KIEV, April 10. /TASS/. Ukraine has arrested a Russian dredge ship in the Odessa region under a case of illegal sand extraction, Tatiana Tikhonchik, a spokeswoman for the so-called Crimean prosecutor’s office (part of the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office), told TASS on Tuesday.

"On April 10, 2018, the investigating judge upheld a motion of the Crimean prosecutor’s office and arrested a ship owned by a Russian trespasser company, which is currently staying at the port of Yuzhny in the Odessa region," she said.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko wrote earlier on his Facebook account that the prosecutor’s office was probing into the case of illegal sand extraction in the Black Sea’s Karkinit Bay "on temporarily occupied territories." "It has been found out that sand extraction is carried out by a dredge ship owned by Trans Services Maritime Co., with a home port in Russia’s Tuapse," Lutsenko wrote, adding that sand "is used for illegal construction" near Kerch.</s>The first ever Myanmar sand sculpture festival will take place at Chindwin Thingyan festival to be held in Monywa Township, Sagaing Region.

The sand sculptures were created by Chinese sand sculptor Mr. John Han Tan from Singapore who came at the invitation of Sagaing Region government.

Mr Han Tan said, “I started creating sand sculpture in 1997. I held exhibitions in over 60 cities in over 20 countries. This is my first ever exhibition in Myanmar, and I am excited about the chance of joining Myanmar traditional Thingyan festival here.”

He is creating a 6x20 metre sand sculpture to be completed in time before the opening ceremony of the Thingyan festival exhibition.

He shared his expertise to students of sculpture from National Culture and Arts University (Mandalay), and they built sand sculptures together.

A student from National Culture and Arts University (Mandalay) of Sculpture Htwe San Aung said, “We mixed sand and clay in a bucket, and then water was poured into and left overnight. We took out the mixture next day and made a sculpture from this mixture block. We sprayed a glue liquid on the completed sculpture which will enable them to withstand wind and rain.”

Even before the festival is formally opened, many visitors from Monywa have been coming to see this big sand sculptures.

A resident from Monywa, Thet Khaing, said, “This is my first visit here. Many people talked about these wonderful sand sculptures. It’s amazing.”

Security is tight at Chindwin Thingyan festival as there are many visitors. Monywa District Police Force acting Chief Pol. Lt. Col. Than Win said that he deployed 50 police personnel for security at the fairground even during the construction period.

He added that there would be 30 police officers and 120 other ranks at the festival for security duty when the festival commences.

Mr. John Han Tan said this was the first ever sand sculpture festival in Myanmar.

He added that he was excited to see visitors coming to see his sand sculptures and he would complete all the sculptures before the opening date.

There are separate zones at this Thingyan festival with the wet zone for splashing water, beach zone for recreation, a play zone for children, dance zone for dancing, motorcycle stunts events, para-motor racing events, sand sculptures and traditional ethnic culture exhibition.

Sagaing Region government earmarked over 200 million kyats for the Thingyan festival, and the announcement made by region government says this fund is from unspent money from events and celebrations for the 2017-18 financial year.</s>SANDS OF TIME: Sand artist John Thiering was part of the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.

SANDS OF TIME: Sand artist John Thiering was part of the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. Rachel Vercoe

FROM performing for a few at intimate venues to entertaining thousands on cruise ships, sand artist John Thiering's latest gig was broadcast internationally. He performed during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Excited and humbled, John had a lot of work ahead of him when he was told three weeks out his artworks would be part of the ceremony.

"It was a big challenge, there were times when I was thinking it was one of the biggest challenges I've had to do because of how short the time span was,” John said.

When sand artist John Thiering from Coffs Harbour received an email wanting to talk about using his sand paintings as part of the 2018 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, he was thrilled.

"I had a meeting with them in August last year but nothing was confirmed until about three weeks before the ceremony,” John said.

"It was short notice, I had three weeks to create what they wanted but it was really exciting and I thought it was a wonderful opportunity to get world wide exposure.

During skype sessions with the artistic director and his team, John was given a brief before practising and creating ideas.

"When we came up with a plan, I went to the Gold Coast and spent seven hours in a photographic studio with a film and artistic team.

John's sand art was filmed in preparation for the opening ceremony.

"There are six regions of the commonwealth. As an introduction to these regions, I did six 30-second sand paintings to represent them and welcome them to the Gold Coast.

"When talking with the artistic director, what he liked was the idea of the journey from far away, symbolised by birds. The paintings started off with one bird representing one of the regions, five other birds were added and become a flock flying towards their destination, the Gold Coast.

"Before athletes marched into the stadium, there was 30 seconds worth of sand painting on the big screens in the stadium.”

The excitement of John's career hasn't stopped at the Commonwealth Games.

