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Path: Carriers/ Experience: large carrier
Experience: large carrier
Example of a large carrier
Let's now focus on standard problems of a carrier with big fleet and several branches. Imaginary CR-SK-PL Transport, a. s. has 42 trucks in its fleet and in addition to headquarters in the Czech Republic, local branches in Poland and Slovakia.
Where are empty trucks?
The advantage is presence on market of three neighbouring countries among which rush cargo exchange occurs. However, we see problems in planning of follow up routes of trucks as well as checking of their transport capacity.
Typical problems:
- thanks to big number of trucks in three countries, it is awesome to manually keep a central summary of the most advantageous jobs for all currently empty trucks;
- the company is about to implement a system allowing access to the database of orders on the go;
- requirements towards contractual partners are not unified, each transport officer has a separate solution;
- enormous costs are spent for phone communication with partners (including international calls);
- due to occasional chaos in management of jobs and alternate capacities, cargo delivery deadlines are not complied with;
- central handling of complaints is often ineffective due to impossibility to trace back mutually reliable job data;
- the company plans expansion to Hungary, but the existing jobs management system is no longer rated for the expansion.
Benefits from implementation of Cargopass
Management of CR-SK-PL Transport decided to make an essential step how to streamline internal processes for jobs management and improve quality of transport services to existing and prospect partners. Based on pilot implementation of Cargopass, it was decided to purchase of sufficient number of accesses to the system for transport officers in all three countries. Now, they can respond to the transport demands immediately - and always with respect to current positions of free trucks on the go.
The implementation of Cargopass brings the following specific solution:
- the company got a unified and standardized tool across the company, multi-lingual version of this system underlines that;
- complaints rate significantly dropped and customer satisfaction increased - and thereby interest in the company and its services;
- the system accelerated, facilitated and substantially reduced communication costs both across the branches and external partners;
- nothing prevents the expansion to other countries, only number of accesses to the system must be increased, no extra costs for programming necessary;
- the system provides information necessary about the company while respecting individual requirements and national habits of each branch;
- the company improved its competitiveness, won new opportunities and strategic partners;
- savings: wages, telecommunication service fees, less complaints, less loses - higher utilization rate, monthly about EUR 12,000;
- average price for one login per one month to the Cargopass system is EUR 11.50.
Implementation of the Cargopass brought the large carrier the solution for its problems, it can effectively manage international branches, responds better and faster to demands from business partners while saving substantial amounts in the field of costs.


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Never mind the chocolate, the best thing about Easter is the four-day weekend – for travel fiends, it's like Christmas has come early. To make the most of the extra-long weekend, we've compiled some of the best value deals going both home and abroad – that way you can indulge for a little longer, for a little less.
Café Royal, London
Combining their forces with the world-famous Hamleys – just around the corner on Regent Street – Cafe Royal will become a kid's paradise over Easter. A special family package involves a VIP tour of the toy shop, during which they'll be presented with a goodie bag including pick and mix treats and a 10% discount for the store. Sarah Barber, chocolatier of Café Royal, is also creating beautiful and indulgent chocolate Easter eggs for all the family.
Café Royal's Easter Package with Hamleys is available from 18th March until 3rd April 2016 and starts from £845 per family of four.
Congham Hall Hotel, Norfolk
The refurbishment of Congham Hall Hotel is almost complete, with five refreshed rooms available to book from Easter and a further three ready from the end of April.
To celebrate, they're offering a special Easter package, including three nights' dinner, bed and breakfast, tea with hot cross buns on arrival, a bird of prey display, a visit from the Easter bunny and egg hunt, and an Easter bonnet parade with prizes. From £350 to £545 per adult, based on two sharing; children stay free in their parents' room with their meals charged as taken.
Dhara Dhevi, Thailand
Easter's not only a biggie in the UK – in Thailand it coinicides with Songkran, the Thai new year. To mark both occasions, the Dhara Dhevi is offering a luxurious three-night, four-day family-suitable package that includes delicious dining, a soothing spa treatment and a taste of Thai culture too.
Located on the outskirts of the ancient culture-crammed city of Chiang Mai, the Dhara Dhevi is a decadent Lanna palace buildings, dreamy regal architecture and lush green rice paddies. Such is the unique style that the resort more closely resembles a lavish temple complex than it does a typical hotel.
But it's not a place solely for R'n'R; kids can be introduced to local culture with a Thai dance or Thai boxing class, or the whole family can head to the working rice paddies for a private rice planting experience.
Original Travel offers three nights at the Dhara Dhevi on the Songkran / Easter package and three nights in Bangkok from £5,000 total for a family of four. The price includes all return flights and transfers.
Amphitryon Hotel, Rhodes
With miles of sandy beaches, one of the most impressive medieval towns in the Mediterranean, and 300 days of sunshine per year, it is no surprise that Rhodes is a winner amongst holidaymakers. Whilst staying in Rhodes Town families can explore the city's rich history with a visit to the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights or The Archaeological Museum of Rhodes.
A jewel in its crown is the Amphitryon Boutique Hotel located in Rhodes Town, just 200 yards from the medieval castle and within walking distance to Rhodes port and Elli beach.
Holiday Pirates' Easter deal offers a seven night stay, flights and connections, departing from London Stansted on the 29th March and returning on the 5th April (based on two adults and two children sharing) from £154pp.
Great Northern Hotel, London
A re-imagined Grade-II listed Victorian landmark in the heart of Central London, the Great Northern Hotel is offering 30% off all rooms over the Easter period.
Just 25 metres from the Eurostar terminal, this will be the ultimate urban retreat in London, with ninety-one luxurious bedrooms feature three breath-taking departures in design, beautifully handcrafted furniture and original décor set against Farrow and Ball shades.The hotel's restaurant Plum + Spilt Milk, will also be offering delicious meals created by Executive Chef Mark Sargeant.
Great Northern Hotel's urban Easter treat offer is valid for stays 24th March 2016 – 3rd April 2016.
Easter Royal Tea Workshop, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire
If you're interested in finding out more about how to host the perfect Easter tea, you'll be in good company – the HRH Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia and Serbia and The Royal Butler will be at Blenheim Palace to show guests all about the tradition.
Plus over the weekend, there's plenty of kids' entertainment too. The Gruffalo will be appearing during meet and greet sessions whilst Tree Fu Tom will be performing a mini show. Families can also meet the Easter Bunny and stilt walkers who join the exciting programme of Easter entertainment.
The Easter Royal Tea workshop takes place on 21 March for £175 per person. Find out about all Easter activities at blenheimpalace.com

subset: commoncrawl


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It is the Recreation Division's aim to provide the residents of Jupiter quality recreational packages for all ages. The Jersey Metropolis Division of Recreation, led by Director Arthur Williams, strives to meet the needs of the athletic and lively, all whereas encouraging each and every resident to stay fit, relieve stress and grow to be additional acclimated with their surrounding community by the use of recreational activities.
Excessive sports activities can be usually outlined as probably precarious and fast-shifting activities involving particular bodily strengths and expertise which are ruled by a algorithm and participated in by individuals as a method of recreation or competition.
This historical past of leisure and recreation goes far back in time, but leisure and recreation actually took off when the Industrial Revolution hit Nice Britain within the 1700s. Recreational Therapists use a variety of strategies to help alleviate signs of mental sickness and enhance the quality of a consumer's life.
Watersports: Any sort of sport involving the water, whether or not it's sailing, diving or even just swimming, is kind of fashionable due to the heat climate and water. Some recreational activities – equivalent to playing, recreational drug use , or delinquent activities – could violate societal norms and laws.
Recreational Companies will require a photo ID for anyone 14 and older when buying a day by day pass or a membership. Our recreation applications and services, and our lively life have helped us maintain the longest life expectancy in Canada. Sport and recreation funding applications that provide new and improved alternatives for individuals to take part in sport and lively recreation.


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You have enough to worry about without adding banking to the list. With The Commerce Bank of Oregon, you get a committed financial partner who helps to keep you and your business in good financial health.
Instead of requiring you to come to our bank, we'll send a special courier or armored transport to collect your deposits. You may also choose to bank by mail, by phone, or over the Internet. Our tailored Remote Deposit service enables you to electronically scan paper checks from your place of business and securely transmit deposit data for same-day posting to your account.
The Commerce Bank of Oregon, a division of Zions Bancorporation, N.A. Member FDIC Equal Housing Lender NMLS# 467014
© 2023 Zions Bancorporation, N.A.


