Washington:In an unprecedented move, Saudi Arabia has joined hands with the US to disrupt the fundraising and support networks of LeT, Al Qaeda and the Taliban by imposing sanctions on four individuals and two organisations.

Department of treasury has designated James Alexander McLintock, Al Rahmah Welfare Organisation, Abdul Aziz Nuristani, the Jamia Asariya madrasa, Naveed Qamar, and Muhammad Ijaz Safarash, as “specially designated global militants”.

As a result of Thursday’s action, any property or interest in the name of these designated individuals and entities subject to US jurisdiction is frozen.

Simultaneously, Saudi Arabia also slapped sanctions against these individuals and entities.

“From terrorising local populations to exploiting charities and religious institutions, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) have a long history of inflicting violence on Americans and our allies throughout South Asia and the Middle East,” said Mr Adam J. Szubin, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

“Today’s action marks yet another step in treasury’s efforts to financially cripple terrorist financiers and demonstrates the United States’ and Saudi Arabia’s shared resolve to target those who support terrorism,” he said.

Saudi Arabia-based LeT member Muhammad Ijaz Safarash has funded and provided logistical support to LeT.

Safarash has been an LeT operative for several years, acquiring travel documents and facilitating financiaal transfers in Saudi Arabia, the Treasury said.

Qamar has held multiple influential positions of authority within LeT and has supported its fundraising activities since at least 2004. In addition to running an LeT training camp and supervising LeT’s Karachi sector commanders in 2011, Qamar’s served as the head of its education department between 2013 and at least mid-2014, acting coordinator of LeT for Sindh province, Pakistan, as of late 2008, chief of LeT’s student wing and editor of the its Al Dawa magazine.


SOURCE : PTI

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Washington , the White House said, amid tensions over press freedom and the war in Syria.

Having previously stated the pair were unlikely to hold sit-down talks — a decision widely perceived as a snub by Washington — the White House said the two men had in fact met on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit.

They discussed US-Turkey cooperation on regional security, counterterrorism and migration, it said.

The absence of a presidential meeting on Erdogan's trip to the US capital had been glaring. The two countries are meant to be close Nato allies in the thick of a fight against the militant Islamic State group in Syria.

But tensions have been stirred by Ankara's attacks on Kurdish militants, some of whom are seen by Washington as the best bet for tackling IS in Iraq and Syria.

Turkey says the groups are linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought a long battle for Kurdish independence.

Turkish forays into northern Iraq have also strained ties.

The White House has been increasingly outspoken in recent months about threats to free speech and democracy in Turkey.

And it restated its belief in the need for press freedom in Turkey, amid ugly scenes at an Erdogan speech in the US capital.

As the Turkish leader flew in to the US capital ahead of the nuclear safety summit, news broke of another deadly bomb attack targeting police in his country's southeast, where his forces are battling Kurdish militants.

Against this backdrop his security detail was not amused to find a small group of protesters outside the Washington think tank where he was to speak, brandishing the banners of the YPG, a Kurdish militant group based in Syria.

Ankara regards the YPG as an affiliate of the PKK, Turkey's main Kurdish separatist movement, and has declared it a terrorist threat. Washington sees the YPG guerrillas as key allies in its campaign against IS.

Just ahead of Erdogan's arrival at the Brookings Institute in Washington, Turkish security officials clashed with the crowd — both sides exchanging insults and scuffling — before local police were able to separate them.

The Turkish guards also set about the press. One aimed a chest-high kick at an American reporter attempting to film the harassment of a Turkish opposition reporter, another called a female foreign policy scholar a "PKK whore".

Turkish security tried to prevent two Turkish journalists, one of them working for the opposition daily Zaman that has been seized by the government, from entering.


VIA: THE KASHMIR MONITOR

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I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..

THE HAGUE: Around 4,000 Europeans have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join extremist groups as foreign fighters, most of them from just four EU countries, a new study released said.

