Submitted Jan. 18, 1996.Decided Feb. 15, 1996.

Howard Pierce, Appellant Pro Se.  Donald John Zelenka, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees.
Before HAMILTON and LUTTIG, Circuit Judges, and CHAPMAN, Senior Circuit Judge.
PER CURIAM:

1
Appellant appeals the magistrate judge's order denying Appellant's motion for the appointment of counsel.   We dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction because theof the fact that Judaism was one of the earliest legal systems to advocate for a balanced treatment of animals. But the overwhelming gestalt of Judaism is such that meat consumption is normative and acceptable.

Keisar, via public lectures, a small, free booklet, and posters has gone on a massive campaign to convince Israelis to buy his message. In support of his contention, he marshals traditional Jewish sources that he contends support of his position. Even a cursory glance at his booklet and videos will reveal a serious misrepresentation of the sources, as we plan to show. First two caveats. One – the corpus of Torah literature is vast, and if one dives into the entire sea including the Bible, Talmud, midrashim, halachik codes and all their commentaries, spanning


Image copyright Reuters Image caption Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday

North Korea is unlikely to fully give up its nuclear weapons, a US intelligence report says, despite the hopes of the Trump administration.

The Worldwide Threat Assessment report also says Iran is not making nuclear weapons, but that cyber threats from China and Russia are a growing concern.

Both countries may be seeking to influence the 2020 election, it says.

National intelligence director Dan Coats and other intelligence chiefs presented it to the Senate on Tuesday.

North Korea remains "unlikely to give up" its weapon stockpiles and production abilities while it tries to negotiate "partial denuclearisation steps to obtain key US and international concessions", the report says.

Having nuclear weapons is seen as "critical toregime survival", it reads.

President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un met in Singapore last June to discuss denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

At the time, Mr Trump claimed this meeting had ended the North Korean nuclear threat:

Skip Twitter post by @realDonaldTrump Just landed - a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018 Report

The two leaders signed an agreement pledging to "work toward complete denuclearisation" but there was no agreed pathway and little progress has been made since then on the issue.

North Korea


has always insisted it will not unilaterally give up its nuclear arsenal unless the US removes its own nuclear threat.

The White House has said they will meet for a second time in February, but no date or location has yet been confirmed.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Notrh Korea's Kim Yong-chol (left) travelled to the US for talks in December

The new US report highlights a growing threat from China and Russia, which are "more aligned than at any point since the mid-1950s".

Both countries have sophisticated "cyber espionage" capabilities, which they may try to use to influence the 2020 US presidential election.

The report also says Iran is not currently making nuclear weapons, although it says the country's "regional ambitions and improved military capabilities" will probably threaten US interests in thefuture.

President Trump withdrew the US in 2018 from a landmark deal on curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions, and has imposed stricter sanctions to try to thwart its actions.

He had denounced the 2015 agreement as a "horrible, one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made".

At the Senate hearing CIA director Gina Haspel said Iran was "technically... in compliance" with the 2015 nuclear deal, despite the US withdrawal.

Image copyright AFP/Getty Image caption President Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018

Elsewhere in the Middle East, the report stresses that the so-called Islamic State group (IS) is not yet defeated, despite the Trump administration's claims to the contrary.

While the group will probably not aim to take new territory, the report assesses IS will try to "exploit Sunni grievances, societal


The Four Pillars

In his first State of the Union address, President Trump described four “pillars” to his immigration plan, with mixed reception. The pillars reinforce his campaign slogan to “Buy American, Hire American” and track with the immigration policy priorities he has previously outlined. These priorities include border security, interior enforcement and a merit-based immigration system.

The first two pillars address building a wall along the Southern border as well as a pathway to citizenship for certain undocumented foreign nationals presently in the United States, including about 800,000 young people (Dreamers) who were granted temporary status through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, now rescinded by President Trump.

The third pillar would end the diversity visa lottery (DV lottery). This program was established by Congress in 1990 andfirst few calls difficult, and Joanne, a volunteer who shares a mutual distaste with Liz, advises him not to get emotionally invested in the callers. Andy takes a call from Chloe, a 16-year-old girl with problems at home. Chloe says that she has taken a drug overdose, and Andy sings "Shine" by Take That to her, but, when he finishes, Chloe is no longer on the line. He immediately takes a call from an elderly woman distraught that one of her cats has died, but responds insensitively, and hangs up.

The following day, George thinks Liz is breaking the rules by taking a personal call; he gets angry and wrestles the handset from her. Later, Andy is upset that he listened to Chloe in her final moments, and Liz,


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The Supreme Court on Saturday directed the government to not appoint dual nationality holders on important positions, especially those related to the national security. In a 52-page verdict authored b...Learn Swedish in Taipei

Astrid Lindgren – Our most beloved Swedish author

When I was a child, my favorite book was Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren. Now, I’m not a child anymore and my favorite book is still Pippi Longstocking. Astrid Lindgren is one of the most if not THE most important cultural personality in Sweden during all times. She fought for the rights of both children and animals. Thanks to her, Sweden was the first country in the world to prohibit child abuse and any kind of physical punishment of children. Later on, the Prime Minister of Sweden asked her what she wanted for her 85th birthday. She replied that she wanted to have a law that gave all cows in Sweden three months holiday every year. So after


Tens of millions of Hindu pilgrims are now descending on Allahabad, India, joining an estimated 8 million already there for the Maha Kumbh Mela. Held every 12 years at one of four places in India, the Kumbh Mela lasts nearly two months and is considered to be an especially auspicious time to bathe in the holy river for purification from sin. In 2001, the last time the festival took place, more than 40 million people gathered in an area smaller than 20 sq km (7.7 sq mi). This year, the predicted number of visitors tops 100 million. Collected here are images from the preparation and first days of the Maha Kumbh Mela, with possibly more to come in the next few weeks.Justin Shafer was looking at up to 15 years in prison for allegedly harassing an FBI agent and federal judge with emails and social media posts.

But on Thursday he walked out of the federal courthouse in Dallas, smiling and relieved that he is a free man, no longer facing the threat of prosecution.

Shafer pleaded guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge as part of an agreement with the government, just four days before his trial was set to begin. At the same Thursday hearing, he was sentenced to time he already served behind bars — about eight months — while awaiting trial.

Shafer, 38, a computer technician from North Richland Hills, had faced four felony counts of online stalking and a charge of violating a law that protects people who


employment. But it is not illegal unless someone makes clear and specific threats or does it while stalking the victim.

However, some have called for new laws addressing "malicious doxing." In June, a bill was introduced in Congress that would have criminalized doxing in some forms.

Shafer had been accused of causing "substantial emotional distress" to the FBI agent and his wife by making "derogatory and inflammatory statements" about him on Twitter and posting identifying information about his wife and other family members.