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Thursday, March 22, 2018
DMC: "Leave a Messed-Up Mind Clear" by Sydney O'Neill
~with a line from "Truth, by Tyrone Bittings"
Poetry can hang around, or leave
and then again drop in, easy like a
friend who understands the messed-up
hour, day, year of muddled mind
and helps to find a thought that's clear.
© 2018 Sydney O'Neill. All rights reserved.
"Truth, by Tyrone Bittings" © 2018 Nikki Grimes, from BETWEEN THE LINES.
Click HERE to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the post.
Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet. While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month, all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday, March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
5 comments:
I know that muddled mind all too well, I'm afraid. What you say about poetry helping us to see through the mess is so true, though, Sydney. This golden shovel is a great example. :)ReplyDelete
Oh my, Sydney...this is so spot on...I love your sentiment...however did you manage to get all of that into so few lines...plus use the required words. This is masterful!ReplyDelete
This is fabulous, Sydney! Wonderful thoughts and so well done!ReplyDelete
Poetry and friends, necessary parts of staying sane. This is an impressive Golden Shovel poem.ReplyDelete
You capture vulnerability and hope in the smallest spaces, Sydney. Bravo!ReplyDelete
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A renovated five-bedroom, four-and-a-half bathroom home in the Copp's Hill area of Boston's North End has been listed for sale for $4.199 million. The 4,528-square-foot property at 93 Charter St. most recently sold in June 2009 for $1.4 million, and has since been renovated. Carmela Laurella of CL Waterfront Properties, powered by Boston Realty Advisors is the […]Read More
If you're looking for "Peak Boston," you'll find it in the story of J.J. Foley's. When Esquire magazine named downtown's J.J. Foley's Bar & Grille as one of the best bars in the U.S. in 2014, the magazine got swift backlash from locals saying they awarded the "wrong" Foley's. The South End's J.J. Foley's Café […]Read More
Boston Realty Advisors has acquired CL Waterfront Properties, a seven-person residential real estate brokerage specializing in the luxury resale market. The all-cash deal broadens the Boston-based real estate firm's offerings beyond commercial and residential brokerage, said Boston Realty Advisors CEO Jason Weissman. "This is really the last leg of the stool," Weissman said. "It really […]Read More


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One of the leading phone manufacturers, Samsung, recently announced its Galaxy S10 lineup, but it didn't come with a lot of surprises since we already knew many of the details about this device.
Due to media leaks and hands-on demo, we already knew that the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) has decided to keep the much-coveted headphone jack, but in the process decided to eliminate one feature that is loved by most customers, the notification LED.
The main question now is, why did Samsung decide to remove the notification LED from the Galaxy S10, and, what can users expect to replace it?
Is it Useful?
It's not unknown that notification LEDs have been an essential part of Samsung smartphones for years. Android users might not really remember phones without these lights, and for good reason; they were practical and smart looking.
Notification LEDs offer a very simple way to know whether you have an alert on your phone without intruding; they don't make a sound, nor light-up displays, they are just a small and convenient blink.
So why did they opt out of such an important feature? Well, for one it might not be an intentional omission, but not in the sense of an outdated port. On the contrary, the notification LED is just a victim of Samsung's bold new design.
In their quest to offer a seamless edge to edge infinity display, something had to go in order to achieve that. The notification LED can no longer be present when the space it needs has been taken for coveted screen real estate.
Without a doubt, longtime users will be disappointed. Although with their intact headphone jacks, the Galaxy S10 still holds rank over most of the smartphone world but is yet another smartphone to have the notification LED stripped off it.
What is the way forward from here?
While Samsung's "Edge Lighting" is almost like a notification LED, instead of being a single light, the whole border of the display is what lights up.
Although this feature works only when you are interacting with your phone, it is a great replacement for notification popups, and it also provides you with a lot of variety when it comes to user customization. It is not exactly the notification LED, but it is still better than not having anything.
If you are familiar with the Edge Lighting's former limitations, then you should get some comfort knowing that Samsung opted to update this feature with One UI.
Even at that, it is not still quite a true replacement for the simple and cool nature of the notification LED. All we can do is hope that Samsung adds a display version of the notification LED, or better still, makes good use of the ring light that surrounds the selfie camera as a notification LED.
Unfortunately, there hasn't been any official plans for any of these replacements currently.
Pros & Cons of Modding Android
Android is probably the most versatile OS out there, both for mobile devices and PCs. While you can do pretty much everything with Android, there is a learning curve involved and some mods might cause your system to crash.
Before you mod your Android, make sure you follow the instructions to the letter, or that you know exactly what you are doing.
– Wide range of options
– Relatively easy
– Lots of instructions online
– Slight learning curve
– Sometimes involves coding
– Coding is hard
If you want to learn more about Android programing you can pick out The Big Nerd Ranch Guide by Bill Phillips that explains all of the ways that you can go about making applications or modding the existing ones.


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Fabian sent this project in! Via adacore
I made this portable DIY instant camera from one of your
thermal printer. I use the Ada programming language to control an OpenMV
camera module that takes pictures and send them to the printer.
There are moments in life where you find yourself with an AdaFruit thermal printer in one hand, and an OpenMV camera in the other. You bought the former years ago, knowing that you would do something cool with it, and you are playing with the latter in the context of a Hackaday Prize project. When that moment comes — and you know it will come — it's time to make a DIY instant camera. For me it was at the end of a warm Parisian summer day. The idea kept me awake until 5am, putting the pieces together in my head, designing an enclosure that would look like a camera. Here's the result:
The Hardware On the hardware side, there's nothing too fancy. I use a 2 cell LiPo battery from my drone. It powers the thermal printer and a 5V regulator. The regulator powers the OpenMV module and the LCD screen. There's a push button for the trigger and a slide switch for the mode selection, both are directly plugged in the OpenMV IOs. The thermal printer is connected via UART, while the LCD screen uses SPI. Simple.


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The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
|Previous: Hainan
|Table of Contents
|Next: Hajipur
In 1941, Haiphong (106.686E 20.865N) was the chief port and economic center of northern French Indochina, now Vietnam. Located in the Red River delta, the port is subject to heavy silting and must be constantly dredged. There were coal mines nearby, at Hongai (107.145E 20.985N), and likely an airstrip at Cat Bi (106.727E 20.825N).
The port was attacked repeatedly by 14 Air Force from bases in China from early 1943 to the end of the war.
Craven and Cate (1950; accesssed 2014-1-4)
Van Royden and Bowles (1952)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2014 by Kent G. Budge. Index
What's new
Comment on this article


text: Stumbled across a book that is part journal and part tips about what a Cozy Mystery is and how to outline a book. While it's really for beginners, it is also a nice tool for an experienced writer that enjoys a new way to think through their plot. Check out the free preview below and see if it's something you need. You can find it on Amazon.


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Aronia Haskap Fruit Spread
Our Aronia Haskap Fruit Spread was named a 2018, 2020 and 2022 Good Food Award WINNER and a 2020 Great Taste Award Winner! This product is near and dear to us because we grow and hand pick every single berry! It's also made in tiny batches, each jar preserved by us, each label placed by our hands. It gives us the chance to share a part of our farm, and the Willamette Valley, with anyone who tries it. It's a sweet-tart spread and a much softer set than most, making it perfect to pour over brie!
What are aronia berries? They are a small, dark purple berry full of antioxidants and natural health benefits. Native to North America, we are one of the first growers in the Pacific Northwest. We also use them to make our Blackberry Aronia Lavender Fruit Spread (a 2018, 2021 and 2023 GFA Winner!)! And the haskap berry? Alternately known as honeyberries, they are also an antioxidant packed superberry, native to Japan and are bursting with flavor. The berries resemble an oblong blueberry and taste like a mix between rhubarb, blueberry and raspberry. When these two berries are simmered together in our jam pots, the results are magical!
Jars are packaged in our 10 oz glass jars with our vintage label!
Pairing & Recipe Ideas: fromage blanc, brie, blue cheese, cheesecake, sourdough waffles
Ingredients: Oregon Haskap, Oregon Aronia Berries, Organic Sugar, Organic Lemon Juice, Pectin, Calcium Water
All of our fruit spreads are all natural, vegan, and contain a fraction of the sugar added to most conventional preserves. They are preserved the old fashioned way, but cooked quickly to retain fresh fruit flavor, in recyclable glass jars.


