Former Bank Teller Pleads Guilty to Federal Charge For Stealing More Than $185,000 From Homeless Customer

(USJusticeDepartment) WASHINGTON – A former bank teller pled guilty today to stealing more than $185,000 from a longtime customer of the bank, a homeless man, announced U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu and Andrew Vale, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

Phelon Davis, 29, of District Heights, Md., pled guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to interstate transportation of stolen property. The charge carries a statutory maximum of 10 years in prison and potential financial penalties. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Davis faces a likely range of 18 to 30 months in prison and a potential fine. The plea agreement calls for Davis to pay $185,440 in restitution and an equal amount in a forfeiture money judgment. Davis will be sentenced at a later date by the Honourable Emmet G. Sullivan.

According to a statement of offense submitted at the plea hearing, Davis worked in 2014 as a teller at a national bank in Washington, D.C. One of the bank’s longtime customers, who was homeless and earned money as a street vendor, maintained more than one account with the bank. However, by October 2014, his accounts had gone dormant due to a lack of activity.

In October 2014, the customer attempted to deposit thousands of dollars into one of his accounts. Because he lacked identification and the accounts had gone into dormant status, Davis instructed the customer where to go to obtain identification documents and a Social Security card. In reviewing the customer’s accounts, Davis noticed that the customer had a surprisingly large balance. As a result, Davis devised a scheme to fraudulently obtain the customer’s money.

Later that month, Davis used the identification means of the customer to fraudulently open a new account in the customer’s name. He forged the customer’s signature on the application and had an ATM card issued for the newly opened account. Over the next two years, without the customer’s knowledge, Davis logged into the customer’s accounts online and transferred money between the accounts. All told, from approximately Oct. 22, 2014 through Oct. 26, 2016, Davis used ATMs on 144 occasions to withdraw $185,440 from the customer’s accounts. The customer, meanwhile, did not receive bank statements during this time, did not use e-mail, and did not have access to a computer.

Davis used the stolen money for his personal benefit, including funding a down payment on his residence, paying off personal debt, and paying for vacations in Jamaica, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico.

In announcing the plea, U.S. Attorney Liu and Assistant Director in Charge Vale commended the work of those who investigated the case from the FBI’s Washington Field Office. They also expressed appreciation for the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Criminal Investigator Shannon Alexis, Paralegal Specialist Jessica Mundi, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kondi Kleinman, who is prosecuting the matter. (ontinueReading

Catalonia on collision course as banned referendum nears

- Barcelona, Spain (CNN) Spanish and Catalan authorities appeared set on a collision course Friday ahead of a disputed independence referendum that has polarized the country.

Catalonia's separatist government is adamant it will go ahead with Sunday's referendum despite the country's highest court barring it as unconstitutional.

Spain's central government insists the referendum is illegal, must not go ahead and that the result will not be recognized. It has drafted in thousands of extra police to try to prevent the vote taking place.
In the run-up to the vote, Catalan officials have accused the Spanish authorities of trying to suppress the people's democratic rights.

Joan Maria Piqué, international communications director for the government of Catalonia, told CNN on Friday that 200,000 ballot papers had been confiscated this week -- on top of almost 10 million the Spanish government said it had seized on September 20, along with voter lists and other paperwork.
According to Piqué, 14 Catalan government officials have been arrested over the referendum and 150 websites suspended. Mobile phones have also been seized.

The Spanish Data Protection Agency said in a statement Friday that people working in the polling stations could be fined up to 300,000 euros ($354,000) for doing so.

Despite the government's warnings, Catalan government spokesman Jordi Turull told reporters Friday that there would be 2,315 polling stations where people can vote, mostly inside schools. More than 5.3 million voters are on the electoral roll, according to the Catalan government.

Public support for the referendum within Catalonia, a wealthy region in Spain's northeast, has become increasingly vocal as the vote has neared. (ontinueReading

Entire island evacuated as volcanoes rumble in Bali and Vanuatu

(CNN)Thousands of people have been evacuated on the Indonesian island of Bali and on Ambae island in Vanuatu as two volcanoes threaten to erupt.

The entire population of Ambae is being moved from the path of the "increasingly active" Marano volcano, also known as Lombenben, according to the Pacific nation's government.

On the Indonesian island of Bali, more than 134,000 people have been taken to shelters as authorities warn that Mount Agung, in the island's north, could erupt at any time.

Both volcanoes sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of intense seismic activity that stretches 40,000 kilometers (25,000 miles) from New Zealand to South America.
That they're showing signs of erupting at the same time is pure coincidence, said Benjamin Andrews, of the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program. (ontinueReading

Iraqi Kurds vote in favor of independence as crisis escalates

via washingtonpost.com IRBIL, Iraq — Kurds voted overwhelmingly to secede from Iraq, with 92.7 percent approving a controversial referendum that was held Monday, according to an official tally released Wednesday.

While Kurds celebrated the result in the streets of their semiautonomous enclave in northern Iraq, the bid for independence continued to roil Iraq’s central government and powerful regional neighbors Turkey and Iran and is shaping up to usher in a period of contentious wrangling over its implementation.

Early Wednesday, Iraqi lawmakers authorized Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to deploy troops to a disputed city in northern Iraq and urged for legal action against Kurdish leaders as a showdown escalated over the vote. The parliament also called for the government to take control of all oil fields in the Kurdish region, bringing them under control of the ministry of oil.

Several regional airlines said they would suspend flights to airports in the Kurdish region in a sign of Baghdad’s pressure to try to punish and isolate the Kurds.

The vote has led to a tense standoff between the Kurdistan regional administration and Baghdad, setting off a crisis that has spiraled beyond Iraq’s borders.

The move toward autonomy, a long cherished dream for millions of Kurds, was vehemently opposed by the United States as well as Turkey and Iran, which have worried about their own restive Kurdish populations.

Several regional powers have threatened to impose a raft of punishing sanctions to forestall any further steps toward independence and force the Kurds to negotiate with Baghdad. Both Iran and Turkey have separately held military exercises along their borders with the Kurdish region ahead and since the vote.

Though it opposed the referendum and has since said it is disappointed the Kurds went ahead with it, the United States State Department said on Tuesday it would not effect Washington’s long-standing partnership with the regional government.

The flight suspensions, by Lebanese and Egyptian carriers, came after Abadi ordered Kurdish authorities to surrender control of the airports to the central government in Baghdad by Friday. If the order was ignored, he said, flights to the airports would be stopped.

In a speech to parliament on Wednesday, Abadi also demanded the annulment of the independence vote, saying Iraq would “not allow any violation of the constitution.”