Of the estimated 3,922 to 4,294 foreign fighters from EU member states, some 2,838 came from Belgium, Britain, France and Germany, said the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in The Hague.

Using data supplied by 26 EU countries, the independent think-tank found that while around 30 per cent have since returned home, about 14 per cent were killed on the battlefield.

The centre also found that there was “no clear-cut profile” of a foreign fighter. Some 17 per cent of them were women, and up to 23 per cent were converts to Islam.

More than 90 per cent come from large metropolitan areas, some from the same neighbourhoods suggesting the “radicalisation process” is short and “often involves circles of friends radicalising as a group and deciding to leave jointly for Syria and Iraq”.

The report — compiled before the March 22 attacks in Brussels — reiterated that Belgium has the highest number of foreign fighters per capita in the European Union.

Between September 2014 and September 2015 there were reportedly some 30,000 foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria from around 104 countries.

“Experts and government officials have increasingly warned of the potential security threat this phenomenon might also pose to Europe and beyond,” the report said.

It found that while European countries have tightened national security and border controls, only nine have made it a criminal offence to become a foreign fighter.

Few countries also have any kind of reintegration programme for those returning from the conflict areas.

And the changing pattern of foreign fighters, including the radicalisation of women as well as the very young, as well as those with possible mental health issues “are not (yet) reflected in more targeted policies”.

The centre recommended that the EU should set up an internal reporting system, saying there was “a clear need for an effective (and centralised) monitoring and evaluation framework” to analyse the impact of existing policies.

__________________
I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..

Saudi Arabia’s powerful Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has again talked of plans to take the kingdom’s state oil company public, but left many questions unanswered about how such a sale might actually pan out.

In an interview with the editor-in-chief and reporters of Bloomberg, the 30-year-old prince was asked to expand on the idea of floating Saudi Aramco, which he first aired in an interview with The Economist in January.

He said he plans to push for the share sale for next year and will open it up to foreign investors. But asked whether plans are to float the entire company, his answer was vague.

“The mother company will be offered to the public as well as a number of its subsidiaries,” Prince Mohammed said, according to a transcript released by Bloomberg.

“We will also announce Aramco’s new strategy and will transform it from an oil and gas company to an energy/industrial company,” he said.

Pressed on the size of such an offering – presumably to determine what he meant to incorporate – the prince began talking of plans to build a huge solar plant, expand petrochemicals and create “a huge construction company”, but he did not specify what a public offering, or offerings, might comprise.

There are few who believe that Aramco will be sold off as a single entity incorporating its main source of wealth: the country’s oil reserves.

“The prince has indicated that Aramco is willing to change its overall economic approach and he has been testing the waters for a partial divestment, but one thing for sure is that it will never, ever entail upstream, not directly anyway,” said Cyril Widdershoven, an independent consultant who until December had been a long-time consultant for Aramco via the Dutch government’s applied science arm, TNO Energy.

Aramco’s most valuable asset is the 16 per cent of the world’s oil reserves it owns, an unchanging 268 billion barrels, which is “the most strategic state secret in the world”, says Mr Widdershoven.

An IPO based on those reserves would require making public an audit of Aramco’s recoverable reserves, the public estimate of which has remained unchanged for decades.

The extreme reluctance of Saudi officials to reveal reserves information was made clear by Aramco’s chairman, Khalid Al Falih, in January, when he sought to clarify the prince’s initial comments.

“What will be offered is the economic value of Saudi Aramco and not its oil reserves,” Mr Al Falih said then.

In India this week, Mr Al Falih underlined what is likely to be Aramco’s strategy as it transforms to the “energy/industrial company” that the prince envisions.

Mr Al Falih told Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, that India is Aramco’s “No 1 investment target”, for refinery/petrochemical investments and offshore oil exploration and development.

Aramco has been expanding its downstream operations domestically and abroad and is aiming to spend US$100 billion to double worldwide capacity to 10 million bpd.

