This post was written by Hannah Chanpong.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the estate of Florida investment firm executive K. Wayne McLeod with running a Ponzi scheme that victimized an estimated 260 law enforcement agents.
McLeod reportedly raised at least $34 million since 1988 by luring active and retired government employees to invest in the "FEBG Bond Fund" with false promises of annual returns between eight and 10 percent. McLeod operated the fund through the Federal Employee Benefits Group, Inc.
According to the SEC's complaint, McLeod wrote to investors, "With all of the Ponzi Scams going on around the world I wanted to insure you that this account is 100% secured by US Gov't Securities and the principal is never touched until liquidated."
The SEC alleges that the "FEBG Bond Fund" did not exist.
"McLeod victimized law enforcement agents and other government employees who dedicated their lives to the service of this country," said Eric I. Bustillo, Director of the SEC Miami Regional Office. "The victims gave years of public service and McLeod stole their futures."
McLeod allegedly solicited his clients' investments through financial planning seminars that he presented to federal and state agencies across the country. He then used his investors' money to "pay himself" and for "lavish entertainment" and "promotional expenses to bolster his image." The SEC has frozen McLeod's assets and the assets of his firms, FEBG, Inc. and F&S Asset Management Group, Inc. FSAMG has approximately $43 million under management.
McLeod was found shot to death in his car in Jacksonville, Fla. Tuesday morning, four days after he sent an e-mail that notified his clients that he was closing the fund.
The SEC's investigation is ongoing.


Ljubljana, 9 January - Leader of the opposition Positive Slovenia (PS) Zoran Janković again rebuffed corruption allegations against him on Wednesday, telling a press conference that the assets he supposedly failed to account for have always been there in the form of a loan to his former company.
Ljubljana Mayor and head of the opposition Positive Slovenia (PS) commenting on a Corruption Prevention Commission report, accusing him of failing to report EUR 2.4m in assets.
The news item consists of 1.910 characters (without spaces) or 413 words words.


The best way to save money on food is to quit throwing it away. Find ways to recycle “old” food rather than the garbage pail.
When vegetables lose their crunch in the crisper, use them in stews or stocks. Stale bread really isn’t — it makes excellent bread crumbs, croutons and French toast.
Fried rice actually is better with leftover rice. Brown bananas flavor better than fresh in dessert breads. Pureé past-prime tomatoes into sauce or salsa. Save leftover wine in the fridge for use in sauces — red for beef, white for seafood and poultry.


An Upper East Side woman who loves birds so much that she changed her name to Dove claims she was attacked by a neighbor who flew into a rage when he caught her feeding pigeons.
But retired teacher Arthur Schwartz says the woman is a known birdbrain whose scattered seed attracts rats.
The feathers started flying Saturday when Schwartz caught Anna Dove — formerly known as Augusta Kugelmas — tossing seeds to pigeons near his apartment on East 93rd Street.
“It’s disgusting,” said Schwartz, 61. “There are rats every day. They eat this stuff.
Schwartz admitted that he got so angry, he grabbed her bag of birdseed and tossed it over a fence. A passer-by saw the confrontation and called 911. But Schwartz and his wife took wing and drove off before the cops showed up.
Dove, 63, insists she’s the victim. “The guy was violent. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a weapon the next time,” she said.
Dove filed a police report charging Schwartz with poking and shoving her.
Her hobby has led to trouble before. In 2003, Dove was accused of assaulting Parks Department volunteer Carol McCabe, who had pointed out to her that feeding pigeons violates city rules.
“She got angry. She threw birdseed at my face,” McCabe recounted yesterday, adding she obtained a restraining order against Dove.
Dove believes she has a right to feed birds.
“People feeding birds are being victimized,” she said.
On its Web site, the club expresses support for the Animal Liberation Front, which the Department of Homeland Security in 2005 named as a terrorist threat.
Outside of parks, the city has no rules against pigeon feeding. But under the sanitation code, spreading seed on a sidewalk can be deemed littering.


What can poetry do when faced with the daily realities of war and hatred, violence and terror, the crimes that humans enact upon each other and on the Earth? A cynic would answer nothing, would condemn the personal lyric as pure solipsism, an indulgence for the privileged few. But many 21st century poets are wrestling with questions of justice, writing at the intersection of history and intimacy, weaving political and social truth-telling into their private experiences.
Robert Pinsky defended his art while serving as poet laureate: “I think poetry is a vital part of our intelligence, our ability to learn, our ability to remember, the relationship between our bodies and minds,” he told the Christian Science Monitor. Bay Area poets Solmaz Sharif and Tess Taylor prove this claim, help us learn and remember with their vital new collections.
Sharif’s astonishing debut Look (Graywolf Press; $16) examines an endless cycle of war and violence, using a myriad of voices and forms. A formidable poetic talent, Sharif was born in Istanbul to Iranian parents, activists who fled their home country after the Iranian Revolution.
The phrases in all caps are taken from the U.S. Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, a sinister document that Sharif has studied in depth. “Look’s” central project is to interrogate the words themselves, to reveal how the terminology of war is entrenched in our language. She cites some of the Dictionary’s nearly 6,000 definitions and then remakes her own, splicing them into longer poems: “PINPOINT TARGET one lit desk lamp/ and a nightgown walking past the window,” “DAMAGE AREA does not include night sweats/ or retching at the smell of barbeque.” For the reader, these capitalized words and their visceral new meanings enact a series of small shocks, felt in the body and the mind.
Far from the sites of violence, Bay Area native Tess Taylor chronicles a farming year in her radiant second collection, Work & Days (Red Hen Press; $11.95). Awarded the prestigious Amy Clampitt Fellowship, Taylor balances solitary poem making in “an old lady’s cottage” with intensive physical work at a local veggie farm. Taylor led youth garden programs in Berkeley and interned in the kitchen at Chez Panisse before digging into poetry, and her keen sense of place and love of food pervade these poems.
holds code, waiting warmth to speak it.
Despite global warming, famine and flood, Taylor captures delight and seeks hope, observes “a thumb-sized frog” singing its “short springtime song.” She celebrates the summer solstice, the apex of the year when “light is monument to its own passing” and turns her fine powers of description to mulching garlic, planting leeks, digging potatoes, making apple butter.
May those who are hungry be fed.
May those who have food also hunger for justice.


Following the successfully, massively and expertly organised coronation event of the Mthwakazi King on the 3rd February 2018 which was unfortunately aborted due to the court order and government ban which alluded to the coronation of a Mthwakazi King as unconstitutional, the Mthwakazi Chiefs are embarking on an outreach to explain to the masses about what happened and what will happen next.
The Mthwakazi Paramount Chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni will be in the United Kingdom to interface with Mthwakazi nationals in that country this very coming Saturday on the 7th April 2018 in Northampton. "All Mthwakazi people are invited to this most important meeting, where they will have an opportunity to hear about the wayforward but also have an opportunity to engage Chief Ndiweni on the issue of the coronation of the King” said one of the organisers of the meeting.
Chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni is the son of Chief Khayisa Ndiweni, a man who had an unparalleled wisdom and vision regarding the Mthwakazi nation.
Chief Khayisa Ndiweni today is greatly known for his wise counsel to Dr Joshua Nkomo during the Lancaster House negotiations, where he advised Nkomo to negotiate for Mthwakazi's autonomy.
Chief Nhlanhla Ndiweni has proven to be the chip of the old block when it comes to the national affairs, together with other chiefs such as the evergreen and incorrigible Chief Vezi Maduma Mafu have firmly stepped on the plate and fearlessly demanded the coronation of the Crown Prince Bulelani Khumalo as the Mthwakazi King.
On the 7th of April 2018 the Mthwakazi community resident in the UK will have a rare opportunity to engage the chief on this hot issue which has awaken Mthwakazi citizenry in general.
People are requested to arrive on time to allow for full and robust engagement with the chief.
For more information about the event people can call the following numbers: 0745693793; 07452716167; 07476308049; 07886274062; 07904094129; 07961487271; or 07940768047.


