U.S. President Barack Obama, having completed a tour of flood-affected boards Air Force One at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S., August 23, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
WASHINGTON When Barack Obama became the first African-American to win the White House in 2008, his victory was a turning point in U.S. race relations that set high expectations for progress to come.
Nearly eight years later, with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton attacking each other over racial politics, the legacy of Obama's presidency looks decidedly mixed, black leaders said.
To some, the tone of the Republican presidential nominee's campaign, as well as a recent series of racially charged shootings involving police, show that the United States has come no closer to overcoming its history of racial strife.
Having a black president, two attorneys general and a chief of homeland security did not result in basic fairness for victims of racially charged violence, said Cornel West, an academic and former Obama supporter who has become a high-profile critic of the Democratic president.
"How many policemen who have murdered unarmed innocent black civilians have gone to jail with that kind of black power at the top? Zero," West said.
Obama could have acted more directly while in office to help blacks, West added, citing persistently high childhood poverty among African-Americans. “The (economic) recovery has not filtered over into black and working poor communities,” he said.
Others said Obama showed leadership on race while making real achievements on healthcare and the economy that helped Americans of all ethnicities.
Al Sharpton, a civil rights leader with close ties to the White House, described Obama as a "transformative" president held back by the need to serve varying constituencies and compromise with lawmakers who had different priorities.
"He tried to be as balanced and respectful as he could, to the chagrin of many in the black community, who felt that he was leaning over backwards,” Sharpton said.
Unemployment among African-Americans fell by half under Obama, Sharpton noted, while Obama's remarks on race elevated the issue. In 2012 at the White House, Obama referred to Trayvon Martin, a black youth gunned down by a white Hispanic man, as a boy who would have resembled the son he did not have.
“We’ve never had a president do that,” Sharpton said.
FALSE SENSE OF PROGRESS
Andrew Young, a former Atlanta mayor, congressman, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and adviser to slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., said Obama, as a black leader, had to seek compromise more than previous white presidents.
"It was easier for (Jimmy) Carter or Lyndon Johnson, even Bill Clinton as southern whites to do things specifically for black people," Young said.
Backlash from white working class voters had contributed to Trump's rise, Young said.
"We really haven’t had a complete psychological adjustment to a multi-racial society," he said. "That’s what’s rallying people behind Trump. They're frustrated by the complexities of this day and age. And (Trump), like others, gives a simple answer and blames it on somebody else."
Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, blasted Trump on Thursday as a divisive candidate who was stoking racist groups. Trump criticized Clinton, saying she had let black Americans down and was falsely labeling Republicans as bigoted.
Clinton supporters were more likely to want to address race relations than Trump supporters, a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll of more than 2,800 people found in late March.
Obama has said race relations are not as bad as some suggest. Friends say he never expected his presidency to wipe away centuries of racism and slavery's legacy.
"To expect to erase all of that legacy of injustice or racism and discrimination in eight years is unrealistic," said Valerie Jarrett, a White House adviser and close Obama friend.
"Were there people who probably had a false sense of progress based just on an election? Sure," she said.
The administration wants to advance criminal justice reform legislation before Obama leaves office, aiming for a win on an issue watched closely in the black community. But prospects of passage in Congress during an election year are uncertain.
Obama, who has made clear his disdain for Trump and his frustration with Congress, has said he hoped his own voice on race would help improve things for future generations. "We plant seeds, and somebody else maybe sits under the shade of the tree that we planted," Obama said at a news conference in July.
(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh)


When Barack Obama became the first African-American to win the White House in 2008, his victory was a turning point in U.S. race relations that set high expectations for progress to come.


As racial politics loom over election, Obama's legacy is seen as mixed


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Yorkshire's latest Radio 1 stars The Sherlocks had a muddy great time at Leeds Festival - they drew a crowd of more than 6,000 fans then camped out with them.
The Sheffield indie four piece turned down a five star hotel and proved they are a real band of the people.
After packing out the Festival Republic stage they decided to pitched a tent in one of the muddy camp sites.
360 PHOTO: Take a look around the muddy camp site where hundreds of music fans also pitched their tents at Leeds Festival - CLICK HERE.
Frontan Kiaran Crook, aged 20, revealed: "We played our set then decided to camp through the night. We had an option to go into a five star hotel, with a jacuzzi and everything, but we decided to camp.
"We just love it."
He then joked: "We ended up camping next to the Red Hot Chili Peppers- I could hear Anthony snoring.
"But no, seriously, we love it. We love a bit of mud. We just thought, we might as well have the full festival experience."
Melvin Benn, Reading and Leeds Festival boss, said: "I didn't know The Sherlocks went and pitched up in the camp site. It doesn't surprise me. It's what my kids do. They want to be in the public camp site. Anybody who thinks the VIP area is the place to be, I can tell you it's a bit more boring."
Other Yorkshire bands who played at Leeds over the weekend included Sheffield's The Wired and Liberty Ship, Leeds band Dusk, Fighting Caravans, York based Faux Pas and many more.
The Sherlocks played to over 6,000 people then camped out with fans in muddy fields at Leeds Festival.
The Sherlocks, also featuring Kiaran's brother, drummer Brandon, 23, guitarist Josh Davidson, 22, and his brother and bassist Andy, 17, recently played the biggest music festival in the world, SXSW in Austin, Texas.
They also played at Reading Festival at the weekend but said Leeds, their Yorkshire homecoming, was the highlight of their year.
Kiaran added: "Leeds Festival is really important to us. It's given us a chance to pick up new fans. We had a blast. The tent was packed. It exceeded what we thought it would be.We're going on tour next month, starting in Brighton and finishing in Stockton, with a sold out gig in Leeds.
"It would be nice to do the NME/Radio 1 stage next year, I think that's where we are heading."
Brandon added: "We are at home when playing Leeds festival. Now we need to get an album out while we've got momentum behind us."
The Sherlocks at Leeds Festival
The Sherlocks, who will record their debut album later this year, begin a 16-date UK headline tour later this week, including a sold out show at The Wardrobe in Leeds, on Tuesday, September 20.
For full dates and tickets visit thesherlocksmusic.co.uk
The Sherlocks on stage at Leeds Festival
Reading and Leeds Festival boss Melvin Benn
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EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Leeds Festival stars The Sherlocks camp in mud with fans


RAMNATH N PAI RAIKAR | NT NETWORK
Sir Charles Spencer ‘Charlie’ Chaplin, one of the greatest entertainer, who lived on this planet loved silence more than words, as it provided him with ample opportunity to articulate himself with amusing antics and marvellous expressions, without the aid of dialogues. This was the precise reason why for more-than-a-decade he refused to fully accept technology that had converted silent movies into talkies. Even though silent films had become obsolete by 1930s, Chaplin produced ‘City Lights’ (1931) without dialogues but with background score and ‘Modern Times’ (1936) with synchronised sound effects and sparse dialogues.
By the end of the 1930s, Chaplin became increasingly political and decided that his next film, ‘The Great Dictator’ (1940), which satirised Adolf Hitler would be a full-fledged talkie complete with dialogues. The film also marked Chaplin abandoning his famed character of the Tramp, although the role of Jewish Barber enacted by him does have shades of this character. It is however interesting to observe that many audiences, who had come to see the movie during its initial release, were expecting Chaplin to continue with silent films even during the sound era.
Chaplin got the idea for ‘The Great Dictator’ when his friend and producer/director, Alexander Korda noted that Chaplin’s screen persona and Adolf Hitler looked somewhat similar. Chaplin later learned that they were both born within a week of each other, had roughly the same height and weight, and both struggled in poverty until they attained ‘heights’ in their respective fields. When Chaplin learned of Hitler’s policies of racial oppression and nationalist aggression, he decided to use this similarity as an inspiration to attack Hitler on film.
The working title of this picture was ‘The Dictator’ as Chaplin originally had difficulty in securing the title, ‘The Great Dictator’, which was registered by Paramount. Later, through efforts of Y Frank Freeman, a vice-president at Paramount, Chaplin was accorded the privilege of using the title.
It is claimed that in March 1939, Brooke Wilkinson of the British Board of Film Censors cabled Joseph I Breen of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, and Alfred Reeves, vice president of Charles Chaplin Film Corporation that he had heard rumours of Chaplin making a film about Hitler, and requested a story outline and treatment. Breen then spoke to Chaplin, who replied that he had no script and no story.
Another story goes that on June 22, 1939, set construction began for the picture, but preliminary production was halted by early August for Chaplin to ‘alter’ the script. Filming finally began in mid-September 1939. Actress Fanny Brice was to have originally portrayed the dictator’s wife in the film. There are also claims about Chaplin stating that he included footage of crowd scenes actually shot in Germany during Hitler’s regime, and that Chaplin demanded secrecy on the set because he feared someone might steal his idea.
The scenes for the barber’s character were mostly shot in the slower speed used for silent films – 16 frames per second – made possible by the fact that Chaplin gave the character less dialogues compared to the dictator’s character, whose scenes were shot in standard speed for sound film, which is 25 frames per second.
The musical score for the film was written and directed by Meredith Willson, who later became well known as a composer and librettist of the 1957 musical comedy, ‘The Music Man’. However, Chaplin’s contribution to the score was significant, as Willson himself later said: “I’ve seen (Chaplin) take a soundtrack and cut it all up and paste it back together and come up with some of the ‘dangdest’ effects you ever heard, effects a composer would never think of. He would have been great at anything – music, law, ballet dancing, or even painting a house, a sign, or a portrait. I got the screen credit for ‘The Great Dictator’ music score, but the best parts of it were all Chaplin’s ideas, like using the Lohengrin ‘Prelude’ in the famous balloon-dance scene.”
‘The Great Dictator’ was well received in the United States at the time of its release, and was popular with the American public. It was the second-most popular movie in the US in 1941. The film was also popular in the United Kingdom, drawing 9 million to the cinemas, despite Chaplin’s apprehension that wartime audiences would dislike a comedy about a dictator. When the film was released in France in 1945, it became the most popular movie of the year, with admissions of 82,80,553. The film was however banned in several Latin American countries, where there were active movements of Nazi sympathisers.
Contemporary reviews of ‘The Great Dictator’ criticised it for dwelling too strongly on the Jews’ plight in Germany and objected to the final speech as too preachy. The film received three Academy Award nominations for Chaplin in the category of Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay, besides two others for Jack Oakie in the Best Supporting Actor category and for Meredith Willson in the Best Original Score category. The film was also included in the National Board of Review’s ‘Ten Best’ list of 1940.
In 1941, the American writer, Konrad Bercovici filed a suit against Chaplin and United Artists for $5,000,000, charging that he had the original idea for the screenplay of ‘The Great Dictator’. Chaplin settled the suit for $90,000 and damages. In his autobiography, Chaplin insisted that he had been the sole writer of the movie’s script. He came to a settlement, though, because of his “unpopularity in the States at that moment and being under such court pressure, (he) was terrified, not knowing what to expect next.”
Ironically, during the film’s production, the British government had announced that it would prohibit its exhibition in the United Kingdom, in keeping with its appeasement policy concerning Nazi Germany. However, by the time the film was released, the UK was at war with Germany and the film was welcomed in part for its obvious propaganda value. In 1941, London’s Prince of Wales Theatre screened its UK premiere.
All in all, ‘The Great Dictator’ went on to become popular with audiences, and is described as Chaplin’s most commercially successful film. Modern critics too praised it as a historically significant film and an important work of satire.[NT]