Already performing on four cruise ships this year, he will set foot on another in May, perform at a public projection on a building in Port Macquarie in two weeks and work with an opera company in Sydney in a month.

"One thing about sand painting is it's sort of like a solo gig and it's nice to work with other people and see what can happen.</s>Sandtinel, a company offering technologically advanced sand separators in both the Canadian and U.S. oil & gas industry, today announced they have spun out of their parent company, Radix Innovation Corp.

“Radix was conceived to develop and incubate new product opportunities until they are mature enough to stand alone commercially. Sandtinel represents our first success and launch of an independent business entity.” Brent Rheaume, President & CEO.

Sandtinel is rolling out a campaign to introduce its newly branded fleet of Sand Separators and the core technology housed within each, the VL-TEK (vapor lock technology).

“We have re-branded our spherical sand separators — now called the Defender series.”

“We offer Wellhead Defenders - manufactured in 36", 48", and 60” diameters and come in Class 600, 1500 and 2500 with PSI ratings as high as 6,170.”

“We’re also excited to announce the launch of our Group Defenders – manufactured in 72” and 96” diameters, can tie into multiple wells and handle dramatically higher flow rates compared to the Wellhead Defenders.”

The launch campaign, with the tagline, “Sandtinel works for you”, will feature online ads, videos and a sand management conference.

“We are seeing a sizeable shift in fracing technologies and volumes and how it greatly affects sand management and erosion on production equipment.”

“Producer’s expectations of sand management solutions are greatly increasing. They want solutions that work, not plug, clog and carry-over sand. They want solutions that are easy to operate and maintain, not require shut-in and downtime to remove sand. They want solutions that continuously evolve with their demanding and changing operations, not remain static and reactive to it.”

Sandtinel is reformatting the future of sand management by addressing all of these challenges.

“Our sole mandate is to work with Producers to continuously remove more sand from their production.”

They do this by acquiring top talent in the field of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to continuously evolve their separator’s performance by innovating and optimizing its inner core, patent design, the VL-TEK, using the powerful computing, modeling, and prototyping capabilities of CFD technology.

This approach has enabled the Sandtinel team to work closely with customers and their well data to continually offer effective, innovative solutions that have proven to greatly remove more sand from production and lower OPEX from unnecessary washouts, downtime, and repairs.

Sandtinels are not only unparalleled in performance, their engineered design allows for ease of operations and maintenance. Operators can remove sand in minutes, while still producing, without ever being exposed. They just turn the valve and ship the sand and they are off to the next well. Now, Operators can power through their day, feeling safer, with minimal interruptions of shut-in’s, downtime & maintenance.

“Sandtinel works for you to bestow confidence and assurance in your operations. It is this confidence that enables both Engineers and Operators to have time in their day to be more”:
• Strategic - less administrative in their days
• Safe - less shut-ins reduces the risk of exposure
• Productive - less operational tasks around shut-in and sand removal means more wells can be checked in a day



This campaign aims to showcase not only our products but the people who work with them.

You can get more information on Sandtinel — its products, applications, technology and team on their new website at — sandtinel.com.</s>Khammam: Idula Suresh, Annapureddipalli mandal reporter of a vernacular daily, was beaten up by individuals belonging to the sand mafia for making allegations at the mandal tehsildar on sand mining from a local stream.

Suresh had information about the mining of sand from a stream at Abbugudem in Annapureddipalli mandal, which is also the native village of Suresh.

The reporter took pictures of sand placed in a hidden place and showed it to the tehsildar. The revenue officials led by the tehsildar raided the dump and seized the sand.

Suresh also published the photos on a WhatsApp group of local scribes. Information about Suresh posting photos on the WhatsApp group was allegedly shared with Akula Siva, who was reportedly the owner of the tractor used for dumping the sand, by one of his relatives, who works in the same revenue department.</s>Lugansk (Ukraine) (AFP) - Speaking Russian with a strong Italian accent, Andrea Palmeri attracts attention in Lugansk, the separatist-held province in eastern Ukraine.

"I converted to the Orthodoxy, but I always pray in Italian," the far right-wing hooligan turned pro-Russian fighter told AFP after making the sign of the cross as he entered a Russian Orthodox church.

"Fate sent me here to Lugansk," he said of the de-facto capital of one of two self-proclaimed republics by Ukrainian separatists.

Palmeri was the leader of an ultras group aligned with the football team in Lucca, central Italy, but the gang's neo-fascist views and violent activities saw him facing a jail sentence at home.

He fled the country and arrived to fight with the pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine -- alongside several hundred other Europeans, according to Kiev authorities.

"The Serbs were the first who came... Then the Italians, then the French appeared," said Palmeri, whose upper right arm is covered with a tattoo of the Russian national symbol of a double-headed eagle.

