OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Tirana on 14 June 2016, where he expressed the OSCE’s commitment to a long-term partnership and support for Albania’s institutions and its citizens.

“The Presence is doing good work and has our full support,” said Steinmeier. He also thanked the Presence for the good co-operation with the Albanian authorities.

Steinmeier met the Acting Head of the OSCE Presence in Albania, Robert Wilton.

Wilton thanked Steinmeier for the German OSCE Chairmanship’s leadership in regional co-operation, dialogue, youth and tackling transnational threats. “There is still essential OSCE work to be done together with our partners in Albania to achieve our common vision for collective security, fully-functioning democracy and the respect for fundamental human rights. The OSCE Presence and Albania are moving forwards together.”

During his visit Steinmeier met Prime Minister Edi Rama, Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati, and opposition Democratic Party Chair Lulzim Basha. He also had a meeting with students of the Tirana University.

The OSCE Presence works very closely with partner institutions in Albania, to support activities in a variety of areas including border management, more efficient courtrooms, modern and internationally-compatible policing, and a stronger relationship between active citizens and their democratic institutions.

Related Stories

• Young people in Albania say NO to corruption
• Students launch exhibition against domestic violence as part of OSCE Presence in Albania campaign
• OSCE field operations in Tajikistan and Albania work together to support women’s participation in political life

The upcoming GST Council meeting in Rajasthan on December 21-22, 2024, may bring potential tax relief for insurance policyholders. ...

As voting for the first phase of the Jharkhand Assembly elections covering 43 seats began at 7 A.M. on Wednesday, several prominent figures, political leaders, and candidates were among the early voters at their respective booths, stressing upon the importance of fulfilling one's duty.

India's Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) has enrolled over five lakh senior citizens, providing free health coverage. The Ayushman Vaya Vandana Card offers an individual health cover of ₹5 lakh per year, benefiting around 6 crore individuals across 4.5 crore families.

It said the law must be just and fair and should protect the human rights and dignity of all members of society.

Fr. Apostolos Hill's homily talks about citizenship in the Heavenly Kingdom and how repentance is the entrance exam.

Aim/Purpose: This study investigated a model of mobile esports acceptance among urban citizens based on an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Background: Currently, esports are increasingly popular and in demand by the public. Supported by the widespread development of mobile devices, it has become an interactive market trend to play games in a new model, mobile esports. Methodology: This study collected data from 400 respondents and analyzed it using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Contribution: This study addresses two research gaps. The first gap is limited esports information systems studies, particularly in mobile esports acceptance studies. The second gap is limited exploration of external variables in online gaming acceptance studies. Thus, this study proposed a TAM extended model by integrating the TAM native variables with other external variables such as visual appeal, enjoyment, social interaction, and competition to explore mobile esports acceptance by urban citizens. Findings: Nine hypotheses were accepted, and four were rejected. The visual appeal did not affect the acceptance. Meanwhile, social interaction and enjoyment significantly affected both perceived ease of use and usefulness. However, perceived ease of use surprisingly had an insignificant effect on attitude toward using mobile esports. Moreover, competition significantly affected the acceptance, particularly on perceived usefulness. Recommendations for Practitioners: Fresh and innovative features, such as new game items or themes, should be frequently introduced to enhance players’ continued enjoyment. Moreover, mobile esports providers should offer a solid platform to excite players’ interactions to increase the likelihood that users feel content. On the other hand, the national sports ministry/agency or responsible authorities should organize many esports competitions, big or small, to search for new talents. Recommendation for Researchers: Visual appeal in this study did not influence the perceived ease of use or usefulness. However, it could affect enjoyment. Thus, it would be worth revisiting the relationship between visual appeal and enjoyment. At the same time, perceived ease of use is a strong driver for the continued use of most online games, but not in this study. It could indicate significant differences between mobile esports and typical online games, one of which is the different purposes. Users might play online games for recreational intention, but players would use mobile esports to compete, win, or even get monetary rewards. Therefore, although users might find mobile esports challenging and hard to use, they tend to keep playing it. Thus, monetary rewards could be considered a determinant of the continuation of use. Impact on Society: Nowadays, users are being paid for playing games. It also would be an excel-lent job if they become professional esports athletes. This study investigated factors that could affect the continued use of mobile esports. Like other jobs, playing games professionally in the long term could make the players tedious and tired. Therefore, responsible parties, like mobile esports providers or governments, could use the recommendations of this study to promote positive behavior among the players. They will not feel like working and still con-sider playing mobile esports a hobby if they happily do the job. In the long run, the players could also make a nation’s society proud if they can be a champion in prestigious competitions. Future Research: A larger sample size will be needed to generalize the results, such as for a nation. It is also preferable if the sample is randomized systematically. Future works should also investigate whether the same results are acquired in other mobile esports. Furthermore, to extend our knowledge and deepen our understanding of the variables that influence mobile esports adoption, the subsequent research could look at other mobile esports acceptability based on characteristics of system functionality and moderator effects. Finally, longitudinal data-collecting approaches are suggested for future studies since behavior can change over time.

