Day: February 14, 2017

Inspiring story

The founder of The School of St Jude will share her story at a Taree fundraiser on March 9 at 7pm. Former Australian teacher Gemma Sisia opened the gates to The School of St Jude 15 years ago in Tanzania and now, thanks to the support of thousands of Australians, 1,800 promising yet impoverished students have access to a free, high-quality education.

Sri Lankan prime minister says refugees safe to come home

Sri Lankan asylum seekers held on Pacific island camps who could potentially find new lives in the United States are free to return home without fear of persecution, Sri Lanka’s prime minister said Wednesday. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe made the comments during a visit to Australia in which he discussed with his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull bilateral cooperation on combating people smuggling.

Missing German couple found dead in Australian Outback

Police say a German couple who disappeared in the Australian Outback were unprepared for the harsh environment and likely died before anyone noticed they were missing. Northern Territory police launched a search for Gisela and Wilfred Thor on Sunday after a ranger found the couple’s car at Trephina Gorge, a nature park northeast of the Outback town of Alice Springs.

Plans for new climate change adaptation project for Tonga

A new climate change adaptation project for Tonga, likely to cost more than $40m in grant financing, is expected to be submitted to the Green Climate Fund ( The new project is a combination of two ongoing Green Climate Fund design projects at the request of the Deputy Prime Minister of Tonga, Hon Siaosi Sovaleni, and will involve a coalition of government leaders, technical experts and cooperation entities working together. Our Climate Change vision is to have [a] more resilient Tonga and a key part of that vision is to strengthen the resilience of our coastal communities,” said Hon Sovaleni.

Trump toilets, condoms could be flushed after his China win

President Donald Trump’s triumph in the fight to wrest back his brand for construction services in China could spell the end of more than 225 Trump-related marks here that don’t belong to him, including Trump toilets, Trump condoms, Trump pacemakers and even a “Trump International Hotel.” After a decade of grinding battle in China’s courts, an official finding in Trump’s favor expected this week could signal a shift in fortune for the U.S. president’s intellectual property.

Trump still considering moving US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem

Shortly before Donald Trump’s inauguration last month, Jerusalem’s mayor unveiled a video tribute to the incoming president for his much-touted campaign promise to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. On Tuesday, on the eve of the first White House summit between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mayor Nir Barkat emphasized his support for the move during a conference in the city.

Google, Facebook argue against ‘punitive’ tax proposal for digital media

Proposals for tax changes aimed at helping Canadian publishers fight for revenues with online news aggregators would result in a punitive “tax on advertisers,” executives from Google Canada and Facebook Canada told a Commons committee studying the country’s media industry. That’s because tax laws currently on the books designed to prop up the industry are archaic and simply don’t apply to the Internet age, Jason Kee, Google Canada’s head of policy and government relations, told the heritage committee Tuesday.

B.C. Appeal Court orders province to give up data in smoking lawsuit

The British Columbia government must hand over information about patients that tobacco giant Phillip Morris International says it needs to fight the province’s efforts to recover health-care costs from tobacco-related diseases. In a unanimous decision released Tuesday, the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld a lower court order that Phillip Morris be given access to the raw data used by the province in 2001 when it filed its lawsuit against 13 tobacco companies.

Experts urge expansion of legal aid to cover all defendants

Chen Man stands with his lawyer, Wang Wanqiong, following the quashing of his conviction for murder in February last year. [PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY] Lawyers and legal experts are calling on the government to expand the provision of legal aid to a larger number of defendants and provide better funding to encourage more lawyers to accept criminal defense cases.

German police say story about Arab ‘sex mob’ was wrong

To continue reading up to 10 premium articles, you must register , or sign up and take advantage of this exclusive offer: On Feb. 6, Germany’s most-read newspaper reported that dozens of Arab men, presumed to be refugees, had rampaged through the city of Frankfurt on New Year’s Eve. The men were said to have sexually assaulted women as they went through the streets; the newspaper dubbed them the Fressgass “sex mob,” referring to an upmarket shopping street in the city.

Venezuela’s VP shrugs off drug sanctions as US weighs policy

To continue reading up to 10 premium articles, you must register , or sign up and take advantage of this exclusive offer: In this Feb. 1, 2017 photo, Venezuela’s Vice President Tareck El Aissami, right, is saluted by Boilivarian Army officer upon his arrival for a military parade at Fort Tiuna in Caracas, Venezuela. The administration of President Donald Trump is slapping sanctions on El Aissami and accusing him of playing a major role in international drug trafficking.

Ilminster Town Council reject 450 homes plan

Ilminster Town Council have slammed a proposal by Persimmon Homes to build up to 450 new houses on land south of Canal Way. Chairman of the Planning, Highways and Transport Committee Andrew Shearman told Persimmon’s reprensentative at the meeting, planner Jamie Grant, ‘your company does not listen to what the people of this town want’.

For Flynn replacement, Trump should ditch the status quo

National security adviser Mike Flynn resigned late on Monday when it became apparent he not only held diplomatic discussions with a Russian ambassador before President Trump was sworn into office, but also misled senior United States officials about the nature of those conversations. The White House is now considering Vice Adm.

Corruption, migration key hill issues

Lucknow, Feb. 14: Clean governance, rural migration, man-animal conflict and facilities for ex-servicemen are the foremost issues as Uttarakhand votes tomorrow. Polling will take place in all but one of the 70 constituencies as voting in Karnprayag has been deferred to March 9 following the death of Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Kuldeep Singh Kanwasi in a road accident.