Senior Judge Janis Graham Jack, from the Southern District of Texas, accepted the plea agreement Thursday. The U.S. attorney's office in Dallas and the judge initially assigned to the case recused themselves.

Shafer did not make a statement during the speedy hearing. Under the plea, he also agreed notmedia posts are protected by the First Amendment, and he blasted the government for an "outrageous prosecution."

Shafer, he said, merely wanted government officials to return his seized computers, which included family photos. But they ignored his inquiries, Ekeland said. Agents seized the items as part of their hacking investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas W. Gardner said in a previous court filing that Shafer "engaged in a barrage of harassing and intimidating actions."

He said the agent's wife obtained a firearm, lived somewhere "else for a time" and took other security measures out of concern over Shafer's "increasingly belligerent" actions.

Emotional distress

Shafer was arrested in March 2017 for posting about the agent and his wife on social media, which prosecutors say constituted harassment.

The agent was investigating him for the alleged hacking of


medical patient data. Agents also suspected Shafer was associated with a notorious computer hacker or hacking group called TheDarkOverlord.

The government updated the indictment earlier this month to add a stalking charge for the voluminous emails Shafer sent to the magistrate judge who signed the FBI warrants authorizing two separate searches of his home.

Shafer contacted U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cureton about his seized property and was ignored, Ekeland said.

"Everything in this case returns to Mr. Shafer typing at his keyboard seeking redress for his grievances from an unresponsive government," Ekeland said in his motion to dismiss.

Prosecutors previously said Shafer sent "hundreds of emails with attachments" to Cureton's government email address. "Some of the language in the emails was concerning and caused substantial emotional distress," prosecutors said in a courtfiling. They said the judge and his staff were concerned about the emails.

The sometimes insulting tweets and Facebook posts in question were posted from May 2016 through March 2017. Shafer posted a past home address for the agent as well as Facebook profiles of his mother, cousin, wife and ex-wife. Shafer also sent a Facebook friend request to the agent's wife and messaged her on Facebook, according to the FBI.

And Shafer followed the agent's wife on Twitter "in an attempt to harass and intimidate her," court records said.

Case law exists that protects crude and abusive tweets directed at another person. A federal district court in Maryland dismissed an indictment against a man in 2011 who was accused of causing a Buddhist religious leader emotional distress with his blogs


and tweets about her.

In his tweets, the defendant told the victim to kill herself, among other things. But the judge ruled that the First Amendment protects "uncomfortable" speech online and that none of the tweets were "true threats." The judge also said the tweets and blog posts were similar to a physical bulletin board where recipients of unkind messages could simply ignore them.

Internet vigilante?

Shafer runs a business that does computer work for dental offices. On the side, he is a computer security professional, his lawyer says.

The FBI raided Shafer's house in January 2017 and found a database of about 48,000 records on his computer that TheDarkOverlord was selling, the FBI affidavit said.

Shafer said on his blog that he notified the FBI the year before that the hackers hadassists on a career-low 41.2% shooting during the 2018-19 season, which was more focused on the public criticism and trade demands of former teammate Jimmy Butler, the firing of coach Tom Thibodeau and a "personal" element, that he wouldn't detail. He is ready to put those issues behind him.

"I would say I enjoy it more than I did last year because last year was a rough start," Wiggins said. "The joy has always been there. I've never been on the court and not wanted to play."

Since being drafted No. 1 overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014, only to be traded a couple of months later to Minnesota as part of a deal involving Kevin Love, Wiggins has played for four different coaches.

"It's not an excuse to say


it altered my play too much," Wiggins said. "Every coach is different, every coach has different playing styles, but no coach made me have a negative experience playing."

Current Timberwolves coach Ryan Saunders is entering his first full season with a reshaped front office led by president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas, a former Houston Rockets executive.

It helps that Saunders has a personal relationship with Wiggins.

"I don't necessarily think about how support has been. I just can only support in my own way, and that's continuing to be how I am with Andrew," Saunders said. "I've known him since he was a teenager. We've had big life moments. The guy was at my wedding, he let me know when he was gonna be a father.

"There's things that connect youIn This Series

Product Description

Travel to Plain City, Ohio, to witness the Mennonite and English culture clash. As Katy Yoder accepts a new job and struggles to define her place in the world, childhood friends and a past romance get in the way. Even when her friends try to help her change her judgmental attitude, Katy is certain that seeing things as black and white is the only way to please God. But as love softens her heart, slowly shades of gray seep into her world, and she discovers the right answer isn't always the easiest one.

Publisher's Description

Travel to Plain City, Ohio, to witness the Mennonite and English culture clash. As Katy Yoder accepts a new job and struggles to define her place in the world, childhood friends and


a past romance get in the way. Even when her friends try to help her change her judgmental attitude, Katy is certain that seeing things as black and white is the only way to please God. But as love softens her heart, slowly shades of gray seep into her world, and she discovers the right answer isn’t always the easiest one.

Author Bio

Dianne Christner’s first book was published in 1994, and she now writes full time. She has written several historical fiction titles and has started writing contemporary fiction from her experience of being raised in the Mennonite church. Dianne lives in Phoenix, Arizona, where she enjoys the beauty of her desert surroundings and life sizzles in the summer when temperatures soar above 100 degrees. Dianne and her husbandhave two married children and five grandchildren.

Publisher's Weekly

Barbour taps into the Amish fiction fan base by offering an Anabaptist series, the Plain City Bridesmaids. Christner, raised in the Ohio Mennonite Church, introduces Katy Yoder--who's not Amish despite the name--a young woman seeking to follow God as she interacts with the "outsiders" for whom she works. Katy's heart remains closed to Jake Byler, the young man she once loved but who has returned home as "spoiled goods." Her rigid world begins to waver as she faces temptations from the outside world, her feelings for Jake revive, and she confronts issues such as head coverings, cellphones, and the Internet. But it isn't until Jake accuses her of "living your self-righteous life" that she begins to see her life as more


in this book. The most compelling had to do with the consequences of festering anger and unforgiveness. It truly made Katy difficult, unattractive, and I daresay, downright ugly at times. In contrast, forgiveness and grace changed her countenance as well. The ordinary becomes beautiful when gratitude and grace result in living at peace with men.

The story did a great job at illustrating how the outside of the cup can be clean (I found it ironic that Katy was a cleaning lady,) but the inside can still be full of dead man's bones. And while the heroine was a Christian and did sincerely love God, she'd let the structure and boundaries of her Mennonite faith determine how she lived her life rather than reflecting God's love onto others. Inshe still just can't get over him enough to date anyone else. But what a surprise she gets when Jake shows back up in town, and it seems like everywhere she goes, he is there. Not only that, everything she is involved in, Jake is involved in it too. She just can't shake loose of him. All she was interested in now was moving in with her childhood friends for a while.