U.S. tries to stop feuding allies from unraveling Syria strategy
By Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (Reuters) - The United States scrambled on Monday to get its feuding allies, Turkey and Kurdish YPG militia, to focus their firepower on Islamic State instead of each other after clashes that have threatened to unravel America's war strategy in Syria.
Turkey, which has long viewed Kurdish militants as its top security threat, upended U.S. assumptions about the conflict by launching a major push last week into northern Syria that has included areas controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which includes experienced Kurdish YPG fighters.
In turn, Turkey has blamed a rocket attack from a YPG-controlled area for the death of one of its soldiers on Saturday. Turkey said it killed 25 Kurdish militants on Sunday.
"We've called on both sides to not fight with one another, to continue to focus the fight on ISIL," U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told a Pentagon news conference, using an acronym for Islamic State.
White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said further Turkish targeting of the SDF, which also includes Arab fighters, would undermine efforts to forge a "united front" against Islamic State.
But experts say the Turkish offensive has again exposed the vastly different, often competing objectives of America's allies in the five-year-old conflict in Syria, where the Islamic State is only one of many actors.
It has also raised questions over whether Turkey will attempt to thwart any more major advances by the SDF, just weeks after the Pentagon hailed the group's victory against Islamic State in the town of Manbij, about 30 km (20 miles) south of Turkey's border.
Carter signaled no change in U.S. strategy on Monday, stressing that both the SDF and Turkey were critical allies in Syria. The Pentagon hopes U.S.-backed forces can eventually retake the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State.
"We do understand that they (Turkey and Kurdish fighters) have historical differences with one another but American interests are quite clear," Carter said. "We, like they, want to combat ISIL and we are calling on them now: 'Let's keep our priorities clear here.'"
TENSIONS WITH TURKEY
Experts say the best-case scenario for defusing tensions would be for Turkey to accept U.S. assurances that the YPG is withdrawing east of the Euphrates river. Turkey, which wants to stop Kurdish forces from further extending their control near its border, has demanded such a withdrawal.
Carter on Monday described the river as a natural barrier that would separate Turkey and the YPG.
"What we can do and are doing with them is to clarify where the YPG elements of the SDF are and are not," he said, adding YPG fighters were indeed withdrawing.
In a nod to Turkey, Carter also praised Turkish military advances against Islamic State in the past week, notably its seizure of the town of Jarablus.
Blaise Misztal, director of national security at the Bipartisan Policy Center think-tank, said the United States was witnessing the consequences of a strategy that heavily depended on Kurdish fighters to defeat Islamic State, despite explicit Turkish objections.
Turkey is battling a Kurdish insurgency on its soil.
"The enemy of my enemy is still my enemy," Misztal said.
Experts warned that it was far from clear whether Ankara would back down, given that the United States was unlikely to side with Kurdish militia over NATO ally Turkey.
Turkey is host to important U.S. and NATO military facilities. They include Incirlik Air Base, from which U.S. fighters and drones hit Islamic State in neighboring Syria, U.S. listening posts and an early warning radar for NATO's European missile defense system.
"When it comes down to: Do we alienate the Turks, or do we alienate the Syrian Kurds, there's no doubt who's going to be the loser," said Bruce Riedel, a Middle East expert at the Brookings Institution and a former CIA analyst.
The United States is already walking on eggshells after accusations from Turkey that Washington was too slow to condemn last month's failed coup there.
In a sign of the sensitivities, the top U.S. military officer, General Joseph Dunford, called his Turkish counterpart on Sunday and Carter told the briefing he would see Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik next week.


By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (Reuters) - The United States scrambled on Monday to get its feuding allies, Turkey and Kurdish YPG militia, to focus thei...


U.S. tries to stop feuding allies from unraveling Syria strategy


3:35 Police officer saves man trapped in burning car Pause
1:46 Florida scientist designs trap in quest to eliminate mosquito-borne illnesses
2:13 They're yours you know? Happy 100th to The National Park Service
3:49 'I'm a white male, and I am prejudiced': Caller asks black TV guest how to change
2:07 Astronomers discover new earth-sized planet
1:58 Mother of baby born with Zika complications shares heartbreaking ordeal
1:02 Happy 100th birthday, National Parks Service
1:18 Grandfather doesn't believe that mother killed baby in fridge
2:40 Mom accused of killing baby in fridge denied bond
1:05 Kids get free haircuts before heading back to school

Ruby Lair, the only girl in a family of six boys, turns 1


It’s been a year since the Lair family of Apex, NC gained internet fame for a video posted on YouTube that showed their excitement about adding a girl to their clan of six boys.


Japan's unemployment rate hit a 21-year low of 3.0 percent in July, with the availability of jobs remaining high, government data showed Tuesday.
The jobless rate was down 0.1 percentage point from June and marketed lowest level since May 1995, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.
The country's job availability remained unchanged at 1.37 in July, meaning 137 positions were available for every 100 job seekers, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Japan's jobless rate falls to 21-year low of 3.0% in July


WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Department lawyers investigating police agencies for claims of racial discrimination and excessive force are increasingly turning up a different problem: officers’ interactions with the mentally ill.
The latest example came in Baltimore, where a critical report on that department’s policies found that officers end up in unnecessarily violent confrontations with mentally disabled people who in many instances haven’t even committed crimes. The report cited instances of officers using a stun gun to subdue an agitated man who refused to leave a vacant building and of spraying mace to force a troubled person — said by his father to be unarmed and off his medications — out of an apartment.
Though past federal investigations have addressed the problem, the Baltimore report went a step further: It was the first time the Justice Department has explicitly found that a police department’s policies violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. The finding is intended to chart a path to what federal officials hope will be far-reaching improvements, including better training for dispatchers and officers, diversion of more people to treatment rather than jail and stronger relationships with mental health specialists.
“Through the course of our work in the last several years on this bucket of issues, we’ve seen how important it is to get at the mental health issues as early in the system as possible,” Vanita Gupta, head of the department’s Civil Rights Division, said in an interview.
Civil rights officials say the Baltimore report builds on work they’ve done in investigating the treatment of the mentally ill in various settings. In Mississippi, the Hinds County Jail in June recently agreed to better screening for mental illness and to provide individualized treatment for those with serious disabilities, and the Justice Department sued the state as a whole this month, saying it was illegally making mentally ill people go into state-run psychiatric hospitals
But it’s the work with police departments that often attracts the most attention. Even as police forces improve training and develop intervention teams to respond to individuals in the throes of a crisis, concerns remain that officers aren’t adequately equipped for the situations and are being forced to fill the void of a resource-starved mental health infrastructure. More than 14 percent of male jail inmates and 31 percent of female inmates are affected by serious mental illness, according to a July speech by Justice Department official Eve Hill, who said society has for too long relied on arrests and jail rather than treatment for the mentally ill.
“From the standpoint of police, they are somewhat frustrated because many of the people who are walking the streets and who are in need of help are not getting it,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. “They have been out on the streets, they can’t afford medication, and so the police wind up being the only one they come in contact with.”
The Justice Department has incorporated treatment of the mentally ill into several of its wide-ranging civil rights investigations of troubled police departments.
“I think some police departments have really made it a priority and are doing quite a bit. I don’t know that that’s consistent across all the departments,” said Amy Watson, a mental health policy professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
A 2011 Justice Department report on Seattle criticized officers for too quickly resorting to force when encountering people with mental illness or under the influence of drugs. In Cleveland, officers were found to use stun guns against people with limited cognitive abilities, and in one case used one on a suicidal deaf man who may not have understood their commands, according to a 2014 report. Albuquerque, New Mexico officers responding to a domestic violence complaint used the same tactic on a man who had doused himself with gasoline, the Justice Department said.
Those cities have since reached court-enforceable consent decrees aimed at overhauling practices.
The Portland police department, which also came under investigation, agreed to new training and accountability measures under a settlement. A federal monitor in February found the Seattle police department was sending trained crisis intervention officers to “crisis events in the great majority of instances” and had given some level of training to all officers in the last two years. A report this month from the Seattle police found that only 1.6 percent of crisis cases reported during the past year involved any reportable use of force.
Federal officials hope for a similar resolution in Baltimore, where the Justice Department says police have provided minimal training on responding to mental health crises. Under an agreement in principle, Baltimore has pledged to work more closely with disability organizations and mental health providers.
But, Gupta said, improvements can occur only if there’s a system with resources in place to help the police.
“It’s not about casting blame on specific actors. It’s about making sure that there is adequate support for community-based mental health services in compliance with federal law,” she said.
Ray Kelly, co-director of the No Boundaries Coalition, a Baltimore advocacy group, said he didn’t believe Baltimore police have succeeded in separating law-abiding citizens from criminal suspects, “so they definitely don’t take the time to separate the mentally ill from the criminal element or the average Joe buying drugs on one of our corners.”
He said he hoped the report would foster better collaboration between police and mental health experts, so that if there’s a possibility that officers are dealing with someone who’s disabled, they “would call a professional that’s prepared to work with this instead of using aggressive manhandling tactics like they’ve used in the past.”
____
Follow Eric Tucker: http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