“We will impose the rule of Iraq in all of the areas of the KRG, with the strength of the constitution,” he added. “There will be no fighting between the sons of one country, but we will impose the law, you will see.” (ontinueReading

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Related: Opinion: Independent Kurdistan Looks Like a Zimbabwe in the Making

Rights group accuses Myanmar of crimes against humanity

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YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar is committing crimes against humanity in its campaign against Muslim insurgents in Rakhine state, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday, calling for the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions and an arms embargo.

The U.N. refugee agency called for a redoubling of international aid for the 480,000 refugees - 60 percent of them children - who have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25 to escape the violence.

A Myanmar government spokesman rejected the accusation of crimes against humanity, saying there was no evidence.

Myanmar has also rejected U.N. accusations that its forces are engaged in ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in response to coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on the security forces on Aug. 25.

Refugees arriving in Bangladesh have accused the army and Buddhist vigilantes of trying to drive Rohingya out of Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

“The Burmese military is brutally expelling the Rohingya from northern Rakhine state,” said James Ross, legal and policy director at New York-based Human Rights Watch.

“The massacres of villagers and mass arson driving people from their homes are all crimes against humanity.”

Myanmar, also known as Burma, says its forces are fighting terrorists responsible for attacking the police and the army, killing civilians and torching villages.

The International Criminal Court defines crimes against humanity as acts including murder, torture, rape and deportation “when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack”.

Human Rights Watch said its research, supported by satellite imagery, had found crimes of deportation, forced population transfers, murder and rape. (ontinueReading

Kurds in Iraq vote in historic referendum for independence

washingtonpost.com - IRBIL, Iraq — Kurds packed polling stations across northern Iraq on Monday in a historic referendum on independence despite vigorous opposition from the country’s central government as well as regional and world powers.

Church bells tolled and imams implored Kurds to go out and vote over mosque loudspeakers when polls opened across the Kurdish region, a wide swath of mountains, oil fields and desert that has been run as a semiautonomous enclave for decades.

Local news showed prominent Kurdish figures casting their ballots, proudly displaying the purple voter mark on their fingers in what they described as a national duty to begin the slow process of secession from the Iraqi state.

The poll is expected to produce an overwhelming “yes” vote that many Kurds see as the culmination of a century-long and bloody struggle for self-determination. Kurdish authorities said 3.9 million people are eligible to vote. Irbil-based Rudaw TV said turnout reached at least 76 percent with long lines at some polling stations, citing election officials.

Results could be expected within 72 hours of polls closing at 6 p.m. Monday (11 a.m. Eastern time).

But there are fears that the vote could set off another unpredictable and destabilizing cascade across the region.

Neighboring Turkey and Iran worry that Iraq Kurdish secession could further embolden their own Kurdish minorities, including a separatist faction that has fought Turkish forces since the 1980s.

The United States, traditionally a strong ally of Iraq’s Kurds, has said the timing of the referendum threatens the fight against the Islamic State amid claims that the militant group is on its last legs. U.S. officials also worry that the Kurdish move will weaken Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ahead of national elections next year while empowering sectarian political forces.

For his part, Abadi tried up to the last minute to block the vote, and Iraqi leaders insist they will not recognize the outcome — setting up a potential political standoff.

But Iraq Kurds appeared intent on sending a powerful message as a distinct political force with a culture, language and history of their own. Many voters perceived the referendum as a symbol of their unity and separate political path, rather than an immediate separation from Iraq. (ontinueReading

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Related: Assyrian Expert: Support for Kurdish Self-Governance in Syria Will ‘Kill Christianity’

Assyrian statehood: preventing a rupture in Kurdish-American relations

Germany election: Merkel wins fourth term, says exit polls

BBC - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been re-elected for a fourth term in federal elections, exit polls suggest.

Her conservative CDU/CSU alliance won 32.5% of the vote, remaining the largest party in Germany's parliament, according to the ARD poll.

Its outgoing coalition partner, the social democratic SPD, said it would go into opposition after winning 20%.

In a result which shocked many, the nationalist AfD was on track to win 13.5%, making it the third party.

Addressing supporters, Mrs Merkel said she had hoped for a "better result" and talked about "extraordinary challenges".

She would listen, she said, to the "concerns and anxieties" of AfD voters in order to win them back.

The numbers mean the SPD, led by Martin Schulz, has fallen to a new post-World War Two low.

Mr Schulz said the result was the end of the "grand coalition" with Mrs Merkel's alliance.

"It's a difficult and bitter day for social democrats in Germany," he told supporters. "We haven't reached our objective."

AfD's performance, better than forecast in opinion polls, means the right-wing party will have seats in the Bundestag for the first time.

Prominent AfD figure Frauke Petry said on Twitter (in German) that Germany had experienced an incomparable "political earthquake".

The exit poll puts the Liberal FDP on 10.5%; the Greens on 9.5% and Die Linke (The Left) on 9%.

Mrs Merkel will now have to search for new coalition partners, a process that could take months. (ontinueReading

Musical interlude:

People Are Creeped Out by Walmart's New Delivery Service

via thestreet.com - Is there such thing as too much convenience?

After Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN - Get Report) acquired Whole Foods this summer, it comes as no surprise that competing grocers are stepping up their home delivery game. But Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT - Get Report) may be taking it to the next level.

The grocery supergiant unveiled a service in partnership with August Homes, a smart lock company, that would allow a Walmart delivery person to go into customers' homes to put their groceries directly into their fridges.

"What if Walmart could help busy families like mine ensure my fridge was always well-stocked?" Walmart e-commerce vice president Sloan Eddleston wrote in a blog post promoting the service. "What if we created a service that not only did my grocery shopping and brought everything to my home, but even went so far as to put it directly into my fridge?"

Of course, not everyone's onboard wit this this "in-fridge delivery," as Eddleston dubs it.

But others say it's not as creepy as it sounds.

"Five years ago consumers wouldn't have assumed they'd let a stranger drive them from the airport, much less stay in their house," said Forrest Collier, the CEO of eMeals, a platform that offers shopping lists based on recipes and loads the items into online shopping carts at Walmart and Kroger (KR - Get Report) . "Now both Uber and Airbnb are billion-dollar companies."

For now, the fridge restocking service will only be available to Silicon Valley users of August Home. Customers will get a notification through their August Home app every time a delivery person drops off their food.

Walmart now also boasts a two-day shipping program, store pickup for online orders, curbside pickup and a delivery service in which Walmart employees drop off online orders on their way home after work.

"I love everything Walmart is doing right now," said Michael McDevitt, the CEO of meal kit startup Terra's Kitchen. "When retail and e-commerce merged together, they found themselves a little behind the eight ball, but now they're going out and finding the best partners in the business and really going after innovation."

McDevitt told TheStreet that Walmart is ahead of the curve compared to its competitors like Kroger and Target Corporation (TGT - Get Report) , but, he added, "once Walmart does something, all the others will follow."

Of course, because grocers aren't known for their innovation, it's likely that consumers will see more partnerships between them and savvy e-commerce companies, as well as a foray into meal kits, the experts said.