Jake Byler's life changed while he was away and he wants to come back to the church and try to win his only love Katy back. But this will be a challenge because of her hatred and bitterness over him leaving her.

I enjoyed this Mennonite story as I met Katy and her best friends Megan and Lil,


and was in on the excitement of their moving in with each other. The author created a cast of characters that played their parts so well in the story and it was fun getting to know them, even though at times some of them were irritating.

The main character Katy sometimes acted like goodie-two-shoes because she was always judging others. And Lil really got on my nerves when she was trying to nose into Katy's life, pushing her to go back with Jake. I wanted to scream at her sometimes and tell her to tend to her own business. At first I didn't like Jake, but as I got to know him, I really liked him because he was real. He had accepted the Lord and his life hadThe second video. Revealed at the same time as the first video, this one mostly explores the area under Newmaker Plane. The place called... Under the Newmaker Plane.

The video description was left blank.

Summary

Paul gets his first taste of the area Under the Newmaker Plane, after the Cellar Door mysteriously opens. Underneath it, he finds an Office, hears about Care, gets his first glimpse of the Frozen House, the School, and the Windmill, has a chat with TOOL, watches the Windmill for a few minutes, meets Tiara, and eventually works his way back up onto the Newmaker Plane where he began.

A little sparse for a summary, I suppose.

Points of interest

Quitter's Room Clock

While Paul is in the Quitter's Room, the clock on the wall can be seen two times:

The game


Paul interacts with the daisy, which jettisons one of its petals with a loud noise [todo: get dat sounds] . The red tint fades and the daisy lowers slightly.

05:06 Paul interacts with it again, jettisoning another petal, 7 times in total. Each time, the daisy lowers slightly, and the screen alternates between tinted red and being clear.

05:13 Paul pauses for a brief moment before picking another 6 petals, leaving 3 left. He then stops.

05:20

05:28 Paul walks around the daisy shack basement, going around the right side of the pillar. The camera and lighting are fixed and do not move; the player fades into darkness.

05:32 Paul walks around the other side of the pillar, with the same result.

05:38 Paul leaves the daisy shack basement again and returns to theabove and circles around itself. (📝 POI : All of TOOL's responses are like this.)

TOOL: " ", (📝 : All of TOOL's responses are like this.) 07:42 (snorts) ... know."

... know." 07:43 Paul walks around the left of TOOL, coming to the back wall with the screen showing camera's view of the Windmill. Unlike most things, the interaction symbol follows him as he moves along the back wall.

07:47 Paul opens the view of the Windmill, which is visible and turning clockwise.

07:54

07:54 Paul exits the view and slowly walks around the right side of TOOL as its message changes.

07:55 TOOL: The previous message rises up and disappars. Two seconds later, another message comes down. " Keep watching the Windmill"

08:08 Paul walks back up to the screen and resumes watching


the Windmill, which is still visible and spinning clockwise.

08:34 A jump cut. The Windmill is in the same state as it was before.

08:48 Paul exits the view of the windmill. TOOL's message to keep watching it continues floating.

09:00 Paul exits the TOOL Room and returns to the TOOL Hallway.

Quitters' Time

09:24 Paul enters a thin passageway on the way to the Quitter's Room proper. (📝 POI : Unlike the blocked side, there are no pieces here, and the passageway you enter is much thinner than it was outside.)

09:27 Paul enters the Quitter's Room, on the right (reversed) side.

09:31 Paul walks left, and encounters Tiara for the first time.

09:42 After walking around the room and watching Tiara mimic his movements, Paul walks behind the bookcase. The same tones that playedwhen the cellar door opened play again, and Tiara no longer mimics the player's movements perfectly, as well as being delayed by about half a second. As this goes on, Tiara's movements are even further "incorrect".

09:47

09:53 Paul stops moving and faces left. Tiara catches up, stops moving, and then snaps back to mimicking him perfectly. When Paul starts moving again, Tiara mirrors his movements exactly.

09:57

10:02 Paul tries going back behind the bookcase, but nothing out of the ordinary happens.

10:06

10:13 A short jump cut. Paul (and Tiara) have gone from facing up against the wall, to facing downwards and being a bit further south.

10:14 the beginning, I'm gonna put in the beginning the part where the door opened. Uh..."

the beginning, I'm gonna put in the beginning the part where


Rescuers search for workers believed buried in the rubble of a building that collapsed during monsoon rains in the outskirts of Chennai (AP)

Rescuers in India have pulled seven more survivors from under the ruins of a collapsed building, three days after it fell.

At least 29 people have died after the 11-story building in a suburb of Chennai collapsed.

Already, 26 people have been rescued alive from under the enormous heap of broken slabs, twisted iron girders and concrete dust where the apartment building was being constructed, the National Disaster Response Force said.

Hundreds of rescue workers, wearing hard hats and breathing masks, are likely to continue searching for at least another day. They expect to find more bodies, with rescuers saying foul smells at the site have become overpowering

"As aThe Netherlands was affected
by wintry showers on the 23rd February 2001. During the evening of the
23rd and night of the 23rd/24th the showery activity was 'pepped up' as
a polar low moved close to the country. Most places received some snow
during the evening and night in question. The snow finally cleared southern
parts of the country during the morning of the 24th and left a covering
of snow in quite a few places. Snow depths were varaible, ranging from
nothing or just a rather patchy cover in some places to between 7 and 10
cms in a few places.

After
the snow moved away skies over the country cleared leaving a few hours
of beautiful, sunny weather before wintry showers returned from off the
North Sea. The two satellite images to the left were taken from a


height
of about 830 km during the clear, sunny afternoon weather of the 24th.
Because skies were (for once!) clear the images reveal features on the
ground rather than the clouds that they'd usually show. The picture on
the far left was taken at 12:04 GMT (13:04 local time). The white bits
you can see over the Netherlands are where snow was lying on the ground
- notice how the most snow seems to be in east, south-west and north-west
whilst the north-east is snow-free. The white 'mass' extending from south
Belgium into Germany is the remnants of the cloud which produced the snow
over the Netherlands. The satellite picture on the right was taken at 15:39
GMT (16:39 local time). By then the snow-producing cloud had moved further
south into France revealing snowfields over western Belgium. The white
'stuff'the previous day somewhere to the north of Scotland
and the brisk north-westerly upper air flow over north-western Europe on
the 23rd and 24th moved this low over the Netherlands and into Belgium.
The front just to the north of Scotland on this chart led to some snow
over parts of Scotland and England during the afternoon of the 24th before
affecting the Netherlands during the night of the 24th/25th Februray.


A petition has asked the Supreme Court for a recall of its order of March 2018.

The government's request seeking a review of the controversial order, that allegedly diluted the stringent provisions of a law protecting Scheduled Casts and Tribes, was referred to a three-judge bench of the top court today.

