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[The Unknown 15043]

Rich and American? Australia wants you

 

http://news.yahoo.com/rich-american-australia-wants-213443046--sector.html

[The Unknown 15043]

HEARTBREAKING: MAN LETS DAUGHTER DROWN AT DUBAI BEACH

Find out more about the shocking tragedy that could have been prevented

BYAHLAN! LIVE REPORTERSUNDAY , 09 AUGUST 2015

© Dmitry Rukhlenko - Fotolia

An Asian expat prevented Dubai lifeguards from saving his drowning daughter, claiming she would be dishonoured if she was touched by strange men!

According to a report in Emirates 24/7, the man has been now been arrested and prosecuted by authorities after his actions led to the death of the 20-year-old girl.

Lt. Col Ahmed Burqibah, Deputy Director of Dubai Police’s Search and Rescue Department was quoted saying, “The Asian father took his wife and kids to the beach for a picnic. The kids were swimming when suddenly the 20-year-old girl started screaming for help.

“Two rescue men were at the beach, and they rushed to help the girl. The father was a tall and strong man. He started pulling and preventing the rescue men and got violent with them. He told them that he prefers his daughter being dead than being touched by a strange man.”

He added, “This is one of the incidents which I cannot forget. It shocked me and many others who were involved in the case.”

 

http://www.ahlanlive.com/heartbreaking-man-lets-daughter-drown-at-dubai-beach-572690.html

[The Unknown 15043]

Canada less welcoming to refugees under Harper's leadership

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• TORONTO (AP) — Canada has long prided itself for opening its doors wider than any nation to asylum seekers, but the number it welcomes has waned since Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper took power almost 10 years ago.

Harper has rejected calls to take immediate action to resettle more Syrian refugees, despite the haunting image of a drowned 3-year-old washed up on a Turkish beach that has focused the world's attention on the largest refugee crisis since World War II.

Canada denied initial, inaccurate reports that it had rejected a refugee application for the boy's immediate family, but the story landed in the middle of an election campaign and forced Harper's party to cancel events and address what Canada is doing for asylum seekers.

In times of crisis in decades past, Canada resettled refugees quickly and in large numbers. It airlifted more than 5,000 people from Kosovo in the late 1990s and more than 5,000 from Uganda in 1972 and resettled 60,000 Vietnamese in 1979-80. More than 1.2 million refugees have arrived in Canada since World War II.

But the number of refugees has declined since Harper became prime minister in 2006. In 2005, Canada received 35,775 refugees. Canada welcomed 23,286 last year. According to the United Nations, Canada has dropped from the fifth-highest refugee-receiving country in 2000 to 15th last year.

The Harper government says it has resettled 2,374 Syrian refugees since January 2014. More than 4 million Syrians have fled their country since the conflict began in 2011.

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"Our view has been on refugees we should be doing what we're doing," Harper, who is facing re-election Oct. 19, told a campaign event Thursday. "Our message is also that we need to help people that are actually there and who can't get away, and part of the way we need to help them is to stop awful violence that is being directed at them, displacing and killing them."

Canada has six fighter jets bombing Islamic State group targets in Syria and Iraq and has a small number of special forces soldiers in a training role in northern Iraq. Canada's opposition parties oppose the military action.

Immigration Minister Chris Alexander has said Canada will accept 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next three years in response to a United Nations Refugee Agency's global appeal to resettle 100,000 refugees worldwide.

But leaders of the two main opposition parties challenging Harper in the October election say Canada should do more.

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau said Canada should take in 25,000 Syrian refugees immediately.

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FILE - In this Sept. 6, 1972 file photo, Canadian women, foreground, hand out application forms to S …

"We have it done in the past, and we can do that again," Trudeau told a campaign event Friday. "It is something that has made Canada the country that we are."

Tom Mulcair, leader of the New Democrats, said military action would not have saved the little boy on the beach.

"Canadians that I meet with across this country want Canada to do its share," Mulcair said. "If we're elected, there will be 10,000 people brought to Canada before the end of this year." The New Democrats advocate an accelerated plan to bring more than 46,000 refugees to Canada by 2019.