Kurdish independence referendum: Turkey, Iran and Iraq unite in opposition to 'Kexit' vote

independent.co.uk - Turkey, Iran and Iraq have agreed to consider counter-measures against Kurdish northern Iraq over a planned independence referendum, Turkey's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the three countries voiced concerns that the referendum would endanger the gains Iraq has made against Islamic State, and reiterated their fears over the potential for new conflicts in the region.

"In the meeting, the three ministers emphasised that the referendum will not be beneficial for the Kurds and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), and agreed, in this regard, to consider taking counter-measures in coordination," the statement said.

The statement gave no details on the possible measures but said the ministers, who were in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly, called on the international community to intervene.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to impose sanctions against Kurdish northern Iraq. Turkish troops are also carrying out military exercises near the border.

The central government in Baghdad, Iraq's neighbours and Western powers fear the vote could divide the country and spark a wider regional conflict, after Arabs and Kurds cooperated to dislodge Isis from its stronghold in Mosul.

The statement said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and their Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari expressed concerns that conflicts surfacing as a result of the referendum would "prove difficult to contain".

But the Kurds say they are determined to go ahead with the vote, which, though non-binding, could trigger the process of separation in a country already divided along sectarian and ethnic lines.

The three ministers also voiced their "strong commitment" to maintain Iraq's territorial and political unity, the foreign ministry's statement said.

Turkey, which has pulled forward a cabinet meeting and national security council session to Friday over the referendum, will also convene parliament for an extraordinary meeting on Saturday, the chairman of the ruling AK Party's parliamentary group said on Thursday. (ontinueReading

Earth will face a sixth mass extinction by 2100 thanks to global warming, predicts mathematician

*for entertainment purposes only

- Climate change will have sent Earth on the way to its sixth mass extinction in less than a lifetime, new research warns.

By the year 2100, about 310 gigatons of carbon will have been added to the oceans - a potential 'tipping point' for ecological disaster, according to the study.

When CO2 dissolves into the ocean - as in the case of the End-Permian mass extinction - life on Earth is at risk.

Professor Daniel Rothman from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology came up with a simple mathematical formula to predict when the next mass extinction would take place.

The formula predicts that by the end of the century oceans will hold enough carbon to launch a mass extermination of species in the future.

The model showed the critical extra amount required is about 310 gigatons, which is around the best case scenario projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

And it's well below the worst of more than 500 gigatons that would far exceed the line.

In all scenarios the study found by the end of the century the carbon cycle will either be close to, or well beyond, the threshold for catastrophe.

It also found although mass extinction won't soon follow at the turn of the century the world may have tipped into 'unknown territory.'

Professor Rothman says it would take some time, about 10,000 years, for such ecological disasters to play out.

He said: 'This is not saying disaster occurs the next day.

'It's saying - if left unchecked - the carbon cycle would move into a realm which would be no longer stable and would behave in a way that would be difficult to predict.

'In the geologic past this type of behaviour is associated with mass extinction.'

In the modern era CO2 emissions have risen steadily since the 19th century, but deciphering whether this could lead to mass extinction has been challenging.

That's mainly because it's difficult to relate ancient carbon anomalies, occurring over thousands to millions of years, to today's disruptions which have taken place over little more than a century.

Professor Rothman's analysis identified 'thresholds of catastrophe' in the carbon cycle that, if exceeded, would lead to an unstable environment, and ultimately, mass extinction.

He had previously done work on the end-Permian extinction, or Great Dying.

Read more: dailymail.co.uk

Mexico: Huge earthquake topples buildings, killing more than 200

BBC - A strong earthquake has struck central Mexico, killing more than 200 people and toppling dozens of buildings in the capital, Mexico City.

At least 30 people, mostly children, died after a school collapsed in the capital, local media report.

The 7.1 magnitude quake also caused major damage in neighbouring states.

It struck shortly after many people had taken part in an earthquake drill, exactly 32 years after a quake killed thousands in Mexico City.

The country is prone to earthquakes and earlier this month an 8.1 magnitude tremor in the south left at least 90 people dead.

Though it struck a similar region, Tuesday's earthquake does not appear to be connected with the quake on 7 September, which was at least 30 times more energetic, the BBC's Jonathan Amos writes.
Where was worst hit?

The epicentre of the latest quake was near Atencingo in Puebla state, about 120km (75 miles) from Mexico City, with a depth of 51km, the US Geological Survey says.

The prolonged tremor hit at 13:14 local time (18:14 GMT) on Tuesday and sent thousands of residents into the streets.

An earlier death toll of nearly 250 was lowered to 217 by the country's national co-ordinator for civil protection:

Morelos state: 71 dead

Puebla state: 43 dead

Mexico City: 86 dead

Mexico state: 12 dead

Guerrero: 4 dead

Oaxaca: 1

As many as 37 people - 32 children and five adults - died when the Enrique Rébsamen elementary school collapsed in Mexico City's southern Coapa district, Efe news agency reports, quoting local media.

According to Mexican news site Reforma, 30 bodies have been found at the school and 22 people are missing.

Elsewhere, 15 people were killed when a church near Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano collapsed during Mass, Puebla's governor is quoted by Reuters news agency as saying. The volcano itself had a small eruption as a result of the tremor.

T-Mobile and Sprint are in active talks about a merger

via cnbc.com - T-Mobile and Sprint are in active talks about a merger, according to people close to the situation.

Both companies and their parents, Deutsche Telekom and Softbank, have been in frequent conversations about a stock-for-stock merger in which T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom would emerge as the majority owner.

People close to the situation stress that negotiators are still weeks away from finalizing a deal and believe the chances of reaching an agreement are not assured. The two sides have not yet set an exchange ratio for a deal, but are currently engaged in talks to hammer out a term sheet.

The companies declined to comment on the report.

T-Mobile and Sprint have had a seemingly endless dalliance over the years since Softbank took control of Sprint, pushed by the prospect of billions of dollars in cost synergies that a merger would bring. The last time the two companies held meaningful talks earlier this year, Softbank's Masayoshi Son indicated a willingness to sell Sprint to T-Mobile.

This time, given the all-stock nature contemplated, Softbank would emerge as a large minority holder in any combination. While T-Mobile CEO John Legere is expected to lead any combination that results from a merger, Son has made it clear he wants a say in how the company is run. That desire adds another layer of complexity to an already difficult transaction.

T-Mobile has not begun due diligence on Sprint, yet another step that could change current price expectations or the willingness to move forward.

The biggest issue is whether any merger between the No. 3 and No. 4 wireless carriers in the nation would be approved by antitrust regulators. The risk of rejection by the Department of Justice will play an important role in the final decision made by both sides as to whether they will proceed with a deal.