Justice Dept. focuses on police treatment of mentally ill


By Jeff Amy
Associated Press
Two more Mississippi universities have stopped flying the state’s flag, which prominently features the Confederate battle emblem.
Mississippi State University and the Mississippi University for Women confirmed Tuesday that they had taken down the state’s flag from outdoor flagpoles over the summer. The universities’ actions came after state lawmakers failed to act on changing the flag this year.
“The university community supports a flag that unites everyone in the state behind it,” said Jim Borsig, president of the Mississippi University for Women.
Delta State University is the only public Mississippi university still flying the flag. A statement from that school Tuesday opened the door to removing it if the university cabinet votes to do so.
The changes at both schools came quietly while many students and faculty were away. MSU spokesman Sid Salter said Tuesday that President Mark Keenum approved campus leaders’ plans to remove the flag from four locations on the Starkville campus in June and July. Salter said the state flags have been replaced with larger American flags, to mirror the large American flag that has flown alone in MSU’s central quad for at least 15 years. He said 21,000-student MSU removed Mississippi flags from athletic arenas “several” years ago.
Borsig said 2,700-student MUW was expanding a driveway near an auditorium where the only state flag stood. Borsig said he acted after campus groups discussed the flag last year and he encouraged them to lobby elected officials. He also cited the 50th anniversary of the university’s integration and Mississippi’s 2017 bicentennial.
Mississippi flag opponents welcomed its removal.
“It was important to us to take it down because it just reminded us of the Civil War and people who wanted to keep us slaves,” said Deborah Frazier, president of the Mississippi State campus branch of the NAACP. “Now it doesn’t remind us daily when we see the flag of that oppression.”
Frazier, a junior English major from Benton, was among a group of students who protested the flag and other issues in front of Keenum’s office in April after he told students he didn’t intend to remove it.
“Taking the state flag down arbitrarily is a symbolic gesture that accomplishes nothing toward actually changing the state flag to something that everyone can support and feel good about,” Keenum said then.
Salter said Tuesday that Keenum “has been outspoken in expressing his heartfelt personal support for flag change and has maintained an open dialogue with those representing diverse points of view on the question of the state flag.” Salter said individual deans have “flexibility” in seeking changes to their academic units.
Salter said Mississippi’s flag remains part of a display of the flags of all 50 states and other nations in the university’s main cafeteria.
In a 2001 referendum, Mississippi voters strongly supported keeping the flag, which has included the Confederate battle emblem in its upper left corner since 1894. But agitation against the flag resumed following the 2015 massacre of nine black worshippers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina. The white suspect in that case had posed for online photos with Confederate flags.
The University of Mississippi, MSU’s archrival, lowered the Mississippi flag in October. The University of Southern Mississippi also removed state flags last year and three historically black universities removed them earlier. Some local governments and K-12 schools also no longer fly Mississippi’s state flag. Some state lawmakers introduced unsuccessful bills in 2016 to force governments, schools, community colleges and universities to display the flag.
Delta State spokeswoman Jennifer Farish said that 3,500-student university would remove the flag if President Bill LaForge’s cabinet, which includes faculty, staff and student members, votes to do so.
“Delta State continues to fly the State flag out of respect to our relationship with the State of Mississippi, and despite our disagreement with symbols that cause an unfortunate barrier to understanding,” Farish said.

Mississippi State, MUW stop flying state flag


By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
Legal experts yesterday said that the Constitution bars former grand justice Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) from heading the Judicial Yuan, following reports that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was considering nominating him for the position.
National Taiwan University professor of law Chen Chih-lung (陳志龍) said that Hsu served as a grand justice from 2003 to 2011 — a mandated eight-year term — and an amendment to the Constitution prohibits an additional term.
In the Additional Articles of the Constitution, Article 5 says: “Each grand justice of the Judicial Yuan shall serve a term of eight years, independent of the order of appointment to office, and shall not serve consecutive terms. The grand justices serving as president and vice president of the Judicial Yuan shall not enjoy the guarantee of an eight-year term.”
“That article was part of an amendment to prevent grand justices from bowing to the wishes of political figures when making constitutional interpretations,” Chen said. “Hsu’s appointment to serve as a grand justice again is unconstitutional and it would be an international joke.”
The amendment says that the Judicial Yuan has 15 grand justices, while the president and vice president of the body are to be selected from among them, being “nominated and, with the consent of the Legislative Yuan, appointed by the president of the Republic” of China.
Presidential Office officials said they have consulted legal experts regarding the issue.
The appointment would be legal and there would be no breach of the Constitution in nominating Hsu, the officials said.
Hsu would be “reappointed,” not “serving consecutive terms,” which are two different concepts, they said.
Hsu was not continuing as a grand justice to serve for another term, because he retired from the post, the officials said. Academics and experts on constitutional law were consulted and they concurred that the move would not be a breach of Article 5, therefore the government will go ahead with Hsu’s nomination.
Tsai has faced a number of obstacles filling the Judicial Yuan’s presidency and No. 2 post, with her first picks, Public Functionary Disciplinary Sanction Commission Chief Commissioner Hsieh Wen-ting (謝文定) and Judicial Yuan Secretary-General Lin Chin-fang (林錦芳) withdrawing over past controversies.


Legal experts yesterday said that the Constitution bars former grand justice Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) from heading the Judicial Yuan, following reports that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was considering nominating him for the position.


The Olympic Games don’t end with a gold-medal victory or even closing ceremonies. At their best, the Olympics don’t ever end – they pass the torch.
We marvelled at what our Canadian athletes were able to do, but the very best outcome of the Olympics is what they could inspire any of us to do.
Canadian sports heroines and heroes were created this month in Rio de Janeiro. True, they were already heroes, in a way, but the Olympic competitions created a connection with Canadians; we were able to share in the triumphs of our athletes.
That connection will fade now that the closing ceremonies have happened, but it will endure in some significant ways. We know there are children here on the mid Island who were engrossed watching the gymnastics or the track and field, for example, and ran out into their backyard afterward to imitate the competitions, and are now needling their parents to sign them up with their local clubs. We know there are kids who wouldn’t normally sit down and watch an NHL game, but cheered themselves hoarse over a swim race. By providing exposure to a host of different games and competitions, the Olympics can offer alternative perspectives about sport and what it means to play.
It’s meaningful, too, that our country’s female Olympians were so successful, winning the first 12 medals for Canada. With girls and women still accounting for just 42 per cent of sports participation in B.C., it’s important to find ways to get them in the game and maybe wrapping up sports in a package of high stakes, high emotion and national pride can be a motivator.
Canada’s Olympians had us on the edge of our seats and maybe they can get us right up out of those seats, active, fit and healthy. We may not be able to emulate their exploits, but we can be inspired by them.
As long as there are Olympics, we will need representatives to carry the torch, pass the baton, bear the flag. Who will they be? We look forward to finding out.

Editorial: Olympic efforts should inspire


The Olympic Games don’t end with a closing ceremonies. At their best, the Olympics don’t ever end – they pass the torch.


MIAMI COUNTY — The salesman for the Mills Auto Sales, Christopher Mills, 27, of Piqua, was sentenced to serve 56 months in prison for engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, conspiracy, tampering with records and odometers in Miami County Common Pleas Court on Monday.
Judge Christopher Gee sentenced Mills to serve four years in prison for first degree felony engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and four years in prison on one count of second degree felony conspiracy. He will serve those terms concurrently. Mills was then sentenced to serve 30 months for third degree tampering with records, 11 months for tampering with odometers, both of which will run concurrent with the four year prison sentence.
In a separate case, Mills was sentenced to serve eight months for tampering with records and theft, both fifth degree felonies. He will serve that sentence consecutive following his four year prison term.
Assistant prosecutor Paul Watkins called Mills the “ring leader” who taught the three other defendants how to manipulate the odometers.
Mills said he was willing to make things right with the victims and apologized to the court for his “stupid, irresponsible choices.”
An indictment cited approximately 20 vehicles for which the titles were transferred to customers with falsified odometer readings, beginning in May 2011 and ending in November 2013. Overall, the indictment mentions approximately 60 overt acts. Mills operated Mills Auto Sales, located at 417 South Street in Piqua. Mills was connected to at least 10 vehicles that were tampered with at the Piqua car lot.
Examples of vehicles that the county cited as illegally altered by the defendants included a 2000 GMC with an odometer reading of 186,000 miles and an actual mileage of 283,168 miles, and a 2001 Chevrolet Suburban with an odometer reading of 99,000 miles and an actual mileage of 285,820 miles.
The corrupt activity was uncovered when a recipient of one of the vehicles brought the car to a repair shop and the mechanic told the owner that the odometer had been tampered with and was not displaying the correct mileage.
Scott J. Carnes, Jr., 32; Joshua E. Finley, 28; and Rodney Jenkins, 48, have already been sentenced for their roles in the same indictment.
Mills http://dailycall.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_MUGSHOTS_34259608.jpg Mills
Christopher Mills, 27, doctored odometers at local car lot
By Melanie Yingst [email protected]
Reach Melanie Yingst at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @Troydailynews
Reach Melanie Yingst at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @Troydailynews