Domestic refinery capacity is increasingly integrated with petrochemicals, including the giant $20bn Sadara joint venture with Dow Chemical that came onstream last year.

Warren Wilder, Aramco’s head of chemicals, explained in January the strategic importance of Sadara.

“By integrating chemicals production with our refineries – both home and abroad – we are leveraging our existing and future refining assets to provide additional revenue from a business that is growing faster than the oil business and would diversify our sources of revenue,” he said.

The Sadara plant uses naphtha – an oil by-product – rather than natural gas as a feedstock, which allows it to produce a wider range of products. More than half of Sadara’s 26 units make products never previously produced in the region, which, Mr Wilder pointed out, “support the development of several local industries”.

The report Saudi Arabia Beyond Oil, published by McKinsey & Co in December, is widely thought to be the initial blueprint for the National Transition Programme. It focused on petrochemicals as a key area for expansion.

The sector already accounts for two-thirds of the kingdom’s non-oil exports and McKinsey says that it can add $30bn to GDP and add thousands of high-skill jobs with investment.

Last month, Aramco split with long-time North America refining partner Royal Dutch Shell, but executives told employees that the company plans to expand in the US, in refining and in chemicals.

Aramco has refining joint ventures in China’s Fujian province, in Japan and in South Korea and plans to expand throughout the region, including India, both upstream and downstream.

“We target emerging markets like China, India, South Africa, Indonesia. We believe these are the main markets that we are targeting. We’re also targeting the US market,” Prince Mohammed told Bloomberg.

Aramco could put together an energy conglomerate that would look like a bigger version of ExxonMobil, but with a key difference: it would have long-term crude supply deals from the world’s lowest-cost producer but it would not have title to those reserves.

“This is the real strategy,” says Mr Widdershoven. “They will use part of the revenues from an IPO – a downstream IPO – to get a footprint in other areas,” to transform into an integrated energy company with a more diverse spread of assets.

Diversifying Aramco would be a key step toward diversifying the Saudi economy.

The kingdom’s crown jewels – the oil reserves – would remain ring-fenced.



Source: The National

__________________
I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..

Some scientists are concerned that intelligent life on other plants will discover Earth and its riches (and perhaps destroy mankind), and now two astronomers have come up with a way to conceal our planet from searches by advanced extraterrestrial civilizations.

Two astronomers at Columbia University in New York, Professor David Kipping and graduate student Alex Teachey, believe humans could use lasers to conceal Earth from otherworldly beings.

The Royal Astronomical Society explains that other civilizations may try to find Earth-like planets like we do, which includes "looking for the dip in light when a planet moves directly in front of the star it orbits." These events are called "transits."





The scientists believe the transits could be masked by controlled laser emission. The lasers could be aimed at a star where aliens may reside.

"According to the authors, emitting a continuous 30 MW laser for about 10 hours, once a year, would be enough to eliminate the transit signal, at least in visible light. The energy needed is comparable to that collected by the International Space Station in a year," according to RAS.

Teachey explained, "Alternatively, we could cloak only the atmospheric signatures associated with biological activity, such as oxygen, which is achievable with a peak laser power of just 160 kW per transit. To another civilization, this should make the Earth appear as if life never took hold on our world.'

Extraterrestrials may be interested in Earth because because of it's "habitable zone" near the sun where the temperature is good for liquid water.

In contrast, lasers could also help broadcast Earth's existence, providing a way to communicate.

Kipping commented: "There is an ongoing debate as to whether we should advertise ourselves or hide from advanced civilizations potentially living on planets elsewhere in the Galaxy. Our work offers humanity a choice, at least for transit events, and we should think about what we want to do."


SOURCE: STARPULSE

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I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..

Iceland’s PM resigns in wake of Panama Papers scandal

STOCKHOLM - Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson has resigned after the recent Panama Papers scandal.