Given Softbank's high level of engagement on a Sprint-T-Mobile deal,its quixotic campaign to try to buy Charter Communications has slowed considerably. The effort is on hold. CNBC has reported it involved the creation of a new company infused with vast amounts of equity and debt to buy Charter at a premium and the 17 percent of Sprint that Softbank does not own. Dutch telecom company Altice has been actively soliciting funds to mount its own bid for Charter should Softbank make a move. (ontinueReading

India and China may have pulled back on the Himalayan frontier, but the bilateral chill is real

quartzindia - One week can be a long time in inter-state relations. In a week’s time, India and China had kissed and made up after their armies stood eyeball to eyeball at the Doklam Plateau for more than two months. The trouble at the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction began on June 16 when Indian soldiers detected construction activity on what is considered disputed territory on the Doklam Plateau. Chinese workers seemed to be building a road that would have allowed China to project power further into the territory claimed by Bhutan, thereby giving Beijing an ability to cut India’s northeast from the mainland.

India’s response was immediate. The government sent troops into Bhutan to halt the road-building, demanding restoration of status quo ante. As the Indian external affairs minister explained in the Indian parliament: “Our (Indian) concerns emanate from Chinese action on the ground which have implications for the determination of the tri-junction boundary point between India, China and Bhutan and the alignment of India-China boundary in the Sikkim sector.” Sushma Swaraj added that “dialogue is the only way out of the Doklam standoff…and this should be seen in the context of the entire bilateral relationship.”

China, for its part, demanded that India withdraw unconditionally from Doklam before any meaningful bilateral talks could be held, and state-owned media launched a shrill campaign, at times threatening war and issuing reminders of the 1962 conflict between the two countries and India’s humiliating defeat. New Delhi was responsible in handling the crisis—refusing to be drawn into escalation by bellicose rhetoric and not losing its nerve. Tensions continued to rise through Aug. 26 when disengagement was announced and an understanding reached with the withdrawal of Indian troops and cessation of Chinese road construction in the area.

Notwithstanding the spin used by both sides to justify disengagement, the BRICS summit played a key role in the final outcome as representatives of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa headed for Xiamen in early September. It would have been difficult for Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to justify his presence at the summit with Indian and Chinese forces facing off each other at the border. And for Chinese president Xi Jinping, keen on presenting himself as a global statesman, India’s absence would have meant the beginning of the end of BRICS, tarnishing Xi’s reputation in the run-up to the critical Communist Party Congress in October.

As the scene shifted to Xiamen for the BRICS summit, India underscored its dissatisfaction with how BRICS member states dealt with the issue of terrorism during the previous summit in Goa. Despite India making terrorism a priority, China not only blocked India’s attempts to include the names of Pakistan-based terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) in the 2016 BRICS declaration, but openly defended Pakistan after the summit, saying it opposed linking any country or religion with terror and asked the world community to acknowledge Pakistan’s “great sacrifices.”

A surprise was in store when this year’s BRICS declaration named LeT and JeM along with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, reiterating agreements arrived at during the 2016 Heart of Asia summit. The agreement was not merely an acknowledgment that BRICS member states face common threats in the form of terrorism, but also a tribute to India’s consistently strong stand on this issue. China warned Modi not to raise bilateral terrorism-related issues at the BRICS summit, but India made sure to put these on the agenda. By listing Pakistan-based terror organisations for the first time, the Xiamen declaration underlined changing regional realities for Pakistan, accustomed to using China as a shield against global pressure on terror.

Modi and Xi signaled efforts to move away from the bitterness engendered by the short-lived Doklam standoff by managing to present a united front at the BRICS summit. They agreed that Doklam-like situations should not be allowed to recur by charting new mechanisms to strengthen border-defence agreements that have held in the past and identified the need for closer communications between defence and security personnel. Both nations also sought convergence at the global level by underscoring their positions resisting economic protectionism of the kind that the Trump administration has been espousing, and the BRICS countries committed to an “open and inclusive” multilateral trading system. (ontinueReading

4 U.S. women attacked with acid in France; terrorism not suspected

[via usatoday.com] PARIS — Four young American women were attacked with acid Sunday (Sept 17) in the French city of Marseille by a woman who has been arrested, the Marseille prosecutor’s office said. Terrorism was not suspected, authorities said.

Two of the tourists were injured in the face in the attack in the city’s main Saint Charles train station and one of them has a possible eye injury, a spokeswoman for the Marseille prosecutor’s office told the Associated Press in a phone call.

She said all four of the women, who are in their 20s, have been hospitalized, two of them for shock.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said its counter-terrorism division had not assumed jurisdiction for the attack. The prosecutor’s office has responsibility for all terror-related cases in France.

Regional newspaper La Provence, quoting unidentified police officials, reported that the female suspect, 41, had a history of mental health problems and didn’t try to flee the site of the attack.

The spokeswoman at the Marseille prosecutor's office said the suspect did not make any extremist threats or declarations during the attack. She said there were no obvious indications that the woman’s actions were terror-related, but added that officials could not 100% rule out terror links at such an early stage of the investigation.

The spokeswoman spoke on condition of anonymity, per the custom of the French judicial system.

She did not release any further details about the suspects or the victims, including where in the United States the tourists were from.

The Marseille fire department was alerted just after 11 a.m. and dispatched four vehicles and 14 firefighters to the train station, a department spokeswoman said.

Two of the Americans were “slightly injured” with acid but did not require emergency medical treatment from medics at the scene, the spokeswoman said. She requested anonymity in keeping with fire department protocol.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Paris said the U.S. consulate in Marseille was in contact with French authorities about the attack investigation and the condition of the American women.

U.S. authorities in France were not immediately commenting further on what happened to protect the privacy of the American tourists, embassy spokesman Alex Daniels said.

Marseille is a port city in southern France that is closer to Barcelona than Paris.

In previous incidents in Marseille, a driver deliberately rammed into two bus stops last month, killing a woman, but officials said it wasn’t terror related.

In April, French police said they thwarted an imminent “terror attack” and arrested two suspected radicals in Marseille, just days before the first round of France’s presidential election. Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters the two suspects “were getting ready to carry out an imminent, violent action” on French territory.

In January 2016, a 15-year-old Turkish Kurd was arrested after attacking a Jewish teacher on a Marseille street. He told police he acted in the name of the Islamic State. (ontinueReading

More: Why acid attacks are on the rise in Britain

- What Happens When You Ban Guns and Knives

Toys R Us considering bankruptcy filing due to shrinking sales

via .thedrum.com - American company Toys R Us maybe set to file for bankruptcy as a result of the decline in sales and heightened competition according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

The report also clained that the pressure from suppliers has intensified for Toys R Us and the company and its restructuring advisers are considering filing for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Virginia.

Toys R Us has hired lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis to help restructure $400m debt the company will have to repay in 2018.