Piqua auto dealer to serve 56 months in prison


Isis buried thousands in 72 mass graves - AP finds
This image released by the the Mass Graves Directorate of the Kurdish Regional Government shows a human skull in a mass grave containing Yazidis killed by Islamic State militants in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq in May, 2015.
Surrounded by smoke and flames, the sound of gunshots echoing around him, the young man crouched in the creek for hours, listening to the men in his family die.
On the other side of the mountain, another survivor peered through binoculars as the handcuffed men of neighbouring villages were shot and then buried by a waiting bulldozer. For six days he watched as the extremists filled one grave after another with his friends and relatives.
Between them, the two scenes of horror on Sinjar mountain contain six burial sites and the bodies of more than 100 people, just a small fraction of the mass graves Islamic State extremists have scattered across Iraq and Syria.
STRINGER/IRAQ A bone, suspected to belong to a member of Iraq's Yazidi community, is seen in a mass grave on the outskirts of the town of Sinjar, November 30, 2015. K
In exclusive interviews, photos and research, The Associated Press has documented and mapped 72 of the mass graves, the most comprehensive survey so far, with many more expected to be uncovered as the Islamic State group's territory shrinks.
In Syria, AP has obtained locations for 17 mass graves, including one with the bodies of hundreds of members of a single tribe all but exterminated when Isis extremists took over their region.
READ MORE:
* 500 Yazidis slaughtered by Islamic State
* Kurdish forces launch battle to retake Iraq's Sinjar
* Iraqi Kurds uncover mass graves in Isis-held Sinjar
For at least 16 of the Iraqi graves, most in territory too dangerous to excavate, officials do not even guess the number of dead. In others, the estimates are based on memories of traumatised survivors, Islamic State propaganda and what can be gleaned from a cursory look at the earth. Still, even the known victims buried are staggering - from 5200 to more than 15,000.
Sinjar mountain is dotted with mass graves, some in territory clawed back from Isis after the group's onslaught against the Yazidi minority in August 2014; others in the deadly no man's land that has yet to be secured.
The bodies of Talal Murat's father, uncles and cousins lie beneath the rubble of the family farm, awaiting a time when it is safe for surviving relatives to return to the place where the men were gunned down. On Sinjar's other flank, Rasho Qassim drives daily past the graves holding the bodies of his two sons. The road is in territory long since seized back, but the five sites are untouched, roped off and awaiting the money or the political will for excavation, as the evidence they contain is scoured away by the wind and baked by the sun.
REUTERS Kurdish peshmerga forces look at bones in a mass grave on the outskirts of the town of Sinjar, February, 2015.
"We want to take them out of here. There are only bones left. But they said 'No, they have to stay there, a committee will come and exhume them later,''' said Qassim, standing at the edge of the flimsy fence surrounding one site, where his two sons are buried. "It has been two years but nobody has come.''
Isis made no attempt to hide its atrocities. In fact it boasted of them. But proving what United Nations officials and others have described as an ongoing genocide, and prosecuting those behind it, will be complicated as the graves deteriorate.
"We see clear evidence of the intent to destroy the Yazidi people,'' said Naomi Kikoler, who recently visited the region for the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.
RODI SAID/REUTERS Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border in 2014/
"There's been virtually no effort to systematically document the crimes perpetrated, to preserve the evidence, and to ensure that mass graves are identified and protected.''
Then there are the graves still out of reach. The Islamic State group's atrocities extend well outside the Yazidi region in northern Iraq.
Satellites offer the clearest look at massacres such as the one at Badoush Prison in June 2014 that left 600 male inmates dead. A patch of scraped earth and tire tracks show the likely killing site, according to exclusive photos obtained by the imagery intelligence firm AllSource Analysis.
STRINGER/IRAQ Bones, suspected to belong to Iraq's Yazidi community, are seen in a mass grave on the outskirts of the town of Sinjar, November 30, 2015
Of the 72 mass graves documented by AP, the smallest contains three bodies; the largest is believed to hold thousands, but no one knows for sure.
ALL THEY COULD DO WAS WATCH THE SLAUGHTER
On the northern flank of Sinjar mountain, five grave sites ring a desert crossroads. It is here that the young men of Hardan village are buried, under thistles and piles of cracked earth. They were killed in the bloody IS offensive of August 2014.
Through his binoculars, Arkan Qassem watched it all. His village, Gurmiz, is just up the slope from Hardan, giving a clear view over the plain below. When the jihadis swept over the area, everyone in Gurmiz fled up the mountaintop for refuge. Then Arkan and nine other men returned to their village with light weapons to try to defend their homes.
Instead, all they could do was watch the slaughter below. Arkan witnessed the militants set up checkpoints, preventing residents from leaving. Women and children were taken away.
Then the killings began. The first night, Arkan saw the militants line up a group of handcuffed men in the headlights of a bulldozer at an intersection, less than a kilometre down the slope from Gurmiz. They gunned the men down, then the bulldozer ploughed the earth over their bodies.
Over six days, Arkan and his comrades watched helplessly as the fighters brought out three more groups of men - several dozen each, usually with hands bound - to the crossroads and killed them. He didn't always see what they did with the bodies. One time, he saw them lighting a bonfire, but he couldn't see why.
Finally, the jihadis brought in artillery and prepared to make an assault on Gurmiz. Arkan and his comrades fled up the mountain to where their families had taken refuge.
Now, since Isis fighters were driven out of the area, the 32-year-old has returned to his home. But he's haunted by the site. As documented by the aid group Yazda, which has mapped the Sinjar sites, the graves are in a rough pentagon flanking the crossroads, largely unprotected. Around one of them is a mesh fence and a wind-battered sign. As Arkan spoke at the site, a shepherd herded his flock nearby.
"I have lots of people I know there. Mostly friends and neighbours,'' he said. "It's very difficult to look at them every day.''
"THIS BODY IS WEARING MY FATHER'S CLOTHES''
As Isis fighters swarmed into the Sinjar area in early August 2014, Talal fled his town along with his father, mother, four sisters and younger brother. They and dozens of other men, women and children from his extended clan converged on an uncle's farm outside the town of Tel Azer. They prayed it was remote enough to escape the killings that were already engulfing so many Yazidis.
It wasn't.
The jihadis fired at the house from a distance. Then they rolled up in their vehicles and shot one man in the head as they stood in the yard. They surrounded the farmhouse, ordered everyone outside and demanded the impossible: Convert.
The Yazidi faith, one of the region's oldest, has elements of Christianity and Islam but is distinct. Yazidis worship the Peacock Angel, fallen and forgiven by God under their tradition, and their shrines feature carved images of the birds and references to the sun. Muslim extremists condemned them as "devil worshippers'' and over the centuries have subjected them to multiple massacres - 72, by the Yazidis' count.
In its own propaganda, the Islamic State group made clear its intention to wipe out the Yazidi community. In an issue of its online English-language magazine Dabiq, it scolded Muslims for allowing the Yazidis to continue existing, calling their ancient religion a form of paganism. It quoted Quranic verses to justify killing the Yazidis unless they become Muslim.
Thwarted in their halfhearted attempt at conversions, the fighters separated about 35 teenage girls and young women from the rest, crammed them into a few cars and drove away. The militants herded the older women and young children into the farmhouse and locked the door.
Then they lined the men and teenaged boys against the wall of the stables - about 40 in all, including Talal.
There were too many of them, too bunched up, to efficiently mow down, so the fighters then ordered them to lie on the ground in a row, Talal said. That was when his uncle told him to make a run for it. Talal bolted into his uncle's hayfield, as did several other men. The militants fired at them, and the bullets ignited the hay, dry from the summer sun. The fire covered Talal's escape, and he took shelter in a nearby creek.
There he hid, listening as the gunmen shot his family to death. He eventually fled toward the mountain, joined by three others who had survived the massacre. Four out of 40.
Back at the farm, the gunmen eventually left and the women and children emerged, looking around with growing horror.
Nouri Murat, Talal's mother, found her husband. His body was untouched, but his head was shattered. Her daughters, she said, were confused at first. "This is strange, this body is wearing my father's clothes,'' one of them said. As Nouri frantically searched around the property for any surviving menfolk, her 9-year-old daughter Rukhan lay down beside her father's corpse.
Finally, other women persuaded the family to head to the mountain before the Islamic State fighters returned.
As they began the long walk north, Nouri noticed Rukhan's bloody fist. Fearing her daughter was wounded, she pried open the girl's clenched fingers. Inside were a handful of her father's teeth.
"THEY DON'T EVEN TRY TO HIDE THEIR CRIMES''
Nearly every area freed from Isis control has unmasked new mass graves, like one found by the sports stadium in the Iraqi city of Ramadi. Many of the graves themselves are easy enough to find, most covered with just a thin coating of earth.
"They don't even try to hide their crimes,'' said Sirwan Jalal, the director of Iraqi Kurdistan's agency in charge of mass graves. "They are beheading them, shooting them, running them over in cars, all kinds of killing techniques, and they don't even try to hide it.''
No one outside Isis has seen the Iraqi ravine where hundreds of Shiite prison inmates were killed point blank and then torched. Satellite images of scraped dirt along the river point to its location, according to Steve Wood of AllSource. His analysts triangulated survivors' accounts and began to systematically search the desert according to their descriptions of that day, June 10, 2014.
The inmates were separated out by religion, and Shiites were loaded onto trucks, driven for a few kilometres (miles) and forced to line up and count off, according to accounts by 15 survivors gathered by Human Rights Watch. Then they knelt along the edge of the crescent-shaped ravine, according to a report cited by AllSource.
"I was number 43. I heard them say '615,' and then one Isis guy said, 'We're going to eat well tonight.' A man behind us asked, 'Are you ready?' Another person answered `Yes,' and began shooting at us with a machine-gun. Then they all started to shoot us from behind, going down the row,'' according to the Human Rights Watch account of a survivor identified only as A.S.
The men survived by pretending to be dead.
Using their accounts and others, AllSource examined an image from July 17, 2014, that appeared to show the location as described, between a main road and the railway outside Mosul. The bodies are believed to be packed tightly together, side by side in a space approximately the length of two football fields end to end, in what the AllSource analysis described as a "sardine trench.'' Tire tracks lead to and from the site.
"There's actually earth that has been pushed over and actually moved to cover parts of the ravine. As we look across the entire ravine we only see that in this one location,'' said Wood. "Ultimately there are many, many more sites across Iraq and Syria that have yet to be either forensically exhumed or be able to be detailed and there's quite a bit more research that needs to take place.''
The key, Wood said, is having photos to indicate a grave's location taken soon after its creation.
Justice has been done in at least one Isis mass killing - that of about 1700 Iraqi soldiers who were forced to lie face-down in a ditch and then machine-gunned at Camp Speicher. On August 21, 36 men convicted in those killings were hanged at Iraq's Nasiriyah prison.
But justice is likely to be elusive in areas still firmly under Isis control, even though the extremists have filmed themselves committing the atrocities. That's the case for a deep natural sinkhole outside Mosul that is now a pit of corpses. In Syria's Raqqa province, thousands of bodies are believed to have been thrown into the giant al-Houta crevasse.
Conditions in much of Syria remain a mystery. Activists believe there are hundreds of mass graves in Isis-controlled areas that can only be explored when fighting stops. By that time, they fear any effort to document the massacres, exhume and identify the remains will become infinitely more complicated.
Working behind Isis lines, local residents have informally documented some mass graves, even partially digging some up. Some of the worst have been found in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour. There, 400 members of the Shueitat tribe were found in one grave, just some of the up to 1000 members of the tribe believed to have been massacred by Isis when the militants took over the area, said Ziad Awad, the editor of an online publication on Deir el-Zour called The Eye of the City who is trying to document the graves.
In Raqqa province, the bodies of 160 Syrian soldiers, killed when Isis overran their base, were found in seven large pits.
So far, at least 17 mass graves are known, though largely unreachable, in a list put together from AP interviews with activists from Syrian provinces still under Isis rule as well as fighters and residents in former IS strongholds.
"This is a drop in an ocean of mass graves expected to be discovered in the future in Syria,'' said Awad.
- AP