Gunnlaugsson had earlier asked for parliament to be dissolved after the opposition called a vote of no confidence in the government, Iceland’s President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson had said.


After a meeting with the prime minister, Grimsson said he had asked for talks with the main parties before making a decision.


On Monday, the opposition filed a motion of no-confidence and thousands gathered outside parliament to protest about what the opposition said was Gunnlaugsson’s failure to disclose a conflict of interest over his wife’s company

__________________
I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..

A UN-funded Palestinian charity planted more than 200 olive trees in the West Bank over the weekend, each to honor a terrorist who killed or attacked Israeli citizens in the ongoing “knife intifada.”






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The Union of Agricultural Work Committees planted the trees to honor men and women who have died while committing numerous stabbings, shootings and vehicular attacks that have killed 34 and wounded more than 400 Israelis since they began in September. The event marked the 40th anniversary of “Land Day,” a Palestinian holiday marking protests of Israel’s decision to take land in Galilee for settlements.

“Through this event, we want to convey the message that we will hold on to the land, and that we will not forget the martyrs who sacrificed [their lives],” said a spokesman for the committee, Aghsan Barghouti, according to a translation provided by Palestinian Media Watch.


“Their funding of the UAWC implicates all these institutions and organizations in the act of honoring murderers of Israelis.”

- Palestinian Media Watch

Honorees of the event, held near the Israeli settlement of Psagot, north of Jerusalem, included:

- Muhannad Halabi, a 19-year-old Palestinian who killed 2 Israelis and injured a woman and her 2-year-old son in Jerusalem on Oct. 3, 2015. He was shot and killed by Israeli security forces.

- Fadi Alloun, a 19-year-old Palestinian who stabbed a 15-year-old boy on the same day before being shot by Israeli police.


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The black-clad mother of Muhannad Halabi, who killed two and wounded a toddler, stands as a tree is dedicated in his name. (PMW)


The Palestinian government has honored terrorists in the past, and has named streets in the West Bank for the so-called martyrs of the current uprising. In addition, Palestinians have raised more than $60,000 to rebuild the home of Halabi's family, according to the Times of Israel. The home was demolished by Israel after the attack, as part of the Jewish State's deterrance police.

The UN sponsors the Palestinian group through its United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and United Nations Development Program. In addition, the committee receives funding from the governments of Australia, Spain, Netherlands and Japan.

Palestinian Media Watch, a nonprofit that exposes how the Palestinian government and media supports terrorism, charged that funding a group that pays tribute to terrorists is wrong.

“Their funding of the UAWC implicates all these institutions and organizations in the act of honoring murderers of Israelis,” PMW said in a statement.


Terrorist Attacks and Threats in Israel | FindTheData

Palestinian leaders say the uprising was sparked by frustration over nearly 50 years of Israeli rule over the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israeli leaders say the Palestinian Authority is fueling violence with lies and by glorifying violence against innocent civilians.

A report in the official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, said the men and women who have died committing acts of terrorism in Jerusalem during the uprising did so to stop Israel from taking more land for settlements.

"A number of families of martyrs of the popular uprising planted olive trees bearing the names of their sons and the dates of their martyrdom in lands in danger of expropriation next to the settlement of Psagot, which is located on lands of the city of El-Bireh,” the report stated.

It quoted the mother of Eyad Sajadiyeh, 22, who was killed March 1 in a confrontation with Israeli soldiers who had entered a Palestinian refugee camp by mistake when their GPS app apparently malfunctioned. The soldiers were pelted with rocks and firebombs before returning fire as they fled. Sajadiyeh was shot in the head.

“My son loved the land and died as a martyr in order to protect it,” she said. “I see Eyad in this tree, and I will nurture it as I nurtured Eyad.”

__________________
I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..

RAWALPINDI –Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif reassured China on Wednesday that Pakistan would make sure timely completion of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).