Mulcair compared the picture of the boy on the beach to the iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph from the Vietnam War of the young girl who was severely burned by napalm. That photograph came to symbolize the horrors of the Vietnam War and, ultimately, helped end it. Canada years later granted political asylum to Kim Phuc, who was just 9 years old when the photo was taken.

Catherine Dauvergne, an immigration expert and the dean of law at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, said that with countries like Turkey taking in 1.59 million Syrians, Canada should take in 50,000 this year and 100,000 next year, considering the scope of the crisis.

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FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015 file photo, Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks during a camp …

Conservative cabinet minister and former immigration minister Jason Kenney disputed criticism that Canada needs to be more welcoming, tweeting that since 2006 Canada has welcomed 1.6 million new citizens and 240,000 refugees.

But Dauvergne said Harper has made it harder for refugee applicants to arrive and stay in Canada. The measures include a stronger ability to detain. She said that while Canada does take in more immigrants overall, the vast majority are economic immigrants, meaning they'll help the Canadian economy or the government is confident they won't need assistance.

Less than 10 percent of newcomers to Canada are refugees.

"To say that the number of newcomers has gone up when in fact the number of refugees has gone down is really just to say we're completely prepared to use immigration for our own needs but absolutely unprepared to allow people to move here for human rights reasons," Dauvergne said.

Alex Neve of Amnesty International's Canada branch said the country is not the welcoming place it once was for refugees.

"What we've seen from the Canadian government is a pittance, especially for a country that has a long and proud record of pursuing bold refugee resettlements in the past. We've seen nothing that matches what we've done in the past. And we've done nothing that rises to the enormity of the need in the world," Neve said.

___

Associated Press Writer Charmaine Noronha in Toronto contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/canada-less-welcoming-refugees-under-harpers-leadership-042022376.html

 

Editat Septembrie 5, 2015 de The Unknown

[The Unknown 15043]

Chance photograph turns Tajik gardener into local celebrity

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In this photo taken Monday, Aug. 27, 2015, Munira Mirzoyeva, a 19-year old city gardens worker, walks near her home in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Mirzoyeva’s inclusion in the Atlas of Beauty — an online compendium collated by a Romanian photographer documenting the diversity of female beauty around the world — has made her readily recognizable on the streets where she works planting flowers. (AP Photo/Peter Leonard)

 

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AP) — A city gardens worker in the capital of Tajikistan has become a local celebrity through a chance picture taken by a visiting Romanian photographer.

Internet and local TV reports about 19-year-old Munira Mirzoyeva's inclusion in the Atlas of Beauty — an online compendium of the diversity of feminine beauty around the world — has made her readily recognizable on the streets of Dushanbe where she plants flowers.

She hopes this newfound fame will help rescue her from relative poverty. She wants to resume her studies so she can get a job better suited to supporting her family in the former Soviet nation in Central Asia, where she shares a one-bedroom apartment with her parents and four younger siblings.

Mirzoyeva's dream is to become a doctor, although she was forced by poverty to stop her education while still in elementary school.

Following her improbably rise to fame, online groups have sprung up to raise money to send her back to school. That has sparked a hope that appeared remote until only a few weeks ago.

"If the chance presents itself, I will definitely continue my studies, because that is my biggest dream," Mirzoyeva said. "I like my job as a gardener, but because I don't have the opportunity, I cannot study. But if I get the chance, I will definitely do it."

http://news.yahoo.com/chance-photograph-turns-tajik-gardener-local-celebrity-143556425.html

[The Unknown 15043]

Right to Die Bill: California Officially Legalizes Assisted Suicide for Terminally Ill

 

By Marissa Gold 13 Hours Ago

 

 

 

 

 

 

California Governor Jerry Brown signed the End of Life Option Act on Monday, officially making assisted suicide for the terminally ill legal in the state. The bill, known as ABx2 15, sets forth specific requirements, including (but not limited to) that the individual must be at least 18-years old, diagnosed with a terminal disease, voluntarily express a wish to receive an aid-in-dying drug, be of the physical and mental ability to self-administer the drug, and submit two oral requests at least 15 days apart as well as a written request to his or her physician, all of which is monitored and tracked by the state. 