A petition has asked the Supreme Court for a recall of its order of March 2018, which said there will be no immediate arrest for complaints under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.

The top court had on May 1 reserved the judgement on the centre's review petition while observing that laws in the country should be caste neutral and uniform. The verdict had led to an outcry and triggered protests by different SC/ST organisations across the country.

"Place the matterbefore three-judge bench next week," a two-judge bench of justices Arun Mishra and UU Lalit said today.

The Supreme Court's other two decisions - the introduction of anticipatory bail provisions and preliminary probe by the police before arrest also triggered an uproar. Following the outrage and the subsequent political pressure, the centre had asked the top court to rethink its verdict.

The government was strongly criticised by Dalit groups, which accused it of failing to take prompt action and ask the court for a review of its decision. On April 2 last year, nearly a dozen people died as Dalit groups resorted to violence to enforce a countrywide shutdown in protest against the court order.

The government, which, by then had announced that it would file a review petition, accused the


Top Poker News from all around the world

Valentin Vornicu Becomes The WSOP Circuit King With 12th Title

Valentin Vornicu Becomes The WSOP Circuit King With 12th Title

US poker pro Valentin Vornicu has now claimed the throne after registering a record-setting 12 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit titles. Vornicu has waited patiently for this moment to climb on top the WSOPC list as he was tied with Maurice Hawkins. He broke the record playing at the WSOP Circuit Harrah’s New Orleans this week when he won back-to-back titles that pushed his record to 12 WSOP Circuit titles.

Vornicu won his first WSOP Circuit ring at the Horseshoe Hammond back in October 2011. After scoring another win in 2012, he then went on a ring-winning spree from 2014-2017, building up hisDathema

Dathema or Diathema was the name of a fortress in Gilead to which the Jews fled when hard pressed by Timotheus of Ammon. There they shut themselves in, prepared for a siege, and sent to Judah Maccabee for aid . Dathema was one of many places in a similar plight, and seems, from the description of it, to have been strongly enough fortified to necessitate "an innumerable people bearing ladders and other engines of war" to take it. Judah attacked in three divisions, drove off Timotheus, killed eight thousand of the enemy, and saved the city. The Peshitta reads "Rametha," from which George Adam Smith infers that it was perhaps Ramath Gilead. Conder suggests the modern Dameh on the southern border of the Lejah district. It can not,


Obama Said to Choose Raskin for Deputy Treasury Secretary

Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin was nominated to the Fed in March of 2010. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

July 31 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama plans to name
Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin as deputy Treasury
Secretary, making her the highest-ranking woman in the history
of the Treasury department, according to two people familiar
with the matter.

Raskin, 52, has been vetted for the position and Obama
plans to nominate her in the coming weeks, according to the
people, who asked for anonymity to discuss the personnel
decision before an announcement. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew
has been told of the choice, according to one of the people.

Prior to serving as Maryland’s top financial regulator from
2007 to 2010, Raskin was a managing director at Promontory
Financial Group, which advises banks.4/26 WWE Smackdown Recap

Share It

Show kicks off with a No DQ match between Jack Swagger & Alberto Del Rio!

Match #1
Jack Swagger vs Alberto Del Rio
Swagger and Del Rio go at it and Del Rio introduces a kendo stick into the match. Swagger gets a hold of the cane and beats Del Rio down with it. Superkick to the ribs by Del Rio but he then gets thrown out of the ring. Del Rio with a suplex on the ramp to Swagger. A ladder comes into play as we go to commercial. During the break we see Swagger using the kendo stick again. Big slam from Swagger. Swagger and Del Rio go back and forth for a few minutes after Swagger set up a chair in the corner. Superkick


to Swagger. Swaggers the ankle lock on. Del Rio reverses it into an armbar but Swagger then turns that into a rollup and throws Del Rio into the chair shortly after. Swagger gets back in control and throws the ladder onto Del Rio. Swagger hits the Doctor Bomb and gets the win.
Winner: Jack Swagger

Match #2
Aksana vs Layla
Aksana takes control in the early going, attacking the arm of Layla. Toss into the corner and Aksana uses the ropes to pull Layla’s arm. Layla manages to fight back and win via a rollup combination.
Winner: Layla

Short Shield promo/hype video. Also the closing minutes of the six man tag from Raw, Monday.

Match #3
Fandango vs Justin Gabriel
Fandango drawing massive heat. Gabriel with an arm drag and taking control of Fandango at the start.Show. Big Show continues to counter just about everything Sheamus throws at him until Sheamus hits the sholder block and hitting the White Noise. Sheamus goes for the Brogue Kick but Big Show avoids it. Mark Henry makes his way out and distracts Sheamus. WMD from Big Show and he gets the win.
Winner: Big Show

Match #6
Randy Orton vs Mark Henry
Henry and Orton go back and forth brawling before Orton takes over with the stomps. Henry takes control on the outside and beats down Orton. Orton uses all the moves in his arsenal to fight off Henry. Backbreaker to Henry. Orton sets up for RKO but Sheamus comes into the ring and Brogue Kicks Henry.
Winner via DQ: Mark Henry

Orton looks pissed at Sheamus but Sheamus points to Henry and


Partygoers celebrating Grand Prix weekend were not the only ones out at all hours of the night this weekend.

The Montreal police also had their hands full conducting a number of raids on bars and clubs according to one supper club owner.

Thierry Havitov, marketing director of Time Supper Club in downtown Montreal, said police raided his club not once, but three times over the Grand Prix weekend.

Havitov said the club has been the target of similar raids in the past, but never for three consecutive days.

"They do this every once and awhile, but never this often," said Havitov. "They knew we were going to be busy because of the Grand Prix but they still came."

Police raid during charity event

Havitov said his club was raided by 40 to 50 officerson Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night.

Each of the nights had planned to have celebrities in attendance, including a number of NHL players, singer Joe Jonas, and reality TV celebrity Scott Disick.

Havitov said that on one of the nights that police visited, the club was fundraising for charity ONEXONE to support their "feed a child" campaign.

Havitov said the officers asked partygoers for identification and never really detailed who or what they were looking for. He said that a couple of officers made light of the situation and found the time to take a selfie with PK Subban, who was in attendance one of the nights.

$30K in unpaid tabs

Havitov said that when police arrived to raid the club many patrons slipped out, leaving Havitov with about $30,000 in unpaid tabs.

Havitov


Updates and stories from our time in Moshi, Tanzania

Main menu

Category Archives: Social Issues

When I was in high school at Rift Valley Academy (a boarding school in central Kenya), I remember our college counselor, Steve Peifer, starting a free lunch program for kids in rural schools in the area. It was a simple idea, but really significant, since a lot of these kids came from very poor families and probably only had one meal a day, in the evening. Since then, this program has expanded to 35 schools, feeding over 20,000 Kenyan school children. A few years after he began the lunch program, Steve also started establishing solar-powered computer labs, also in rural schools. Now there are 20 schools where kids have regular access to a kind of technologyleave. But when nothing happened, I realized this must be an accepted practice, on this bus at least.