Palmeri claims he was the first Italian to join the Russian-backed rebels in 2014, but has now been followed by some 30 compatriots.

Many of those have since been killed, he said, in a conflict that has dragged on for four years and cost more than 10,000 lives.

Kiev and its Western allies accuse Russia of supporting the separatists by deploying several thousand regular Russian troops into Ukraine, a charge that Moscow denies, admitting only the presence of Russian volunteers and off-duty soldiers.

Palmeri said he had made the decision to go to Ukraine after watching Russian TV news, which described authorities in Kiev as neo-Nazis and broadcast false reports that Russian-speakers were being exterminated.

Palmeri, who was married to a Russian woman at the time, said he "couldn't stay at home" when he saw what was happening in Ukraine.

He described the war as a battle "between liberalism and Russian values" fought by parts of Europe, America and the Russian state.

In his native Italy, Palmeri faced five and a half years in jail over accusations of violent crimes and was put under house arrest.

But he managed to escape and fled the country even though his passport had been confiscated, the Italian local newspaper Il Tirreno reported.

Then he reappeared thousands of kilometres to the east of Europe.

But the untried Italian militant was quickly forced to come to terms with the realities of conflict during the freezing Ukrainian winter.

Under the nom de guerre Italia, Palmeri took part in fighting for several months until his feet succumbed to frostbite during the battle for the town of Debaltseve, a key railway hub, in 2015.

"Real war is not as interesting as in the movies. You are scared all the time there... You cannot sleep for two or three days, you are constantly under fire," he told AFP.

And Palmeri's involvement in the violence has only aggravated his problems with Italian justice, which he says is now pursuing him for being a mercenary.

"We are not terrorists or mercenaries, I consider myself as a volunteer," Palmeri said, while declining to provide details on the source of his income in war-scarred Lugansk.

He does not want to return to his native country for fear of being re-arrested, and regrets being separated from his seven-year-old son.

Instead he has built -- with the help of "Italian investors" -- a bakery in Alchevsk, an industrial town near Lugansk, which he hopes to open in the coming weeks.

"When I arrived here, I certainly did not expect I would never be able to go back home," he said.</s>Smart Sand (NASDAQ:SND) was downgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, March 22nd.

According to Zacks, “Smart Sand, Inc. is a producer of northern white raw frac sand for the oil and gas industry. It offers proppant and related logistics services for oil and gas recovery from unconventional wells. Smart Sand, Inc. is headquartered in the Woodlands, Texas. “

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Seaport Global Securities started coverage on Smart Sand in a research note on Friday, December 8th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $15.00 price objective on the stock. BidaskClub upgraded Smart Sand from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 14th. Janney Montgomery Scott cut Smart Sand from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. TheStreet upgraded Smart Sand from a “d” rating to a “c-” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. Finally, Piper Jaffray set a $12.00 price objective on Smart Sand and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Smart Sand has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.14.

Shares of NASDAQ:SND traded down $0.04 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $6.02. The company had a trading volume of 543,646 shares, compared to its average volume of 855,380. The company has a market capitalization of $248.13, a P/E ratio of 18.81 and a beta of 3.47. Smart Sand has a 52-week low of $4.81 and a 52-week high of $16.67.

Smart Sand (NASDAQ:SND) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 15th. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $43.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.96 million. Smart Sand had a return on equity of 7.37% and a net margin of 15.69%. Smart Sand’s quarterly revenue was up 45.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.40 earnings per share. analysts predict that Smart Sand will post 1.12 EPS for the current year.

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in shares of Smart Sand by 1,651.3% in the second quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 11,436 shares of the company’s stock worth $101,000 after purchasing an additional 10,783 shares during the last quarter. Fidelity National Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Smart Sand in the fourth quarter worth approximately $123,000. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Smart Sand in the third quarter worth approximately $128,000. Macquarie Group Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Smart Sand in the fourth quarter worth approximately $128,000. Finally, Stone Ridge Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Smart Sand in the fourth quarter worth approximately $144,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 51.00% of the company’s stock.

COPYRIGHT VIOLATION NOTICE: “Smart Sand (SND) Downgraded by Zacks Investment Research” was first published by Macon Daily and is the sole property of of Macon Daily. If you are reading this article on another domain, it was illegally copied and reposted in violation of U.S. & international trademark & copyright legislation. The correct version of this article can be accessed at https://macondaily.com/2018/04/10/smart-sand-snd-cut-to-hold-at-zacks-investment-research-updated-updated.html.

Smart Sand, Inc engages in the excavation, processing, and sale of industrial sands for use in hydraulic fracturing operations in the oil and gas industry in the United States. The company sells its products primarily to oil and natural gas exploration and production companies, and oilfield service companies.

Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Smart Sand (SND)

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Receive News & Ratings for Smart Sand Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Smart Sand and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.</s>Smart Sand (NASDAQ: SND) is one of 21 public companies in the “Mining & quarrying of nonmetallic minerals, except fuels” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Smart Sand to related companies based on the strength of its dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Smart Sand has a beta of 3.47, meaning that its share price is 247% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Smart Sand’s peers have a beta of 0.66, meaning that their average share price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.

This table compares Smart Sand and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

This table compares Smart Sand and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Smart Sand’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Smart Sand. Smart Sand is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Smart Sand and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

Smart Sand currently has a consensus target price of $11.34, suggesting a potential upside of 88.43%. As a group, “Mining & quarrying of nonmetallic minerals, except fuels” companies have a potential upside of 22.99%. Given Smart Sand’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Smart Sand is more favorable than its peers.

51.0% of Smart Sand shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 59.0% of shares of all “Mining & quarrying of nonmetallic minerals, except fuels” companies are owned by institutional investors. 46.4% of Smart Sand shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 15.1% of shares of all “Mining & quarrying of nonmetallic minerals, except fuels” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Smart Sand beats its peers on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

Smart Sand, Inc. engages in the excavation, processing, and sale of industrial sands for use in hydraulic fracturing operations in the oil and gas industry in the United States. The company sells its products primarily to oil and natural gas exploration and production companies, and oilfield service companies. As of December 31, 2017, it had approximately 321 million tons of proven recoverable sand reserves. The company was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.

Receive News & Ratings for Smart Sand Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Smart Sand and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.</s>KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine will impose sanctions on Russian oligarchs including Oleg Deripaska, following the lead of penalties ordered by the United States, President Petro Poroshenko said on Tuesday.

A new round of U.S. sanctions, announced on Friday, target officials and businesspeople around Russian President Vladimir Putin, in response to alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.</s>FILE PHOTO: A flag with the logo of Russian gas giant Gazprom flies in front of Zagorsk Pipe Plant (ZTZ) outside Moscow, Russia May 29, 2017. Photo: Reuters

KIEV - Ukraine on Wednesday rejected a natural gas transit proposal by Russian energy giant Gazprom as an unacceptable and unprofitable proposition for Kiev.

Gazprom on Tuesday had said it could continue pumping reduced volumes of gas to western and central Europe through an existing Ukrainian trunk pipeline.

The suggestion came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said a deal for the Nord Stream 2 project Gazprom has been pushing was impossible "without clarity about the Ukrainian transit role."

Nord Stream 2 is a proposed expansion of an existing link that connects Russia directly to Germany via the Baltic Sea.

Ukraine has bitterly opposed the project because it fears it will undermine its traditional role as the main transit country for Russian gas exports to Europe.

Gazprom chief Alexei Miller said his company had never raised the prospect of stopping all Ukrainian transit and it could maintain volumes of 10 to 15 billion cubic metres per year.

But Ukrainian Energy Minister Igor Nasalyk said those amounts were too small to make Russian gas transit economically viable.

"Our country will not accept such volumes. For Ukraine, this is unprofitable," Nasalyk was quoted as saying by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Nasalyk said Ukraine would have to invest its own resources to keep Russian gas pumping at the levels offered by Gazprom.

He added that Russia needed to pump at least 40 billion cubic metres per year to make it "economically profitable" for Kiev.

On Wednesday Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak discussed the issue during a phone call with the European Commission vice president for energy, Maros Sefcovic.

"It was decided to hold a bilateral meeting at a date to be agreed later," the energy ministry said in a statement.

Gazprom and Ukraine gas company Naftogaz regularly do battle in the Stockholm arbitration court. Last month the Russian energy giant was ordered to pay $2.6 billion to Naftogaz to settle all of their legal disputes and ordered to resume deliveries of Russian gas to Ukraine.

The "gas wars" have sometimes affected supplies to European nations.

The volumes mentioned by Gazprom are a fraction of those Russia hopes to supply to Germany and other parts of Europe by routes bypassing Ukraine once its existing transit contract with Kiev expires in 2019.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has urged Germany to abandon plans to build Nord Stream 2, saying it would amount to an "economic and energy blockade" of his crisis-torn country.

In 2017, 93.5 billion cubic metres of Russian gas transited Ukraine to the rest of Europe -- about half of EU nations' total purchases from Gazprom.

The United States has cautioned Germany against signing up Nord Stream 2, arguing that it would only increase Europe's energy dependence on Russia.

More than a third of the gas consumed in the European Union is supplied by Gazprom.
Ukraine detains a Russian ship in Odessa suspected of illegally extracting sand.