Aim/Purpose: ************************************************************************ After its investigation, the Research Ethics, Integrity, and Governance team at RMIT University found that the primary author of this paper breached the Australian Code and/or RMIT Policy and requested that the article be retracted. ************************************************************************** This paper aimed to examine the influence of ethical and transformational leadership on employee creativity in Malaysia’s private higher education institutions (PHEIs) and the mediating role of organizational citizenship behavior. Background: To ensure their survival and success in today’s market, organizations need people who are creative and driven. Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of ethical leadership in fostering employee innovation and good corporate responsibility. Research on ethical leadership and transformational leadership, in particular, has played a significant role in elucidating the role of leadership in relation to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). In this study, we have focused on ethical and transformational leadership as an antecedent for enhancing employee creativity. Despite an increase in leadership research, little is known about the underlying mechanisms that link ethical leadership and transformational leadership to OCB. Because it sheds light on factors other than ethical leadership and transformational leadership that influence employees’ extra-role activity, this research is relevant theoretically. OCB may have a mediating function between ethical leadership and transformational leadership style and employee creativity because it is associated with the greatest outcomes, but empirical research has yet to prove this. So, one of the study’s goals is to add to the hypotheses about how ethical leadership style and transformational leadership affect employee creativity by using an important mediating variable – OCB. Methodology: This study adopted a quantitative approach based on a cross-sectional survey and descriptive design to gather the data in a specific period. A convenient sampling approach was used to gauge 275 employees from Malaysia’s PHEIs. To test the hypotheses and obtain a conclusion, the acquired data was analyzed using the partial least square technique (PLS-SEM). Contribution: The study contributes to leadership literature by advancing OCB as a mediating factor that accounts for the link between ethical and transformational leadership and employee creativity in the higher education sector. Findings: According to the research, OCB has a substantial influence on the creativity of employees. Furthermore, ethical leadership boosted OCB and boosted employee creativity, according to the research. OCB and employee creativity have both been demonstrated to benefit greatly from transformational leadership. Further research revealed that OCB is a mediating factor in the link between leadership styles and creative thinking among employees. Recommendations for Practitioners: Higher education institutions should focus on developing leaders who value transparency and self-awareness in their interactions with followers and who demonstrate an inner moral perspective in addition to balanced information processing to ensure positive outcomes at the individual and organizational levels. Higher education institutions should place a priority on hiring leaders that exhibit ethical and transformational traits to raise awareness of these leadership styles among employees. Recommendation for Researchers: The new study also adds significantly to the body of knowledge by examining the relationship between ethical and transformational leadership and the creativity of the workforce. It aimed to identify the relationship between transformational leadership style and individual creativity in higher education by examining the mediating influence of OCB. Impact on Society: Higher education institutions should devise strategies for developing ethical and transformative leaders who will assist boost OCB and creativity within their workforce. Students and faculty in higher education can benefit from these leadership methods by learning to think in more diverse ways and by developing thought processes that lead to a larger pool of innovative ideas and solutions. As a consequence, employees who show creative behavior may be effectively managed by leaders who utilize ethical and transformational leadership styles and motivate them to show OCB that allow them to solve creative problems creatively. Future Research: A mixed-methods approach should be used in future research, and this should be done in public institutions in developing and developed nations to put the findings to use and generalize them even further. Future research will be able to examine other mediators to learn more about how and why ethical and transformational leadership styles affect PHEI employees’ creativity.

Research growth in organisational behaviour research, has increased the importance of paying attention to anti-citizenship behaviours. The current research with the aim of quantitative combination, has examined the results of research in effect of underlying factors of organisational anti-citizenship behaviours using meta-analysis method and CMA2 software and 55 articles during the time period of 2000-2020. The results showed a positive significant link between underlying factors of organisational anti-citizenship behaviours and occurrence of these behaviours and this influence was 0.389, 0.338, 0514 and 0.498 (structural, organisational, managerial, employment and professional and socio-economic and cultural factors). The level of connection found relating to each four occurrences is '68 links, 49 links, 93 links and 71 links'. Findings indicate that minute attention has been paid to organisational anti-citizenship behaviours, especially to job and professional factors in research works. Research should be conducted to control and manage these behaviours more purposefully in organisations.