The Cats have wrapped up on the field for the day--and a sweltering one it was----and here are a couple of observations that my pal Drew probably would have had out there a lot earlier, but he's enjoying a well-deserved day off.
* The Cats are fast. Flat out, no modifiers.
*The defence is so far ahead of last year at this point that it's useless to even try to compare. Huge defensive plays made several times by both Rico Murray and Pawel Kruba at linebacker. Some guys who made starts last year will not make this team, is our guess.
*The Canadian depth of this team is ridiculously good, and we'll address that a bit in the main column today (which is about Ted Laurent).
* Obviously, as the top of the five-man quarterback pyramid, Zach Collaros got the A reps in team and "skelly" sessions in Monday's second day of Tiger-Cat training camp. The bulk of the rest of the reps went to Jeremiah Masoli, No. 3 on the depth chart last year.
"The quarterbacks understand that there isn't enough time to get reps for them each day," explained head coach Ken Austin of the way pivot assignments will be handled in training camp. "We don't have enough reps to distribute five deep, or even four deep.
"Sometimes there is a modification, though, because we do things by concept. So if a quarterback is short of reps on a certain concept, then we have to rotate it differently to make sure that he comes up to curve in some learning, where he didn't have enough reps.
"There is a lot that goes into it each night as we plan reps."
Here's part of the plan, we'll guess: Collaros gets every rep he needs, especially with the prospect of a strike/lockout which could cost precious development time for a guy trying to go from a seven-game No. 2, to an 18-game No. 1.
*Andy Fantuz has never held for a left-footed kicker. Justin Medlock returns to the team after a two-year NFL absence and, apparently, is still kicking with his left foot.
Fantuz said it's an adjustment because Medlock is not only left-footed, he does not use a kicking tee---Medlock says that's actually easier for a holder once he gets used to it---and because unlike other kickers Medlock does not like the ball held down from the top with one or two fingers or the whole hand, but likes the tip of the ball pinched between forefinger and thumb to make it easier to rotate, if necessary.
Medlock says it'll take 200 practice snaps to get it right but will he have that with Fantuz, who's a first-stringer on offence?
No, it says here. That's one reason why Jason Boltus, third-string quarterback, was his holder here before. Receivers Luke Tasker and Corey Koch both with reliable, and big, hands like Fantuz are also asking for practice time as holder.
*Austin was asked whether he'd like to carry five quarterbacks as he did last year.
"We're trying to push to about eight or nine," he quipped before adding. "I don't know. if there's a ned to do that we will."
* And how is Collaros making out in his adaptation to the Austin Way, which requires an awful lot of conceptual knowledge and reaction to what's playing out in front of him?
"He's improving a lot," Austin said. " It doesn't matter what new system you go into, there's new terminology. It's like Greek af first. First you have to get comfortable with the terminology then you have to understand WHY we're doing what we're doing, and not just what. You can't have a robotic memory, coming out on this football field, you have to learn conceptually because of our adjustments. That takes time to sink in, but Zach's doing agreat job right now in his understanding and progression of learning."
Ted doesn't only look big he plays big.
Masoli (well, Austin's brilliance) got us home field advantage last year.
What a difference a gm makes. Old picked up other teams castoffs. Even Glenn was cut even before training camp in Peg. Before comming here as saviour. New: even last years starters might not make team ?! Wow. From replacing garbage with garbage to replacing starters with stars!!
And fast! I was wondering how our new QB was doing myself, even after only 2 days so thanks for addressing it, Mr Steve!
2014: the Year of the Cats!
It is truly great to hear (but I'm not really surprised) that the Ticats are way ahead of where they were last season. Continuity of coaching staff and keeping the core of players together will do that. With a new QB, offense could take a bit longer to come together but then that was true last year when EVERYONE was learning a new system. Great to hear too that there is lots of speed, some of which was evident at times last season.
As for Medlock's holder - I would think that they might try out someone who is NOT a first string player. Last year when Fantuz was injured Congi had to adjust to a different holder (Bartel). Of course any player could be injured during the season, but using a backup (like they did with Boltus - maybe Lauther would work?) might avoid the possibility of having to substitute someone less familiar (or completely unfamiliar) with Medlock's style in case of injury.
The man just known as Ted.
@Ryan y - How well he's coming along? It's Day 2 of camp... isn't it a little early to be asking that? We heard a bit of feedback after the OTA, but still, what else is a coach supposed to say at this point? And what are reporters supposed to be noticing when the drills have just been getting under way?
Re: holders for placekicking, I'm curious about the thinking behind continuing to use a receiver to do the job, versus one of the backup QBs - they can certainly run the ball if the snap is botched, but you'd think having someone like Masoli or LeFevour doing it would open up more options on a broken placekick.
Is it just me or are the ticats and reporters Being VERY careful about raising the fans expectations about how well Collaros is coming along? There have no articles about how great he is doing and Kent Austin gives the same cookie cutter responses whenever a reporter asks. I don't know maybe I've gotten used to the nfls reporters and their hyperbole over the off season but it scares me. This guy played one very bad preseason game last year I remember thinking wow he's terrible and lost the backup job to the argos Harris. I'm not sure how he ended up being second string again when Ricky went down but this kid is a HUGE gamble. And I think people should start to gear back the expectations a bit about a return to and winning the grey cup this year I think this kid might need a year or two to learn the game and become what all his potential says he could be.
Could have used Laurent last year! Should have used the Gaydosh pick to get him! Oh well, better late than never.
Also agree that speed is good... Just look at how dangerous our STs were when Thigpen or Williams were returning the kicks for TDs.
I haven't had a chance to get to camp yet... So will rely on others... How does Plesius look at MLB?
Glad to hear team is fast; as many coaches have said "you can't coach/teach speed".
Not surprised Masoli is 2nd QB (so far). I think he adds a quite different dimension to Ticat offence, whereas Lefevour is very similar in skills to Collaros.
Signing of Laurent is huge, Ticats will have so many ratio options this year.


The formation of the new federation would result in a major Cosatu split as affiliates would have to choose between the two.
Zwelinzima Vavi, the former Cosatu secretary general who was fired by Africa’s largest labour federation in 2014 for allegedly failing to carry out his duties, will lead the new federation to be unveiled on May 1.
One of Cosatu’s major affiliates – the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) – would be one of the biggest members of the federation. Numsa’s Cosatu membership was nullified in 2014 following disagreements with the federation.
Vavi said the South African trade union movement had become fragmented and weakened, with only 24 percent of workers being members of any union.
“That is why there is such a groundswell of support for a workers summit and not just a new union federation but a fundamentally different one, based on worker control, internal democracy, non-racialism, gender equality, international solidarity and political independence,” he said.
Vavi said the new federation would shy away from politics and concentrate on representing interests of workers. Cosatu is part of South Africa’s ruling alliance with the African National Congress.
“Workers are crying out for an independent, fighting of organisation that works with the civil society that have ties with other trade unions fighting the same course all over the world that are not just politically independent,” he said.
A number of Cosatu affiliates including the Food and Allied Workers Union, South African Football Players Union, South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union, and Public and Allied Workers Union of South Africa are some of the unions that have been linked to Vavi’s initiative.
Solidarity’s Gideon du Plesssis said the new federation had been trying to lure his union but they had ideological differences.
“The founders have already been flirting with Solidarity for quite a while to win the union’s support and cooperation but on account of ideological and other differences, Solidarity will not join the federation; yet, in areas where we could share interests such as campaigns against corruption, electricity crises and service delivery, the new federation may certainly count on our support,” he wrote for Biznews.


Air strikes conducted near Erbil and the Mosul dam amid reports of mass killings by Sunni fighters in Syria.
The United States has conducted air strikes in Iraq against the Islamic State goup amid reports of more atrocities carried out by its fighters in neighbouring Syria.
Air strikes on Saturday targeted Islamic State fighters near the Kurdish capital of Erbil and the Mosul dam.
"The nine air strikes conducted thus far destroyed or damaged four armoured personnel carriers, seven armed vehicles, two Humvees and an armoured vehicle," the US Central Command said in a statement.
The Central Command said the strikes were aimed at supporting humanitarian efforts in Iraq and protecting US personnel and facilities there.
The Mosul dam, Iraq's biggest, fell under control of Islamic State fighters earlier this month. Control of the dam could give the Sunni fighters the ability to flood cities and cut off vital water and electricity supplies.
After the Islamic State's capture of the northern city of Mosul in June, its swift push to the borders of Iraqi Kurdistan alarmed Baghdad and last week drew the first US air strikes on Iraq since the withdrawal of US troops in 2011.
Iraq has been plunged into its worst violence since the peak of sectarian bloodshed in 2006-2007, with Sunni fighters led by the Islamic State overrunning large parts of the west and north, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee for their lives and threatening ethnic Kurds in their autonomous province.
The Islamic State has also seized large parts of Syria as it tries to build a caliphate across several countries.
On Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Islamic State fighters had killed about 700 members of a tribe in eastern Syria.
The monitoring group said the killings took place in several villages inhabitated by the al-Sheitat tribe in Deir Ezzor province. The Observatory said many of the victims were beheaded after being captured.


"Samantha Who?" has emerged as one of the breakout hits of this troubled TV season, and a major component of the ABC sitcom's success is Melissa McCarthy's hilarious work as Dena, a childhood friend of Christina Applegate's title character.
"Dena is so sweet and bubbly, but at the same time there was that scene in the pilot where she confessed that she and Sam were not really friends and she had been fooling everyone," McCarthy says. "That made her much more interesting to me. She just wanted to be friends with these girls so desperately that she went outside her normal behavior. But if she's crazy enough to do that, what else might she do? Dena is just a little 'off,' which is always more interesting than someone who is just straight up."
McCarthy broke into comedy at New York clubs, then made her TV debut on her cousin Jenny McCarthy's 1997 MTV comedy-variety show.
Her big break came in 2000 as sweet-natured chef Sookie St. James on "Gilmore Girls," a show that required her to master huge chunks of dialogue.
"It was never not in my mind that I couldn't really complain about what I had to do when Lauren (Graham) had, like, 700 pages a week," McCarthy recalls. "She has close to a photographic memory, and I don't know if they ever realized that, if she hadn't had that memory, (the show) would have been literally impossible."
Off-camera, she's raising infant daughter Vivian without a nanny. "My husband is an actor, too, and between our two schedules, we're able to do it ourselves 95 percent of the time. And to me, that means everything," she says.
Born: Aug. 26, 1970, in Plainfield, Ill.
Family ties: Married to actor Ben Falcone ("Joey") since 2005; one daughter, Vivian. Melissa also is a cousin of Jenny McCarthy.
Professional training: Studied with The Actors Studio in New York; she also is a member of The Groundlings Main Company, a world-famous improvisational comedy and sketch troupe.
Film credits: "Go," "Drowning Mona," "Auto Motives," "The Kid," "Charlie's Angels," "Pumpkin," "White Oleander," "The Life of David Gale," "Cook-Off!" and "The Nines."


Courtesy Redwood City. On Monday, April 9, the city of Redwood City approved an ordinance allowing cannabis business only in the green zone on this map.
Redwood City is open for cannabis business, but marijuana operators aren’t particularly high about the terms.
As far as they’re concerned, the city is banishing them to the industrial side of town and imposing overly restrictive rules.
At its Monday night meeting, the City Council voted 5-2 — with Jeffrey Gee and Vice Mayor Diane Howard dissenting — to approve an ordinance that establishes a zone where recreational marijuana wholesale businesses and indoor commercial-use nurseries can operate. That zone encompasses Seaport Boulevard east of Highway 101 and some areas west of the freeway on Veterans Boulevard. That’s where medical marijuana businesses before them primarily were relegated to.
City planners say those areas have a 3.89 percent vacancy rate, a fact they considered to be enticing to businesses.
Under the ordinance, the nurseries can only grow marijuana seeds, clones and immature plants and sell them just to wholesalers or commercial businesses, not individuals. They must provide 24-hour security and cannot operate within 1,000 feet of schools, youth centers, public parks and libraries. The state only requires them to be a minimum of 600 feet from schools.
In addition to medical marijuana deliveries that began in 2012, the ordinance allows recreational marijuana deliveries to businesses that obtain a business license in the city.
Kali-Rai, who also is a paid consultant for Harvest Bloom, one of the medical marijuana companies established in San Carlos with an administrative office in Redwood City. He said the company is worried it’ll have to comply with the new zoning rules if it expands into the recreational marijuana business.
Harvest Bloom owner/operator Alex Gillis explained the concern.
He asked if a business like his could be grandfathered in.
Also at issue for local cannabis proprietors was the rule in the ordinance requiring 24-hour security for businesses.
Business permits should begin to be issued this summer.