Toys R Us has been unable to keep up with the demands of consumers who have turned to platforms like Amazon and Walmart to purchase toys in recent years.

In the 80s, one of the most instantly recognised adverts on UK TV, was released by Toys R Us. (ontinueReading

Terrorist Device Detonates on London Subway, Injuring Commuters

LONDON — A device that triggered a rush-hour fire aboard a subway train in the British capital was being investigated as terrorism Friday, police said.

Authorities confirmed 23 people had been injured at Parsons Green Tube station in southwest London. None of their wounds — mostly superficial burns — were considered serious or life-threatening.

Investigators were examining the remains of an improvised explosive device.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, the senior national coordinator for counterterrorism policing, said the detonation was being treated as a "terrorist incident."

Police said no arrests had been made but would not comment on the manhunt for the culprit. London subway stations are well-equipped with surveillance cameras.

One photo shared on social media showed a bucket on fire. Wires appeared to be protruding from the plastic bag the container had been carried in. The photos do not show any extensive damage to the inside of the train.

India's first bullet train project fast-tracks Japanese ties

AHMEDABAD: Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday inaugurated India's first bullet train project - a US$19 billion line in the home state of Indian leader Narendra Modi intended to revitalise the country's vast but dilapidated network.

The initiative is seen as emblematic of fast warming relations between New Delhi and Tokyo, who are seeking to combat China's growing influence.

It is also a new beginning for a rail transport system plagued by accidents and chronic delays.

The line, using Japanese trains and technology, will link Ahmedabad to India's financial capital Mumbai and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2023.

The 500 kilometre (310 mile) journey will be cut from eight hours now to just over two hours when services start.

"I hope to enjoy the beauty of India through the windows of the bullet train with Modi on my side when I come to India in a few years," Abe told a ceremony in Ahmedabad.

"It marks the beginning of a new chapter in ties between India and Japan."

Abe's visit comes just after a border standoff between India and China in a disputed and strategically important Himalayan area. The two prime ministers both hailed the strengthened ties between their countries.

"The Indo-Japan relationship is not just about bilateral trade. It has developed into a strategic and global partnership in the Indian-Pacific region," said Abe.

Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/india-s-first-bullet-train-project-fast-tracks-japanese-ties-9216056

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Related:  India, Japan cannot challenge China: Chinese daily:

BEIJING: As Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits India, a Chinese daily has said that close ties between New Delhi and Tokyo posed no "grave threat" to Beijing.

Read more at:
economictimes.indiatimes.com

San Diego starts cleansing sidewalks, streets to combat hepatitis A

sandiegouniontribune.com - Crews from the company Clean Harbors began power-washing sidewalks and street areas with a bleach and chlorine solution in downtown San Diego on Monday (Sept 11) as part of an effort to stop the spread of hepatitis A among homeless people.

The area cleaned Monday included sidewalks around 17th Street and Imperial Avenue, where hundreds of homeless congregate and live in tents and other shelters along city streets. The cleanings will continue in other downtown areas on Wednesday and Friday and repeat every other week.

A hepatitis A outbreak has left 15 homeless people dead and hospitalized nearly 300 others over the past 10 months. A lack of adequate access to restrooms, showers and hand-washing stations is believed to have contributed to the spread.

Besides starting the washing program Monday, the city announced it was extending the hours of 14 restrooms in Balboa Park, which will be open 24 hours a day starting Tuesday.

“By disinfecting our sidewalks and making additional public restrooms available 24/7, we’re following the direction of County health officials to address the unsanitary conditions that have helped fuel this outbreak,” said Craig Gustafson, senior director of communications for Mayor Kevin Faulconer. “We’re taking swift action to eradicate this virus from our streets and keep our most vulnerable residents safe.”

On Friday, Gustafson said Faulconer expected to announce this week a plan to set up multiple large tents to provide temporary, immediate shelter relief for hundreds of homeless people. Those tents will be equipped with restrooms, hand-washing stations and showers, he said.

The sidewalk washings and extended restroom hours this week were in response to a letter sent by county health official Aug. 31 asking the city to move forward with a list of specific sanitation actions to help control the spread of hepatitis A.

The county gave the city five business days to respond with the plan for remedying what it called a “fecally contaminated environment” downtown.

On Monday, county Communications Director Michael Workman said health officials still were evaluating the city’s response to the request.

The county also has taken steps to address the outbreak and plans to expand its efforts to other cities in the region soon.

County health officials already have provided hepatitis vaccinations to 19,000 people, including 7,300 considered to be at-risk of contracting the disease. The county also hired its own contractor to install 40 hand-washing stations in areas where the homeless often gather, and it has plans to install more this week.

The city has identified three downtown areas to be cleaned every other week. Monday’s areas included the sidewalks along Imperial Avenue below the Interstate 5 overpass, where the city had installed jagged rocks in an attempt to deter homeless people from camping in April 2016. Homeless people still used the site, prompting a need to wash the area.

The Monday cleaning area also includes streets north of National Avenue, south of F Street, west of 22nd Street and east of 10th Avenue. It also includes several blocks north of F Street and south of B Street between 10th Avenue and 17th Street.

On Wednesdays, crews will move west and clean streets north of Broadway, south of Fir Street, west of 10th Avenue and east of Pacific Highway.

On Fridays, crews will clean streets north of Harbor Drive, south of Broadway, west of 10th Avenue and east of Pacific Highway. (ontinueReading

US: Middle-class income hit highest level on record in 2016, Census Bureau reports

via washingtonpost.com - America's middle class had its highest-earning year ever in 2016, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

Median household income in America was $59,039 last year, surpassing the previous high of $58,655 set in 1999, the Census Bureau said. The figure is adjusted for inflation and is one of the most closely watched indicators of how the middle class is faring financially, as the Census surveys nearly 100,000 homes.

The Census said the uptick in earnings occurred because so many people found full-time jobs — or better-paying jobs — last year.

America's poverty rate also fell to 12.7 percent, the lowest since 2007, the year before the financial crisis hit. The percent of Americans without health insurance for the entire year also dropped in 2016 to just 8.8 percent, largely thanks to expanding coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Economists welcomed the news as evidence the recovery had finally taken hold after years of frustration for the middle class as they watched the stock market soar but their incomes barely budge. Donald Trump tapped into this anger in the 2016 campaign, often saying people were no better off economically than they were in 2000.

“The slow early-2000s recovery and expansion, combined with the damage done by the Great Recession, has led to nearly two decades of lost income growth for typical American households,” says economist Elise Gould of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

Almost every demographic group saw an increase in income last year, Census officials found. They cautioned, however, that the Census changed its methodology in 2014, so they are hesitant to definitively say it's the highest median ever, but they acknowledge there has been very strong growth in the past two years.

Credit reporting firm Equifax says data breach could potentially affect 143 million US consumers

via cnbc.com - Equifax, which supplies credit information and other information services, said Thursday that a data breach could potentially affect 143 million consumers in the United States.