Five  projects focused on citizen science began their life in autumn 2012 as a part of the topic ENV.2012.6.5-1 "Developing community based environmental monitoring and information systems using innovative and novel earth observation applications". Their goals include developing novel technologies and applications in the domain of Earth Observation; exploiting portable devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.) and enabling effective participation by citizens in environmental stewardship based on broad stakeholder and user involvement in support of both community and policy priorities.

These projects are:

OmniScientis - combining the active participation of the stakeholders, especially citizens, with the implementation of innovative technologies to improve the governance of odour nuisance. OMNISCIENTIS implements an odour monitoring and information system allowing feedback in real-time, based on a web-based Service Platform.

Citclops - developing an observatory based on citizens’ science applications for the bio-optical monitoring of coast and ocean. Specifically, the Citclops action develops systems to retrieve and use data on the colour, transparency and fluorescence of seawater using low-cost sensors and smart phones along with contextual information.

COBWEB - seeking to design, develop and validate the necessary software infrastructure to facilitate and make possible the opportunistic harvesting and quality control of crowdsourced environmental data.

The EU BON workshop "Biodiversity research for and by citizens in Eastern Europe: tools, information services and public engagement" was organized to present the EU BON citizen science gateway, share accomplishments of the project, promote products, raise and discuss challenges of citizen science and facilitate networking between countries, especially eastern and central European countries.

There were 33 participants from Baltic countries and Finland and EU BON partners from Norway, Spain, Israel and Brussels. First day was showcasing the citizen science initiatives in Estonia, following best practice examples from EU BON consortium. During the second day the participants got a chance to learn the tools and methods for citizen science data management by ECSA and EU BON. This was followed by world cafe style discussion about the needs of citizen science initiatives and Pan-European citizen science gateway. One of the important conclusions for Baltic countries is that there is a need for stronger collaboration and supportive infrastructure to make citizen science more effective and also deliver accessible data to research community.

Some workshop participants also took part of Tartu Mini-BioBlitz on 29th June, first BioBlitz in Estonia. BioBlitz participants observed 239 species of animals, plants and fungi .

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Workshop agenda

Read a first hand report form the workshop in the two great blog posts by Egle Marija Ramanauskaite (a workshop participant from Lithuania):

http://seplute.tumblr.com/post/146841955105/citsci-overtakes-the-baltics-citizen-science

http://seplute.tumblr.com/post/146844410470/citizen-science-workshop-in-tartu-recap-of-day-2

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Global public debt may soon collectively catch up to the worldwide gross domestic product (GDP), likely matching it by 2030. New research from a Notre Dame economist suggests that this could happen even sooner, thanks to countries' hidden debts. This misreported debt can lead to higher interest rates for borrowers and lower recovery rates for lenders, suggesting indirect adverse effects on global financial stability and consumer welfare.

A delegation of high school students representing the Catawba County Youth Council and 4-H attended NC Citizenship Focus, which was held in Raleigh, where more than 200 youth and adults representing over 75 counties exchanged ideas, gained knowledge and learned through hands on experiences about the different levels and branches of government.

11th Annual Peace Walk Held in 50 Countries

Florida based online store offer rentals and Sales of high-quality E-bikes and E-Motorcycles to help commuters travel safely during the pandemic

The event is being held to honor those who work tirelessly over the year to help clean up the field of mental health. The awards will be presented during a banquet and live musical performance held at the historic Fort Harrison in Clearwater.

Purple Heart Day is observed annually to recognize those who have been awarded the Purple Heart Medal for their sacrifice in service to the United States.

The event will be held at Pennsylvania Institute of Technology on Saturday, December 2, 2023 from 2:00 - 4:00 pm

The event was held at Pennsylvania Institute of Technology

August 7th is observed annually across the country to recognize those who have been awarded the Purple Heart Medal for their sacrifice in service to the United States.

CCHR has long fought to restore basic inalienable human rights to the field of mental health and CCHR Florida has now received 11 awards for campaigns to protect these rights.