Second, I assumed, based on experiences in the US, that he was the Zambian equivalent of a street evangelist, and I prepared myself to hear the usual gospel message of repentance and salvation. But instead, he turned out to be more of a traveling preacher – he told the passengers he would just take a few minutes of their time to share a message with them for the new year. He was obviously assuming that most of his listeners were already Christian and didn’t need to hear the basics.

Walking up and down the aisle, he challenged the passengers to commit their lives to the Lord in this new year of 2013.


And he kept to his word – after about 10 minutes (that’s short for a sermon in Africa), he wrapped up his message with a prayer. Apparently he had some listeners, because at the conclusion of his prayer, I heard more than a few ‘amens,’ some of which were quite loud and responsive.

After this, he walked down the aisle one last time, holding out a large white envelope, apparently for donations. I was again surprised to see that almost everyone in front of me dropped something into the envelope.

This blending of religion and public identity, I think, is far more common in the African way of life than it is in the West. People are much more comfortable operating out of a religious context, regardless of the religion.You are here

Justice News

Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Maryland Man Sentenced on Federal Sex Trafficking Charge

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today defendant Paul Raymond Green was sentenced late last week to 52 months in prison and three years of supervised release for his role in a scheme to prostitute minor females.

Green, 23, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. Green admitted that he, through his co-conspirator, arranged on two separate occasions in 2007 to provide minor victims to an acquaintance who paid to have sex with the victims. On both occasions, cigarettes dipped in phencyclidine liquid known as PCP, called "dippers" or "wets," were available in the hotel room where the girls were brought to have sex. Green also sold


Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday night committed a huge protocol gaffe causing him considerable embarrassment.

Upon arrival in the Russian capital Moscow, Modi was to take the guard of honour, which started with the playing of Indian national anthem.

However, as required by the protocol, Modi didn’t stand in attention until the completion of the national anthem and he kept walking.

It took two local officials’ intervention to remind him that he needed to stand. One official was seen pulling the prime minister holding his hand.

Modi then returned and stood in attention.

This will be seen as a huge lapse by Modi as standing in attention during the national anthem is a common knowledge and for him to commit this gaffe at a foreign soil is even more embarrassing.

BJP supporters hadhung, drawn and quartered Indian Vice President, Hamid Ansari, in January this year when he did not salute during the national anthem calling him anti national even though saluting during the playing of national anthem is not part of protocol.

More to come:


Frenkel & Frenkel Blog in Dallas, Texas

Settlement Reached in Snow Groomer Accident

A family reached a settlement with the ski resort involved where a teenager almost lost his leg in a snow groomer accident, says Frenkel & Frenkel.

A lawsuit filed by the family of a Canadian boy who almost lost his leg after being run over and dragged by a snow groomer has been settled before going to trial. The incident, which occurred in 2008, severely injured the leg of Austin Miles, who is now 18. Incident Details Miles, who was 12 at the time, was on a school trip with about 120 people on January 30, 2008, at Mount Brighton Ski Resort in Southeast Michigan. Miles had just skied down a beginner slope when he was run overby the snow groomer, driven by Robert Sturgis. Despite the fact that bystanders were yelling for him to stop, Sturgis continued another 200 feet, dragging Miles with him. Miles was minutes away from having his left leg amputated when rescuers were able to borrow a machine that cuts through steel from a nearby oilrig to free him. It took one hour and 15 minutes to free Miles from the snow groomer, as his mother, stepfather and sister looked on. A rescue worker described Miles’ leg as being wrapped like a string around a finger. His ankle was broken in three places; his femur was broken and his tibia also was broken to the point that another bone had to be broken to set it properly. He spent more


than two weeks in a Michigan hospital before he could be moved back to Ontario, Canada, where he lived. Multiple Surgeries Miles has undergone eight surgeries and may need another to alleviate bone rubbing in his knee. His father says his son experiences pain every day, especially during bad weather. Miles walks without assistance, and has a positive outlook. He is able to occasionally run and play sports despite his traumatic injury. Miles is in his first year at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. Driver Negligent and Reckless The lawsuit charged Sturgis with being negligent and reckless in the incident, citing the amount of time it took him to stop despite the pleas of bystanders. In addition, the snow groomer had a cracked mirror and visibility through theBERGER v. CALIFORNIA

United States Supreme Court

BERGER v. CALIFORNIA, (1969)

No. 221

Argued: Decided: January 13, 1969

The holding in Barber v. Page,
390
U.S. 719
, that the absence of a witness from the jurisdiction would not justify the use at trial of preliminary hearing testimony unless the State had made a good-faith effort to secure the witness' presence, should be given retroactive application.

Petitioner was convicted of robbery and kidnaping for the purpose of robbery. The victim, one Carl Arthur Dunston, testified against petitioner at a preliminary hearing; there was evidence that at the time of the trial Dunston was in Colorado. A state investigator tried to contact Dunston on the telephone; he got through to some of Dunston's relatives and to his employer, but not to Dunston himself. Although two telegrams were received,


"They have worked hard and I congratulate each and every one of them, as well as the families and carers and teachers and lecturers who have provided support.

" Scotland has seen record numbers of Higher and Advanced Higher passes. Students are performing particularly well in English and in modern languages.

"Despite concerns about the new Higher Maths exam, it's clear that the system worked, that candidates have been treated fairly and that standards have been maintained.

"The checks and balances in place ensure that students who would have gained a particular grade in a qualification in any previous year will still have done so at the same grade this year."

She added: "This year we have already seen a record percentage of school leavers in employment, education or training.