Mountain dotted with mass graves where Isis have killed and buried more than 15,000.


Isis buried thousands in 72 mass graves - AP finds


Sam Huchinson's injury time header rescued a point forSheffield Wednesday in an enthralling 1-1 draw at Brentford.
The striker got across his man at the near post to power a header into the roof of the net and deny Brentford keeper Daniel Bentley the clean sheet a string of breathtaking saves deserved.
The late leveller cancelled out Lasse Vibe's opener after 54 minutes when he chased down a lost cause and blocked keeper Keiren Westwood's clearance to roll the ball into the empty net.
It was the classic game of two halves at Griffin Park in a clash that had everything, with Wednesday dominating before the break and Brentford resurgent in the second 45.
Both sides ended with 10 men in a game that was niggly rather than dirty, with David Jones seeing red for the visitors on 73 minutes and Vibe for the hosts with two minutes remaining, both for two yellows.
The visitors dominated a one-sided first half that should have seen them go in at least three to the good at the break.
Only Bentley in the Brentford goal kept livewire strikers Steven Fletcher and Fernando Forestieri at bay with a succession of breathtaking saves.
And the Owls also had Lucas Joao to blame for an astonishing miss when he contriver to place the ball over the bar from almost on the line with the goal gaping.
Wednesday went close after 12 minutes when Daniel Pudil's drifted cross to the far post was met on the half volley by Forestieri but the effort flew inches wide of the far angle.
Kieran Lee's free-kick on 23 minutes caused the home defence problems, but Tom Lees' far-post header was cleared off the line by a back-pedalling Nico Yennaris.
Joao should have given the visitors the lead to finish of a flowing four-man move, but with the goal gaping and only the slightest touch needed, he somehow chipped over when it looked harder to miss.
That howler, which made Ronnie Rosenthal's famous miss look like a hard chance, was followed by an opportunity for Forestieri who raced clear down the left and fired in a low drive that Bentley got down smartly to stop.
Brentford's first worthwhile effort on goal came on the half hour, John Egan's goal-bound far post header blocked by a melee of Wednesday legs.
Bentley came to the Bees' rescue again a minute later when he showed brilliant reflexes to palm his own defender Yennaris' back header to safety.
The mad five minutes ended with Brentford skipper Harlee Dean clearing Fletcher's bobbling effort off the line as Dean Smith's side struggled to cope with the visitors' quality.
Forestieri went close just before the break before Bentley again kept the score deadlocked with another reflex save to keep Joao's header out almost on the whistle.
But after the interval Brentford stormed back into the game and looked far more competitive in midfield.
Vibe's persistence broke the deadlock and gave Smith's side confidence, and it was Westwood who redeemed himself minutes later when he blocked Scott Hogan's deflected shot with his legs inside the post on the hour.
Hogan twice went close before Yennaris forced Westwood into a full-length save, but Wednesday always looked potent going forward.
Bentley saved one of his best stops for late on when he denied Almen Abdi's snapshot with a reflex save and then tipped Forestieri's header onto the post.
But there was little he could do about the equaliser as his defence switched off for the first time in the 95 minutes and got punished.

Brentford 1 Sheffield Wednesday 1: Sam Hutchinson rescues draw for Owls


Visit now for the latest Sheffield Wednesday football news - direct from the Yorkshire Post and updated throughout the day.


‘The disc’s diversity feels less like a contrivance and more like a genuine sharing out of talents (David Kidman, Fatea)
Tales from the Tulgey Wood by Pennyless, Pennyless Music
Fairport Convention’s Liege and Leif, Songs of Leonard Cohen, The Times They Are A-Changin’ by Bob Dylan and Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel.
All these albums are considered not just classics, but a commentary on a generation and the ondition of our times.
When Pennyless band released their third album, Tales from the Tulgey Wood in 2012, it prompted one reviewer to call it as “far removed from big beards and knitting your own cider as possible”.
Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, including the name Tulgey Wood itself and the opening track Jabberwocky, Pennyless weave a magic spell that the same reviewer fittingly called “one of the few times that an album can be described as ‘a mixed bag’ in a nice way”.
There are instrumentals with Napoleon Crossing the Alps/Matterhornpipe, Catharsis/Repression and Romanian Circle Dance, while guitarist Les Woods becomes Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) and Ralph McTell with Way Over Yonder and The Caretaker.
Despite the jigs and reels, occasional tweeness and a plethora of instruments, the Neil Young-esque Way Over Yonder, Winter Is Gone and The Caretaker make this an album far removed from big beards and knitting your own cider as possible Simon Stabler, Urban R(eal)ail Pink
Winter is Gone, Tell it to the Bees and Will o’ the Wisp, Pennyless’s landmark number, make this album an absolute treasure chest.
Review by Winston Brown