CCHR has long fought to restore basic inalienable human rights and dignity to the field of mental health and the Florida chapter of CCHR has now received 8 awards for campaigns to protect these rights.

Part of an ongoing campaign to investigate and expose psychiatric abuse while helping restore rights and dignity to the field of mental health, the Clearwater museum has toured thousands of visitors.

On today's show: the Watergate scandal you haven't heard about – that led directly to Citizens United and multi-billion dollar elections. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

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3BL has ranked Owens Corning fourth in its 2024 100 Best Corporate Citizens list, recognizing the company's transparency and performance in ESG factors, marking its seventh top-10 appearance.

Amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to clarify that no child is eligible for birthright citizenship if their parents are unlawfully present in the United States, present in the U.S. for diplomatic purposes, or engaged in a hostile operation against the U.S.

Notably, the Act proposed by Vance includes no limitation on this "clarification" of who enjoys citizenship and who does not. The Act includes no limitation on retroactive effect and lacks any express limitation providing for prospective impact only. The Constitution only proscribes retroactive criminal sanctions The intent of the Act is to correct errors in prior interpretations of the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment. 

More broadly, the GOP assault on virtually everyone's citizenship seeks to maximize the power of the next Trump Administration to round-up citizens, as discussed in my prior blog post. As such, this amounts to the greatest power-grab of rights over American citizens in history.

Following three senior citizens being defrauded of approximately $685,000 via online and phone scams, the police have issued another advisory urging “residents, particularly senior citizens, to remain vigilant regarding online scams and phone scams.” A police spokesperson said, “The Bermuda Police Service [BPS] continues to urge residents, particularly senior citizens, to remain vigilant regarding online scams […]

Republicans are failing for a much more obvious reason, a more fundamental reason. They're failing because they haven't done much that is worth doing. They haven't tried very hard to improve your life. When the crisis came, they fled. They did nothing to defend you. They did nothing to defend the country. Continue reading →

FBI CIA NSA are not only spying on American citizens but also are illegally unmasking their identities to journalists who support our fascist government Continue reading →

THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE USING JANUARY 6TH. IT'S DEMENTED TO COMPARE 9/11 AND JANUARY 6TH BUT IT'S SO CENTRAL TO THE AGENDA OF THE SECURITY STATE, THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, TO ESSENTIALLY INITIATE A SURVEILLANCE REGIME, A DETENTION REGIME, AGAINST PEOPLE ON THE RIGHT WHO ARE AGAINST THE ESTABLISHMENT. AND THEY’RE ALREADY DOING IT. AND THEY PUT PEOPLE ON THE NO-FLY LIST, THE KIND OF DEFINING FEATURE OF THE FIRST WAR ON TERROR, THEY WANT TO DO NEW LEGISLATION THAT GIVES THE FBI AND THE CIA NEW POWERS, SPENDING MORE MONEY ON LAW ENFORCEMENT. THIS WAR ON TERROR IS CRUCIAL TO THEM. Continue reading →

…remind them of this. I was recently reading “Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans” by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yeager. The War of 1812 was going badly for the Americans. The British had burned the White House, and a huge contingent of British troops was in Louisiana planning to march north in conquest. […]

The post Moscow Citizens as Dolls appeared first on English Russia.

The panel of 28 felt it was important to give people choice, but only if they were terminally ill.

Opponents say the legislation, which would apply to close family members, is unconstitutional.

Beijing is pushing Pakistan to allow its own security staff to provide protection to thousands of Chinese citizens working in Pakistan during talks, after a car bombing near Karachi’s airport that was seen as a major security breach, sources said.

Last month’s airport bombing that killed two Chinese engineers returning to work on a project after a holiday in Thailand was the latest in a string of attacks on Beijing’s interests in Pakistan.

The attacks have angered China, which has pushed Pakistan to begin formal negotiations for a joint security management system.

Reuters spoke to five Pakistani security and government sources with direct knowledge of the previously unreported negotiations and demands on condition of anonymity, as the talks are sensitive, and reviewed a written proposal sent by Beijing to Islamabad.

“They (Chinese) want to bring in their own security,” said one official, who sat in on a recent meeting, adding that Pakistan had not so far agreed to such a step.

According to the official, a written proposal sent to Islamabad by Beijing, and forwarded to Pakistani agencies for review, mentioned a clause allowing the dispatching of security agencies and military forces into each others’ territory to assist in counter-terrorism missions and conduct joint strikes.

The dispatching would be done after discussions, but Pakistan was averse to the proposal, one official said.