Best lines of the night from the CNN News Democratic debate.
“When I finish, you will have your turn.” Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders debate in Flint, Michigan on March 6, 2016.
For those of you who have managed to defeat PDF (Presidential Debate Fatigue) and stick around this long: Pat yourself on the back! Tonight we’re following Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders as they face off on the CNN debate stage in Flint, Michigan. Check back here to see who gets vindicated and who gets Berned when moderator Anderson Cooper questions the Dems on Flint’s water crisis, mass incarceration, and the state of the auto industry. But really, can we just have a moment of thanks for a debate where neither candidate references the size of his or her junk?
I suppose they can trust the corporations who have destroyed Flint by a disastrous trade policy which have allowed them to shut down plants in Flint and move to China and Mexico. We can trust them, I’m sure. Or maybe, Anderson, maybe we should let Wall Street come in and run the city of Flint. We know their honesty and integrity has done so much for the American people.
They should be relieved. They failed this city.
I am also going to go after companies. When a company decides to leave like Nabisco is leaving, [and] they have gotten tax benefits from Chicago and Illinois to stay there, I will claw back the benefits.
I am very glad, Anderson, that secretary Clinton discovered religion on this issue. But it’s a little bit too late. Secretary Clinton supported virtually every one of the disastrous trade agreements written by corporate America.
I have said and I will say again, I will be happy to release anything I have as long as everybody else does too.
When I was a young man at the University of Chicago, I worked with students trying to desegregate University of Chicago-owned housing. Most candidates don’t put this on their resume, but I was arrested for trying to desegregate the Chicago school system.
Being a white person in the United States of America, I know that I have never had the experience that so many people in this audience have had … I have spent a lot of time with the mothers of African-American children who lost them, [like] Trayvon Martin’s mother. I got to know them. I listened to them. It has been incredibly humbling, because I can’t pretend to have had the experience you and others have had.
No. I do not support fracking.
We have our differences and we get into vigorous debate about issues. But compare the substance of this debate with what you saw on the Republican stage last week.
Let me pick up on the last point the secretary made. We [the Democrats] are, if elected president, going to invest a lot of money into mental health. When you watch these Republican debates, you know why.
My father’s family was wiped out by Hitler in the Holocaust. I know about what crazy and radical and extremist politics mean. I learned that lesson as a tiny, tiny child when my mother would take me shopping, and we would see people working in stores who had numbers on their arms because they were in Hitler’s concentration camps. I’m very proud of being Jewish, and that’s an essential part of who I am.
I am a praying person. And if I hadn’t been during the time I was in the White House, I would have become one—because it’s very hard to imagine living under that kind of pressure without being able to fall back on prayer and on my faith.
This post will be updated throughout the night.


Center-right parties have won a majority of seats in Europe's Parliamentary elections, the results of which were released today. If you thought the financial crisis had given capitalism a bad name, election results show E.U. politicians have done their part as well.
In Spain, the standing socialist government lost seats to its conservative opposition and acknowledged "the warning" sent to them by voters concerned about the economy. At 18.1 percent, Spain has the highest unemployment rate in Europe.
Though the next presidential election in Spain is three years away, La Vanguardia reports that Rafael Rajoy, the leader of the conservative party and a presidential hopeful, is calling for a vote of no confidence against President José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
The Right made its mark in other national contests as well.
Britain's Conservative party outperformed Labour making it even more difficult for the embattled Gordon Brown to reassure supporters he can survive the calls for his resignation. Labour took third in the E.U. election behind Ukip whose platform calls for the U.K.'s withdrawal from the E.U.
Since the rejection of the E.U. Constitution four years ago, Europe has been searching for a way forward. The elections, however, show that the popular attitude toward the E.U. is more skeptical than ever with only a 43 percent turnout, the lowest in the history of the Parliament.
In an interview for Le Monde Denish MacShane, Minister of European Affairs under Tony Blair, said that we are witnessing a "renationalisation of Europe."
"Europeans are afraid, afraid for their work, their salary, their standard of living, the future for their children. In this anxious atmosphere, the electorate was put on the defensive."
Still, center-right parties did not gain all the new ground.
Green parties won more seats than expected in what is seen as one of the E.U.'s primary responsibilities: environmental policy. Global warming is the most daunting political and moral challenge today and the one policy issue that most clearly extends beyond national boundaries.
If liberals are looking for solace in Europe's right-hand turn toward nationalism, they can congratulate Sweden's Pirate Party which will fight for shorter copyright terms and non-commercial file sharing between individuals.
Winning 7.1 percent of Sweden's electorate, they now occupy their first seat in Brussels.


Whopper of the Week: Remembering Strom.
“Though his opposition to integration was a hallmark of [former South Carolina Senator Strom] Thurmond’s early career, his segregationist past seems all but forgotten.”—Lee Bandy, “There’ll Never Be Another Like Strom Thurmond,” in the State of Columbia, South Carolina, June 27, 2003.
“In the interest of pursuing the best possible agenda for the future of our country, I will not seek to remain as majority leader of the United States Senate for the 108th Congress, effective January 6, 2003.”—Trent Lott, Dec. 20, 2002. Lott’s resignation came after he stirred a hornet’s nest by speaking warmly, at a 100th birthday party for Thurmond, about Thurmond’s segregationist third-party presidential campaign of 1948.
Strom Thurmond was a dear friend, and I shall miss him.For American politics, the death of Senator Strom Thurmond brings to a close the Twentieth Century.Last September when the Senate paid homage to our longest-serving colleague, I dubbed Strom Thurmond “our Centennial Senator” whose life was part of the tapestry that is America. A school teacher, a judge, a governor, a philanthropist, he was, above all else, a patriot. Even in oldest age, he still had the spirit of the man who parachuted into Normandy to do his part in the fight to save Western Civilization.Strom has passed into history. His work here is done, but ours is just beginning. The rest of us can learn from his experience, build upon his accomplishments, and emulate his decency and his dedication to the land he dearly loved.
Love to say more, but I gotta catch a plane to Pascagoula. Kiss-kiss.


CFO, Secretary, Treasurer, Director & Executive VP, BigString Corp.
Mr. Robert S. DeMeulemeester is CFO, Secretary, Treasurer, Director & Executive VP at BigString Corp. He is on the Board of Directors at BigString Corp.
Mr. DeMeulemeester was previously employed as CFO, Treasurer, Director & Executive VP by PeopleString Corp., Treasurer & Managing Director by Securities Industry Automation Corp., and CFO, Managing Director & Controller by Sector, Inc.
He received his undergraduate degree from Lehigh University and an MBA from Columbia University.
No news for BSGC in the past two years.
All Company Executives BigString Corp.


COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - James Robert Thomason has owned his liquor store since 2002.
Right now, Thomason’s Wine and Liquor, just like any other liquor store in the state, keeps their doors closed on Sundays. He believes liquor sales should be allowed on Sundays in South Carolina.
“If a bar or restaurant can sell it after 7 p.m. and on Sundays, then a liquor store should be able to,” Thomason said.
In South Carolina, liquor can be sold Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. A bill filed in the House wants to give voters the option to allow the sale of liquor in some counties.
The bill would let local municipalities in certain counties create an ordinance or referendum to allow liquor to be sold on Sundays from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The counties impacted by the bill must generate $1.5 million in accommodation taxes revenue. A House Judiciary Committee voted to amend the bill, which was originally set at $1 million.
The House Judiciary Committee debated the bill Tuesday afternoon. Some lawmakers say small liquor stores have contacted them and told them they had concerns about the bill. The stores said they are worried about competing with bigger retailers on Sundays and they enjoy having the day off.
Thomason said he would like to see a few changes made to the bill.
During the committee, amendments were proposed by lawmakers. Ultimately, the committee voted to send the bill back to subcommittee.


Who says college doesn’t prepare you for the real world? Sometimes they do, right down to the final moment when the tassel is turned from right to left. I’m talking about commencement speeches, which prepare students for the many dull speeches pushing shaky political ideas they will be subjected to for the rest of their lives. Jenna Ashley Robinson discusses how, in this most political of years, political speakers dominated the commencement landscape in North Carolina.


A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on April 16, 2019, on page 9.
Rep. Ilhan Omar says she's faced increased death threats since President Donald Trump spread around a video that purports to show her being dismissive of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Pelosi was among Democrats who had criticized Trump over the tweet, with some accusing him of trying to incite violence against the Muslim lawmaker.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Trump earlier Sunday, saying the president had a duty to highlight Omar's history of making comments that others deem anti-Semitic or otherwise offensive and that he wished no "ill will" upon the first-term lawmaker.
But Omar said that since Trump retweeted the video Friday night, she'd received many threats on her life that referred or replied to the posted video.
Pelosi said officials would continue to monitor and assess threats against Omar and called on Trump to discourage such behavior.
Huckabee Sanders questioned why Democrats weren't following Trump's example and calling out Omar, too.


ARIES (March 21-April 19): "Everything is complicated," wrote poet Wallace Stevens. "If that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore." I hope you will choose his wisdom to serve as your guiding light in the coming weeks. It is high time, in my astrological opinion, for you to shed any resentment you might feel for the fact that life is a crazy tangle of mystifying and interesting stories. Celebrate it, Aries! Revel in it. Fall down on your knees and give holy thanks for it. And by the way, here's a big secret: To the extent that you do glory in the complications, the complications will enlighten you, amuse you and enrich you.