ALBUM REVIEW: Ten tracks that define a band and a revolution in the folk genre


Tales from the Tulgey Wood by Pennyless, Pennyless Music


PESCARA DEL TRONTO, Italy (AP) — As the search for survivors ground on, Premier Matteo Renzi pledged new money and measures Thursday to rebuild quake-devastated central Italy amid mounting soul-searching over why the seismic-prone country has continually failed to ensure its buildings can withstand such catastrophes.
A day after the deadly quake killed 250 people, a 4.3 magnitude aftershock sent up plumes of thick gray dust in the hard-hit town of Amatrice. The aftershock crumbled already cracked buildings, rattled residents and closed already clogged roads.
It was only one of the more than 470 temblors that have followed Wednesday’s pre-dawn quake.
Firefighters and rescue crews using sniffer dogs worked in teams around the hard-hit areas in central Italy, pulling chunks of cement, rock and metal from mounds of rubble where homes once stood. Rescuers refused to say when their work would shift from saving lives to recovering bodies, noting that one person was pulled alive from the rubble 72 hours after the 2009 quake in the nearby town of L’Aquila.
“We will work relentlessly until the last person is found, and make sure no one is trapped,” said Lorenzo Botti, a rescue team spokesman.
Worst affected by the quake were the tiny towns of Amatrice and Accumoli near Rieti, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Rome, and Pescara del Tronto, 25 kilometers (15 miles) further to the east.
Many were left homeless by the scale of the destruction, their homes and apartments declared uninhabitable. Some survivors, escorted by firefighters were allowed to go back inside homes briefly Thursday to get essential necessities for what will surely be an extended absence.
“Last night we slept in the car. Tonight, I don’t know,” said Nello Caffini as he carried his sister-in-law’s belongings on his head after being allowed to go quickly into her home in Pescara del Tronto.
Caffini has a house in nearby Ascoli, but said his sister-in-law was too terrified by the aftershocks to go inside it.
“When she is more tranquil, we will go to Ascoli,” he said.
Charitable assistance began pouring into the earthquake zone in traffic-clogging droves Thursday. Church groups from a variety of Christian denominations, along with farmers offering donated peaches, pumpkins and plums, sent vans along the one-way road into Amatrice that was already packed with emergency vehicles and trucks carrying sniffer dogs.
Other assistance was spiritual.
“When we learned that the hardest hit place was here, we spoke to our bishop and he encouraged us to come here to comfort the families of the victims,” said a priest who gave his name only as Father Marco as he walked through Pescara del Tronto. “They have given us a beautiful example, because their pain did not take away their dignity.”
Italy’s civil protection agency said the death toll had risen to 250 by Thursday afternoon, with more than 180 of the fatalities in Amatrice. At least 365 others were hospitalized, and 215 people were pulled from the rubble alive since the quake struck. A Spaniard and five Romanians were among the dead, according to their governments.
There was no clear estimate of how many people might still be missing, since the rustic area was packed with summer vacationers. The Romanian government alone said 11 of its citizens were missing.
As the search effort continued, the soul-searching began.
Premier Renzi authorized a preliminary 50 million euros in emergency funding and the government cancelled taxes for residents, pro-forma measures that are just the start of what will be a long and costly rebuilding campaign. He announced a new initiative, “Italian Homes,” to answer years of criticism over shoddy construction across the country, which has the highest seismic hazard in Western Europe.
But he also said that it was “absurd” to think that Italy could build completely quake-proof buildings.
“It’s illusory to think you can control everything,” he told a news conference. “It’s difficult to imagine it could have been avoided simply using different building technology. We’re talking about medieval-era towns.”
Those old towns do not have to conform to the country’s anti-seismic building codes. Making matters worse, those codes often aren’t applied even when new buildings are built.
Armando Zambrano, the head of Italy’s National Council of Engineers, said the technology exists to reinforce old buildings and prevent such high death tolls when quakes strike every few years. While he estimated that it would cost up to 93 billion euros ($105 billion) to reinforce all of the historic structures across the country, he said targeted efforts in the riskiest areas could be done for less.
“We are able to prevent all these deaths. The problem is actually doing it,” he told The Associated Press. “These tragedies keep happening because we don’t intervene. After each tragedy we say we will act but then the weeks go by and nothing happens.”
Some experts estimate that 70 percent of Italy’s buildings aren’t built to anti-seismic standards, though not all are in high-risk areas.
Funding shortfalls and bureaucracy are obstacles to making the country’s buildings quake-resistant. A new law tries to encourage homeowners to make their homes earthquake-proof by reimbursing 65 percent of the cost over 10 years, but it isn’t enough to push Italians, who are facing years of economic stagnation, to put up the cash to make the upgrades.
Compounding the problem, many of the oldest and most vulnerable structures are in remote villages inhabited mostly by retired Italians getting by on pensions with no cash to spare. In the cities, upgrades are stifled by the condominium-style rules of buildings requiring the agreement of multiple owners for such investments.
“We’re among the best in the world in managing emergencies,” Renzi said, praising the men and women, many of them volunteers, who jump into action when crises hit. “But it’s not enough to be in the vanguard in emergencies.”
Geologists surveyed the damage Thursday to determine which buildings were still inhabitable, while Culture Ministry teams were fanning out to assess the damage to some of the region’s cultural treasures, especially its medieval-era churches.
Italian news reports said prosecutors investigating the quake were looking in particular into the collapse of Amatrice’s “Romolo Capranica” school, which was restored in 2012 using funds set aside after the last major quake in 2009.
In recent Italian quakes, some modern buildings — many of them public institutions — have been the deadliest. Those included the university dormitory that collapsed in the 2009 L’Aquila quake, killing 11 students, and the elementary school that crumbled in San Giuliano di Puglia in 2002, killing 27 children — the town’s entire first-grade class — while surrounding buildings survived unscathed.
Major quakes in Italy are often followed by criminal charges being filed against architects, builders and officials responsible for public works. In the case of the L’Aquila quake, prosecutors also put six geologists on trial for allegedly failing to adequately warn residents about the temblor. Their convictions were overturned on appeal.
In Pescara del Tronto, rescue crews were looking Thursday for three people believed crushed in a hard-to-reach area.
“The dogs from our dog rescue unit make us think there could be something,” said Danilo Dionisi, a spokesman for the firefighters.
Emergency services set up tent cities around the quake-devastated towns to accommodate the homeless, housing about 1,200 people overnight. In Amatrice, 50 elderly people and children spent the night inside a local sports facility.
“It’s not easy for them,” said civil protection volunteer Tiziano De Carolis, who was helping to care for the homeless in Amatrice. “They have lost everything: the work of an entire life, like those who have a business, a shop, a pharmacy, a grocery store.”
___
D’Emilio reported from Amatrice, Italy, and Winfield reported from Rome. Associated Press writer Vanessa Gera in Rome contributed to this report.
___
This story has been corrects the spelling of town of Pescara del Tronto in the dateline. AP Photos.

Aftershocks rattle Italian quake zone; toll rises to 250


Oil prices dip on stronger dollar; rise in U.S. crude stocks data
By Mark Tay
SINGAPORE, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Crude oil futures fell in early trade on Wednesday as the U.S. dollar held around three-week highs and industry stocks data indicated a build in U.S. crude inventories.
International Brent crude oil futures were trading at $48.27 per barrel at 0052 GMT, down 10 cents, or 0.2 percent, from their previous close.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 16 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $46.19 a barrel.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the currency against a basket of six majors, rose as high as 96.143, its highest level since Aug. 9, on Tuesday.
A stronger greenback makes dollar-priced commodities like oil more expensive for holders of other currencies and possibly capping demand.
The dollar strengthened after recent hawkish comments by Fed Chair Janet Yellen and Vice Chair Stanley Fischer boosted expectations that a rate hike by the U.S. central bank at its September policy meeting could be on the horizon.
"The pullback in commodity prices is likely to continue in the short term with a stronger USD and weaker fundamentals," Australian bank ANZ said in a note.
U.S. crude stocks rose by 942,000 barrels in the week to Aug. 26 to 525.2 million, nearly in line with analysts' expectations for an increase of 921,000 barrels, data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday.
Official U.S. oil inventories data published by the EIA is due for release on Wednesday.
Concerns over refinery production outages caused by storm threats in the Gulf of Mexico have done little to support prices as a product glut in the United States persists.
"Prices didn't receive any support from news that nearly a quarter of the capacity in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut due to storms," ANZ bank said.


By Mark Tay SINGAPORE, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Crude oil futures fell in early trade on Wednesday as the U.S. dollar held around three-week highs and industry sto...


Oil prices dip on stronger dollar; rise in U.S. crude stocks data


RIO GRANDE, Ohio — Short of recording an upset win, first-year Rio Grande women’s soccer head coach Tony Daniels couldn’t have scripted a better debut.
Sophomore Rachel Haddad scored on a direct kick with 4:53 left to play in regulation — and the RedStorm battled visiting Davenport University to a season-opening 1-1 draw on Thursday night at a sauna-like Evan E. Davis Field.
Haddad — a midfielder from Gallipolis — accounted for Rio’s only shot on goal in the contest, netting the second goal of her collegiate career.
Rio Grande, which had been outscored 24-2 in four losses to the Panthers over the course of the past five seasons — including a 7-0 loss last year – was outshot 29-4 (11-1 in shots on goal).
“I’m proud of the girls. They never quit,” said Daniels, who took over the Rio women’s program after serving as an assistant coach with the men’s team for the past 25 seasons. “We’ve still got a long way to go, but they showed a lot of heart tonight. This is the kind of game that, hopefully, we can continue to build on.”
Davenport (1-0-1) snapped a scoreless tie just 25 seconds into the second stanza when Rio freshman goalkeeper Andrea Vera was whistled for a foul and Shameeka Fishley pushed a subsequent penalty kick past Vera.
That’s how things stayed until Davenport’s Lacey Chanady was whistled for a foul — and Haddad buried a direct kick from the top of the 18-yard box into the upper right-hand corner of the net to knot the score.
Vera stopped a total of five shots in the two overtime sessions and the Panthers had another shot by Roheema Bennett hit to the crossbar just 1:13 into the first extra session.
Vera finished with 10 saves in the tie for Rio Grande.
Regan Troff did not record a save in the deadlock for Davenport, which blanked another River States Conference school — Carlow University — 5-0 in its opener on Wednesday afternoon.
Rio Grande will make another attempt for its first win of the season when Marietta College visits on Sunday for a 1 p.m. kickoff.
Rio Grande’s Rachel Haddad (8) celebrates with teammates after scoring a game-tying goal in the closing minutes of regulation during Thursday night’s 1-1 tie with Davenport (Mich.) University at Evan E. Davis Field. http://mydailysentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_8.31-URG-Haddad.jpg Rio Grande’s Rachel Haddad (8) celebrates with teammates after scoring a game-tying goal in the closing minutes of regulation during Thursday night’s 1-1 tie with Davenport (Mich.) University at Evan E. Davis Field. URG Submitted photo


RIO GRANDE, Ohio — Short of recording an upset win, first-year Rio Grande women’s soccer head coach Tony Daniels couldn’t have scripted a better debut.
Sophomore Rachel Haddad scored on a direct kick with 4:53 left to play in regulation — and the RedStorm battled visiting Davenport University to a season-opening 1-1 draw on Thursday night at a sauna-like Evan E. Davis Field.
Haddad — a midfielder from Gallipolis — accounted for Rio’s only shot on goal in the contest, netting the second goal of her collegiate career.
Rio Grande, which had been outscored 24-2 in four losses to the Panthers over the course of the past five seasons — including a 7-0 loss last year – was outshot 29-4 (11-1 in shots on goal).
“I’m proud of the girls. They never quit,” said Daniels, who took over the Rio women’s program after serving as an assistant coach with the men’s team for the past 25 seasons. “We’ve still got a long way to go, but they showed a lot of heart tonight. This is the kind of game that, hopefully, we can continue to build on.”
Davenport (1-0-1) snapped a scoreless tie just 25 seconds into the second stanza when Rio freshman goalkeeper Andrea Vera was whistled for a foul and Shameeka Fishley pushed a subsequent penalty kick past Vera.
That’s how things stayed until Davenport’s Lacey Chanady was whistled for a foul — and Haddad buried a direct kick from the top of the 18-yard box into the upper right-hand corner of the net to knot the score.
Vera stopped a total of five shots in the two overtime sessions and the Panthers had another shot by Roheema Bennett hit to the crossbar just 1:13 into the first extra session.
Vera finished with 10 saves in the tie for Rio Grande.
Regan Troff did not record a save in the deadlock for Davenport, which blanked another River States Conference school — Carlow University — 5-0 in its opener on Wednesday afternoon.
Rio Grande will make another attempt for its first win of the season when Marietta College visits on Sunday for a 1 p.m. kickoff.
Rio Grande’s Rachel Haddad (8) celebrates with teammates after scoring a game-tying goal in the closing minutes of regulation during Thursday night’s 1-1 tie with Davenport (Mich.) University at Evan E. Davis Field. http://mydailytribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_8.31-URG-Haddad.jpg Rio Grande’s Rachel Haddad (8) celebrates with teammates after scoring a game-tying goal in the closing minutes of regulation during Thursday night’s 1-1 tie with Davenport (Mich.) University at Evan E. Davis Field. URG Submitted photo