Call to vet film before it’s shot

New Delhi, Feb. 14: Shree Rajput Karni Sena, which claims to have got Sanjay Leela Bhansali to remove romantic scenes between Padmawati and Allaudin Khilji in Padmavati and was blamed for an attack on the filmmaker, now wants pre-censorship of all films involving “historical” figures. Pre-censorship essentially means getting a film’s script vetted before shooting begins.

Major and 3 jawans killed

Srinagar, Feb. 14: A botched-up operation against a militant in Kashmir today resulted in heavy casualties for the troops, with three soldiers killed and two critically injured, while a major died in another gun battle with insurgents. Abu Haris, the Lashkar-e-Toiba militant, was killed in north Kashmir’s Hajin area.

Ansari in ‘rule of politics’ rap

New Delhi, Feb. 14: Vice-President Hamid Ansari today cautioned against any attempt at “homogenisation” of India’s pluralist society and undermining of individual liberties while asking the State to adhere to the rule of law instead of the “rule of politics”. He also argued against any understanding of internal security in terms of just law and order and the tendency to handle it with greater militarisation rather than addressing the vital concerns of livelihood, rights and culture.

Online editor arrested over exit poll

New Delhi, Feb. 14: The online editor of Dainik Jagran was arrested from his house in Ghaziabad early today following the Election Commission’s order to file FIRs against editors of the Hindi publication for releasing the results of an exit poll in violation of rules. The paper’s online edition had published the results of the exit poll at the end of the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh elections on Saturday.

Praise, protest at stent price cap

New Delhi, Feb. 14: Health rights’ groups have hailed the Centre’s order yesterday that imposed price caps on coronary stents, saying it was a long-overdue move to curb “exploitative pricing” and help patients, but stent-makers have decried it as “unreasonable”. The order from the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority sets the ceiling prices of coronary stents – tiny devices that help declog blocked arteries – at Rs 7,260 for bare metal stents, and Rs 29,600 for drug-eluting stents, which make up over 90 per cent of the market.

Date with Brand Jharkhand

The Tricolour flanked by national flags of countries partnering Jharkhand’s first-ever Global Investors’ Summit flutter at Jaipal Singh Munda Mega Sports Complex in Ranchi on Tuesday. Picture by Prashant Mitra Ranchi, Feb. 14: Stepping out of the aircraft on to the aerobridge, as soon as you walk into the terminal of Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Airport, chief minister Raghubar Das greets you with a smile.

V-Day gift for civil servant couples

New Delhi, Feb. 14: The Narendra Modi government has unwrapped a Valentine’s Day gift for civil servants, tweaking rules that will now allow married IPS-IAS-IFS couples to work in the same state. Sources in the Union home ministry said the government has in the past considered requests from civil servant couples but decided to change the rules today after Nisha, an IPS officer, wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office requesting an inter-cadre transfer.

India’s dirty air deadliest

New Delhi, Feb. 14: India tops the world in the number of premature deaths from air pollution linked to ozone and has also outpaced China in the number of lives lost from tiny inhalable particles, a report released today said. The State of Global Air 2017 report has estimated that India’s ozone deaths rose at a rate of nearly 148 per cent over the past two decades – from 43,500 in 1990 to 1.07 lakh in 2015.

Chained-amma vows to rule from cage, Panneer closes ranks with Amma niece

Chennai, Feb. 14: A pulsating spectacle unfolded around a gaol and a grave south of the Vindhyas tonight after the conviction and the jail term of V.K. Sasikala was restored by the Supreme Court earlier in the day. A defiant Sasikala pulled a proxy out of her hat, nominating Edappadi K. Palaniswami, a loyalist and PWD minister whose community has a considerable presence in the Assembly, for chief minister.

Chinnamma conviction restored forthwith

New Delhi, Feb. 14: The Supreme Court today held V.K. Sasikala and her two relatives guilty of amassing disproportionate assets worth over Rs 66 crore, sending them to four years in jail “forthwith” and dashing her hopes of becoming Tamil Nadu’s chief minister. The two others whose conviction was upheld were Sasikala’s nephew V.N. Sudhakaran and sister-in-law Ilavarasi.

Picture of Russian ambassador’s assassin wins World Press Photo award

The 60th World Press Photo award has been won by a Turkish photographer for an image of the direct aftermath of the assassination of the country’s Russian ambassador. Burhan Ozbilici, who works for Associated Press in Istanbul, beat 5,034 other photographers from 125 countries to the top prize in one of the world’s most prestigious professional photography contests.

Nigeria declares pollution in southern city an emergency, closes plant

Nigeria declared an air pollution emergency in a major southern city on Tuesday and closed an asphalt plant there after residents complained about the fumes from its furnaces, in a country plagued by corruption and poor governance. Residents staged a protest in Port Harcourt, a harbor city in the oil-producing Niger Delta region, waving their hands in the air to show the soot stains from touching cars.

See Photos of Muslim Life in New York City

A transit officer kneeling in prayer, a subway rolling past a mosque in Astoria, and a Halal food cart worker smiling into a camera nearly two decades ago – these are just some of the intimate moments of Muslim life in New York City captured on film. Muslim in New York , an exhibit opening at the Museum of the City of New York on Saturday, shows the works of four photographers who traveled the city to document members of communities working, worshipping, going to school, playing sports and posing for portraits.