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The transnational trade in women is based on supply and demand from sending and receiving countries. Countries with large sex industries create the demand and are the receiving countries, while countries where traffickers easily recruit women are the sending countries. For decades the primary sending countries were Asian countries, such as Thailand and the Philippines. The collapse of the Soviet Union opened up a pool of millions of women from which traffickers can recruit. Now, former Soviet republics, such as Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia and Russia, have become major sending countries for women trafficked into sex industries all over the world. In the sex industry markets today, the most popular and valuable women are from Ukraine and Russia.5
This paper focuses primarily on the sending country of Ukraine, now the second largest country in Europe, and currently, one of the largest suppliers of women for prostitution. Although a comprehensive understanding of trafficking from the former Soviet republics is lacking, more research on trafficking in women and advocacy for trafficked women has been done by non-governmental organizations in Ukraine than the other primary sending countries from that region.
At the beginning of the paper the scope of the problem of trafficking is discussed and the definition of the term trafficking is reviewed. Next, the international shadow market for women is located in the globalization process and characterized as a modern day slave trade. The role of transnational crime networks in the trafficking of women is examined with a few illustrative cases. A section on the methods of recruitment and trafficking describes how women are recruited from their hometowns and transported to sex industries in other countries. Although there are a number of ways that women are trafficked, their ultimate circumstance is entrapment in prostitution. How women are controlled and why it is so difficult for them to escape is described. The next section focuses on who is profiting from this slave trade and how official corruption and collaboration with organized crime networks facilitates and protects the traffickers. Some people suggest that prostitution and trafficking are shadow economies that enable unemployed women to earn a living. The idea that women and communities may benefit from the shadow market of trafficking in women is examined. This section describes who profits from trafficking in women. Although the problem of trafficking in women in gaining more attention, when the causes of trafficking are examined, the gendered dimension of the supply and, especially, the demand are frequently left out of the analysis. The section on the gendered supply and demand challenges a frequent assumption that poverty is the most important factor in determining which countries will become sending countries. The last section takes a closer look at the demand side of the dynamics of supply and demand from sending and receiving countries. The legalization of prostitution and brothels is examined and old and new legal remedies that address the demand are discussed.
It is difficult to know how many women have been trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation.6 The trade is secretive, the women are silenced, the traffickers are dangerous, and not many agencies are counting. In examining trafficking from countries of the former Soviet Union, the are referred to as "Russian" or "Eastern European" without further information on the specific country. Also, the word "trafficking" does not have a universal usage, resulting in different numbers of women being counted depending on the definition used. In writing and analyzing trafficking in women, I use a definition of trafficking that I think includes the essential elements to be considered in trafficking of women for the purpose of sexual exploitation.7
Trafficking is any practice that involves moving people within and across local or national borders for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Trafficking may be the result of force, coercion, manipulation, deception, abuse of authority, initial consent, family pressure, past and present family and community violence, economic deprivation, or other conditions of inequality for women and children.8
This definition recognizes that trafficking of women for the purpose of sexual exploitation occurs within the borders of a country as well as across international borders, as women are sometimes recruited and exploited in local sex industries before they are trafficked transnationally. This definition accepts that trafficking occurs even if the woman consents, which is consistent with the 1949 United Nations Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others.9 Narrower definitions of trafficking require acts of violence or coercion against the victim before trafficking is said to occur. According to estimates from the United Nations, one quarter of the four million people trafficked each year are exploited in sex industries. In the last decade, hundreds of thousands of women have been trafficked from Central and Eastern Europe and the republics of the former Soviet Union into prostitution throughout the world. In the European Union, there are an estimated half a million Central and Eastern European women in prostitution.10 A criminal investigation in Germany in 1998 found that 87.5 percent of the women trafficked into Germany were from Eastern Europe. Seventeen percent were from Poland, 14 percent from Ukraine, 12 percent from Czech Republic and 8 percent from the Russian Federation.11
In 1998, the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior estimated that 400,000 Ukrainian women were trafficked during the previous decade; other sources, such as non-governmental organizations, thought the number was higher.12 The International Organization for Migration estimated that between 1991 and 1998, 500,000 Ukrainian women had been trafficked to the West.13 Popular destination countries for women from Ukraine include: Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain, Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany, United Arab Emirates, Syria, China, the Netherlands, Canada and Japan.14 According to a Ukrainian diplomatic source there are 6,000 Ukrainian women in prostitution in Turkey, 3,000 in Greece, and 1000 in Yugoslavia.15 Ukrainian women are the largest group of foreign women in prostitution in Turkey16 and the second largest group of foreign women in prostitution outside the U.S. military bases in Korea.17
Similarly, as a result of trafficking, Russian women are in prostitution in over 50 countries.18 In some parts of the world, such as Israel and Turkey, women from Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union are so prevalent, that prostitutes are called "Natashas."19
The growth of shadow economies and transnational criminal networks in newly independent states are negative manifestations of globalization, arising from expanding economic, political and social transnational linkages that are increasingly beyond local and state control. An important component of globalization is the transnational linkages created by migration. Members of organized crime rings establish contacts with willing collaborators in diaspora communities throughout the world and work within migrating populations to build transnational criminal networks. Increased migration also serves as a cover for traffickers in transporting women to destinations in the sex industry.
Privatization and liberalization of markets have created wider and more open marketplaces throughout the world. Another important component of globalization, computer communication technologies have enabled the increased volume and complexity of international financial transactions, which increases opportunities for transnational crime and decreases the probability of detection and apprehension. This technological aspect of globalization enables the money gained through illegal activities, like trafficking in women, to be transferred and laundered.
In the former Soviet Union, the shadow economy began long before the collapse of the communism. The state economy didn't supply the general population with the goods and services they needed or wanted. For decades, a shadow economy operated to meet those demands. There is even evidence that shortages were planned, so as to benefit those controlling and profiting from the shadow economy.20
When the political and economic system weakened and collapsed, existing organizations leaped to fill the vacuum. Following the end of a government run economy, privatization enabled previously illegal markets of the shadow economy to operate legally and expand, but they retained the same methods of doing business based on corruption and protection schemes. As independent states emerged from the former Soviet Union they lacked organized and efficient regulatory agencies to hinder the growth and activities of crime networks. When the state system was no longer able to pay the salaries of many employees, they joined the criminal networks.21 In Ukraine, people who were no longer able to support themselves with one salary or weren't being paid for long periods of time, sought additional work. The only jobs available were in the newly emerging privatized, criminal businesses. By 1995, the shadow economy accounted for 50 percent of the GDP.22 The result has been a criminalization of the economy in general and expansion of organized criminal networks.
Transnational trafficking of women is a new type of crime in the republics of the former Soviet Union. This activity first started in the Soviet Union during perestroika, when restrictions on international travel were eased. The disintegration of the Soviet Union opened borders for travel, migration and privatized trade, all of which facilitated the operations of criminal networks. Sex industries in receiving countries create a demand for women that transnational crime networks from the newly independent states organized to fill with relatively low risk and high profits for the networks. Trafficking exists to meet the demand for women, who are used in brothels, massage parlors, bars and stretches of streets and highways where women are sold to men in prostitution. Ukraine, especially, has become a major source of young women for the international sex markets.23 Hundreds of victims of trafficking have recounted their experiences to non-governmental organizations, reporters and police. Although there are individual variations, there are similar themes of manipulation and violence from the traffickers and further persecution by the police.
Lena, aged 21, was recruited by a woman who said her daughter was working in Greece and making a lot of money. When Lena arrived in Greece, her passport had been taken away and she was put into a small room in a brothel guarded by two dogs. She was sold in prostitution each night from nine in the evening until six in the morning. When she escaped and returned to Mykolayiv she had US$55.00.25
Tatyana, aged 20, is from a small town in Lugansk oblast in Eastern Ukraine. She could not find a job there because the economy is very poor and the factories are closed. A friend of her mother told her that rich families in the United Arab Emirates were hiring housemaids and she could earn US$4000 a month there. However, when she arrived in the United Arab Emirates, her passport was taken away and she was sold to a brothel for US$7,000 and forced into prostitution to repay the purchase and travel costs to the owner. When she managed to escape and went to the police for help, she was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison for working in a brothel.26
Transnational crime networks take advantage of patterns of migration to traffic women. An example is the increased migration and trafficking of women from the former Soviet Union to Israel. After 1989, Soviet Jews started immigrating to Israel, resulting in 800,000 new immigrants to Israel. Russian and Ukrainian traffickers used this cover to bring 10,000 women into Israel for the sex industry. The sex industry in Israel has since grown into a US$450 million a year industry, which is dependent on trafficked women from Eastern Europe.27 Professor Menachem Amir of Hebrew University, an expert on organized crime in Israel, estimates that 70 percent of the women in prostitution in Tel Aviv are from the former Soviet republics.28 Moreover, according to Israel's report to CEDAW (Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) Report, more than 95 percent of the women deported from Israel for illegal prostitution are repatriated to the former Soviet Union.29 From 1995-1997, Israel deported 1500 Russian and Ukrainian women.30
In Israel, a Russian or Ukrainian woman earns the pimp who controls her between US$50,000 and $100,000 per year. The women are enslaved and get to keep little, if any, of the money. Often, their only way out of the sex industry is a police raid, which results in deportation.31 Women are held in debt bondage in which they must repay their purchase price, travel expenses and all other expenses charged to them, which can be considerable, before they are allowed to leave. A woman may be sold from one pimp to another at which time her debt to be repaid starts all over again. There are indications that pimps, working in collaboration with officials, tip-off police on the whereabouts of women just about the time the women have earned enough money to leave, resulting in the women being arrested and deported and the pimps keeping all the money.32 A number of trafficking rings have been uncovered which reveal the tactics, financial rewards and transnational reach of traffickers.
In March 1999 in Sevastopol, Crimea, Ukraine, two men and a woman, using the firm "Sight" as a cover, were arrested for selling 200 Ukrainian women and girls, aged 13 to 25, for the sex industry in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus. They traffickers were intercepted as they attempted to send more women to Turkey by ship. The traffickers received US$2000 for each woman. The women were held in debt bondage until they repaid their expenses. If they complained their debt was tripled.33
In Poland, where approximately 70 percent of the Ukrainian women are working under duress in the sex industry, a prostitution ring, called Agencija Tovazhyshka, controls three to ten women. Guards travel with the women and watch them at all times. The women are sold from one agency to another for DM2,000 to 5,000 and each time the woman incurs the debt that must be repaid.34
In August 1999 police arrested three people in Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine for trafficking women to Hungary. They had previously sold 16 women to Italian and Spanish brothels for US$800 each.35
In September 1999, a woman psychology teacher from Cherkasy, Ukraine was charged with being head of an international trafficking ring that sold young Ukrainian women into the sex industry in the United Arab Emirates. Along with criminals from Kazakhstan, Syria and the United Arab Emirates, the gang promised 30 young women jobs as dancers, waitresses or domestic servants, then sold them to buyers in the sex industry.36
Sex industries use up women, physically and emotionally, necessitating fresh supplies of women on a regular basis, which keeps the recruitment and trafficking of women so profitable. Recruiters, traffickers and pimps who engage in trafficking in women for the purpose of sexual exploitation have developed common methods of operation. One method of recruitment is advertisements in newspapers offering lucrative job opportunities in foreign countries for low skilled jobs, such as waitresses and nannies. Some advertisements promise good salaries to young, attractive women who will work as dancers and hostesses. An inspection of newspapers in Ukraine showed that each contained five to 20 suspicious advertisements.37 Women are recruited through social events and auditions, such as photo sessions. The process is usually complex, with detailed deception calculated to reassure the women that the employment opportunity is genuine.38 It is estimated that 20 percent of trafficked women are recruited through media advertisements.