According to a report issued by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the army chief said this during a meeting with Zhang Chunxian, a Member of the Political Bureau of Communist Party of China, at General Headquarters in Rawalpindi today.


During the meeting, regional stability, bilateral defence, security collaboration and other matters of mutual interest came under discussion. Acknowledging Pakistan’s sacrifices in the fight against terrorism, Zhang appreciated the successes achieved in the Zarb-e-Azb military operation. He said that the CPEC would have an everlasting impact on the region.


The army chief reiterated that Pakistan’s commitment to safe and timely completion and subsequent management of CPEC was in the best interest of prosperous region.


Earlier today, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said during meeting with Zhang that the CPEC was a fusion of multiple development projects. He said that both countries enjoyed co-operation and held identical views on important issues at regional and international levels.


He said that Pakistan-China friendship was based on shared principles and interests, and formed the foundation of co-operation in diverse fields. It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan and China launched the CPEC for energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan which is worth $46 billion.


SOURCE: DAILY TIMES

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I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..

LONDON: The number of known executions worldwide went up by more than 50 per cent last year to at least 1,634, the highest figure recorded since 1989, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

The surge was largely fuelled by Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the London-based human rights organisation said in its annual report on death sentences and executions worldwide.

The 1,634 figure does not include China, which is thought to have killed thousands of its own citizens.

Death penalty data is “treated as a state secret” by Beijing, Amnesty said, as it is by Vietnam and Belarus.

Recorded executions were up by 54 per cent on 2014′s figure of 1,061.
Some 89 per cent of those executions were carried out by Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia alone.

“The rise in executions last year is profoundly disturbing,” said Amnesty secretary general Salil Shetty.

“Not for the last 25 years have so many people been put to death by states around the world.

“Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have all put people to death at unprecedented levels, often after grossly unfair trials. This slaughter must end.

“Thankfully, countries that execute belong to a small and increasingly isolated minority.”

Pakistan lifted a six-year moratorium on the death penalty following the Peshawar school attack in December 2014.

It executed 326 people in 2015, while Saudi Arabia put 158 people to death.

Iran executing at least 977 people is at odds with its opening up to the West after striking a deal with world powers last year on its nuclear ambitions, Amnesty said.

“Western countries are starting to build commercial ties and trade missions,” said James Lynch, Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa deputy director.

“However, human rights has been absolutely left in the margins,” he told AFP. “That risks undermining all these efforts.”

He said that since the mid-1980s, around half of those people executed in Saudi Arabia have been foreigners, largely migrant workers who did not speak Arabic and who had little legal assistance.

For the first time ever, the majority of the world’s countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes.

Fiji, Madagascar, Republic of Congo and Suriname fully abolished the death penalty in 2015, taking the total number of countries to do so to 102.

In China, Amnesty said there were signs that the number of executions has decreased in recent years, but it could not verify this.

In August, nine crimes were removed from the list of offences punishable by death, bringing the total down to 43.

“We’ve been urging the Chinese government to come clean for years,” Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty’s East Asia regional director, told AFP.

“Executing several thousand people a year is really very serious and China knows it would be the black sheep of the international community if it was to release the numbers.

“What China needs is the very high number of executions and the judicial procurement of organs for transplant (from those killed) to come to light for the government to be moved into doing the right thing.”

People were executed in 25 countries in 2015. The methods used were beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting.

Amnesty said its reports indicted that four people in Iran and at least five in Pakistan were executed for crimes committed when they were aged under 18.

Worldwide, people were sentenced to death or executed for murder, drug-related offences, corruption, armed robbery, adultery, aggravated rape, rape, apostasy, kidnapping, and insulting the Prophet (PBUH) of Islam.

A total of 28 people were executed in the United States.

Forms of treason, including “acts against national security”, “collaboration” with a foreign entity, “espionage”, “questioning the leader’s policies”, participation in “insurrectional movement” were among those punished with death sentences.