Neither Beijing nor Islamabad confirmed the talks officially.

Dawn.com has also reached out to the Foreign Office for a comment.

The source, and two other officials, said there was a consensus on setting up a joint security management system, and that Pakistan was amenable to Chinese officials sitting in on security meetings and co-ordination.

But there was no agreement on their participating in security arrangements on the ground.

The first official said Pakistan had asked China for help in improving its intelligence and surveillance capabilities instead of direct involvement.

A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry told Reuters it was not familiar with talks on a joint security scheme, but added, “China will continue to strengthen co-operation with Pakistan and make joint efforts to do its utmost to maintain the security of Chinese personnel, projects and institutions.”

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, declined to comment to Reuters while the interior and planning ministries did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

In a statement last week, Pakistan’s interior ministry said both sides agreed to develop a joint strategy to prevent similar incidents in the future.

‘Grave security breach’

The nature of the Karachi bombing has angered Beijing, which is now pushing harder to achieve a long-standing demand to control security arrangements for its citizens.

A pick-up truck rigged with nearly 100 kilogrammes of explosives waited unchecked for about 40 minutes near the outermost security cordon of the heavily guarded airport before its driver rammed it into a vehicle carrying Chinese engineers, officials said.

“It was a grave security breach,” admitted one of the officials investigating the bombing, which came just a week before Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Islamabad, the first such trip in a decade.

The official said investigators believe the attackers had “inside help” in securing details of the itinerary and route of the engineers, who had returned from a month off in Thailand.

They were to be escorted back to a power plant set up as part of plans for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Longtime Pakistan ally China has thousands of nationals working on projects grouped under the CPEC, a $65-billion investment in President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, which seeks to expand China’s global reach by road, rail and sea.

‘Chinese frustrations’

Publicly, China has mostly backed Pakistan’s arrangements, even as it calls for enhanced security.

Privately, Beijing has expressed frustration. At one recent meeting, the Chinese side provided evidence that Pakistan had failed to follow security protocols agreed on twice in recent months, three officials said. Such protocols usually feature high standards for the deployment and movement of Chinese officials.

However, earlier this month, China’s Ambassador to Pakistan, Jiang Zaidong, while speaking at an event, had expressed frustration over the attacks, stating it was “unacceptable” and urging Islamabad to strengthen security measures for Chinese nationals and crack down on anti-China elements.

In response, Foreign Office Spokes­person Mumtaz Zahra Baloch had called the statement “perplexing” and a stark departure from the longstanding diplomatic norms between the two nations.

Chinese nationals have been in the crosshairs of banned outfits who accuse Beijing and Pakistan of exploiting minerals in Balochistan, where China has a strategic port and mining interests.

Thousands of Pakistani security officers from the army, police and a dedicated force called the Special Protection Unit are posted to guard Chinese nationals.

Only China’s embassy in Islamabad and its consulates are allowed Chinese official security personnel, the Pakistani officials said.

Title: Senior Sex: Tips for Senior Citizens
Category: Health and Living
Created: 7/11/2022 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 7/11/2022 12:00:00 AM

ISLAMABAD — Beijing is pushing Pakistan to allow its own security staff to provide protection to thousands of Chinese citizens working in the South Asian nation, during talks after a car bombing in Karachi that was seen as a major security breach, sources said. Last month's airport bombing in the southern port city that killed two Chinese engineers returning to work on a project after a holiday in Thailand was the latest in a string of attacks on Beijing's interests in Pakistan. The attacks, and Islamabad's failure to deter them, have angered China, which has pushed Pakistan to begin formal negotiations for a joint security management system. Reuters spoke to five Pakistani security and government sources with direct knowledge of the previously unreported negotiations and demands on condition of anonymity, as the talks are sensitive, and reviewed a written proposal sent by Beijing to Islamabad. "They (Chinese) want to bring in their own security," said one official, who sat in on a recent meeting, adding that Pakistan had not so far agreed to such a step.

As Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stirs up false claims of voter fraud ahead of Election Day, we look at the role of an increasingly “partisan” Federal Election Commission with former FEC general counsel Larry Noble, who explains why “voters of a lot of wealth have the ability to influence elections the way that the rest of us don’t.” As the influence of money in politics grows unchecked, he warns, it has the effect of “silencing the voter.” Noble also responds to multibillionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaways to Pennsylvania voters and discusses the lasting impact of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision on campaign finance law.

Liz is A-tier imho