WASHINGTON-(ENEWSPF)–December 1, 2016 — The invasion of Islamic State of Iraq and The Levant forces into Iraq two years ago has met with a “remarkable turn-around,” British Army Maj. Gen. Rupert Jones, deputy commander, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve told reporters yesterday.
In a teleconferenced feed from Baghdad, Jones said the coalition’s training of Iraqi forces has been key in the campaign to defeat ISIL. “It’s been well over a year since [ISIL] last defeated an Iraqi force, although they continue to resist,” he said, noting that more than 4,500 forces are training now to sustain the Iraqi forces and establish wide-area security and holding forces when Mosul has been retaken.
“We’re a coalition of more than 60 nations, united against [ISIL]. And we’re very proud that so many have offered contributions to fight against [ISIL’s] twisted ideology here in Iraq, in Syria, and other locations around the world,” he said.
The coalition has trained more than 63,000 fighters and many are in combat operations in Mosul and other locations around Iraq, he said.
The OIR deputy commander said the Iraqi forces continue to progress in their advance on Mosul, and while ISIL has lost significant amounts of territory in the city’s eastern sector, the enemy has used snipers and indirect fire, mortars and rockets “to terrorize civilians in areas that have been ripped away from their control. They’ve also used suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices to attack the advancing Iraqi security forces,” he said.
In response, and at the Iraqi government’s request, U.S.-led coalition forces struck and disabled four of the five bridges connecting east and west Mosul, and increased terrain-denial missions, Jones said.
“The intent of these operations is to reduce the effectiveness of the vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices. This combination of the two tactics seems to be reducing the number of VBIEDs the enemy has been able to use,” he said.
Surrounded by a superior coalition force, the enemy has little ability to resupply or reinforce their fighters, he said, adding since the counterattack to liberate Mosul began Oct. 17, the coalition has relentlessly bombarded the enemy.
“The coalition has supported the Iraqi advance with more than 4,800 precision bombs, artillery shells, missiles and rockets against [ISIL] fighters and resources,” he added.
In Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces having recaptured more than 270 square miles of terrain from ISIL, and are planning the next phase of isolation of Raqqa, Jones said.
“They’re now less than [18 miles] from the city and have encountered light to moderate resistance as they continue clearing villages along the axis of advance,” Jones said.
The SDF is also back-clearing the areas they control to reduce ISIL’s ability to reinfiltrate or attack using sleeper cells. “The coalition continues supporting their operations with air strikes, having delivered more than 600 munitions onto enemy targets,” he said.


The Jeep Grand Cherokee is one of the brightest stars among the cars that propelled Chrysler--now controlled by Fiat--to a 26-percent sales increase in 2011, raising its share of the U.S. market 1.3 points to 10.7 percent.
Yesterday, the company said it would start building a diesel version of the Grand Cherokee next year, its first diesel passenger vehicle in several years.
That confirms a statement by Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne from last April that the popular Jeep crossover would get a diesel option, which he reiterated in October.
The new clean-diesel sport-utility vehicle was buried in an announcement that Chrysler would add a third production shift at its Jefferson North assembly plant in Detroit next year, hiring 1,100 new workers in the process.
That plant now builds the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango, and will eventually add low-volume production of a Maserati sport-utility vehicle previewed by the Kubang concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show last fall.
There's already a diesel version of the Grand Cherokee built in the plant, mind you, but it's sold only in Europe, where diesel vehicles make up roughly 50 percent of new-car sales. It was unveiled last spring at the Geneva Motor Show, using a turbodiesel engine from VM Motori.
The European version has a 3.0-liter V-6 diesel offered in two different states of tune. The more powerful has 241 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque, the lesser version is rated at 190 horsepower and 325 pound-feet.
The more powerful version accelerates from 0 to 62 mph in 8.2 seconds, and is rated at 28.4 mpg on the European test cycle. That testing procedure usually returns fuel efficiency figures about 20 percent higher than the U.S. test, so we might expect combined fuel economy of 23 or 24 mpg.
The most economical current version of the 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee, fitted with the brand's Pentastar 3.6-liter V-6 gasoline engine and a five-speed automatic transmission, is rated by the EPA at 19 mpg combined for its rear-wheel drive model.
And the Grand Cherokee is likely to be the first of many clean diesel models sold across the Jeep, Chrysler, and Dodge brands. A turbodiesel Dodge Durango crossover, built on the same underpinnings as the Jeep crossover, would be easy. Analysts say that the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger large sedans will also get oil burners.
Clean-diesel vehicles are now sold in the U.S. only by four European brands: Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen, with the bulk of those sales coming from the mass-market VW Jetta TDI and Golf TDI models.
But Porsche just announced it would sell its Cayenne Diesel luxury sport-utility vehicle this year in the States.
The first U.S. brand to offer a new diesel passenger car may be Chevrolet, which will sell a Cruze diesel compact sedan for the 2013 model year.


Taking a deeper look into the list of recipients of political parties' protection money* in 2019, it appears as though a significant portion thereof will be going to nonprofits connected to party members.
The list of recipients of the protection money being distributed by the three coalition parties includes sports associations, village societies, schools, kindergartens and churches. Of the three parties, Centre and Pro Patria are the most generous toward churches, earmarking funds for the renovation of a whole host of houses of worship; the Social Democratic Party (SDE), meanwhile, will be supporting the renovation of just a few.
It stands out, however, that parties are not planning on missing the opportunity to use allotted protection money to give a boost to their members' nonprofits.
For example, one of the Centre Party's largest planned financial contributions, totalling €100,000, is to go to the nonprofit Tööstuspark Intec-Nakro, one of the two board members of which is a member of the Centre Party — Narva city councilmember Fjodor Ovsjannikov, who has been convicted of corruption.
Centre's contribution of €50,000 to the nonprofit Voore made the news last year as Voore board member Kristjan Sakk is partners with Centre Party member Ekri Savisaar. The nonprofit is slated to receive another cash injection from the ruling party, which has earmarked €17,000 for the development of a 3D marketing platform for manors.
Another €50,000 in operational support has been earmarked for the Estonian Tenants' Union, on the board of which serve Centre Party members Urmi Reinde and Heimar Lenk.
€12,000 is to go to the nonprofit Talendipank, the board of which includes Centre members Sten-Erik Jantson and Tiina Jantson. According to its annual report, the nonprofit organises beauty pageants.
The Viisu Village Society, on which serves Centre Party member and Paide City Council chairman Aivar Tubli, is to receive €20,000 for the reconstruction of a park.
The Centre Party has also earmarked €5,000 for Jõgeva Hospital, whose director, Peep Põdder, is not only a member of the party himself, but the personal doctor of former longtime Centre Party chairman Edgar Savisaar.
Of Pro Patria's protection money, €100,000 is to go to the nonprofit Konstantin Päts Museum with the aim of erecting a monument to Päts. Three of the nonprofit's five board members are members of Pro Patria, including Trivimi Velliste.
€50,000 is going toward the development of the cooperation network of the Society of Villages of Taheva Municipality. This nonprofit's sole board member, Monika Rogenbaum, is a member of Pro Patria. Another €50,000 is to go to the nonprofit Rõuge Sports Club, two board members of which, Jaak Pächter and Oliver Ossipov, are likewise members of Pro Patria.
The nonprofit Kalev Yacht Club, whose board includes Pro Patria member Kalev Vapper is to receive €25,000 for the renovation of its port infrastructure. The Jaan Tõnisson Institute, whose sole board member Andrus Villem is likewise a member of the party, is to receive the same amount.
Pro Patria member Tiit Salvan serves on the board of the nonprofit Toila-Ontika Merekuurort, which is to receive €23,000 for community facilities and €10,000 for solar-powered bus station lighting.
The Hiiumaa Heritage Society, on the board of which serves Pro Patria member and local municipal council member Tiit Harjak, is to receive €15,000 for the planning of a local War of Independence monument.
The Social Democratic Party (SDE), meanwhile, has earmarked €36,000 for the Tartu County Farmers' Union, whose director is SDE member Jaan Sõrra. Another €45,000 is to go to the Tilsi Stadium Foundation, whose board includes SDE member Sirje Tobreluts.
The Tartu County Central Folklore Association, whose board includes Social Democrat Ants Johanson, is to receive €10,000 for the renovation and purchase of premises. The nonprofit Väike Väin Society, on whose board serve SDE members Andres Hanso and Heiki Hanso, is likewise to receive €10,000, which is to pay for an environmental analysis.
Also to receive €10,000 each are the Vaiatu Village Society, whose board includes SDE member Mati Kepp, Sõmerpalu Care Home, whose sole board member is Social Democrat Lenhard Ermel, and the Estonian Nordic Walking Union, whose board includes SDE member Rein Randver.
No such striking ties were detected in the recipients of the opposition parties' financial contributions. The Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) divided its total of €300,000 evenly between the Hille Tänavsuu Cancer Treatment Foundation, the Estonian Women's Shelters Union and the Tartu University Hospital Children's Foundation.
The Free Party had a total of €227,000 in protection money to distribute, and only one recipient, the nonprofit Pelgulinn Society, had party members also serving on its board. The neighbourhood society is to receive €8,000 in support for the purchase of inventory as well as operational subsidies.
The Reform Party rejected its portion of protection money.
*This distribution of funds referred to in Estonian as katuseraha — protection money — goes back to the 1990s. A certain amount of money was reserved to be allocated at the discretion of the Riigikogu's members to satisfy different parties' interests. The arrangement is still in place, discussed towards the end of every year, and acts as a sort of grease in the process of getting a majority for the state budget bill.
Party protection money: storm in a teacup or embarrassing anachronism?


LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) - The pesticide glyphosate, sold by Monsanto in its Roundup weed killer product and widely used in agriculture and by gardeners, is unlikely to cause cancer in people, according to a new safety review by United Nations health, agriculture and food experts.
In a statement likely to intensify a row over its potential health impact, experts from the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) said glyphosate is “unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans” exposed to it through food. It is mostly used on crops.
Having reviewed the scientific evidence, the joint WHO/FAO committee also said glyphosate is unlikely to be genotoxic in humans. In other words, it is not likely to have a destructive effect on cells’ genetic material.
Diazinon and malathion, two other pesticides reviewed by the committee, which met last week and published its conclusions on Monday, were also found to be unlikely to be carcinogenic.
“In view of the absence of carcinogenic potential in rodents at human-relevant doses and the absence of genotoxicity by the oral route in mammals, and considering the epidemiological evidence from occupational exposures, the meeting concluded that glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through the diet,” the committee said.
Glyphosate is also “unlikely to be genotoxic at anticipated dietary exposures”, it added.
The group reaffirmed an acceptable daily intake (ADI) of up to 1 milligram of glyphosate for every kilogram of body weight.
The conclusions appear to contradict a finding by the WHO’s Lyon-based International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which in March 2015 said glyphosate is “probably” able to cause cancer in humans and classified it as a ‘Group 2A’ carcinogen.
Seven months after the IARC review, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), an independent agency funded by the European Union, published a different assessment, saying glyphosate is “unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans”.
The United States’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which first assessed glyphosate in 1986 and has reviewed it several times since then, had also previously concluded it has “low toxicity for humans”.
The differing findings thrust glyphosate into the centre of a row involving EU and U.S. politicians and regulators, the IARC experts, the WHO and environmental and agricultural scientists.
The EU’s pesticides committee is due to meet later this week to decide whether to re-license glyphosate. The U.S. EPA is being investigated for withdrawing a report saying the chemical is probably not carcinogenic.
In a question-and-answer document issued alongside the joint FAO/WHO statement, the WHO denied that the conclusions by the joint group and by IARC were contradictory. It said they were “different, yet complementary”, with the IARC assessment focussed on hazard while the other looked at risk.
In contrast, it said, the joint FAO/WHO committee looks at published and unpublished studies to assess the health risk to consumers from dietary exposure to pesticide residues in food.