"Today's figures showHumans have roughly as many bacterial cells in their bodies as human cells, and most of those bacteria live in the gut. New research released today reveals links between the gut microbiome -- the population of microorganisms living in the gastrointestinal tract -- and brain diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, including potential new ways to track and treat these diseases. The studies were presented at Neuroscience 2017, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

Almost 100 trillion microbes -- some beneficial and some harmful -- live in the human gastrointestinal tract at any time, helping to regulate immune function and inflammation, two factors hypothesized to play a role in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and


Assessment of phytoplankton density in relation to environmental variables in Gopalaswamy pond at Chitradurga, Karnataka.
Surface water samples of the Gopalaswamy pond were studied at two different sites during September 1997 to January 1998 and phytoplanktons were studied in relation to ten environmental variables during this period. A total of 30 species of phytoplanktons were identified under four classes, Chlorophyceae, Cyanophyceae, Bacillariophyceae and Euglenophyceae. Among these, maximum density was recorded under Cyanophyceae, Chlorophyceae, Cyanophyceae and Bacillariophyceae showed considerable fluctuations with environmental variables.End of the Last War

The Assassination of Halber ir'Rezan

25

JAN/09

Halber ir’Rezan, noted friend of King Boranel, was recently found to be a member of the Order of the Emerald Claw. Given their penchant for assassinations of monarchy (with at least one or two Cyrian monarchs falling to their treachery early in the war), Boranel needed his counselor eliminated to curtail any future plotting. As outsiders who could not be linked back to the crown, the party was chosen. After meeting with the halfling Content Not Found: Calen of the Kings Dark Lanterns, the party secured a forged invitation to a gala Halber was throwing, along with a potent poison which would simulate cardiac arrest. While the more charismatic members of the party mingled, the more martial characters raided Halber’s


Spain

United States
Carthagena, Ohio, an unincorporated community in Mercer County, Ohio

People
Alfonso de Cartagena (1384–1456), a Jewish-Spanish Catholic bishop, diplomat, historian and writer
Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena (born 1959), a Salvadorian politician, president starting 2009
Cristóbal Ramírez de Cartagena (1583–1584), a Spanish colonial administrator in Peru
Fulgentius of Cartagena (6th century–630), a Spanish Catholic bishop
José N. Gándara Cartagena (1907–1954), a Puerto Rican physician and public servant
Joseph Cartagena or Fat Joe (born 1970), an American rapper
Juan de Cartagena (died c. 1520), a Spanish accountant, captain of the San Antonio during Ferdinand Magellan's circumnavigation
Juan José Cartagena (1876–1881), a Puerto Rican mayor
Miguel Cartagena (born 1992), a Puerto Rican-American boxer
Modesto Cartagena (1921–2010), a highly decorated Puerto Rican soldier
Nicolás Nogueras Cartagena (born 1935), a Puerto Rican politician and commentator
Raúl Gándara-Cartagena (1895–1989), a Puerto Rican fire chief
Teresa de CartagenaArticle content continued

The Yankees acquired Happ from the Toronto Blue Jays for Brandon Drury and Billy McKinney on July 26. Nine days earlier, Happ had closed out the All-Star Game with his first save since his freshman year at Northwestern. He has won all five of his starts since the trade, with a 2.37 earned run average, and is scheduled to face the Detroit Tigers on Thursday, though his biggest start may come in October if the Yankees end up in a wild-card game.

Photo by Patrick Smith / Getty Images

The last Yankee to start and win each of his first five games for the team was Bob Turley in 1955. But thriving after a midseason trade is nothing new for Happ. This was the fourth time he was


was 20-4 for the Blue Jays in 2016, when he also won a playoff start. He had not made one for the Pirates, who chose Gerrit Cole to start their wild-card game against the Chicago Cubs in 2015. Happ had pitched better down the stretch, but Cole had made the All-Star team and was the Pirates’ homegrown ace.Fifteen people who had been heading to a wedding in Yemen have been killed in an air strike. Local media reported that a drone attack had been responsible, and the party-goers had been hit instead of an Al-Qaeda convoy.

“An air strike missed its target and hit a wedding car convoy, ten people were killed immediately and another five who were injured died after being admitted to the hospital,” a Yemeni security official told Reuters.

Five more people were injured in the attack which took place in Radda, central al-Bayda province on Thursday, the source added.

The group had been en route to the the village of Qaifa, the site of the wedding, when it was hit. The assault left charred bodies strewn in the road and vehicles on fire, officials


told AP.

While officials would not identify the source of the air strike, local and tribal media sources attributed the deaths to a drone attack.

No comment followed as to whose drone may have delivered the strike. However, the US is known for its counter-terrorism assistance to the country which at times includes UAV raids.

Washington has recently increased the intensity of its drone strikes in Yemen, despite widespread criticism sparked by the fact that strikes are far from being ‘surgical’.

In October, Human Rights Watch released a damning report on US drone strikes in Yemen. It described six of the total of some 80 targeted killing operations in the country. In those six attacks 82 people were killed, 57 of whom – or practically 70 percent – were civilians.

“President Obama saysthe US is doing its utmost to protect civilians from harm in these strikes. Yet in the six cases we examined, at least two were a clear violation of the laws of war,” HRW Senior Researcher Letta Tayler commented at the time.

In the same month, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counterterrorism, Ben Emmerson, said that US drone strikes had killed 2,200 in Pakistan in the past decade, 400 of whom were civilians and another 200 ‘probable non-combatants’. Pakistan is another country, where the local population vehemently opposes American drone strikes.

"There are many, many examples of civilians - women, children, older people - being killed by these drones," anti-drone activist Leah Bolger told RT in an interview.

And even if the drones attack the people that the CIA


On 'Late Night' (weeknights, 12:37AM ET on NBC), Rainn Wilson revealed that ever since August (just before the Emmys), the cast of 'The Office' vowed to each give different answers to everyone's question: Who will replace Steve Carell as boss?

The names they jokingly bandied about included Dame Judi Dench and Queen Latifah. In a recent interview, Wilson mentioned Nick Nolte and Dakota Fanning as possibilities.

Jimmy Fallon suggested bringing back Ricky Gervais, head of the British original series, for a season while Wilson's character Dwight moved up the ladder. The following season Dwight would manage the Dunder Mifflin branch, change the title to 'The Boss' and get Bruce Springsteen to come on.

"And what would that be like?" prodded Wilson. Fallon responded, "I'm not your little monkey!" but he eventuallyother officers would write bogus tickets to harass prostitutes — and would keep their victims’ names and addresses in a log.

Kattner’s intimidation, harassment, and bogus ticket-writing scheme so bothered Lopez, she came forward with the allegations. Despite her stellar record — including a commendation — Lopez was abruptly terminated.

Despite her best efforts to alert superiors to her deviant and vicious colleague, nine years after Lopez was terminated, Kattner was arrested for sexually assaulting a woman, while he was in uniform and using his patrol car.

That victim could have been spared a horrible ordeal if Lopez’ superiors would have listened years before instead of terminating her as if she had been the one doing wrong.

Former Buffalo Police Officer Cariol Horne stands as an example of what it actually takes


to be fired as a cop — all it takes, as she and others have unfortunately discovered, is doing the right thing.

Horne had 19 years on the job when she witnessed fellow Officer Gregory Kwiatkowski punch a handcuffed suspect at the scene of a domestic dispute the two were investigating. Horne and other officers removed the suspect from the scene, but Kwiatkowski then proceeded to choke the handcuffed man.

When Horne stepped between the out-of-control officer and the suspect, she too received a blow to the face from Kwiatkowski — for which she rightly tried to defend herself.