A grateful mum is tackling a 5k run to raise heart-health awareness after her parents both had lifesaving treatments.
Stephanie Kaier, 35, from South Shields, is taking part in the Subway Helping Hearts Family 5K fun run at the Town Moor in Newcastle on Sunday, September 4.
In 2003, her dad Paul, now 61, suffered a heart attack, which left him with a heart infection.
Seven months later he received a heart transplant, and was able to return to work after successful treatment.
Stephanie, a mental health nurse in Sunderland, said: “It was a real shock. He was working away and had no obvious signs of heart disease except from a few chest pains.
"After his heart attack he slowly deteriorated, but the new heart changed his life. If it wasn’t for the donated heart, he wouldn’t be here.”
Stephanie’s mum Jackie has also experienced heart problems.
Three years ago, the fit and healthy 57-year-old, who did not smoke or drink, had a stent fitted on her heart after blockages were discovered.
Her parents' heart issues inspired Stephanie to change her lifestyle and live a heart-healthy life.
After her dad's heart attack, she quit smoking and is now a keen runner.
Stephanie will also take part in her third Great North Run this year, and has completed several 10K events.
The 5K series connection with Heart Research UK was important to Stephanie and her family.
She will be joined by her daughters Gabrielle, seven, and Emily, three. This year’s 5K will be Gabrielle and Emily’s first race and they are eager to win a medal for running, like their mum.
Stephanie said: “It’s great to take part in the run with the girls to help raise awareness of heart disease and have a lovely family day out too.
"It’s also a good way to help teach the kids about being fit and healthy and looking after their hearts.”
The Newcastle event is the eighth of nine in the Subway Helping Hearts Family 5K events taking place across the UK from May to September.
In what is an exciting twist, the 5K event will see families challenged to take on the ‘field of fresh’ for the final 500m!
Inspired by the Subway menu, the giant inflatable course has been designed to appeal to kids and adults as they make their way to the finish line.
For those out for a fast time, or feeling less adventurous, there’s still the choice of the traditional route because every 5K counts.
There be lots of free, fun activities on the day, and everyone who takes part will also receive a free T-Shirt, a free Subway lunch, a finisher’s medal and access to the Family Village.
Children under 12 go free and it's just £7 per person for the rest of the family when they register online.
Go to www.5ksubway.com for race information and to register. There will also be a limited number of places available for families to come along and register on the day - £9 for adults, and free for under-12s.

Mum tackles family 5k run to raise awareness of having a healthy heart


Get the latest breaking news from the Sunderland Echo - politics, transport, education, health, environment and more for Tyneside and East Durham.


U.S. public universities turning to private sector to meet campus needs
By Stephanie Kelly
NEW YORK, Aug 26 (Reuters) - U.S. public universities are increasingly turning to public-private partnerships to develop student housing and other campus projects, sometimes using the structure to transfer borrowing and liability risks to the private sector.
Over the last five years, there has been an "uptick" in universities and colleges leveraging the private sector to deliver housing needs, said Kevin Wayer, an international director and co-president of the Public Institutions group at commercial real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle.
"The notion of having the private sector deliver student housing is something that has been going on for many years, but I think it has definitely increased in utilization since the financial crisis," Wayer said.
The financing structure, known as "P3," is being employed both by schools that are fiscally strapped and those with healthier balance sheets.
Brailsford & Dunlavey, a project management firm, has seen on average a 50 percent year-over-year growth since 2011 in P3 transaction values it has consulted on for higher education institutions, said Brad Noyes, senior vice president.
In 2011, the transaction value for such P3 projects was $320 million, he said. Year-to-date the firm "has $2.5 billion worth of transactions we're providing advisory work on," Noyes said.
Use of P3s can contribute to reduced debt on universities' balance sheets, said Todd Duncan, assistant vice president of housing, food and retail services at the University of Cincinnati's main campus.
While still only a "fraction" of the U.S. municipal infrastructure market, the P3 market is building, Moody's Investors Service said in a report issued in March.
"Universities are also expanding their use of different types of P3s beyond privatized student housing to include other university facilities," Moody's said. The report added: "More local governments and higher education institutions are exploring different types of P3s with more hybrid P3s and DBF (design, build, finance) structures."
Universities might engage in P3s for a number of different reasons, including the efficiency that developers can bring to projects, Duncan said.
Increased operating costs for institutions and decreased state contributions have led to a financing gap, said Kurt Ehlers, managing director at Corvias Campus Living, a development group.
From fiscal 2008 to fiscal year 2016, state spending per student at public two- and four-year colleges decreased 18 percent, according to Michael Mitchell, a senior policy analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The National Council for Public-Private Partnerships, a non-profit that advocates for P3s, lists 18 types of P3 partnership structures on its website. The council did not have a national figure for how much money is being spent on higher education P3 projects.
A newer P3 structure gaining in popularity has the developer not only help finance, build or renovate a project, but also maintain the facility, sometimes for decades, Ehlers said. In return for maintaining standards, the developer can count on a fixed incentive fee.
"From a sustainability standpoint, these properties, these assets become self-sustaining," Ehlers said.
At the University of California in Merced, developer group Plenary Properties Merced will finance, build and maintain project areas that include student housing, academic facilities and recreation spaces.
The four-year $1.3 billion project will be financed through payments from the university and through funds contributed by the developer. UC Merced plans to fund its contribution of roughly $600 million by issuing bonds, said Stuart Marks, senior vice president at Plenary Group and a leader on the 2020 Project.
The developer will fund the difference via Plenary equity and privately placed notes, he said.
The university will pay the developer over 35 years while it provides continued maintenance of the facilities, Marks said.


By Stephanie Kelly NEW YORK, Aug 26 (Reuters) - U.S. public universities are increasingly turning to public-private partnerships to develop student housing a...


U.S. public universities turning to private sector to meet campus needs


The final curtain was drawn last week on 61 years of tapping the boards and teaching Leighton Buzzard how to dance.
Doreen Rolls, 79, the founder of Doreen’s School of Dance died on Saturday, August 20 after a year long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Doreen Rolls
The self-avowed ‘Queen of Leighton Buzzard’ claimed to know just about everyone in the town. And if she didn’t, granddaughter Alicia Taylor, 16, is sure that everyone else certainly knew her!
“I’ve had people coming up to me in the street who I don’t even know offering their condolences” said the GCSE student. “She knew everyone and taught generations of people how to dance.”
Doreen was born in Leighton Buzzard in 1937. She was spotted by a London dance teacher, Coral Holt – who had been evacuated to Leighton Buzzard during the Second World War – and took her first lessons at age three-and-a-half.
While still a youngster, Doreen became a teaching member of the United Teachers of Dance. In 1955 she realised her childhood dream of opening her own dance school in Leighton Buzzard, just shy of her 18th birthday. Doreen’s School of Dancing grew quickly into a successful establishment lasting over 60 years.
A young Doreen Rolls, aged 5 years
Each year, Doreen’s pupils at the dance school would form part of the procession of Leighton Carnival, and Doreen herself would take charge looking after the newly-crowned carnival queen.
Among the many people she came to know through her work with the carnival was its chairman, Cllr Mark Freeman.
He said: “I can honestly say that words cannot sum up Doreen’s contribution to carnival and to the town in general.
“Thousands of girls must have gone through her dance school in its 60 plus years! She was a tiny lady with a huge heart.”
A teenage Doreen Rolls, aged 17 years
A thanksgiving service in Doreen’s memory takes place at 1pm on Friday, September 2 at All Saints Church Leighton Buzzard. All are welcome, traditional dark clothing to be worn and pupils of the dancing school will wear uniform.
Send your tribute to news@lbobserver.co.uk
Doreen Rolls, daughter (Alison) and granddaughter(Alicia) - Going for Gold 2005

UPDATED: Goodbye to the Doreen - ‘Queen of Leighton’


The final curtain was drawn last week on 61 years of tapping the boards and teaching Leighton Buzzard how to dance.


North Korea executes vice premier in latest purge - South
By Ju-min Park
SEOUL, Aug 31 (Reuters) - North Korea has executed its vice premier for education and rebuked two high-ranking officials, South Korea said on Wednesday, which, if true, would mark a new series of measures by leader Kim Jong Un to discipline top aides.
Kim took power in 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, and his consolidation of power has included purges and executions of top officials, South Korean officials have said.
South Korea's Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said the government had confirmed the execution of the education official, Kim Yong Jin, "through various channels" but declined to provide details.
Kim Yong Chol, the influential head of the North's United Front Department which handles inter-Korean relations, was made to undergo "revolutionary measures," Jeong told a briefing.
Another ruling party official in the propaganda department was also reprimanded, Jeong said.
It is difficult to independently verify news about top officials in the North or the inner circle around the leader. Some previous reports of executions and purges in the reclusive state have proven inaccurate.
Vice Premier Kim Yong Jin was executed for not keeping his posture upright at a public event, a South Korean government official later told Reuters. Kim Yong Chol was punished for his overbearing demeanour, the official added, but gave no details.
The execution, by firing squad, took place in July and Kim Yong Chol was re-educated at a rural farm for a month until mid-August, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said.
The South's comments follow a news report on Tuesday that the North had executed two high-ranking officials for disobeying leader Kim Jong Un.
Kim Yong Jin was promoted to vice premier in 2012 after serving as education minister, according to a South Korean government database on key officials of the North.
Army general Kim Yong Chol headed the North Korean intelligence agency before taking his current position this year.
News of the reclusive state's new purges comes after the South said North Korea's deputy ambassador in London had defected and arrived in the South with his family, dealing an embarrassing blow to Kim's regime.
North Korea rarely announces purges or executions, although state media confirmed the 2012 execution of Kim's uncle, Jang Song Thaek, widely considered the country's second most powerful man, for factionalism and crimes damaging to the economy.