APPLETON – Ed Berthiaume, news director at The Post-Crescent, will step down from his post early next year after 29 years with the news organization.
Berthiaume, 56, voluntarily accepted an early retirement package from Gannett Co. Inc., which operates the USA TODAY Network and owns the Fox Valley news operation.
“I’ve shared the newsroom with colleagues who had a passion for journalism and a desire to pursue their work with integrity. That was true when I arrived in 1989 and it’s true today. I’ve been blessed,” Berthiaume said.
Berthiaume worked as a reporter from 1989 to 1994 before being named features editor. He served in multiple newsroom management roles over the next 24 years.
He has been leading The Post-Crescent newsroom and serving on the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin leadership team since February 2015, first as content director and interim news director before being named news director in April 2017.
Jim Fitzhenry, vice president of News for the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, will oversee the newsroom until a successor is named.
"This is a bittersweet moment for us," Fitzhenry said. "The early retirement package will allow Ed to pursue his next great adventure, but we will miss his vast knowledge of the Fox Cities and Wisconsin. I don't think I've worked with a more complete journalist. He handles so many things so well."
He cited the 2002 opening of the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center and the early coverage of the Mile of Music festival in Appleton as two highlights of his career.
Former Post-Crescent editor Dan Flannery said Berthiaume made a positive impact on the community and will be missed.
"Over the course of 28-plus years at The Post-Crescent, it was my honor to work with some exceptional journalists — people who were committed to doing their best work every time they were called on to tell the stories of our community.
Flannery said Berthiaume has a strong commitment to the community and has shown his passion for the Fox Cities and its people.
“The Post-Crescent has been far better for this community with Ed Berthiaume in its newsroom, he said.


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Too many potions muddle the alchemy in "The Great Magician," a picaresque romance set around the rivalry between a warlord and a conjurer in 1920s China.
Too many potions muddle the alchemy in “The Great Magician,” a picaresque romance set around the rivalry between a warlord and a conjurer in 1920s China. Absent the psychological tension, technical showmanship and stylistic sleight-of-hand of “The Prestige,” this yarn from Hong Kong writer-helmer Derek Yee is unable to harmonize a mix of political intrigue and vaudevillian humor, while an excess of magic acts keeps the sterling cast too physically busy to breathe feeling into their roles. Out of touch with contempo urban tastes, the pic is unlikely to conjure dazzling B.O. in China or satisfy overseas cravings for martial arts-centric titles.
Northern China in the ’20s is embroiled in territorial feuds between warlords, one of whom is is Lei Daniu, aka Bully (Sean Lau Ching-wan), who uses the mentalist skills of his butler, Liu Kunshan (Wu Gang), to recruit soldiers. Bully is besotted with pretty acrobat Yin (Zhou Xun), whom he captured and forcibly made his seventh concubine while her fiance was in Europe. Meanwhile, Yin’s magician father, Liu Wanyao (the helmer’s brother, Paul Chun), has disappeared.
When the mysterious Zhang Xian (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) arrives in Beijing to stage spectacular magic shows, Bully seeks his help to impress the frosty Yin. To his consternation, the suave and Westernized Zhang is more beguiling than he bargained for.
ased on Zhang Haifan’s novel of the same title, the screenplay by Yee, Chun Tin-nam and Lau Ho-leung plays down the book’s dramatization of the cultural encounter between Western and Eastern magic. In fact, more plot similarities can be found with Neil Burger’s “The Illusionist,” though without that film’s sustained mystique and ingenious plotting. Yin’s divided affections never build to a full-blown romantic triangle; the main trio’s first encounter arrives a leisurely half-hour after the scene is set and periphery characters are introduced. The midsection, in which Bully and Zhang try to suss each other out, coasts on the playful charm of the two actors, but delivers no high-concept feats. Eventually, the lead story is overtaken by inane subplots involving a lost alchemy formula, Japanese spies masquerading as filmmakers, and a Manchurian monarchist conspiracy.
The pic attempts to re-create the rapture of spectatorship in an era when magic appears as powerful as sorcery to a more gullible public. It works initially, such as when Zhang plays with fire or nimbly manipulates silk-screen paintings to re-enact his romantic past. However, rather than focusing on a few grand setpieces, the film features wall-to-wall magic, some of which is purely gimmicky, which inevitably strips it of mystery.
An exploration of magic and cinema as parallel mediums, capable of enchanting as well as deluding the masses, has as much relevance now as it did in ’20s China, which also featured a burgeoning economy that bred unprecedented avarice and, with it, new levels of con artistry. Yee tentatively reflects on this phenomenon, but his tendency to moralize (obvious also in his “Protege” and “Shinjuku Incident”) brings the film to a banal conclusion.
Perfs are sound but not exceptional. Leung, who last graced the screen in 2009’s “Red Cliff II,” looks a bit old for the Casanova role, and is initially rather wooden; he doesn’t warm up until he’s left alone to banter with Lau. Gamine Zhou easily convinces as a femme to die for, but doesn’t invite deeper examination of her character or thoughts. Lau offers the most consistent turn as a wild card who keeps one guessing about his true nature until the end. Supporting turns by Wu (who had so much more presence in “Ip Man”) and Yan (brassy as usual), plus cameos by Daniel Wu, Alex Fong and Tsui Hark, only mildly enhance the mix.
Visual effects are refined without being tastelessly showy, and Yee Chung-man’s costumes are stylishly color-coordinated with the lush decor. Production design and lighting look particularly rich and luminous, paying loving homage to the folksy northern ambience and studio-set look of Li Han-hsiang’s 1970s warlord comedy-satires and trickster capers.
Stephen Tung Wai’s action choreography serviceably integrates magic into martial arts, but larger-scale street fights are pedestrian.
Production: An Emperor Motion Picture (in Hong Kong), Bona Entertainment Co. (in China) release of an Emperor Motion Picture, Bona Film Group Co. and Bona Entertainment Co. presentation of a Film Unlimited production. (International sales: Emperor Motion Picture, Hong Kong.) Executive producers, Albert Yeung, Yu Dong, Jeffrey Chan. Directed by Derek Yee. Screenplay, Chun Tin-nam, Lau Ho-leung, Yee, based on the novel by Zhang Haifan.
Crew: Camera (color, widescreen), Nobuyasu Kita; editor, Kong Chi-leung; music, Leon Ko; art director, Zhen. W; costume designers, Yee Chung-man, Jessie Dai Mei-ling; re-recording mixers (Dolby SRD 5.1), Traithep Wongpaiboon, Nopawat Likitwong; visual effects supervisor, Clement Cheng; visual effects, 3 Plus Animation Prod., Cinedigit; action choreographer, Stephen Tung Wai; magic advisor, Kong Tao-hoi; line producers, Jamie Luk, Man Cheuk-kau; associate producers, Shirley Kao, Catherine Hun; assistant director, Liu Xiao; second unit director, Jamie Luk; second unit camera, Shinichi Chiba. Reviewed at the Grand, Hong Kong, Jan 5, 2012. Running time: 130 MIN.