Amnesty recorded a drop in the number of death sentences imposed in 2015 compared to 2014, but this was partly due to difficulties in corroborating data, the charity said.

At least 1,998 people were sentenced to death in 61 countries.
At least 20,292 people worldwide were under sentence of death at the end of 2015.

Amnesty tally of executions worldwide

Here is the number of executions and death sentences imposed by countries around the world in 2015, according to Amnesty International’s annual report on the death penalty, published Wednesday.

Note: Plus symbol indicates total is a minimum figure.

Reported executions total, 2015:

1000s (estimated) China

977+ Iran

326 Pakistan

158+ Saudi Arabia

28 United States

26+ Iraq

25+ Somalia

22+ Egypt

14 Indonesia

10 Chad

8+ Yemen

6 Taiwan

5+ South Sudan

4 Bangladesh

4 Singapore

3 Japan

3 Sudan

2 Jordan

2 Oman

1 Afghanistan

1 India

1 United Arab Emirates

0+ Malaysia

0+ North Korea

0+ Vietnam

Amnesty was unable to confirm whether judicial executions took place in Syria.

Minimum of two executions attributed to China, Malaysia, North Korea and Vietnam, giving final figure of 1,634.

Reported death sentences in 2015 (10 highest totals):

1000s China (estimated)

538+ Egypt

197+ Bangladesh

171 Nigeria

121+ Pakistan

89+ Iraq

75+ India

62+ Algeria

52 United States

51+ Sri Lanka

47+ Vietnam

At least 1,998 people were sentenced to death in 61 countries




SOURCE: THE NATION

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I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..

Wisconsin proved to be a stumbling block for Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who lost soundly to Ted Cruz in the state's GOP primary Tuesday night.

Cruz, the U.S. senator from Texas, beat Trump, the billionaire businessman and former Atlantic City casino magnate, 48 to 35 percent. Ohio Gov. John Kasich finished a distant third, with 14 percent.

Cruz also cut into Trump's quest to secure the 1,237 delegates the real estate mogul needs to win the Republican nomination outright and avoid a contested convention in July. Trump has 740, Cruz has 514, and Kasich has 143.

Cruz, Sanders win Wisconsin primaries

Here is a closer look at what political experts are saying about Tuesday's results and what they mean to Trump and his two challengers:

PATRICK MURRAY

Director, Monmouth University Polling Institute

What this mean for Trump: "Trump did not do quite as well among his core group — poorly educated men — as he has in past contests, but he did not significantly underperform. What Wisconsin showed, though, is a concerted anti-Trump effort can be mobilized around a particular candidate, in this case Cruz. The biggest damage is in Trump's quest to get to 1,237 delegates, since it looks like he took only six in Wisconsin."

What this mean for Cruz: "It shows that he can be a viable anti-Trump alternative. However, Wisconsin is a special case. Both Republicans and Democrats there tend to be on the ideological extremes. It's not clear whether he can rally that same kind of support in the northeast, which is where the race turns for the next few weeks. Conservative talk radio just doesn't have the same kind of mobilizing power here as it does in Wisconsin."

Whether Kasich can win a brokered convention: "After June 7, the millions of votes cast no longer matter. It all comes down to just 2,472 delegates — many of whom are traditional party leaders who are being forced by party rules to vote for Trump on the first ballot, but free to do whatever they want on the second or third ballot. Most of them are tight-lipped about what they would do if Trump doesn't secure the nomination before the convention, which is keeping Kasich's hopes alive."

What does Trump needs to do to regain his momentum: "Because of the delegate allocation rules in New York (which holds the next primary, April 12) and Trump's strength in polls there, he could get nearly every single one of that state's 95 delegates. That should give him a bounce heading into the other northeast contests the following week."

DAVID REDLAWSK

Director, Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University

What this mean for Trump: "It makes his path to 1,237 that much harder. But he is still the favorite. There are a number of winner-take-all — or most — primaries still coming, as long as he faces two opponents he has a good shot at them."