By Ju-min Park SEOUL, Aug 31 (Reuters) - North Korea has executed its vice premier for education and rebuked two high-ranking officials, South Korea said on ...


North Korea executes vice premier in latest purge - South


RALEIGH — Attorney General Roy Cooper has filed a lawsuit against a Robeson County man accused of pocketing money people gave him to buy manufactured homes that he never provided, according to a statement from Cooper’s office.
According to the statement, George Henry Smith “pressured consumers” to buy manufactured homes he wasn’t authorized to sell and then kept their deposits.
“Using the dream of homeownership to trick consumers out of their hard-earned money is just plain wrong,” Cooper said. “My office is here to protect consumers from these misleading and fraudulent business tactics.”
The Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Division filed the lawsuit against Smith on Thursday, asking the court to cancel all contracts buyers signed with Smith and to order Smith to pay refunds to consumers and $5,000 in civil penalties.
According to the Attorney General’s office, Smith advertised used and repossessed manufactured homes to consumers at Page Talk, a phone store where he worked, and at other locations in Robeson County. He targeted consumers who spoke limited English, using business cards in Spanish, the statement said.
Smith showed prospective buyers mobile homes he was not authorized to sell at Prevatte Home Sales and Terry Pate Home Sales in Lumberton, where he told consumers he was a salesman and sales lot employees he was an agent for the consumers.
Consumers paid deposits as large as $9,800. When the homes did not arrive, consumers contacted the sales lots and learned that the homes had already been sold or were never for sale. According to the statement, Smith has refused to refund the deposits, “leaving several families unable to afford rent and forced to move in with relatives.”
In the lawsuit, Cooper has asked that Smith be permanently barred from engaging in unfair or deceptive business practices, advertising or attempting to sell manufactured homes without a license, or accepting new orders or payments in North Carolina.
“Before you put down money on a manufactured home, check out the dealer or agent thoroughly,” Cooper said in the statement. “Buying a home is the biggest purchase many families will ever make, and you owe it to yourself to ask around in your community for a reputable place to make such an important purchase.”
Consumers can check out manufactured home companies with the Attorney General’s Office by calling 1-877-5-NO-SCAM or by contacting their local Better Business Bureau. Consumers can find out if someone is licensed to sell manufactured housing with the North Carolina Manufactured Housing Board.
Any consumer who has paid Smith for a manufactured home is encouraged to file a complaint with the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division in English by calling 1-877-5-NO-SCAM or in Spanish at 919-716-0058. Consumer complaints can also be filed at ncdoj.com in English or Spanish.
Roy Cooper http://laurinburgexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_roy-cooper.jpg Roy Cooper
Lawsuit accuses Robeson County man


American actor Gene Wilder has died at the age of 83.
Famous for his collaborations with actor/comedian Richard Pryor and director Mel Brooks, Wilder was perhaps best known for his performance as the titular character in 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Before that he had starred in Brooks’ Broadway spoof The Producers, for which he was Oscar nominated and went on to become one of the biggest comedy actors of the 70s and 80s.
He worked again with Brooks on the likes of Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein - earning another Oscar nod - and teamed up to huge success with Pryor for Silver Streak, Stir Crazy and See No Evil, Hear No Evil.
As tributes from co-stars, celebrity fans and ordinary cinema-goers poured in from around the world, pop culture blog i09 put together this compilation of some of Wilder’s greatest on-screen moments.

LEGEND: Gene Wilder’s greatest on-screen moments


American actor Gene Wilder has died at the age of 83.


Staff Writer, with CNA
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday pledged to increase the government’s budget for food safety by 50 percent next year to improve the nation’s food safety management and inspection system.
Food safety has become an important issue worldwide and her administration has made it one of its top priorities, Tsai said during a speech at a food safety summit held by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and National Taiwan University’s College of Public Health.
The key to maintaining food safety is establishing communication between the government, farmers, food companies and consumers, Tsai said.
When there is a loophole in the process from raw produce to food on the table, it is likely to trigger a food safety crisis, she said.
As part of its heightened food safety efforts, the government is preparing to set up an independent committee responsible for assessing food safety risks, and it will also step up food inspections and establish a regulatory agency for toxic substances, she said.
Along with those measures, the government will focus on improving production management systems, Tsai said, without elaborating.
The government allocates about NT$920 million (US$29 million) annually for food safety, Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said in late June.
Chen said the budget will be increased to NT$1.37 billion to support the government’s new food safety policies.
Taiwan has been hit by several food safety scandals in the past few years, including a case in which toxic plasticizers were found in sports drinks, teas and fruit jams in 2011 and a case of adulterated cooking oils in 2014.

Tsai pledges to increase spending for food safety


President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday pledged to increase the government’s budget for food safety by 50 percent next year to improve the nation’s food safety management and inspection system.


A senior clergyman has been suspended after being arrested on suspicion of voyeurism.
The Very Rev Martin Thrower, 55, was quizzed by police earlier this month and released on police bail but has been unable to return to his duties at the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, Suffolk.
St Marys Church Hadleigh Picture Mark Westley ANL-160830-170142009
His wife, Pauline Thrower, has issued a statement saying that her family was supporting him with “unconditional love” following his arrest.
It said: “It is with great sadness that we find ourselves in the situation we are now in.
“Whilst this has come as a shock to us as a family we are all supporting Martin with unconditional love at this difficult time.”
Rev Thrower has been rector of Hadleigh with Layham and Shelley, Suffolk, since 2009 and has since become Dean of Bocking and Rural Dean of Hadleigh, Suffolk.
John Howard, spokesman for the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, said: “I can confirm that The Very Rev Martin Thrower, Rector of Hadleigh, Layham and Shelley, and also rural dean of Hadleigh, has been arrested by Suffolk Constabulary for voyeurism.
“He has been suspended from all offices within the diocese until further notice. We have made arrangements to look after his church duties and to offer support to his parishes at this difficult time.
“We will make no further comment while the police investigation is ongoing.
“Our thoughts and prayers are very much with everyone affected by this situation.”
Rev Thrower attracted some controversy three years ago when he announced plans to remove many of the pews at St Mary’s Church, Hadleigh, Suffolk, to create a more flexible space.
The Victorian Society objected to the plans, but after getting permission from the church authorities this work was carried out - leading to the church being used much more by a wider variety of groups.
One of these is the Porch Project for youngsters from 11 to 20 who meet there twice a week for leisure activities.
Although it is backed by St Mary’s and meets there, it is a separate organisation and supports 300 youngsters in a town where there have been criticisms in the past of a lack of activities for young people.
At the time of the controversy over the pews Mr Thrower said: “Churches weren’t built with pews in - they were built to be the community space, to have the market in and host big meetings and we have an aspiration to return the building to being the true parish church.”
Suffolk Constabulary confirmed Rev Thrower was arrested on August 4 and has been bailed to return to the Police Investigation Centre in Martlesham in October.

Hadleigh clergyman Martin Thrower arrested on suspicion of voyeurism


Get the latest breaking news from the Bury Free Press - politics, transport, education, health, environment and more, updated daily.


VANCOUVER: A photograph of a crying elderly Canadian couple in wheelchairs, separated into two different care homes after 62 years of marriage because no beds were available together, has received international attention.
Wolfram Gottschalk, 83, of Surrey, British Columbia was put in an assisted living home in January after he suffered dementia health complications making it impossible for wife Anita, 81, to care for him at home. Four months later, Anita entered a different facility despite family efforts to keep them together.
The facilities are half an hour apart, with family driving Anita to see Wolfram several times a week.
Granddaughter Ashley Bartyik took “the saddest photo I have ever taken” when her grandparents were brought together recently. She notes that he reaches and cries out for her.
Wolfram was diagnosed with lymphoma Aug. 23. Now, the family is desperate for the couple to be together to live out their remaining days.
“I see desperation,” Bartyik said. “I see people married for 62 years pulled apart by a system. I see the love they have for each other.”
She took to social media to draw attention to the family’s plight and said the family had been working to find a care home to accommodate both grandparents. But the couple’s immediate health concerns led them to be put in separate facilities.
“It’s a little bit of a broken system right now,” Bartyik said.
She said the first call from the local health authority came Aug. 25, after the photo received international attention. “We were told he is a top priority,” Bartyik said. She said Anita is more aware of what is happening than her husband. She said her grandfather’s dementia is growing and the family is afraid Wolfram soon won’t remember Anita.
“With the news of cancer, our fight to have them in the same facility is even more urgent,” Bartyik said.
Fraser Health spokeswoman Tasleem Juma said the authority tries to keep families together but that Wolfram’s care needs are higher than Anita’s. She said a facility must meet both patients’ needs, and the authority expects to complete that work in several weeks.
“This is very upsetting for the family and is upsetting for us as well,” Juma said. “It’s not unusual for senior couples to need different levels of care at different times,” she said.
The couple met in Germany in 1954 and married four months later. Wolfram was a bricklayer and a shortage of work after World War II led the couple to immigrate to Canada.
Bartyik said the couple speaks in their native German in sad situations and Wolfram calls Anita “my little mouse” in German, Bartyik said. “That’s what he calls out when he sees her,” Bartyik said..

Elderly couple says goodbye after 62 Years


VANCOUVER: A photograph of a crying elderly Canadian couple in wheelchairs, separated into two different care homes after 62 years of marriage because no beds were available together, has received international attention.Wolfram Gottschalk, 83, of Surrey, British Columbia was put in an assisted living home in January after he suffered dementia health complications making it impossible for wife Anita, 81, to care for him at home. Four months later, Anita entered a different facility despite family efforts to keep them together.


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