Another method of recruitment is "marriage agencies," sometimes called mail-order-bride agencies or international introduction services. According to the International Organization for Migration, all mail-order-bride agencies with women from the republics of the former Soviet Union are under the control of organized crime networks.39 Many of these agencies operate on the Internet.40 Recruiters use "marriage agencies" as a way to contact women who are eager to travel or emigrate. This route into the sex industry can take several forms. The recruiters may be traffickers or work directly with traffickers. The woman may meet with a man who promises marriage at a later date. The man may use the woman himself for a short period of time, then coerce her into making pornography and later sell her to the sex industry, or he may directly deliver the woman to a brothel.
Some traffickers use the woman's legal documents and tourist visas to legally enter the destination countries. The women may be put on a circuit by pimps in which they are moved from country to country on legal tourist visas or entertainers' visas. Other times, the woman is given false documents. In this case, the woman is even more vulnerable after she arrives in the destination country because she is there illegally. If police discover her, she is arrested and deported.
The most common way women are recruited in Ukraine is through a friend or acquaintance, who gains the woman's confidence. An increasing phenomenon is called "the second wave," in which trafficked women return home to recruit other women. Once a woman has been trafficked and trapped in the sex industry, she has few options. Escape may be difficult. Since women get to keep little of the money they earn, they often have little to show for their experiences abroad. Also, because of the stigma attached to women in prostitution, they often face discrimination at home. One of the few means of escaping the brutality of being forced to have unwanted sex each day with multiple men is to move from victim to perpetrator. To do this, women who have been trafficked return home to recruit new victims.41 According to one report, for instance, in Ukraine, 70 percent of pimps are women.42 A recruiter gets from US$200 to $5,000 for each woman recruited.43
Sometimes women are recruited in groups. In one case, women from Lviv, Ukraine were offered housekeeping jobs in the Czech Republic. The traffickers took their passports when they crossed the border. Upon their arrival in the Czech Republic, they were sold for US$300-$700 each to a pimp who forced them into prostitution on the Czech-German highway.44
Whatever the recruitment method, the majority of women do not expect the sexual exploitation and violence that awaits them. Aleksandr Strokanov from Interpol-Ukraine estimated that 75 percent of the women do not realize they will be forced into prostitution.45 After the woman has reached the destination country, the trafficker or pimp will tell her that she is not going to work as a waitress, nanny, or whatever more agreeable opportunity was offered, but will be in prostitution. The methods used to control women once they reach the destination country include: confiscation of travel documents, violence, threats to harm family members and debt bondage.
Even when women know they will be in prostitution, their expectations are usually far from the reality. One woman, who knew she would have to engage in prostitution, thought it would be like in the film "Pretty Woman," where one man would support her.46 The women don't realize the lack of control they will have, the level of the violence used against them, and what small percentage of the money they will receive. In one case, a friend introduced a Ukrainian woman to a pimp, who told her she could make US$2000 a month in a club in the Netherlands where prostitution was optional, but not required. When she arrived in the Netherlands, she was told that prostitution was a requirement and no man could be refused. When she protested, she was raped. She was forced to engage in prostitution seven days a week for three months before she paid off the debt. She feared trying to escape because the pimp knew where to find her at home in Ukraine. When she left she only got 50 percent of what she had been told she had earned.47
Even women who voluntarily travel to engage in prostitution do not anticipate the level of manipulation, deception and coercion to which they will be subjected. According to Narcisa Escaler, Deputy Director General of the International Organization for Migration:
"...the question of the voluntariness of the movement of trafficked migrants merits particular attention. For many migrants who are eager to escape poverty or political and social insecurity, and who are unaware or unmindful of the pitfalls of irregular migration ... But, in many instances, trafficked migrants are lured by false promises, misled by misinformation concerning migration regulations, or driven by economic despair or large scale violence. In such cases, the migrant's freedom of choice is so seriously impaired that the "voluntariness" of the transaction must be questioned."48
The networks that traffic women are modern day slave traders. There are even aspects of trafficking in women-such as auctions-that are reminiscent of the 18th and 19th century African slave trade. In Milan, Italy in December 1997, police uncovered a gang that was holding auctions of trafficked women from the former Soviet Union. The women were stripped partially naked, displayed and sold for an average price of US$1000.49 Traffickers and pimps use extreme violence to control their women and territory. In Italy, police report that one woman in prostitution is murdered each month.50 Women are mutilated and murdered as warnings to competing traffickers and pimps and as punishment for refusing to engage in prostitution. In two reported cases, women who resisted were killed as an example to other women. In Istanbul, Turkey, two Ukrainian women were thrown off a balcony and killed, while six of their Russian friends watched. In Serbia, a Ukrainian woman who resisted was beheaded in public.51
Levels of violence and discrimination against women trafficked into prostitution are extreme. Trafficked women get little sympathy or assistance once they are under the control of traffickers and pimps, either from the general public or social service agencies. In receiving countries, they are treated as criminals, either as prostitutes or illegal immigrants. When they are discovered, often in police raids, they are arrested or jailed pending deportation. Almost no services exist that address the needs of victims of trafficking who are suffering from trauma, poor health, and physical injuries.
Assistance to victims is hampered by the lack of recognition of the harm to trafficked and prostituted women.52 Studies on the health of women in the sex industry indicate that many women have serious health problems and are exposed to life-threatening risks. Women suffer from infectious diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, injuries from violence, drug and alcohol addictions, depression and other mental health problems as a result of trauma.53
Many people view the women as complicit in the trafficking, as immoral or as workers - a wide span of perspectives, all of which ignore the harm to the victims. An investigation on trafficking and prostitution in the Czech Republic found that people had little sympathy for victims of trafficking and assumed they were getting rich.
Societies and institutions still hold patriarchal attitudes toward women in prostitution, which blame the victims for crimes committed against them. Officials often minimize or deny the severity of the problem, the violence and coercion used in trafficking and the harm to victims. According to Gennadi Lepenko, Chief of Interpol-Kyiv, Ukraine, "Women's groups want to blow this all out of proportion. Perhaps this was a problem a few years ago. But it's under control now."55 Advocates for trafficked women report that officials' acceptance of prostitution and trafficking exacerbate the problem. According to Kateryna Levchenko, Coordinator of La Strada-Ukraine, "Complacency on the part of government and law enforcement officials is as much to blame as financial difficulties. Our government bodies cannot understand that it is very, very important for women."56 Some government officials may be collaborators in trafficking networks. Investigations by the Global Survival Network documented the involvement of government officials in the trafficking of women from Russia.57 Of course, male officials themselves may be buyers of women in prostitution, resulting in lack of empathy for victims of trafficking and prostitution.
Once a woman is under the control of a trafficker or pimp, she can be exploited to make a large profit. Pimps can make five to 20 times as much from a woman as they paid for her.58 Research by the International Organization for Migration indicates that trafficked women receive little of the money, but the profits for traffickers are enormous. In a case study of women trafficked into Germany, they found that each time a man buys a woman in prostitution, he pays DM30-50, but the woman gets to keep almost nothing. First, the trafficker or recruiter requires payment of US$3,000 - $30,000 for her travel expenses and her purchase price. Then she must pay for her room and board in the brothel, which can be as much as DM280 a day, the pimp's fees, compulsory lawyer's fees, doctor's fees, and sometimes, private living expenses. In the end, the woman often is in debt.59 Even after a woman has paid off her debt, she must turn over 50 to 75 percent of her earnings to pimps.60 In numerous documented cases of trafficking, the pimps earn large profits, while the woman receives a small portion of the proceeds.
A Ukrainian woman in a massage parlor owned by a Russian in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA was allowed to keep only 30 percent of the US$70 price for a massage. If she wanted more money she had to perform sexual services for tips.61
During a three-month stay in Germany on a tourist visa, a woman will make $20,000 for a pimp, according to German police. An Eastern European woman will earn more than that for a pimp or trafficker in Japan, where Eastern European women are considered exotic.62
Oksana Ryniekska, a Ukrainian doctor, operated a brothel with non-English speaking women from Eastern Europe in Essex, UK for eight months before she was arrested. During that time she made more than GBP130,000 (US$210,000).63
Mikhail Lebed, Chief of Criminal Investigations for the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior said, "It is a human tragedy, but also, frankly, a national crisis. Gangsters make more from these women in a week than we have in our law-enforcement budget for the whole year."64 The money made from the sexual exploitation and often enslavement of trafficked women enriches transnational criminal networks. Trafficking in women has arguably the highest profit margin and lowest risk of almost any type of illegal activity. According to Michael Platzer, United Nations Center for International Crime Prevention, "There's a lot of talk about drugs, but it's the white slave trade that earns the biggest money for criminal groups in Eastern Europe."65
Corruption of officials through bribes and even collaboration of officials in criminal networks enables traffickers to operate in communities and states. Officials in key positions and at many levels use their authority to provide protection to criminal activities. During a two-year investigation of trafficking in women from Russia, the Global Survival Network found evidence of government collaboration in the Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.66 As the influence of criminal networks deepens, the corruption goes beyond an act of occasionally ignoring illegal activity to providing protection by blocking legislation that would hinder the activities of the groups. As law enforcement personnel and government officials become more corrupt and members of the crime groups gain more influence, the line between the state and the criminal networks starts to blur. This merging of criminal networks and the government seems to have occurred in many of the states that have emerged from the Soviet Union.67 Under these circumstances it is difficult to intervene in the succession of corruption, collaboration, crime and profit.
Kateryna Levchenko from La Strada-Ukraine made the following comment about the criminal networks' interests in creating and maintaining an environment favorable to trafficking in women:
"...the main part of income from this criminal business is obtained by foreign criminal organizations that are the ones interested in preservation of the current situation. They do not want any improvements in the status of Ukrainian women or in Ukrainian economy as a whole. The scale of this illegal business, huge monthly and annual turnovers, merging with certain power structures (first of all, the police) in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, make it a real national security issue."68
The cooperation of criminals and corrupt government officials in the trafficking in women ensures that traffickers can operate with little or no interference, leaving women vulnerable to whatever treatment and exploitation is profitable for traffickers and the sex industry.
Trafficking in women as a shadow economy does not bring financial prosperity to local communities. The women often end up with nothing, or any money they earn comes at great cost to their health, emotional well being and standing in the community. The money made by the criminal networks does not stay in poor communities or countries, but is laundered through bank accounts of criminal bosses in financial centers, such United States, Western European countries or in off-shore accounts.69 Transnational money laundering schemes often include proceeds from trafficking in women.
In Israel, for instance, organized crime groups from the former Soviet Union, collectively referred to as "Russian" organized crime groups, have invested profits from trafficking in women, along with other activities, into legitimate businesses. Israel is considered a "safe haven" for illegal profits because money laundering there is fairly easy. In 1995, it was reported that between 2.5 and 4 billion dollars had been invested in banks and 600 million in real estate.70
Moreover, trafficking in women has been found to be part of broader transnational criminal schemes. In August 1999, a money-laundering scheme was uncovered in the Bank of New York, USA. From early 1998 until mid-1999, US$10 billion dollars had been laundered through the bank. The account belonged to known Ukrainian-born crime boss Semion Mogilevich, who the FBI and Israeli intelligence reported was involved in prostitution, weapons and drug trafficking and investment scams. According to one source, Mogilevich headed a large prostitution ring that operated in the Black and White Nightclubs in Prague, Poland and Budapest, Hungary.71 Mogilevich's crime network, called the Red Mafia, operated in Ukraine, Hungary, the Czech Republic and the United States.72
Cases such as these demonstrate that most of the money made from illegal operations, such as trafficking in women, does not make its way back to the community. The money goes to the top where crime bosses make enormous profits. The "dirty money" is laundered into clean money after which it can be used to buy legitimate businesses and properties.
Trafficking and prostitution are highly gendered systems that result from structural inequality between women and men on a world scale.73 Men create the demand and women are the supply.74 In this gendered system of supply and demand, little or no attention is paid to the legitimacy of the demand. The ultimate consumers of trafficked and prostituted women are men who use them for entertainment, sexual gratification, and acts of violence. Victims and advocacy groups for survivors of prostitution compare the dynamics of prostitution to battering and sexual assault. Survivors often recount their experiences spent in sex industries as being abusive, degrading, and harmful to their health and well being.75