The population of the U.S. was about 324 million in 2017, according to Census Bureau estimates, which means the Equifax incident affects a huge portion of the country.

Equifax said it discovered the breach on July 29. "Criminals exploited a U.S. website application vulnerability to gain access to certain files," the company said.

SEC filings show that three Equifax executives – Chief Financial Officer John Gamble Jr., workforce solutions president Rodolfo Ploder and U.S. information solutions president Joseph Loughran – sold nearly $2 million in shares in the company days after the cyberattack was discovered. It was unclear whether their share sales had anything to do with the breach.

Equifax said in a statement that the three executives sold a "small percentage" of their shares on Tuesday, August 1, and Wednesday, August 2, adding they "had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred at the time they sold their shares."

The SEC declined to comment on the share sales.

Bloomberg News first reported the share sales.

Shares of Equifax fell more than 12 percent in after-hours trading.

The company said the exposed data include names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, addresses and some driver's license numbers, all of which Equifax aims to protect for its customers.

Equifax added that 209,000 U.S. credit card numbers were obtained, in addition to "certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 U.S. consumers."

Equifax Chairman and CEO Richard Smith apologized to consumers and customers and noted that he's aware the breach affects what the company is supposed to protect.

Equifax said it is now alerting customers whose information was included in the breach via mail, and is working with state and federal authorities. Its private investigation into the breach is complete. NBC News, citing law enforcement sources, reported that the FBI was actively investigating the incident and that the company has been cooperating with the bureau. (ontinueReading

China plans to ban sales of fossil fuel cars entirely

via techcrunch.com - China’s big electric vehicle push is about to get even bigger: The country is planning to end the sale of fossil fuel-powered vehicles entirely, with regulators working currently on a timetable of when the ban will ultimately take effect, according to Bloomberg.

China is the world’s largest auto market, with 28.03 million vehicles sold last year, a boost in demand of 13.7 percent vs. 2015 sales numbers. The nation has already done a lot to incentivize manufacturers to develop and sell new EVs, including allowing foreign automakers to create a third joint venture with local automakers (a standard requirement for doing business in the country for auto OEMs) so long as it’s dedicated to the creation of EVs exclusively.

The government has also created a number of incentive programs for OEMs, including subsidies. This will add to its positive efforts to drive more EV sales in China with the ultimate negative condition on the other side – at some point, automakers just won’t be able to do business at all in the country if they’re still selling a mix of fossil fuel and electrified vehicles.

This isn’t the first time a governing body has said it would eventually phase out the sale of traditional fuel vehicles: France said it will stop selling fossil fuel cars by 2040 in July, and the UK has committed to the same timeline for sales of those vehicles.

Critics have suggested that a ban on fossil fuel vehicles is likely impractical, because it would stretch an already taxed supply chain, which has some hard limits in terms of the volume of lithium available for lithium-ion battery cells, for instance. But automakers are already responding to this rising trend with expanded EV model lineups and, in the case of Volvo for instance, plans to eventually sell exclusively all-electric or hybrid cars.

China’s timeline for establishing this ban will be crucial in terms of how quickly we see the global shift to EVs occur, as it’s going to be an immense lever in terms of automaker strategic planning internationally, as well as in the country. (ontinueReading

Danish official: No room for refugees from UN this year

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Denmark’s minority center-right government doesn’t want to accept any refugees this year that come in under a U.N. quota system, an official said Saturday.

The U.N. refugee agency has made deals with countries, including Denmark, to take in a number of refugees each year. Since 1989, Denmark has accepted about 500 such refugees every year.

But now Denmark “doesn’t want to commit ourselves,” said Integration Minister Inger Stoejberg, considered an immigration hardliner. “I don’t believe we have room for quota refugees this year.”

Stoejberg said Denmark had received about 56,000 asylum-seekers since 2012 and many of them are expected to try to bring relatives in. She said those already in Denmark should be integrated first.

The anti-immigration Danish People’s Party, which backs the government, supports the proposal.

Holger K. Nielsen, a senior member of the small opposition Socialist People’s Party, said it was “totally wrong of Stoejberg to close the door to quota refugees,” saying she was letting down “the weakest refugees in the world.”

No date for a vote in the 179-seat Parliament was set.

Denmark has received about 20,000 asylum-seekers in 2015, a small number compared with its Swedish and German neighbors.

Last year, Stoejberg said the reception of refugees through the UNHCR program had been postponed, saying Danish municipalities should have “a little breathing room to better take care of those who have already arrived.” (ontinueReading

We were the world: 8.2-magnitude earthquake strikes off southern Mexico leaving 32 dead

Trump's fault

via Businessinsider.com - 32 people have reportedly died after an 8.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mexico overnight, according to officials in the country.

Buildings collapsed and thousands of people were evacuated after the powerful tremor struck off the coast of Chiapas, the country's southernmost state, on Thursday night just before midnight local time.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said in a press conference that the earthquake was the strongest to strike the country in a century and that 50 million of his nation's 120 million citizens would have felt its force.

The death toll rose to 32 on Friday morning after governors in the Mexican states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Tabasco confirmed a number of fatalities in their regions.

Tsunami waves have since been recorded as a result of the quake and could reach 3 meters, or 10 feet, according to the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, though they are unlikely to be powerful enough to cause major destruction.

On Friday morning Oaxaca state governor Alejandro Murat said that 23 people had died there. According to the Reuters news agency, most of them were from the town of Juchitan, where a hotel, a bar and parts of a town hall were reduced to rubble.

An emergency services spokesman said seven people had died in Chiapas. Governor Manuel Velasco Coello had earlier said three of the deaths were in the two of San Cristobal.

Tabasco governor Arturo Nunez said two children died in his state. One was crushed by a collapsing wall, he said, while the other was a baby in hospital who died when the quake cut power to his ventilator.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake's epicenter was at sea 165 kilometers, or 102 miles, west of the southern Chiapas city of Tapachula. It had a depth of 35 kilometers, or about 20 miles, and struck at 11:49 p.m. local time on Thursday.

"The house moved like chewing gum and the light and internet went out momentarily," said Rodrigo Soberanes, who lives near San Cristobal, a poor, largely indigenous state popular with tourists.

Civil Defense in Chiapas said on its Twitter account that its personnel were in the streets aiding people and warned residents to prepare for aftershocks. But it made no immediate comment about damage.

The quake was so powerful that frightened residents in Mexico City more than 1,000 kilometers, or 650 miles, away fled apartment buildings, often in their pajamas, and gathered in groups in the street.

Buildings swayed strongly for more than a minute, loosening light fixtures from ceilings.

Helicopters crisscrossed the sky above Mexico City with spotlights. Some neighborhoods kept electricity while others were in darkness.