What this mean for Cruz: "Cruz has some momentum, but the chances of getting 1,237 before the convention are near to zero. But if he can consolidate the anti-Trump and make Kasich a non-factor, then he will gt much closer."

Whether Kasich can win a brokered convention: "Very long odds. Hard to see the convention turning to him as he lags well behind in delegates. But in an open convention, anything really can happen."

What does Trump needs to do to regain his momentum: "Win delegate, which means winning New York. He does that and it will put the brakes on Cruz-talk, but he still might not get to 1,237."

BRIGID HARRISON

Political science professor, Montclair State University

What this mean for Trump: "For Trump, Cruz's victory in Wisconsin means that upcoming primaries take on added significance. It also increases the likelihood of a brokered convention, and Trump needs to redouble his campaign efforts among already-decided delegates, convincing them to stick with him on a second or third ballot. That's a tricky prospect, because the shadow campaign for those second and third ballot votes has been going on for quite a while."

What this mean for Cruz: "Cruz's win suddenly makes a not very well-liked, staunchly conservative outside the mainstream candidate the party's new standard-bearer. Had Trump not been the race, the party establishment would have been satisfied with 'anyone but Ted.' But with Trump so close to the nomination, a Cruz candidacy now becomes so much more palatable to the Republican powers that be. It also places considerable pressure on Cruz to deliver a A game, both in terms of the remaining primaries, but also to be working those already-decided delegates, making sure that he has the second and third ballot votes."

Whether Kasich can win a brokered convention: "Probably not. While he is the candidate that polls indicate has the best chance against a Democratic rival, the reality is that a brokered convention will be a tumultuous affair. Committed Trump supporters will be really unhappy if he does not win the nomination in the first ballot; If Cruz has the second-highest level of delegates, it would make the party seem incredibly undemocratic to go to the third candidate, spawning yet another group of potential protestors."

What does Trump needs to do to regain his momentum: "These campaigns are now about ground organization. Everybody has enough information about the candidates, and every Republican knows whether they're for or against Trump. Trump needs to spend his money getting his identified supporters out to the polls. Other candidates have had better ground operations than Trump and he was able to win based on the media coverage he garnered, but now in the face of an organized 'stop Trump' movement, he needs to counter organization with organization. Also, he needs to convince delegates to stick with him on second and third ballots at the convention, spelling out how he will wreak havoc if he is denied the nomination. I think fear of an independent Trump candidacy might be enough to keep some delegates in his column on later ballots."


MATTHEW HALE

Political science professor, Seton Hall University

What this mean for Trump: "This is a set back for Trump. It is definately not a knock out but a strong body blow. Trump really has come home and win New York decisively to get back on track."

What this mean for Cruz: "Cruz crushed it last night and he had to. The decisive win coupled with Kasich getting blanked could mean he is becoming the only viable alternative to Trump. Cruz, unlike Trump, is also reportedly paying significant attention to the courting and caring for the delegates he is winning. That will matter on a second or even third ballot in a brokered convention."

Whether Kasich can win a brokered convention: "I don't think Kasich is still in the race because he thinks he can win a brokered convention. He is still in to take Trump delegates in moderate Republican areas that won't go to Ted Cruz. Kasich can't win a brokered convention but he could pick off Trump delegates in places like New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburg and even New Jersey so that someone other than Trump can."

What does Trump needs to do to regain his momentum: "Trump has to stop getting side tracked on stupid stuff to regain his advantage. His media coverage lately has been about wanting to jail women who have abortions and his campaign manager beating up a reporter. Those are not winning talking points. It was interesting Trump's campaign apparatus responded to his defeat last night. Not Trump. That is different and might signal a recognition that perhaps the Donald needs to be more disciplined with his message than he has lately."


SOURCE: NJ.COM

__________________
I Am The Captain Of My Soul .. !
--- Nelson Mandela ..