The most crucial factor in determining where trafficking will occur is the activity of traffickers. Poverty, unemployment, inflation, war and lack of a promising future are compelling factors that facilitate the ease with which traffickers recruit women, but they are not the cause of trafficking. Many regions of the world are poor and chaotic, but not every region becomes a major supplier of women trafficked into the sex industry. Traffickers take advantage of poverty, unemployment and a desire to emigrate to recruit and traffic women into sex industries. Women, in large numbers, do not make their way across borders to enter prostitution, nor do they traffic themselves or organize themselves en masse to travel internationally to enter prostitution. Women do not voluntarily put themselves in situations where they are exploited, beaten, raped and enslaved. Without recruiters, traffickers and pimps, trafficking in women would not exist. According to Michele Hirsch, a barrister in Brussels in her report to the Council of Europe:
"Poverty does not automatically and in every case lead to traffic in human beings and in fact only creates the necessary conditions. ...Trafficking will appear only when criminal elements take advantage of this desire to emigrate to entice people, particularly women, to the West under false pretences."76
More than 120 million people in Eastern Europe earn less that US$4 per day.77 Where old Soviet economic systems have been disrupted or discarded, there has been economic contraction and hyperinflation, which has wiped out people's savings and security. In Ukraine, over 60 percent of the unemployed are women, and of those who have lost their job since 1991, more than 80 percent are women. The average salary in Ukraine is about US$30 a month, but in many small towns, it is only half that.78
Women's NGOs report that the economic hard times has lead to a depression of women's psychological state with loss of self-esteem and hope for the future. Women accept unlikely offers of employment in unskilled jobs at high salaries with the resignation that "it cannot be worse" than their present lives.79 Recruiters for the sex industry target the most economically depressed areas. According to an estimate by a Ukrainian women's NGO, one-third of unemployed young women get involved in illegal sex businesses.80
There also tends to be a paucity of information about the problem in sending countries. MiraMed, an anti-trafficking NGO, asserts that there has been a "relative media blackout" on the subject of trafficking in women, which has left women without information about what is happening to women who have gone abroad.81
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) conducted a survey of 1,189 women and girls, aged 15 to 35, in ten urban regions of Ukraine. The purpose was to assess women's attitudes and intentions toward migration. The IOM concluded that 40 percent of the women in Ukraine are at risk of becoming victims of trafficking mainly due to their interest in emigrating or seeking employment abroad. Although many young women are eager to travel to seek jobs, prostitution was viewed as absolutely unacceptable. When asked if "a job in the sex industry" was an "acceptable job abroad," none of the women and girls in any age group (Ages 15-17, 18-19, 20-24, 25-15) said yes. When asked if being a "dancer" or "stripper" was an "acceptable job abroad," however, all of the girls aged 15-17 indicated that it was, while none of the older women said yes.82
These findings indicate that when accurate naming of activities, such as "job in the sex industry" occurs, rather than the use of euphemisms, such as "hostess" or "entertainer," women are not interested in these "jobs."
Although trafficked women can be found almost anywhere, even in quite unexpected places, the destinations for most trafficked women are countries and cities where there are large sex industry centers and where prostitution is legalized or widely tolerated. Trafficking exists to meet the demand for women to be used in the sex industry. Although some women may appear to voluntarily enter prostitution, this number could never meet the demand. If prostitution were a desirable, rewarding, lucrative job, traffickers would not have to deceive, coerce and enslave women to get them into and keep them in the sex industry.
Most approaches to the problem of trafficking have focused on the sending countries. In countries of the former Soviet Union there have been prevention education projects aimed at potential victims of trafficking and non-governmental organizations have established hotlines for victims of trafficking or women seeking accurate information about the risks of accepting job offers abroad. Less attention has been focused on curtailing the demand created in receiving countries. For example, in Summer 1998, I participated in the Training Program to Combat Trafficking of Women from Ukraine in which twenty Ukrainian representatives from government ministries, law enforcement, social services, media and non-governmental organizations came to the United States for training on trafficking in women. The site of the conference was New Jersey where hundreds of Ukrainian women have been trafficking into strip clubs and massage parlors. A Special Agent from the United States Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization service told the Ukrainian audience, "This is your problem that you are going to have to solve. Like drugs you have to get at the root of the problem, which is overseas."83 He located the problem of trafficking of women in the sending country of Ukraine, even though there had been little action against the traffickers and pimps in the receiving country-the United States-or the demand made by the illegal sex industry.
The most popular destinations for trafficked women are countries where prostitution is legal such as the Netherlands and Germany. The Dutch Foundation Against Trafficking in Women (STV) surveyed women in the sex industry in the Netherlands and found they came from 32 countries. In 1994, in the Netherlands, 70 percent of the trafficked women were from Central and Eastern European countries.84 A survey of women from Central and Eastern Europe found that 80 percent of the women had their passports confiscated, were kept in isolation and forced to work long hours for no pay and were physically and emotionally abused by pimps, traffickers and male buyers.85
In the Netherlands, in 1995, more women in prostitution were from Ukraine than any other foreign country and in 1996 they ranked second.86 According to Dr. Gerben Bruinsma of the University of Leiden, 33 percent of the 25,000 women in prostitution in the Netherlands are from Ukraine, and three percent are from Russia. Most of these women are in conditions of slavery.87
In Germany, prostitution is legal for citizens of the European Union, but illegal for non-European Union citizens. Therefore, while it is legal for men to engage in prostitution and for pimps to run brothels, trafficked women are doubly victimized, first by being victims of trafficking and second for being foreign citizens. An estimated one quarter of the 200,000 to 400,000 women in prostitution in Germany are from Eastern Europe.88 Another source estimates that 80 percent of the trafficked women in Germany are from Central and Eastern Europe and CIS countries. The German Family Ministry reported that 1500 trafficked women were caught by police in 1997. Ninety-five percent were deported.89
Legalization of prostitution, pimping and brothels causes an increase in trafficking in women to meet the demand created by a legalized sex industry. There is also evidence from Australia that legalized prostitution and brothels resulted in a "significant rise in organized crime"90 and an increase in trafficking and enslavement of women.91
Legalized prostitution makes it difficult to hold traffickers accountable for their activities. Trijntje Kootstra, from La Strada, said that traffickers evade prosecution by claiming the women knew what they were getting into and that prosecutors generally have a hard time establishing the line between voluntary and forced prostitution.92 When prostitution is legal the prosecution's case depends on proving that the woman did not consent. Considering how vulnerable the women are in these slave-like circumstances and that women often do initially consent to traveling or even being in prostitution, it makes the case much more difficult to prove. According to Michael Platzer, Head of Operations for the United Nation's Center for International Crime Prevention, "The laws help the gangsters. Prostitution is semi-legal in many places and that makes enforcement tricky. In most cases punishment is very light."93 In the Plan of Action Against Traffic in Women and Forced Prostitution for the Council of Europe, Michele Hirsch stated, "where only forced prostitution is illegal; inability to prove constraint has repeatedly led to international procurers being acquitted by the courts."94
The trafficking of women for purposes of sexual exploitation is not a new phenomenon and international laws were drafted and ratified in the earlier half of this century. In 1949, the United Nations General Assembly passed the Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. The convention states that "prostitution and the accompanying evil of the traffic in persons for the purpose of prostitution are incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person and endanger the welfare of the individual, the family and the community."95 Ukraine is a signature of the 1949 Convention (1954), along with Latvia (1992), Belarus (1956), and the Russian Federation (1954).96 The 1949 Convention states that consent of the trafficked person is irrelevant to the prosecution of the exploiter.97 The 1949 Convention was not widely ratified and did not create a monitoring body, so there has been no ongoing evaluation of its implementation or effectiveness. In 1998 at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, the World Federation of the Ukrainian Women's Organizations and World Movement of Mothers called for governments to work toward suppressing the trafficking of women and girls and implementing the 1949 Convention.98
Currently, the 1949 Convention is under strong attack by those who favor legalized prostitution and "consensual trafficking." The trend toward legalization of the sex industry and narrower definitions of trafficking which require proof of coercion or force will make the conviction of traffickers very difficult and will greatly benefit transnational criminal networks.
Another approach to ending trafficking is to intervene in the demand for women to be used in prostitution. In 1998, Sweden passed a law on violence against women that created a new offense-"gross violation of a woman's integrity." Prostitution was included as a type of violence against women. As of January 1, 1999, the "purchase of sexual services" was prohibited, punishable by fines and/or imprisonment up to six months. The Swedish government was clear that this new offense marked Sweden's attitude toward prostitution as an "undesirable social phenomenon" and an act of violence against women.99 The new offense of gross violation of a woman's integrity and the prohibition on purchase of sexual services aims to eliminate acts of violence that stand in the way of equality for women.
Sweden's approach recognizes the harm done to women under conditions of sexual exploitation. Their approach starts from the premise that women have the right to dignity, integrity and equality. This new law is the first that aims to protect women from violence by holding men accountable and thereby addressing the demand for women to be trafficked for prostitution. There are indications that Norway is also considering this approach as a way to combat the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation.100
In the Soviet Union, a shadow economy, often controlled by government officials, existed for decades to meet the needs of the people for goods and services. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the shadow economy networks expanded to become transnational criminal networks that increasingly operate beyond the reach of law enforcement in any one state, and more ominously, operate in cooperation with law enforcement and government officials in some states. One of the commodities that is in great demand and Ukraine, and other republics of the Soviet Union, have in great supply, are women who were eager to travel and look for opportunities abroad. The trafficking of women for purposes of sexual exploitation has become a highly profitable shadow market for organized crime networks. The lucrative trade in women garners billions of dollars for criminals, who use the money to enrich themselves and buy influence to further their activities. Although organized crime networks have benefited, trafficking in women is not a shadow economy that has brought prosperity to local communities. The growth in number and size of organized crime networks has become a threat to the safety of citizens and to legitimate economic, social, and political institutions.
Trafficking in women is a modern day slave trade that is consuming increasing numbers of women, especially from Ukraine and other republics of the former Soviet Union. The existence of recruitment and enslavement of women for purposes of sexual exploitation threatens the status of women throughout the world. There can be no true democracy in any country if half the population can be viewed as potential commodities to be recruited, bought, sold and enslaved.
Most analyses of trafficking in women focus on the supply side in the sending countries, with economic factors assumed to be the primary cause of trafficking. A more complete understanding of trafficking in women is achieved by also examining the demand for trafficked women in sex industries in receiving countries and the essential role played by organized crime networks in committing serious crimes against women. In addition, the gendered nature of the dynamics of the supply and demand has to be examined. It cannot be ignored that women are the sole victims in trafficking in women for prostitution and men are the sole players in creating the demand for women in prostitution.
Legalization of prostitution is sometimes thought to be a solution to trafficking in women, but evidence seems to show that legalized sex industries actually result in increased trafficking to meet the demand for women to be used in the legal sex industries. Increased activity of organized crime networks also accompanies increases in trafficking.
Legal remedies that address the demand side of trafficking have been passed at the international level at the United Nations and the national level in Sweden. The older 1949 United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others has not been widely ratified and lacks a monitoring body, so it has had limited impact against the transnational trafficking of women. The newly defined type of violence against women and crime in Sweden "the purchase of sexual services" has only been in place for one year and its effectiveness is yet to be evaluated.
Trafficking in women for the purpose of sexual exploitation has become such a large and severe crisis for the well being of women and the security and stability of some states that interventions are needed at all levels and points in the trafficking process. This modern slave trade is a shadow market that benefits only criminals.
The following people provided thoughtful comments on this paper: Lesley Rimmel, Assistant Professor of History, Oklahoma State University, USA; Dianne Post, Attorney, American Bar Association Central and Eastern European Legal Initiative, Moscow, Russia; John Picarelli, Analyst, Veridian-Pacific Sierra Research; Mary Layne, Associate, Abt Associates, USA; and Victoria Marinelli, community activist.
Donna M. Hughes holds the Eleanor M. and Oscar M. Carlson Endowed Chair and is the Director of Women's Studies at the University of Rhode Island. She has been involved in community work, education and research on violence against women and sexual exploitation for fifteen years. Currently, she is conducting research on trafficking in women into the United States and is a member of the U.S. National Institute of Justice and Ukrainian Academy of Law Ukrainian-US Research Partnership, where she is researching trafficking in women from Ukraine.