REPORTER (Jeff Mason from Reuters): For President Putin if I could follow up as well. Why should Americans and why should President Trump believe your statement that Russia did not intervene in the 2016 election given the evidence that US Intelligence agencies have provided? Will you consider extraditing the 12 Russian officials that were indicted last week by a US Grand jury.
TRUMP: Well I’m going to let the president [meaning Putin] answer the second part of that question.
As you know, the concept of that came up perhaps a little before, but it came out as a reason why the Democrats lost an election, which frankly, they should have been able to win, because the electoral college is much more advantageous for Democrats, as you know, than it is to Republicans. [That allegation from Trump is unsupported, and could well be false.] We won the electoral college by a lot. 306 to 223, I believe. [It was actually 304 to 227.] That was a well-fought battle. We did a great job.
Frankly, I’m going to let the president speak to the second part of your question. But, just to say it one time again and I say it all the time, there was no collusion. I didn’t know the president. There was nobody to collude with. There was no collusion with the campaign. Every time you hear all of these 12 and 14 — it’s stuff that has nothing to do — and frankly, they admit, these are not people involved in the campaign. But to the average reader out there, they are saying, well maybe that does. It doesn’t. Even the people involved, some perhaps told mis-stories. In one case the FBI said there was no lie. There was no lie. Somebody else said there was. We ran a brilliant campaign. And that’s why I’m president. Thank you.
PUTIN: As to who is to be believed, who is not to be believed: you can trust no one. Where did you get this idea that President Trump trusts me or I trust him? He defends the interests of the United States of America and I do defend the interests of the Russian Federation. We do have interests that are common. We are looking for points of contact.
There are issues where our postures diverge and we are looking for ways to reconcile our differences, how to make our effort more meaningful. We should not proceed from the immediate political interests that guide certain political powers in our countries. We should be guided by facts. Could you name a single fact that would definitively prove the collusion? This is utter nonsense — just like the president recently mentioned. Yes, the public at large in the United States had a certain perceived opinion of the candidates during the campaign. But there’s nothing particularly extraordinary about it. That’s the normal thing.
President Trump, when he was a candidate, he mentioned the need to restore the Russia/US relationship, and it’s clear that certain parts of American society felt sympathetic about it and different people could express their sympathy in different ways. Isn’t that natural? Isn’t it natural to be sympathetic towards a person who is willing to restore the relationship with our country, who wants to work with us?
We heard the accusations about it. As far as I know, this company hired American lawyers and the accusations doesn’t have a fighting chance in the American courts. There’s no evidence when it comes to the actual facts. So we have to be guided by facts, not by rumors.
Now, let’s get back to the issue of this 12 alleged intelligence officers of Russia. I don’t know the full extent of the situation. But President Trump mentioned this issue. I will look into it.
So far, I can say the following. Things that are off the top of my head. We have an existing agreement between the United States of America and the Russian Federation, an existing treaty that dates back to 1999. The mutual assistance on criminal cases. This treaty is in full effect. It works quite efficiently. On average, we initiate about 100, 150 criminal cases upon request from foreign states.
For instance, the last year, there was one extradition case upon the request sent by the United States. This treaty has specific legal procedures we can offer. The appropriate commission headed by Special Attorney Mueller, he can use this treaty as a solid foundation and send a formal, official request to us so that we could interrogate, hold questioning of these individuals who he believes are privy to some crimes. Our enforcement are perfectly able to do this questioning and send the appropriate materials to the United States. Moreover, we can meet you halfway. We can make another step. We can actually permit representatives of the United States, including the members of this very commission headed by Mr. Mueller, we can let them into the country. They can be present at questioning.
In this case, there’s another condition. This kind of effort should be mutual one. Then we would expect that the Americans would reciprocate. They would question officials, including the officers of law enforcement and intelligence services of the United States whom we believe have something to do with illegal actions on the territory of Russia. And we have to request the presence of our law enforcement.
For instance, we can bring up Mr. Browder in this particular case. Business associates of Mr. Browder have earned over $1.5 billion in Russia. They never paid any taxes. Neither in Russia nor in the United States. Yet, the money escapes the country. They were transferred to the United States. They sent huge amount of money, $400 million as a contribution to the campaign of Hillary Clinton. [He presents no evidence to back up that $400 million claim.] Well, that’s their personal case. It might have been legal, the contribution itself. But the way the money was earned was illegal. We have solid reason to believe that some intelligence officers guided these transactions. [This allegation, too, is merely an unsupported assertion here.] So we have an interest of questioning them. That could be a first step. We can also extend it. There are many options. They all can be found in an appropriate legal framework.
REPORTER (Jeff Mason from Reuters): Did you direct any of your officials to help him [Trump] do that [find those ‘options’]?
PUTIN: Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the US/Russia relationship back to normal.
The evidence regarding that entire matter, of Bill Browder and the Magnitsky Act, can be seen in the links and the other evidences that are presented in two articles that I published on that very subject, earlier this year. One, titled “Private Investigations Find America’s Magnitsky Act to Be Based on Frauds”, summarizes the independently done private investigations into the evidence that is publicly available online regarding Bill Browder and the Magnitsky Act. The Magnitsky Act was the basis for the first set of economic sanctions against Russia, and were instituted in 2012; so, this concerns the start of the restoration of the Cold War (without the communism etc. that were allegedly the basis of Cold War I). The other article, “Russiagate-Trump Gets Solved by Giant of American Investigative Journalism”, provides further details in the evidence, and connects both the Magnitsky Act and Bill Browder to the reason why, on 9 June 2016, the Russian lawyer Nataliya Veselnitskaya, met privately at Trump Tower, with Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner — the reason was specifically in order to inform them about the documentation on this case, so that Trump, if elected, would be aware of the contents of those documents. She had used the promise of dirt on Hillary so as to enable Trump, who effectively became the Republican nominee on 26 May 2016, to learn about the actual documents in this crucial case.
The Russian government has been legally pursuing Mr. Browder, for years, on charges that he evaded paying $232 million taxes that were due to the Russian government. These private investigations into this matter — regarding whether or not the Magnitsky Act was based on fraudulent grounds — have all found that Mr. Browder has clearly falsified and misrepresented the actual documents, which are linked to in those two articles I wrote. These might be the very same documents that she was presenting on June 9th.
So: this is a matter of importance not only to the validity (or not) of the Magnitsky Act economic sanctions against Russia, but to the Russiagate accusations regarding U.S. President Donald Trump. In my two articles, the general public can click right through to the evidence on the Magnitsky case.


Last season: 29-6, lost to Florida State in second round of NCAA Tournament.
Who’s gone: Coach Chris Mack (Louisville), guard Trevon Bluiett, guard J.P. Macura, forward Kerem Kanter, forward Kaiser Gates, forward Sean O’Mara.
Who’s back: Junior point guard Quentin Goodin (8.7 point per game) is Xavier’s most experienced returning player and will be one of the team’s leaders, along with sophomore forward Naji Marshall, who started 18 games last season. Marshall averaged 7.7 points and is Xavier’s most diverse offensive player. Forward Tyrique Jones (7 ppg, 4.5 rebounds) is counted on to play a bigger scoring role on the front line. Sophomore guard Paul Scruggs (4.9 ppg) also moves into an expanded role.
Who’s new: Three graduate students. Forward Zach Hankins set school records for blocked shots and field goal percentage at Ferris State. Guard Ryan Welage set the school record for 3-pointers in three seasons at San Jose State. Guard Kyle Castlin is a team captain after coming over from Columbia, where he averaged 10.5 points and 3.8 rebounds per game.
The Skinny: Xavier is in a transition season with a new head coach and a significantly different roster. The Musketeers lost five of their top seven scorers including Bluiett, who averaged 19.3 points per game. Xavier was ranked as high as No. 3 last season, won its first Big East regular season title and got its first No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament before blowing a 12-point lead and losing in the second round. Steele was Mack’s top assistant and moved up when Mack went to Louisville.
Expectations: Las Vegas oddsmakers have Xavier as a long shot to win the NCAA Tournament at 120-1, on par with Louisville, St. John’s and Butler. Defending national champion Villanova is one of the top favorites at 10-1.
CINCINNATI (AP) — With a senior-laden team, Xavier won its first Big East regular season championship and got its first No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. A second-round loss abruptly ended everything and began a transition that’s still in progress entering the new season.
Coach Chris Mack left for Louisville and was replaced by Travis Steele , his top assistant. Five of the top seven scorers are gone, including Trevon Bluiett, who averaged 19.3 point per game. And the Musketeers find themselves with a lot of newness as they open the Steele era.
No matter who was the head coach, the Musketeers would have been expected to take a step back because of the turnover from their 29-6 season. Their top three scorers were seniors Bluitt and J.P. Macura (12.9 points per game) and graduate transfer Kerem Kanter (10.9).
What’s left is a roster with limited experience in Xavier’s system. Three graduate transfers will fill it out, but they have to get used to playing a different style.
NEW LEADER: Goodin was among the players who lobbied for Steele to get the head coaching job, providing stability in the program. Steele is staying with Xavier’s offensive and defensive systems, though tweaking them to account for the significant roster change. Goodin said Steele has kept most things the same.
TRIO OF GRADUATE TRANSFERS: Forward Zach Hankins set school records for blocked shots and field goal percentage at Ferris State. Guard Ryan Welage set the school record for 3-pointers in three seasons at San Jose State. Guard Kyle Castlin is a team captain after coming over from Columbia, where he averaged 10.5 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. All three are counted upon to play significant roles during their one season at Xavier.
YOUNGER LEADERS: With no seniors who came up through Xavier’s program, the Musketeers are counting on Goodin, junior Tyrique Jones, and sophomores Naji Marshall and Paul Scruggs to provide more leadership as the newcomers learn their way.
GETTING DEFENSIVE: Xavier’s defense slipped last season, often allowing teams to go on long runs that got them back into games. The perimeter defense was a problem in particular. Steele has tweaked the Musketeers’ man-to-man defense to try to get more turnovers and transition baskets.
NEW BIG EAST LOOK: The top two teams in the league have undergone significant roster changes — Xavier the regular-season champion and Villanova the national champion. With those two teams in transition, there’s room for others to rise up in the league, especially in the early going.


This image from Rethink81 shows what Almond Street might look like without the Interstate 81 viaduct. The CNY Chapter of the American Institute of Architects supports demolition of the highway in favor of a Community Grid plan that would bring life and commerce into spaces now in the shadow of the interstate.
Close your eyes and visualize a mini Park Avenue in New York City, or Millennium Park in Chicago. These urban areas are pedestrian-friendly spaces with a mix of high-rises and street-level mixed-use properties. These locations, home to some of the most valuable real estate in the world, are also critical components of a city street grid.
The I-81 Viaduct Project is an opportunity for our region to think big. Not a big new highway, but grand and innovative ideas on what to do with the (hopefully) soon-to-be former viaduct corridor.
Selecting the Community Grid option over replacing the current Viaduct with a newer, bigger highway should be a "no-brainer." Removing the elevated highway will open up a range of opportunities for our region; to further reinvigorate the city, to reconnect divided communities and to stimulate unprecedented growth.
Syracuse was one of many cities across the country which made the fateful urban planning decision in the 1950s and 1960s to build elevated highways through their urban centers. In every case, the neighborhoods in the shadows of the viaducts suffered a similar fate; abandonment and isolation, reduced property values, pollution and noise. Beyond the socio-economic impacts on neighborhoods, city highways severely limit economic development, and they are not terribly efficient, either. Have you ever been one of the 44,000 people a day who use Exit 18 (Harrison/Adams) during the morning and evening commute?
Today, cities like San Francisco, New Orleans, Boston, Dallas and New Haven have already, or are in the process of, tearing down elevated city highways. In Milwaukee, where the Park East Freeway was razed in 1999, urban development has flourished with property values in the affected area increasing by 45 percent. In 2007, Manpower relocated its 900-employee global headquarters to a site in downtown Milwaukee formerly occupied by elevated the highway.
This can happen in Syracuse.
The economics favor the Community Grid option as well. The Grid costs $400 million less than the Viaduct, which also takes longer to build and requires increasing annual maintenance costs over the next 50-plus years. Equally important, the Community Grid stimulates economic growth. There is a need to re-densify the city, especially in walkable areas like those around Almond Avenue. Walkable zones attract people and development generating sales and property tax revenue. We have an opportunity to revitalize the valuable areas currently shadowed by I-81.
In addition to the community-building and economic development benefits, there are compelling logistics arguments for the Community Grid. Eighty-eight percent of the traffic on the existing viaduct consists of people travelling to the city - most for work. The current highway, however, is designed to help cars bypass the city altogether.
The Community Grid design taps into the existing infrastructure, dispersing traffic throughout the city grid by promoting broader use of the existing underutilized street network. The design provides direct connections to key destinations in the city and adds new exits to ease congestion and further spread traffic. In the grid, instead of one path to their destination, drivers will have multiple access points.
The grid design is also the least disruptive option, requiring the acquisition of just five buildings. The construction of a new Viaduct will condemn and demolish 24 buildings, including at least 12 structures of historical significance.
The American Institute of Architects Central New York chapter created the AIACNY81 Task Force in 2013 to carefully follow this process; to help broaden community knowledge and promote good design and planning practices. Based on our review of the current plans, we strongly recommend the Community Grid alternative, which would knit the city together again and offer unprecedented redevelopment potential.
For this process to be truly successful we must view this as more than just fixing a mistake, or designing a better traffic pattern. The Community Grid presents an urban development opportunity which will have a profound effect on our region for generations.
Syracuse, Central New York and New York state must maximize this opportunity. Let's get this right with big ideas not a big new highway. We look forward to being an integral part of this important planning conversation.