The Mexico earthquake comes just as the southeast of America braces for Hurricane Irma, which is being called a "potentially catastrophic" Category 5 storm — and just weeks after Hurricane Harvey slammed Texas and Louisiana, killing at least 70 people. (ontinueReading

Spain's Catalonia region sets independence vote for Oct. 1 2017 despite protest from Madrid

via foxnews.com - Spain’s prosperous Catalonia region has set the date for a vote for independence – despite anger coming out of the country’s capital city.

The region’s pro-independence ruling government managed to get enough votes to pass the referendum law amid a testy parliament session that lasted 11 hours and saw 52 opposition members walk out of the chamber in protest.

The support of 72 pro-independence lawmakers was enough to pass the measure, after the opposition members walked out before the voting started. Eleven lawmakers abstained from voting.

The vote for independence on Oct. 1, however, will face a tough test from the Spanish government by appealing to the country’s constitutional court, which has previously ruled that a referendum can only be called with the approval of central authorities.

Catalonia regional President Carles Puigdemont signed a decree officially calling for a “self-determination referendum of Catalonia." His entire cabinet, which includes politicians from various pro-independence parties, also approved the document to dilute responsibility is case of prosecution.

The referendum clashes with the Spanish Constitution, which only gives national authorities the right to call such a vote. But Catalonia's pro-independence lawmakers approved a bill earlier Wednesday that is meant to provide a legal justification for the independence vote.

“The concert of state and patriotic unities that go beyond the rights of citizens don’t have a place in today’s Europe,” Puigdemont said. "Catalonia belongs to this world that looks forward, and that's why it will decide its own future on the 1st of October."

Catalonia's renewed push for secession has opened one of Spain's deepest political and institutional crises of recent years. Although much of the blame has been put on the pro-independence bloc in the regional parliament, Rajoy's conservative government has been criticized for letting the situation get this far.

Puigdemont's government claims it has a democratic mandate to seek a binding independence referendum based on the universal right to self-determination. However, approval for the referendum law came after more than 11 hours of heated debate.

The parliamentary debate in Barcelona saw tensions flare when the regional body's top speaker, Carme Forcadell, announced that a vote on the bill would proceed before the legislation had undergone the customary legal vetting. The vote had not appeared on the day's agenda until the very last minute.

The Spanish government is trying to strike a delicate balance between offsetting the secessionist defiance and staying away from more dramatic measures that would further inflame anti-Spanish sentiments, such as suspending Catalonia's autonomous powers or declaring a state of emergency that would bring the army into the mix.

The Catalonia region centered on Barcelona generates a fifth of Spain's gross domestic product. It self-governs in several important areas, such as police, health and education. But key areas such as taxes, foreign affairs and most infrastructures are in the hands of the Spanish government.

Both Catalan and Spanish are spoken in the region of 7.5 million people, and many Catalans feel strongly about their cultural heritage and traditions.

The pro-independence bloc has argued that full control would benefit Catalonia, an idea that gained support in times of high unemployment and harsh austerity measures as a result of Spain's 2008-2013 financial crisis. (ontinueReading

Indivisible?: Britain could still reverse Brexit, former minister Heseltine says

LONDON (Reuters) - Brexit could be reversed if economic pain prompts a change in public opinion that brings a new generation of political leaders to power in Britain, former Conservative minister Michael Heseltine said.

Heseltine, who helped topple Margaret Thatcher in 1990 but ultimately failed to win the top job, said that Britain could face another election in just two years and that Prime Minister Theresa May would not lead the party into that election.

A supporter of EU membership, Heseltine said he saw a scenario in which Britain would not leave the European Union as scheduled in late March 2019.

“There is now a possibility that Brexit will not happen, but it will need a change in public opinion,” Heseltine, 84, told Reuters in an interview.

“There may be indications but there is no really substantive evidence of public opinion moving but I think that it will happen. My guess is that public opinion will move,” he said.

Heseltine said the shift in Brexit policy by the opposition Labour Party - including staying in the European single market and customs union for a transitional period - indicated Labour had sensed the wind of a change in public opinion.

May, who quietly opposed Brexit ahead of the referendum, has formally notified the bloc of Britain’s intention to leave and divorce talks are under way.

Some European leaders have suggested Britain could change its mind, while former Conservative prime minister John Major has said there is a credible case for giving Britons a second vote on the Brexit deal.

His successor, Labour’s Tony Blair, has said repeatedly that Brexit can and should be stopped.

In the June 2016 referendum voters in the United Kingdom backed leaving the EU by a margin of 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent.

The world’s fifth-biggest economy initially withstood the shock of the Brexit vote, but growth began to slow sharply this year as inflation rose on the falling value of the pound and hit households. (ontinueReading

Zika virus can kill brain tumor cells, Washington University researchers discover

StLouisPostDispatch - Scientists who study viruses have long tried to harness their power to cause illness in healthy cells, and engineer them to attack and destroy cancer cells.

Now researchers at Washington University say they have shown that the Zika virus can kill stem cells in brain tumors. Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that can cause severe brain damage in the developing fetus if the mother catches the virus when pregnant.

Since Zika affects stem cells in the fetus' brain, scientists theorized that it might be able to infect stem cells in brain tumors.

"We take a virus, learn how it works and then we leverage it," said Dr. Michael Diamond, a professor of molecular microbiology, pathology and immunology. "Let's take advantage of what it's good at, use it to eradicate cells we don't want. Take viruses that would normally do some damage and make them do some good."

Researcher Zhe Zhu thought that glioblastoma stem cells, which stubbornly resist chemotherapy and radiation to regrow in most patients, looked a lot like the stem cells in a fast growing fetal brain. Since the Zika virus kills those fetal cells, maybe it would do the same to the tumor cells.

Instead of injecting Zika virus into the brain, the scientists engineered a designer version of the virus that would be better controlled by the immune system if it invaded healthy cells.

They tested the Zika virus on glioblastoma stem cells that had been surgically removed from patients. The virus killed the cancer stem cells, which are most resistant to standard therapies. The experiment also worked in mice with brain tumors. The tumors shrunk and the mice lived longer than those treated with a placebo.

The next step is to see if the virus could kill human tumor stem cells in mice. If successful, then a clinical trial for humans could be designed.

Glioblastoma is the most common form of brain cancer. It affects about 12,000 people each year in the U.S., including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who recently announced his diagnosis.

The research, a collaboration with U.C. San Diego, was published today in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. (ontinueReading

What is Labor Day? Why Congress Made Labor Day a National Holiday

Time.com- Nowadays, many think of the Labor Day holiday in the U.S., which falls on the first Monday in September, as a day for cookouts or shopping deals. But its origins date back to two gatherings of another, more politically motivated sort.