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Elbow pain is very common and will affect most people at some point in their lives. It is typically not serious and most elbow problems improve with time, simple changes to lifestyle and appropriate exercises.
Common causes of elbow pain
The most common causes of elbow pain are tennis elbow and golfer's elbow. Tennis elbow is pain from the tendons on the outside of the elbow, and golfer's elbow is pain on the inside.
It can start as a result of sport but more commonly after repetitive work or overuse. Less common causes of elbow pain include arthritis or gout. As well as being painful both causes usually result in a loss of movement in the elbow.
When should I seek medical help for elbow pain?
These problems can normally be managed in the first instance without the need to attend hospital. However, if you have any of the following symptoms, you should seek medical help more urgently:
- Red skin, swelling and pain over the elbow with a fever and general feeling of being unwell
- Pain and difficulty moving your elbow after an injury
- Severe pain and a snapping sensation in the front of your elbow when heavy lifting


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Jellycat - If I Were A Bee Book
If I Were A Butterfly Book
Let imaginations soar with the If I Were A Butterfly book! This chunky board book is bursting with colours and feely panels, with turn-friendly pages. Little ones can ponder and wonder what it's like to flit and flutter. If you had shimmering wings and stretchy antennae, which flower would you visit first?


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See & Look Your Best
Ready for visionary eye care? At Total Vision Del Mar, you'll find stylish frames and lenses alongside exemplary service, all for value that must be seen to be believed.
As proud members of the Total Vision family, we offer comprehensive eye exams, contact lens fittings, eye disease management, and other vision solutions. Visit us today and see the future clearly.
A Refined Approach to Eyewear & Eye Care
Your eyes are unlike anyone else's. You deserve products and services that reflect your unique tastes and needs. With our incredible selection of frames and lenses and our industry-standard diagnostic technology for eye exams, you can trust our team to provide both.
Our practice represents an authentic and detail-oriented approach to serving patients of all ages. Schedule your next visit by contacting us today!
Our Location in San Diego
Our practice is located in Carmel Country Plaza in Del Mar, diagonally across from the fire station. Please keep in mind we are closed every day from 1 – 2PM for lunch.
Our Address
- 12880 Carmel Country Rd D110
- San Diego, CA 92130
Contact Information
- Phone: 858-289-4820
- Email: [email protected]
Our Hours
- Monday: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM
- Tuesday: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM
- Wednesday: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM
- Thursday: 8:30 AM – 3:30 PM
- Friday: 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
- Saturday: Closed
- Sunday: Closed
Our Eye Care Services
Digital Eye Strain
In a digital world, we need the right resources to ensure our eyes stay healthy and comfortable. Whether you spend your days working from a laptop or enjoy winding down in the evening in front of the TV, knowing how to give your eyes a much-needed break can keep you seeing and feeling great!
Laser Eye Surgery Consultation
If you've worn contact lenses or glasses for the majority of your life, you've probably heard of how laser eye surgery can improve your vision! We offer comprehensive consultations so you can find the answers you need. Plus, we'll be sure to provide excellent patient care to give you the comfort of knowing your health and vision are well taken care of.
Dry Eye Therapy
Dry eyes can be uncomfortable and may even prevent you from doing your favorite activities, but it doesn't have to stay that way! If your eyes are feeling dry and gritty, we can help. At Optique Del Mar, we provide top-quality dry eye therapy to keep your eyes feeling lubricated!