More social website jostling, as AOL upgrades and launches a beta version of AOL Pictures as a direct competitor to Flickr.
Flickr, if you’ve been hiding in a cave for the past few years, is the photo-sharing website that pretty much caused the phenomenon of content sharing, and was recently taken over by Yahoo.
Will it work? In the world of social Internet sites, it doesn’t have nearly a silly enough name to be a runaway success. AOL Pictures – yeah, well, it does what it says, and you know who owns it, but it’s not a daft name is it?
For any other cave dwellers out there – etribes is representing the UK in the personal publishing and photo-sharing arena. We’ve got mobile posting and a nifty deskbar that lets you post pictures to secure galleries without opening a browser. We are also doing our level best in the silly names stakes!


The Buzz: Palomar clearing land off Hilltop Drive. Here's why.
The Buzz: A piece of land off Hilltop Drive is getting cleared. Here's why.
Dirt, and lots of it, has been moving on a piece of hillside property off Mission De Oro Drive across from the Shasta Creek Apartments east of Interstate 5.
The work is visible from off north Hilltop Drive.
Palomar Builders is grading land to build attached homes, much like its Park Pointe neighborhood just north of this site.
But this project has a twist.
Jeb Allen, Palomar’s co-owner, told me about 10 of the 46 units will have studio apartments where the garage would go. The apartments will have a bathroom and kitchen.
Allen had tried to sell the property. But it's zoned multi-family, so Allen said nobody would buy it because the cost to build apartments didn't pencil out.
So, he came up with the studio apartment idea, which satisfies the requirement to build multi-family housing.
“When I start something, I want to finish it, and to me this finishes Highland Park,” Allen said.
Highland Park is the single-family subdivision next to Park Pointe that Palomar Builders started in 2009. Park Pointe is an extension of Highland Park.
Allen said floorplans for his new development will range from 1,693 square feet to 2,021 square feet. The smallest floor plan will feature the 10 studio apartments.
But while Allen is satisfying the multi-family zoning requirement, the studio space doesn’t have to be an apartment.
The owner could turn it into say a man cave or she shack.
Allen hopes to start construction in the spring.
Lily Toy, the city’s interim planning manager, said accessory units to homes are built throughout the city.
“But as far building these all out as far as a planned development, yes this is probably a first,” Toy said.
If you’ve ever had an idea on how to make Redding a more desirable place to live and believe there are ways to attract more visitors to the area, the Redding City Identity Project wants to hear from you.
The project has posted a survey (https://bit.ly/2yKDi7n) of 16 questions that it will use to come up with 20 ideas by 2020.
How do you describe yourself?
What challenges does Redding face?
What are the three best assets of the city?
What would you do within the next 10 years to affect positive change in Redding?
You have until Nov. 20 to take the survey and the results will be revealed Jan. 10 at the Cascade Theatre. The evening also will feature John O’Leary, who was badly burned when he was 9 years old and is now an inspirational speaker and author of the book, “On Fire.” O’Leary is the father of four and lives in St. Louis.
The chamber announced its $500,000 city pride plan last spring. It has partnered with other businesses and organizations to help fund the project, including the McConnell Foundation, Sierra Pacific Industries Foundation, Dignity Health, Black Bear Diner, Commerce Home Mortgage, Compass and Josh Barker of ReMax Town & Country.
Questions on the survey were based in part from meetings with artists, web designers, the startup business community, and city and Shasta County leaders.
“This is not going to be the chamber of commerce version of the identity of Redding. This is coming from the people of the community, so we want it to be a far and wide reach,” Mangas said.
Ideas to improve Redding should focus on messaging, experiences and aesthetics.
“Maybe one idea is a façade improvement in Redding and maybe funding from the identity project gets leveraged with other dollars to make it happen,” Mangas said.
There were 500 responses about a day after the survey first went up.
“It’s really fun to see how people have engaged for us,” Mangas said.
Three months after its transmitter atop Shasta Bally was destroyed by the Carr Fire, 88.9 FM KFPR in Redding is still off the air.
And North State Public Radio management does not know when the transmitter will be replaced so 88.9 can be back on the air.
Meanwhile, North State Public Radio restored full power to its 91.7 KCHO station in Chico. The station once again can be heard between Yuba City and Redding, though reception in Redding can be spotty depending on where you’re at.
KCHO had been broadcasting at reduced strength on a backup transmitter since April, when the transmitter on Cohasset overheated and failed due to a faulty air conditioning unit.


Tricky brainteaser challenges puzzlers to find the dragon egg hiding in the cushions - but can YOU beat the record of 29 seconds?
Record is 29 seconds to hunt it down, but could you do it any quicker?
A new brainteaser has hit the internet in time for Easter, challenging people to hunt for a dragon egg within in a sea of colourful cushions.
This mythical mind-boggler has been created by ScS, as dragon fever takes the nation by storm this spring, thanks to the return of Game of Thrones.
According to the creators, nobody can find the egg in less than 29 seconds - but could you be up to the challenge?
According to the creators, nobody can find the colourful egg in less than 29 seconds - but could you be the one to hunt it down?
Craig Smith, Product Development Co-ordinator from ScS, said: 'Having created our very own dragon sofa, and with Easter on the horizon, we wanted to put a twist on the traditional Easter egg hunt and help refine people's searching skills in the process.
Eagle-eyed viewers should be able to spot the patterned purple egg tucked away in the bottom right hand side of the image, nestled between a pink and orange cushion.
This is just the latest in a long line of seek and find puzzles to leave challenge fans baffled.
Weddings are some of the most joyous occasions of the year, be it with friends and family, or incredible star-studded affairs.
But with wedding season approaching, stationary company Norma & Dorothy have created a fun and lively scene featuring every bride and groom's worst nightmare - a pair of lost rings.
The fun and lively graphic depicts the many wedding guests, along with brides and grooms, waiters and bridal party, hunting for two tiny hidden rings. It's made even trickier with the addition of bustling dogs and wild party decorations.
They've tasked people with thirty seconds to find the tiny rings, and help the brides and grooms finally get to the alter - but how will you fare?
Somewhere in the busy wedding party scene are two tiny wedding rings hidden amongst the chaos - but can you spot them?
The busy party scene shows everything from two brides holding hands to comfort one another, to guests scratching their heads as they hunt for the rings.
To make it even harder, there are also several dogs causing chaos in the wedding scene, as well as stacks of cake.
Hidden amongst all the fun are two tiny rings, but can you find them in the 30 second challenge?
They're tiny gold bands with a huge rock of a jewel on them - the image you're looking for looks a little like the below ring.
You're hunting for the lost rings that look a little like this in the above picture - but remember, they're tiny!
For those eager for the reveal, the answer lies towards the top right of the picture, where the ring is peaking out amongst a bouquet of flowers.
The second is at the centre bottom, right next to a waiter's none-the-wiser hand.
Don't worry if you didn't manage to find it, as there have been plenty of other brainteasers sweeping the web for you to try your hand at.
With the sun starting to make an appearance from behind the clouds, it won't be long until many of us will be jetting off on our holidays.
But with airport parking never a fun task, Holiday Extras are hoping to provide a little escape and light relief for our travels by challenging the nation to the ultimate game of spot the difference.
At first glance the left and right-hand side of the image look identical, but inspect it a little closer and all is not quite as it may seem.
The busy graphic asks the nation to identify the 11 differences between two airport parking images - and, with a time to beat of 52 seconds, it's got many people in a tight spot.
While the left and right hand side of the picture may seem like a mirror image, there are 11 noticeable differences between both - but can you find them?
'When it comes to Meet and Greet parking, we really invest in the little touches that make a big difference to our customers, so we wanted to see if Brits had the same eye for detail,' said Seamus McCauley from Holiday Extras.
If you're struggling and are eager for a few hints, try looking at the colour of the cars and any surrounding details in the parking lot.
But if 52 seconds have long gone and you're still none the wiser, take a look at the answers below - which include red tarmac carpet and a missing windscreen wiper on the top right car.
And this is just the latest in a long line of brainteasers sweeping the web and leaving even the biggest of netizens perplexed.
Another puzzle by Rattan Direct, to mark Great British Spring Clean week, has left the nation stumped.
Hidden amongst the pretty pastel-coloured petals is a feather duster - but can you find it?
The record is an impressive nine seconds, but the team claim if you can find it in 20 or under, you're doing pretty well.
The graphic is filled with a variety of brightly-coloured plants - which have been strategically placed to try and throw you off the scent.
If its been more than 20 seconds and you've had enough of feather duster finding, then scroll down for the reveal.
Only the most eagle-eyed netizens will see the feathers from the duster poking out from behind a leaf.
The answer resides towards the middle, centre of the picture - but don't worry if you didn't manage to find it, as there have been plenty of other brainteasers sweeping the web for you to try your hand at.