Ultimately, despite her best efforts to step in for the benefit of someone else against an irate officer, Horne was terminated — for striking Kwiatkowski, who denied the entire incident had happenedafter he witnessed them beat a handcuffed man, breaking his ankle. Crystal testified against the two, which ultimately secured their convictions — but he suffered for the decision to speak out.

Dead rodents were placed on his windshield and in his locker, and was repeatedly harassed, ostracized, and denied promotions simply for telling the truth. Crystal ultimately succumbed to the Thin Blue Line’s intimidation and resigned from his position.

The community started a petition following his resignation to attempt to have Crystal reinstated — particularly since his actions evidenced integrity often rare in modern policing.

“I would love the chance to help the people of Baltimore,” Crystal told The Free Thought Project of the petition.

New Jersey Police Officer Roberta Tasca lost her job after stopping two coworkers from assaulting Kyle Sharpe,


global oil giant Total(NYSE: TOT) bought a 23% stake in liquified natural gas specialist Tellurian, which is developing a $12 billion Louisiana LNG project called Driftwood. After Cheniere Energy(NYSEMKT: LNG) paved the way for LNG export projects, there has been a wave of interest in replicating that success. In fact, Tellurian was founded by Charif Souki, who was ousted from his position of CEO at Cheniere in 2015.

So, why the reversal of fortunes? Up until the start of March, Tellurian had doubled in value in 2017, but after crashing 36% this month, it's barely above where it started the year. It turns out, Tellurian spooked the market by filing its intent to make a secondary offering of its stock that would represent approximately 10% of its $2.15 billionnew testimony guidelines released last year.

Though image examiners rely on similarly flawed methods, they have continued to testify to and defend their exactitude, according to a review of court records and examiners’ written reports and published articles.

ProPublica asked leading statisticians and forensic science experts to review methods image examiners have detailed in court transcripts, published articles and presentations. The experts identified numerous instances of examiners overstating the techniques’ scientific precision and said some of their assertions defy logic.

The FBI declined repeated requests for interviews with members of the image group, which is formally known as the Forensic Audio, Video and Image Analysis Unit.

The Weekly Dispatch A weekly breakdown of what our newsroom's been working on.

ProPublica provided the bureau written questions in September and followed up in November with


his lab colleagues had produced inaccurate reports in the case.

He had complained within the lab for years about unqualified explosives examiners and shoddy scientific practices. The FBI mostly dismissed the concerns and, Whitehurst said, reassigned him to a different unit as retaliation. So he went public — on the stand and to the press.

The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General was already investigating Whitehurst’s allegations. Its final report, released in 1997, confirmed the explosives unit had “significant instances of testimonial errors, substandard analytical work, and deficient practices” in several cases, including the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings.

We found, however, significant instances of testimonial errors, substandard analytical work, and deficient practices. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General’s Special Report, 1997

Officials at the bureaumore conservative in their written lab reports, about half of which included a misstatement. Like other forensic science reckonings, the public disclosure came years after the FBI stopped relying on the method.

Another unit at the FBI Lab had for decades matched bullets by their chemical compositions.

FBI chemists asserted the mix of elements in a round could determine whether its lead matched ammunition seized from defendant’s cars and homes. In court, they said crime scene rounds were “indistinguishable” from the suspects’ bullets, even suggesting they came from the same box. The bureau had no science to back its claims.

Facing court challenges, the FBI in 2002 asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to study the methods and value of bullet lead analysis.

The report by researchers in 2004


validation in several pattern evidence fields. It also called on the FBI to dramatically increase spending on studies to prove its methods. U.S. Department of Justice officials rejected most of the advisers’ conclusions. Federal law enforcement has doubled down on unproven forensic science.

The report makes broad, unsupported assertions regarding science and forensic science practice. The FBI response to a 2016 report by a presidential advisory panel criticizing pattern evidence. Sept. 20, 2016.

In 2017, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions closed the National Commission on Forensic Science, ending an effort to set standards for crime laboratory practices. The department also stopped its internal review of testimony from FBI pattern evidence units.

In a law review article last year, two high-ranking FBI Lab scientists dismissed validation concerns as uninformed. They wrote that, already,escaped without damage. But all of the unit’s methods seemed vulnerable to challenge. The image unit was filled with former field agents and lab technicians, few of whom held advanced degrees. None had a background in research or academic publishing.

That changed in 1995 when the FBI hired Vorder Bruegge, the scientist whose testimony about plaid shirts would help prosecutors obtain a conviction in the string of Florida bank robberies.

Before the FBI, Vorder Bruegge, then 31, had spent the previous four years working for a NASA contractor and vying for a spot in the space program. He earned a doctorate in geology from Brown University, where he had studied Venus’ mountain belts and had written for science journals.

An Explosion and a “Barcode” for Bluejeans

In the Daubert opinion, the Supreme


said Simon Cole, a University of California, Irvine, criminology professor and pattern evidence researcher. “Use in court first, validate second.”

That did not dissuade the FBI Lab. A bureau image examiner testified on the results of a thumb comparison in a May 2017 child pornography trial.

But Vorder Bruegge had taken notice. Around the time of the trial he selected Derek Boyd, an anthropology graduate student at the University of Tennessee, for a summer internship at Quantico solely to conduct an in-house hand comparison study.

Vorder Bruegge took pictures of his own left hand, then marked its features as a participant in a study of hand comparison. (Image from poster board presented at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in February 2018. Courtesy Derek Boyd.)

Three interns and three FBI examiners documentedSpread the love

WARNING : The video below contains disturbing images of the argument and shooting of Curtis Shelley in Killeen, Texas. Several family members, including the victim’s grandmother and father, gave permission for this video to be republished.

Killeen, TX — Disturbing video of a murder in Killeen, Texas was published earlier this month by the family of the victim as they seek justice for their son who was murdered in broad daylight. Two weeks ago, the family took the video to the media in an effort to seek justice for Curtis E. Shelley after police refused to arrest his killer. Now, the Free Thought Project has learned that the killer was brought in for questions and despite the graphic video, was let go with no charges.

As TFTP reported


Drive with a gunshot wound. Officers said they performed life-saving measures until paramedics arrived, but Shelley did not survive.

The investigation determined that “the victim and suspect” were involved in an ongoing dispute, according to the Killeen Police Department.

As the video shows, the two men were engaged in an obvious dispute with the shooter training the gun on Shelley the entire time. As the situation appears to calm down, Shelley walks backward and the shooter has the chance to leave the scene. However, the shooter chooses not to leave and with no warning and without Shelly lunging or otherwise posing any threat, the man fired the shotgun.

The single shot dropped Shelley immediately and he died shortly after.

After viewing the video of the altercation, Channel 6 reports that their LegalDr Gerald Allen, a research associate at the Western Australian Museum, and his colleagues from Australia have described a new species of shark from eastern Indonesian waters.

‘Walking’ sharks, also known as bamboo sharks or longtail carpet sharks, belong to the family Hemiscylliidae in the shark order Orectolobiformes.