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Babies and Strokes
This is a brain. It is also the unfortunate outcome of a baby whose mother experimented with cocaine, resulting in a premature birth and a bleed in the baby's brain. A bleed in the brain means the baby had a stroke. Hey! Wait a minute! Babies and strokes don't go together, or do they?
Note: for all you baby-makers out there, I'm not trying to scare you from having kids. This post is just a dose of reality.
You probably don't know the name Duncan Guthrie. He started a charity in 1952 for his daughter, Janet, who had polio, and he was determined to find a cure for the disabling disease. With money funded by the charity, research, in time, led to the first oral polio vaccine which wiped out new cases of polio in the UK. Now called Action Medical Research, the charity encompasses so many other afflictions, and that leads us to babies and strokes.
In 2009, Action Medical Research estimated at least one baby out of 2,300 in the UK born full-term were victimized by a stroke. These strokes often were unexpected at the time of birth or before, i.e. some developing babies had strokes in utero. The researchers didn't know if the babies, who are now barely three years old, had trouble using language because they hadn't matured to the point where anybody could tell the difference between a three year old saying gibberish or not.
But of the 100 or so children in the study, the researchers are working feverishly to know how stroke affects their language skills. Magnetic Resonance Imaging, most commonly known as MRI, is administered to the child to watch how stroke affects different parts of the brain. Sometimes, the brain readjusts itself, said the researchers, especially in a newborn, to compensate for the section that was harmed. Known by the medical term as plasticity, the brain takes charge of the imperfect tissue with the good part of the brain. In fact, in the first 28 days of life, stroke is more common than after.
So the big question is, how do you know if the newborn had a stroke? Newborns most likely would show no signs of a stroke unless they have a seizure. Seizures symptoms include staring, rhythmic and spasmodic episodes in the face, arms, and legs, stiffening of muscle groups, and pauses in breathing. Generally, newborn stroke survivors show less movement on one side of their body. "Handedness," the term given when newborns favor one hand over the other, could be a symptom of stroke. Parents often mistake this as meaning that the baby is advanced for his or her age. In healthy babies, handedness appears at about 12 months.
According to the American Heart Association Journal (AHAJ), the incidence of stroke in newborns in the first 28 days is very elevated compared to infancy and childhood years. The following can happen at a rate of 1 in 4000 newborns:
- Arterial Ischemic Stroke (where blood flow is stopped in an artery to the brain by a clot)
- Sinovenous Thrombosis (where a clot appears in one of the veins in the brain)
- Hemorrhagic Stroke (where an artery bursts in the brain).
After the newborn period, the risk of stroke decreases significantly and remains low until post-55.
This is what can happen in pregnancy and childbirth:
- Proteins travel from mother to fetus, which aids in clotting. But if there's too much clotting, a stroke for the baby is more likely.
- At the point of labor and delivery, childbirth can result in physical stress on the baby's head with the arteries and veins in the baby's head leading to clots and stroke.
- Newborns have twice as many red blood cells as an adult which can lead to excessive clotting. (Stroke can sometimes be prevented by giving newborns an exchange blood transfusion where the blood is diluted with saline).
- Dehydration can cause the blood to clot, some signs of which are a dry mouth, dry skin, and fewer than six wet diapers a day.
A number of factors that can put a newborn at risk for stroke include:
- If the newborn has a hole in the heart, it facilitates a clot going up to the brain.
- If there is a genetic history of clotting problems, the risk of stroke increases.
- If serious infections such as sepsis exist, clotting may result.
- If the mother takes an illicit drug, like cocaine or heroin, a stroke, albeit needless, may occur.
For expectant mothers, if clotting disorders are part of your genetic history, tests can be done in-utero ahead of time to help the baby's outcome. All expectant mothers should eat nutritiously, stop cigarette smoking, and avoid dehydration.
Here's the bottom line: there's not much research so far on how to treat strokes in children, including newborns and fetuses.
An excerpt from a blog, Raising Arizona Kids, tells one story of thousands:
"Chandra Whitfield, of Mesa, learned just a few months ago that her son, Joey, suffered a stroke in-utero.
At first, Joey was an easy going, happy, typical baby, welcomed by his parents and brother Daniel (3 ½).
But at around 8 weeks, Chandra began noticing a few things about Joey that seemed different from her experience the first time around with Daniel. She mentioned her concerns to Joey's pediatrician at the next well check.
The doctor diagnosed Joey with tortocollis, which can occur while a baby grows in the womb if the muscles or blood supply to the fetus' neck become injured.
He prescribed some stretching exercises and suggested that Chandra put toys on on Joey's left side to encourage him to turn his head. That helped, but at four months, Chandra begin to notice that Joey wasn't reaching for toys with both hands- just his right hand. At his six month well check, he still didn't seem to be using his left arm and hand – and Chandra decided to trust her 'mommy gut' feeling that something wasn't right.
She asked the pediatrician for a referral to a pediatric neurologist, just to rule out that anything was seriously wrong. Finally, Chandra and her husband, Chris, received some tough news about their little boy.
Joey was diagnosed with left-sided hemiparesis (weakness on the left side of the body) due to a stroke in-utero. An MRI followed and confirmed the diagnosis.
Since the diagnosis, Chandra says she feels 'as if a fire has been ignited in me.' She began working to raise awareness about childhood stroke. She and her family have walked in the Stroke Walk, a fundraising event. She's been selling purple awareness bracelets and donating the funds to the Children's Hemiplegia and Stroke Association (CHASA), she's got plans for a website, and volunteers for CHASA.
Chandra also sent a letter to Governor Jan Brewer requesting that May 7 be declared 'Childhood Stroke Awareness Day.' Here are Chandra and Joey on the day just a couple of weeks ago when they received the news that the request was granted, and more.
Arizona now joins several other states in declaring May as Childhood Stroke Awareness Month. CHASA hopes to build a grassroots effort to add more states to the list.
Joey is a year old now and doing well. He works with a physical and occupational therapist to help strengthen his left side. The testing and therapy will continue, but so will Chandra's will to get the word out to others to raise awareness—and to grow a community. Because what Chandra says has helped the most is the connection she's made with other parents of children who have suffered stroke in-utero."
My God. Babies and strokes. It happens. And now you know.


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"Kanaker-Zeytun" MC" CJSC was established in 2003 on the basis of "The 8th medical association" CJSC. "The 8th medical association" was the first health institution of Zeytun district. In 2003 according to the decision of the parliament of RA, "Kanaker-Zeytun" MC" CJSC was formed which included the polyclinic "Zeytun" and the children's polyclinic "Arabkir", the Hygiene and Professional Diseases Scientific Research Institute. 334 doctors, 491 paramedical staff work in "Kanaker-Zeytun" MC". 5 of the employees of the centre are Doctors of medical science, 20 of the employees are Candidates of medical science, 3 of them are Candidates of biological science, 1 is a Candidate of technical science. The centre is the clinical base of education of the students of YSMU and Health National Institute. 3 polyclinics, hospital complex, maternity hospital are here.
The departments of therapy, endocrinology, neuropathology, general surgery and proctology, maxillofacial surgery, plastic reconstructive and microsurgery, ENT diseases, gynecology, ophthalmology, traumotology, anesthesiology and rehabilitation, the centre of urology and andrology, maternity hospital are included in the hospital complex (totally 272 beds).