One was a “monster labor festival” featuring of a parade of unions and accompanying picnic, which took place on Sept. 5, 1882, in a New York City park. That gathering is thought to have attracted as many as 10,000 marchers, according to Linda Stinson, a former Department of Labor historian. They listened to speeches in support of workers' rights, and — in lighthearted activities more in the spirit of what goes on today — people drank beer, danced and set off fireworks.

The other event was a darker one. On May 11, 1894, in a company town outside Chicago, employees of the railway sleeping car mastermind George Pullman went on strike when their wages didn't go up after the economy tanked. In a show of solidarity, the American Railway Union — said to have boasted 150,000 members at the time and led by famous socialist Eugene Debs — refused to operate Pullman train cars, snarling mail delivery and prompting President Grover Cleveland to send in federal troops to break up the strike. Rioting and arson broke out, and it evolved into what's now considered one of the bloodiest episodes in American labor history.

Some experts say Cleveland supported the idea of such a holiday, which already existed in several states, in an effort to make peace with the unions before he ran for re-election. (He would lose anyway.) But perhaps one of the most eloquent explanations of why the federal government saw fit to declare the holiday can be found in a Congressional committee report on the matter.

Sen. James Henderson Kyle of South Dakota introduced a bill, S. 730, to Congress shortly after the Pullman strike, proposing Labor Day be the first Monday in September. Here's how Rep. Lawrence McGann (D-IL), who sat on the Committee on Labor, argued for the holiday in a report submitted on May 15, 1894:

 - The use of national holidays is to emphasize some great event or principle in the minds of the people by giving them a day of rest and recreation, a day of enjoyment, in commemoration of it. By making one day in each year a public holiday for the benefit of workingmen the equality and dignity of labor is emphasized. Nothing is more important to the public weal than that the nobility of labor be maintained. So long as the laboring man can feel that he holds an honorable as well as useful place in the body politic, so long will he be a loyal and faithful citizen.

The celebration of Labor Day as a national holiday will in time naturally lead to an honorable emulation among the different crafts beneficial to them and to the whole public. It will tend to increase the feeling of common brotherhood among men of all crafts and callings, and at the same time kindle an honorable desire in each craft to surpass the rest.

There can be no substantial objection to making one day in the year a national holiday for the benefit of labor. The labor organizations of the whole country, representing the great body of our artisan population, request it. They are the ones most interested. They desire it and should have it. If the farmers, manufacturers, and professional men are indifferent to the measure, or even oppose it, which there is no reason to believe, that still would constitute no good objection, for their work can be continued on holidays as well as on other days if they so desire it. Workingmen should have one day in the year peculiarly their own. Nor will their employers lose anything by it. Workingmen are benefited by a reasonable amount of rest and recreation. Whatever makes a workingman more of a man makes him more useful as a craftsman.

Cleveland signed the bill into law on June 28, 1894.

Now, more than a century later, Labor Day is firmly entrenched on the American calendar — but it does still come with at least one, much smaller, controversy: the old fashion debate over whether it's taboo to wear white after Labor Day.
(ontinueReading

Germany: Frankfurt evacuates thousands to defuse World War II bomb

via dw.com - Thousands of residents were forced to evacuate a Frankfurt district on Sunday before experts started to defuse a huge World War II-era bomb found at a construction site earlier in the week.

Authorities cleared nearly 60,000 people from a 1.5 kilometer (0.57 square mile) area in the Westend district, warning that the 1.8 metric ton (4,000-pound) bomb could flatten an entire block if it exploded.

By 3 p.m. local time (1300 UTC) police reported that one fuse had been successfully removed from the device.

Ambulances and transport vehicles also helped move the elderly and sick from the area, which includes two hospitals and Germany's central bank.

The city's trade fair is being used as a temporary shelter during the estimated four-hour bomb defusing operation.

The bomb is believed to be a British bomb dating back to Allied raids on the city.

Such evacuations are common in Germany, where Allied air forces dropped 1.5 million tons of bombs that killed 600,000 people and flattened cities. An estimated 10 percent of the bombs failed to explode.

In December last year, a British 1.8 metric ton blockbuster bomb was found in Augsburg. More than 54,000 people had to leave their homes on Christmas Day while it was defused.

That to date was the largest evacuation since the end of World War II more than 70 years ago.

On Saturday, about 20,000 residents in Koblenz were evacuated to allow experts to defuse a half ton US bomb. (ontinueReading

Hundreds dead in Myanmar as the Rohingya crisis explodes again

via washingtonpost.com YANGON, Myanmar — Hundreds have died in western Myanmar in clashes between insurgents and security forces, a dramatic escalation of the Rohingya crisis that has haunted the country’s transition to democracy and tainted leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s legacy.

The increasing death toll follows reports that tens of thousands more Rohingya Muslims have been displaced in the conflict.

In some of the worst fighting in decades, Myanmar’s army says 370 fighters tied to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) have been killed since the group first moved on dozens of police posts in the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 25. Fifteen members of Myanmar’s security forces and civil service and 14 non-Muslim civilians died in the attacks and ensuing clashes.

Though it emerged only a year ago with origins in the diaspora, ARSA claims it fights for the more than 1 million stateless Rohingya Muslims in Burma, also known as Myanmar. The government calls it a terrorist organization.

The Rohingya, most of whom reside in Rakhine state on the border with Bangladesh, are deeply unpopular in Burma, which is 90 percent Buddhist. The government insists they are immigrants from Bangladesh despite generational roots. Burma disputes the very term “Rohingya,” preferring “Bengali” or “Muslims in Rakhine state.” (ontinueReading

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Related: Nearly 60,000 have fled Myanmar violence into Bangladesh, says UN

Putin says US and North Korea are 'on the verge of a large-scale conflict'

DRAMA!

Via foxnews.com - Russian President Vladimir Putin cautioned the United States on Friday not to apply too much pressure on North Korea regarding its nuclear weapon program, saying the strained relationship between the two countries was “on the verge of a large-scale conflict.”

Putin posted the warning on the Kremlin website before he left for the BRICS nations summit in China, Reuters reported. Putin called on the two nations to open up dialogue with one another.

"It is essential to resolve the region's problems through direct dialogue involving all sides without advancing any preconditions [for such talks]," Putin wrote. "Provocations, pressure and bellicose and offensive rhetoric is the road to nowhere."

Putin wrote that relations between the two countries had worsened to the point that it had “balanced on the verge of a large-scale conflict.”

"In Russia's opinion the calculation that it is possible to halt North Korea's nuclear missile programs exclusively by putting pressure on Pyongyang is erroneous and futile," Putin wrote.

On Tuesday, North Korea escalated the conflict, launching a midrange ballistic missile over U.S. ally Japan. Kim Jong Un, the leader of the Hermit Kingdom, called the launch a “meaningful prelude” to containing Guam, which is home to a number of key U.S. military bases.

President Trump said Tuesday that “all options are on the table” after the missile launch.