Tens of thousands of people have been tortured and thousands have died in custody in Syria’s prisons since March 2011, the start of the crisis that has forced so many to flee.
Anyone suspected of opposing the government is at risk. Labourers, business people, students, bloggers, university professors, lawyers, doctors and journalists. People helping their neighbours. Activists standing up for minority groups. Men, women and even children.
Prisoners speak of an endless cycle of beatings. On the journey after arrest. In transit between detention centres. As part of a ‘welcome party’ of abuse on arrival at a prison, used to frighten new arrivals into submission. And then every day for every conceivable minor ‘breaking’ of rules, including talking or not cleaning their cells.
Many of the people we spoke to said they had been beaten with plastic hose pipes, silicone bars and wooden sticks. Some had been scalded with hot water and burnt with cigarettes. Others were forced to stand in water and given electric shocks.
People suffer acute mental health problems due to overcrowding and lack of sunlight. In some cases, people told us there could be more than 50 people in a cell as small as 3m by 3m. They sleep in shifts, and have a tiny space of floor where they can sit and eat.
People die from starvation. From a lack of air in their cells. And from completely treatable diseases. Cuts, ingrown fingernails and rashes become infected, and people die from a desperate lack of medical care.
In most cases, the Syrian government denies the security forces have even arrested these people. Or they refuse to give any information about their whereabouts. It means that many detainees are “disappeared” – outside the protection of the law – making them especially vulnerable to abuse.
This is just part of the reality of life in Syria. And it’s part of the reason why so many people are fleeing for neighbouring countries and beyond. More than 11 million Syrians have fled their country since the start of the crisis.
As the world attempts to resolve the ongoing conflict, the treatment of people in detention must be a priority if Syrians are to have any trust in a lasting peace. Russia has considerable influence over negotiations, in part because of its military involvement in the region. It must ensure that independent monitors are allowed in to fully investigate conditions in these brutal detention centres.
The Syrian government must let in independent monitors to investigate Syria’s brutal detention centres, now.
Since 2011, thousands of people have died in custody in Syria’s torture prisons. Tens of thousands more have experienced shocking torture. People have been brutally beaten, raped, given electric shocks and more, often to extract forced “confessions”. Anyone suspected of opposing the Syrian government is at risk. Conditions in these brutal detention centres are sub-human. People are dying from starvation. They’re not getting even the most basic health care, and are dying from infected cuts and ingrown fingernails. They suffer acute mental health problems because of the overcrowding and lack of sunlight.
Send the message below and tell Russia and the U.S. to use their global influence to ensure that independent monitors are allowed in to investigate conditions in Syria’s torture prisons.
I am writing about the ongoing reports by human rights monitoring groups, in particular Amnesty International, that document the widespread use of torture and other ill-treatment and lethal conditions in Syrian detention facilities.
Since the beginning of the crisis in 2011 the Syrian authorities have subjected tens of thousands of people in Syria to arbitrary detention or enforced disappearance. Many of them have been subjected to torture or other ill-treatment in Syria’s detention centres and thousands are reported to have died in custody as a result.
These practices clearly violate international law as well as the provisions of UN Security Council resolution 2139 and in many cases constitute war crimes. Insofar as they are carried out as part of a widespread, as well as systematic attack directed against the civilian population, they also amount to crimes against humanity.
I therefore call on you to use your influence in the International Syria Support Group to urgently ensure that independent detention monitors are allowed to investigate conditions in all detention facilities run by the Syrian government or its security forces. They must also be allowed to speak freely to all people who have been deprived of their liberty.
I urge you also to use your influence to ensure that the Syrian authorities provide detailed information on all those who are held in their custody, and inform the families of those detained about their legal status and whereabouts.
Since 2011, thousands of people have died in custody in Syria’s prisons. Tens of thousands more have experienced shocking torture. Amnesty International spoke to survivors to document the brutal conditions.
يجب على الحكومة السورية أن تسمح لمراقبين مستقلين بالتحقيق الآن في الفظاعات التي تشهدها مراكز الاعتقال.
منذ عام 2011، لقي آلاف من المعتقلين حتفهم في السجون السورية بسبب التعذيب، كما عانى عشرات الآلاف تعذيباً مروعاً. لقد تعرض المحتجزون إلى ضرب مبرح، واغتصاب، وصدمات كهربائية، والكثير من أنواع التعذيب؛ بهدف انتزاع "اعترافات" قسرية منهم. فكل شخص يُشتبه في أنه معارض للحكومة السورية، يكون عرضة للخطر.
الأوضاع الوحشية السائدة في مراكز الاحتجاز تفتقر إلى أبسط الشروط الإنسانية اللائقة. فالمحتجزون يتعرضون للموت بسبب الجوع، ولا يحصلون على الخدمات الصحية الأساسية. كما يموتون بسبب الالتهابات الناجمة عن الجراح التي يُصابون بها، وبسبب الأظافر الطويلة التي تنمو في أصابعهم. إنهم يعانون مشكلات صحية عقلية حادة بسبب الاكتظاظ ونقص التعرض لأشعة الشمس.
ابعثوا برسالة إلكترونية تحثوا فيها روسيا والولايات المتحدة على استخدام نفوذهما في العالم، وضمان السماح لمراقبين مستقلين بالتحقيق في طبيعة الأوضاع السائدة في السجون السورية، والتي يتعرض فيها المعتقلون إلى التعذيب.
أكتب إليكم استجابة للتقارير المتواترة التي تصدرها المنظمات المعنية بحقوق الإنسان بشأن أوضاع السجون والمعتقلات في سوريا، ولاسيما منظمة العفو الدولية، والتي تُوَّثق استخدام التعذيب على نطاق واسع وأنواع أخرى من سوء المعاملة والأوضاع السيئة التي تقود إلى موت المعتقلين.
منذ بدء الأزمة في عام 2011، تعرض عشرات الآلاف من السوريين إلى الاعتقال التعسفي والاختفاء القسري على يد السلطات. وذكرت التقارير بأن آلافاً من المعتقلين ماتوا خلال الاحتجاز نتيجة لذلك.
هذه الممارسات تنتهك بكل وضوح القانون الدولي، وبنود قرار مجلس الأمن التابع للأمم المتحدة رقم 2139. وفي عدة حالات، تشكل جرائم حرب. وترقى هذه الممارسات أيضاً إلى جرائم ضد الإنسانية بسبب اتساع نطاقها، واعتدائها الممنهج على السكان المدنيين.
ولهذا السبب، أدعوكم لاستخدام نفوذكم في المجموعة الدولية لدعم سوريا من أجل السماح لمراقبين مستقلين، بشكل عاجل، بالتحقيق في الأوضاع السائدة في مراكز الاعتقال التي تديرها الحكومة السورية أو أجهزتها الأمنية. ويجب أيضا أن يسمح لهم بالاتصال، بدون قيد أو شرط، بالمعتقلين الذين حُرموا من حرياتهم.
أحثكم أيضاً على استخدام نفوذكم لضمان تقديم السلطات السورية معلومات مفصلة بشأن جميع المعتقلين لديها، وإخبار عائلاتهم بخصوص أوضاعهم القانونية وأماكن احتجازهم.


The holidays are here, which means it’s time for you to make your annual charitable donations in a desperate attempt to cleanse the stains your dark soul has accumulated this year. Below is a thoroughly vetted list of the most effective life-saving charities in the world.
Here is the list of 18 charities dubbed “2017's Best” by The Life You Can Save, a respected site that encourages effective philanthropy—meaning that these charities accomplish the most for the people with the greatest need per dollar donated.
And here is the new list of the year’s seven top charities from GiveWell, another respected charity evaluation site that focuses on effective giving.
Against Malaria Foundation, which provides malaria nets that save lives.
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, which fights disease in sub-Saharan Africa.
Evidence Action, which provides clean water and deworming programs.
GiveDirectly, which sends money to the extreme poor.
You are likely not a superhero who saves lives very often, but you can legitimately save lives by donating to these charities.
The election of Donald Trump has had a chilling effect on many of our subscribers, our recommended charities, our Team at The Life You Can Save, and people throughout the United States and the World. There is an understandable desire to do something to mitigate the damage that a Trump presidency can do to the environment, the social safety net, and to civil liberties. At a time when many people wanted to advance in these areas beyond what the Obama administration has done, there is concern that we are about to take a dramatic step backwards. How does this impact effective giving?
I would suggest that we continue to support the recommended charities on our new list at the same level we have in the past, or even at an increased level. The value of $1 given to a recommended charity still trumps (forgive the pun) the value of a dollar given domestically — even under the current political environment. However, as citizens I urge everyone to get involved in social movements to which they resonate whether the movement targets the environment, civil rights, or protecting our social safety net. If one feels the understandable urge to give to political movements or organizations fighting the Trump agenda then please consider giving more money over the next four years so that you don’t diminish your gifts to fight global poverty.
So don’t let Donald Trump make you forget the world’s poorest people. Santa Claus is watching.


FLAGGED. A man who drives his wife to work on their motorcycle says he often gets stopped by enforcers because they think he drives for Angkas. This was because he and his wife have matching helmets that also look like the official Angkas helmets.
The man said he thought it was cute to have matching helmets, now they want to get different ones to stop being flagged down.


Published: Jan. 29, 2015 at 01:14 p.m.
Updated: Jan. 29, 2015 at 01:35 p.m.
PHOENIX -- Richard Sherman might hold more than the Lombardi Trophy come Sunday.
The Seattle Seahawks cornerback is on baby watch, with his girlfriend, Ashley Moss, expected to give birth to their son over the next week.
Asked Thursday if he would consider missing Super Bowl XLIX to attend the birth, Sherman expressed confidence that his new addition will arrive at the right time.
"He's not supposed to come Sunday," Sherman said. "Obviously that'd change some things, but I think he's going to be a disciplined young man and stay in there until after the game."
Said Sherman: "He's gonna do his father his first favor and stay in there for another week or two, but I've thought about the possibility of him coming during the game and coming before the game and we have things in place in case that happens. And, you know, we'll cross that bridge when we get there, but, you know, I obviously did not know it was a topic of national debate, honestly. You know, I'd not like to miss the birth of my first son, my first kid, but, you know, thankfully and hopefully and God willing we won't have to cross that bridge."
The All-Pro cover man on Wednesday said that Moss is here with him in Arizona and would give birth at a local hospital if she goes into labor before the big game.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," Sherman said. "We're not thinking about the possibility."