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DENSO Quality Control Inspectors earn $31,000 annually, or $15 per hour, which is 9% lower than the national average for all Quality Control Inspectors at $34,000 annually and 72% lower than the national salary average for all working Americans. The highest paid Quality Control Inspectors work for Magna at $36,543,000 annually and the lowest paid Quality Control Inspectors work for Kohler at $17,000 annually.
The salary for Quality Control Inspector at DENSO is $31,000 annually.
Magna pays the highest salary for the Quality Control Inspector position at $36,543,000 annually.
Kohler pays the lowest salary for the Quality Control Inspector position at $17,000 annually.
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It is a far cry from traditional farming techniques, but dairy farmers are being encouraged to earn carbon credits from the Federal Government by destroying cow manure.
Under the Carbon Farming Initiative, the Government says dairy producers will be able to earn carbon credits if they capture and destroy methane and other greenhouse gasses emitted by manure.
Farmers who participate in the program will cover manure ponds, then have the choice of burning and destroying the captured gas, or using it to fuel internal combustion engines to produce electricity.
Either way, they will earn carbon credits for preventing the gas from entering the atmosphere.
Pig farmers will also be able to earn credits by reducing emissions from manure.
via www.abc.net.au


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You'll forgive me for sneaking in some pop culture in the mix because it's Saturday and all, right? Rapper Kanye West is having a bit of a moment on Twitter the past few hours, apologizing for the Taylor Swift incident from last year when he stormed the stage during the artist's acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards to complain that Beyonce should have won the Best Female Video award instead.
But not just that. He's also making it crystal clear, as others have before him admittedly, that Twitter has changed the way celebrities interact with their fans and anyone who's interested in what they have to say really. And slamming mainstream media in the process.
So reading about four pages of tweets by West, there are some interesting gems to be found in there besides his apologies to Swift and his complaints about the massive backlash he's received since then, receiving death threats and getting booed off stage and so on.
This blog reposted the long rant (easier to read).
Here's part of his rant against mainstream media, and his love for Twitter:
Man I love Twitter… I've always been at the mercy of the press but no more… The media tried to demonize me
She deserves the apology more than anyone. Thank you Biz Stone and Evan Williams for creating a platform where we can communicate directly
These aren't regular tweets… this is stream of consciousness … I want you guys to know and feel where my head is at…
These tweets have no manager, no publicist , no grammar checking… this is raw
True enough, the rapper could have written a thoughtful blog post (or a letter) on the matter and it would have been picked up by followers and celeb watchers just the same, but the beauty of Twitter is that it enables, encourages even, people to be more concise and direct.
You can consider his tweets insane rambling by a celebrity who is up late and possibly drunk, or as some lame way of getting attention (if it is, I'll take this over most publicity stunts I've seen over the past three decades).
Or you can look at it this way: 5 years ago, how were fans able to get this much insight into their idols' thoughts and feelings? Answer is they didn't.


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Water for all the critters is something that takes up small chunks of time all day long. I must fill water buckets for everyone at least four times a day. I wonder about bigger containers, but the pigs flip theirs so quickly and Albus sits or lays in his that bigger doesn't help. Since I'm using hoses, it's just a constant chore. The sheep poop in their water, so bigger doesn't help there either. In the heat and sun, they are all drinking so much water and I can't stand to have dishes dry at all, so I'm constantly checking.
The water fowl have a small kiddie pool to swim in, and they get it so dirty that it must be cleaned out every day or it is really gross and stinky. Plus, in this heat, algae grows really quickly too so I hate to skip even a day. All the birds drink from that, too, even the chickens and turkeys. They are quite amusing when I refill it, though. I'm guaranteed a fun show from either the ducks or geese each time. Here is a clip of the silly ducks.
Bjarki thinks the only reason I drag out the hose is to play with him. He loves to have it sprayed straight into his mouth, or up high so he can jump for it. He spends most of the time I'm filling someone's bucket barking at me to please squirt him NOW! Deez thinks he's crazy — she runs away and glares at me if I spray her, but he just loves it. I put up a cute short video of him and his water hose obsession over on Flickr, here. We must play that game a dozen times during a typical day. At least it keeps him cool.
Deeza does love to swim in water, however. Since I've got to keep them separated right now because she is in her first heat, I'm taking her down to the pond in the village almost every night. There's a small flock of wild ducks that live at that pond, and I have to watch that she doesn't try to herd them while she swims. She thinks that is great fun! She's eating up all of the individual attention she's getting. (I, however, can't wait until I can have both dogs together again. What a pain in the neck this is!) I put up a short little video clip of her at the pond on Flickr, too. Here.
We are working on clearing a path down to the swamp right now. I'd love for the ducks and geese to be able to get out on that open water, not to mention the dogs. Heck, the pigs would enjoy a real wallow as well.


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Job Information
Deloitte NoSQL Database Engineer - Senior in Chicago, Illinois
NoSQL Database Engineer - Senior
The role of technology in tax functions has grown exponentially in importance as resource needs change and tax regulations become more rigorous. If you are someone who thrives in navigating the growing technology landscape through design, development and evaluating technology solutions to help companies achieve their objectives; then we would like to get to know you. Apply now!
What you'll do
As a professional in Deloitte's Tax Technology Consulting (TTC) team, you will be a part of team that provides a holistic and integrated approach to refine and further automate our software development lifecycle. As an experienced professional whose broad-based skills and experience include NoSQL databases like MongoDB, Graph DB, Cosmos DB with development, architecture, and performance tuning will be an integral part of our team.
NoSQL Database Engineer - Senior will contribute to the growth and success of Deloitte Tax LLP in a variety of ways, including:
Rapid technology implementation: Work with latest technology to enhance business needs
Quality: Write code and provide regular feedback, troubleshooting and problem-solving skills
Collaboration: Working closely with team throughout the full software development life cycle
People development: Participate in the development of team members
Cross Functional Teaming: Understand and articulate the broader TTC practice and Deloitte overall
Participate in analyzing new database features, functionality or products and make recommendations that support overall business objectives
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or similar degree
3+ years of experience with non-Relational and relational database development (preferred MongoDB, Graph DB, Cosmos DB) experience including coding and schema design
2+ years of data modeling and design experience with transactional and analytical data
2+ years of experience on graph storage models
2+ years of Data Architecture/Database development experience
Deep understanding of representing relational models using graph database (Neo4j or Neptune) for large clusters of nodes
Recommend best practices for coding and schema design for NoSQL and SQL database environment
Advanced knowledge of SQL Server 2017+ architecture and Transact-SQL (T-SQL)
Experience with Microsoft Azure Data Platform elements including Azure Synapse Analytics
Knowledge of distributed databases and global deployment architecture
Ability to travel 50%, on average, based on the work you do and the clientsandindustries/sectorsyou serve
One of the following accreditations obtained, in process, or willing and able to obtain:
Licensed CPA in state of practice/primary office if eligible to sit for the CPA
If not CPA eligible:
Licensed Attorney
Enrolled Agent
Vendor Certification for Management of Implementations (Oracle, SAP, Thomson Reuters, etc.)
Project Management (PMP)
Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD)
Six Sigma (Black Belt)
Other - additional various tax technology accreditations may be acceptable based on business review and approval
Experience with professional services
Experience with NoSQL and SQL database environment
Experience with Data streaming, SSAS, SSIS
Proven ability to optimize and automate processes to drive out efficiency
Experience with Azure PaaS like Azure SQL DB, Azure Table Storage
The team
Deloitte's TTC group helps our clients' tax departments improve their operations by developing new technology-enabled, cutting-edge methods and processes. Deloitte TTC professionals are aligned across our global network of member firms to address our clients' objectives in a seamless fashion. Deloitte TTC teams include industry, tax, organizational change, technology, and co-sourcing specialists who help connect our clients' global strategies and the options that exist to turn theory into an executable plan. Learn more about Deloitte Tax Technology Consulting.
The TTC Development team develops, deploys and configures our Custom Tax Portal Application at our clients' sites. TTC Dev offers a full solution of tax-based process and technology services (including product implementations) to enhance a corporate tax department's ability to deliver value-added contributions to its organizations. The scope of services includes the design and implementation of multiple advanced analytics technology and data management solutions.
The wage range for this role takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. The disclosed range estimate has not been adjusted for the applicable geographic differential associated with the location at which the position may be filled. At Deloitte, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is $87010 to $ 184210
You may also be eligible to participate in a discretionary annual incentive program, subject to the rules governing the program, whereby an award, if any, depends on various factors, including, without limitation, individual and organizational performance
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or protected veteran status, or any other legally protected basis, in accordance with applicable law.


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San Jose, Costa Rica – Well we have just found out how ICE will make their money back really quickly in the financial bind they are in. Regulatory Authority of Public Services (Aresep) authorized an increase of 7.9% in the rates of generation and 3.6% for electrical distribution Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE). For a family with an average consumption of 200 kilowatt hours (kWh), this increase represents an additional expenditure of ¢ 400 per month.
The bill for the electricity costs will rise from ¢ 13,600 to ¢ 14,000.
In this case the kilowatt hour will increase from ¢ 68 to ¢ 70 for the first 200 kWh of consumption. Meanwhile, consumption between 201 kWh and 300 kWh consumed per unit of increase of ¢ 125 to ¢ 130.
The regulator said that this increase recognizes additional cost of ¢ 19,000 million on purchases of fuel for power generation during the previous year.
In 2011, the rates approved Aresep recognized the lubricants and fuel expenditure of ¢ 65.106 million, but at the end of the year was an increase in spending on these products, so we need a new price adjustment. For this, the Institute had requested an increase of 11.26% (¢ 29 823 million).
The calculation also recognizes the difference in energy import bills and export income, because sometimes it is best to import to generate thermal plants.
During 2011, imports accounted for ¢ 582 million, which is cheaper to generate heat.
The adjustment in generation costs will affect companies that buy power from ICE, such as JASEC, CNFL, ESPH and four cooperatives in San Carlos, San Jose, Los Santos Alfaro Ruiz. The Aresep start the automatic procedure for changing prices for their respective companies.
The new rates shall take effect following its publication in La Gaceta in the coming days. However, after eight months, the rates will return to the current price.


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Steven Reilly pleads not guilty in Napper Tandy's bar shooting
The man arrested in connection with a shooting at a popular Northport bar pleaded not guilty in court today.
Police say Steven Reilly Jr., of Fort Salonga, got into a fight with another man at Napper Tandy's Pub on Sunday night.
That is when police say Reilly, 39, allegedly shot the 21-year-old in the leg.
Police arrested Reilly at his home shortly after the incident.
The victim was not seriously hurt.
Reilly is being held on $50,000 bail.