Rather than swim, these slender-bodied sharks ‘walk’ by wriggling their bodies and pushing with their pectoral and pelvic fins.

They are relatively small, with the largest species measuring about 48 inches (1.22 m). The newly discovered species, called Hemiscyllium halmahera, reaches 28 inches (70 cm) in length.

Dr Allen’s team caught two specimens of Hemiscyllium halmahera near the island Ternate, the Maluku Islands, Indonesia.

“Its features include a general brown coloration with numerous clusters of mainly 2-3 dark polygonal spots, widely scattered white spots in


Report: Juve unhappy with Chile

By Football Italia staff

Reports in the Chilean Press have claimed that the national team have received a complaint from Juventus regarding Arturo Vidal’s recovery.

The 27-year-old had minor knee surgery last month, and has been in a race against time to be fit for Chile’s first game of the World Cup against Australia this evening.

Stories suggest that the Bianconeri man is likely to feature at some point, but Emol Deportes have revealed that the Serie A champions have been unhappy with Jorge Sampaoli’s side for their treatment of Vidal.

The former Bayer Leverkusen enforcer played in their friendly against Northern Ireland a few weeks ago, despite protestation from Antonio Conte’s team.

And the paper have revealed that the Turin outfit have written to the national team tomaintaining a narrative of women’s exclusive ownership of the status of victim.

Expressio Unius Est Exclusio Alterius is a Latin dictum expressing a principal of western thought, particularly in law that the expressed mention of one thing, implicitly excludes all others. In application, in the situation where men and women are victimized by violence at similar rates – but efforts to reduce this violence focus exclusively on women as victims – constitutes a practical support for the escalation of violence against men.

This is what almost all funded violence reduction initiatives do. It is not by mistake. To the actors and lobbyists of the billion dollar grievance industry, anything subtracting from the easy and heart-tugging story of doe-eyed and decorative female victims means a reduction of access to government funding


regime stronghold and Syria’s business hub, has been largely deadlocked since rebels first captured parts of the city in late July. A complete rebel takeover could change the momentum of the war, although in recent months, front lines have shifted repeatedly and it was not clear if rebel fighters could maintain Thursday’s gains.

Activists also reported fighting and shelling by government forces near the capital of Damascus, and scores of people were reported killed nationwide. Since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, more than 35,000 people have been killed, including more than 8,000 government troops, according to activists.

Even as it lost some ground in Aleppo, the Assad regime said Thursday it would abide by the holiday truce. With Russia backing the truce and presumably bearing down onbut that they will walk the walk, beginning with the regime,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

In Aleppo, it remained unclear how significant the rebels’ gains were, as their forces often push into new areas only to swiftly abandon them when the regime bombs their positions.

An Aleppo activist reached via Skype said rebel fighters had seized the predominately Kurdish neighborhood of Ashrafiyeh and were pushing into Al-Siryan al-Jadideh, a nearby Christian neighborhood, where they were trying to capture a security office used as an army post.

The advance expanded the fight for Aleppo from the poorer, mostly Sunni Muslim neighborhoods on its eastern and southern sides — where the rebels can often count on support from the local population — into a new section of the city farther north.

The


a pickup truck before the vehicle sped off to take him out of the line of fire.

The videos appeared to be genuine, matching activist descriptions of events.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists, said more than two dozen people were killed in the city Thursday, including eight Kurds who died when mortar rounds exploded in their neighborhood. It was unclear who fired them, it said.

The Observatory also said about 20 people were killed in shelling and clashes near Damascus, most of them in the restive suburb of Duma.As a battle with New Jersey over state-owned land and key permits persists, PennEast Pipeline Co. LLC is pursuing a plan to bring the 120-mile project online in two phases.

In an amendment filed with FERC requesting authorization to divide the project, PennEast highlighted a plan to bring 68 miles of the system online by November 2021 entirely within Pennsylvania. The pipeline would originate at a point near shale fields in the northeast part of the state to a terminus in Northampton County. The second phase would include the remaining route that would stretch into New Jersey, which is now being targeted for completion in 2023.

For years the project has battled through various setbacks, including regulatory delays and issues with private landowners. But it has been stymied by New


in November 2013. Prior to that he worked as business and energy reporter at the Youngstown Vindicator, covering the regional economy and the Utica Shale play. He also served as a city reporter at the Bangor Daily News and did freelance work for the Associated Press. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism and political science from the University of Maine.

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About NGI

Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI), is a leading provider of natural gas, shale news and market information for the deregulated North American natural gas industry. Since the first issue of Natural Gas Intelligence was published in 1981, NGI has provided key pricing and data relied upon daily by thousands of industry participants in the U.S, Canada and Mexico as well as Central and South America, Europe andto the current crisis as a series of political decisions on reducing regulations in favor of financial management. Crises arose in the real economy that should be solved by more deregulations. He calls this the "neoliberal two-step." Central stations of this development include:

- The US dollar massively lost value at the beginning of the 1970s and adopted the decontrol of its currency.

- OPEC countries reacted with higher oil prices that triggered recessions with increasing unemployment and strong price increases
Central banks rely on high interest policy to stop inflation. In Europe real interests were higher than the growth rate of the economic output. The situation of producing economies worsened while financial investments were more attractive.

With the deregulation of the financial markets and the rise of new derivative markets in


large that they must be rescued with tax funds from threatening insolvency. Trusting in this, the "financial alchemists" intensify the "self-referential money multiplication" - with cheap money made available by the central banks for the support of the real economy.

To master the crisis, Schulmeister explains, "neoliberal economists and politicians" demand those therapies "that are part of the sickness: reducing state spending, extensive privatization, protection of financial assets and no increase of the top tax rate or other contributions of the top earners." The researcher expects decision-makers in the future will consider other concepts - when the current stock boom collapses and the supposed asset-growth is again revealed to be fictional. The learning process will continue: "The spirit that was invoked more than 40 years ago cannot be easilyexcised."

Source: Stephan Schulmeister: Real Capitalism and Finance Capitalism - Two "Game Instructions" and Two Phases of the "Long Cycle" in: Jurgen Kromphardt (ed): Rediscovery of Keynesian Theory and Empirical Analysis, Marburg 2013. The graph "Finance capital gains dominance" in the German original is from the Hans Boeckler Foundation 2014
RELATED LINKS:

Stephan Schulmeister - Austrian economist. How can incentives be created for investing in the real economy? How can the financial sector be shrivilled and the public sector expanded?

Tomasz Konicz - German economist. The 30 year crisis is not an Obama crisis. Wages for stagnant for 35 years. Credit was expanded. Families worked 3 or 4 jobs. Health care, education and housing became unaffordable. The US became a black hole for the global economy.

Andreas Exner - German economist and author