Brittany Maynard, who ended her life with a lethal prescription after suffering from an aggressive brain cancer, on her wedding day

California is now the fourth state with a death with dignity law in place.

The bill has caused controversy among many religious and political groups. Californians Against Assisted Suicidesaid in a statement, "As someone of wealth and access to the world's best medical care and doctors the Governor's background is very different than that of millions of Californians living in healthcare poverty without that same access - these are the people and families potentially hurt by giving doctors the power to prescribe lethal overdoses to patients."

"ABx2 15 is not an ordinary bill because it deals with life and death," Governor Brown said in a released statement.

He continued: "I have carefully read the thoughtful opposition materials presented by a number of doctors, religious leaders and those who champion disability rights. I have considered theological and religious perspectives that any deliberate shortening of one's life is sinful. I have also read the letters of those who support the bill, including heartfelt please from Brittany Maynard's family and Archbishop Desmond Tutu."

"In the end, I was left to reflect on what I would want in the fact of my own death...it would be a comfort to be able to consider the options afforded by this bill. And I wouldn't deny that right to others."

Maynard's mother, Deborah Ziegler, who has continued to advocate for right-to-die legislation in the wake of her daughter's death, reacted to the news. "I think he felt some of the emotions we felt," she said of Governor Brown, to the local news station CBS8. "We're very appreciative of that."

"I feel a huge sense of pride in Brittany for her speaking up for what she started this conversation last year," added Dan Diaz, Brittany Maynard's widower.

 

http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2015/10/california-right-to-die-bill-legal?mbid=nl_100615

[The Unknown 15043]

Student charged with killing one, wounding three at Arizona university

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The suspected gunman, Steven Jones, a freshman at the state university in northern Arizona, was taken into custody following the shooting, campus Police Chief Gregory Fowler said.PHOENIX (Reuters) - An 18-year-old student killed a classmate and wounded three other students when he opened fire during a confrontation on the campus of Northern Arizona University early on Friday, in the latest shooting to hit a U.S. school, authorities said.

Jones was charged with first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault and was ordered held on $2 million bond at a brief court appearance.

Fowler said Jones pulled the handgun in a confrontation with several students.

The university identified the student who was killed as Colin Brough. Brough was from Annapolis, Maryland, according to an online article by the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis.

The three injured students, identified as Nicholas Prato, Kyle Zientek and Nicholas Piring, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and were being treated at Flagstaff Medical Center, Fowler said. Their conditions were not disclosed.

The shooting occurred just hours before President Barack Obama was scheduled to visit Roseburg, Oregon, to meet privately with families of the nine people killed in a mass shooting at a community college there last week.

Northern Arizona University, with a student body of about 20,000, is located in the mountain city of Flagstaff, about 140 miles north of Phoenix, and about 80 miles south of the Grand Canyon.

A university spokeswoman said Friday's incident occurred in a parking lot next to a residence hall for Greek organizations - fraternities and sororities - around 1:20 a.m.

"We don't know the facts yet about what brought them together, or what caused the confrontation," Fowler said.

Delta Chi International Fraternity executive director Justin Sherman said the four victims were members of the fraternity but the alleged gunman was not.

Jones, who did not try to flee, was arrested by university police and was cooperating with authorities, Fowler said. He said guns are not allowed to be carried on campus.

Classes continued on Friday, university president Rita Cheng told a news conference, calling the incident isolated.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and U.S. Senator John McCain, both Republicans, extended thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families.

Obama reacted to the killings in Oregon by vowing to step up efforts to curb U.S. gun violence. Gun rights advocates said the Oregon shootings underscored the importance of the right of Americans to bear arms and defend themselves.

Just hours after the Arizona shooting, police said one person was killed and another wounded in a shooting at an apartment complex near the campus of Texas Southern University in Houston, and a suspect had been taken into custody.

(Additional reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago, Curtis Skinner in San Francisco and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Will Dunham, James Dalgleish and Leslie Adler)

https://news.yahoo.com/one-dead-three-injured-shooting-university-arizona-111608882.html

[The Unknown 15043]

Lamar Odom Fighting for His Life Found Unconscious at Nevada Brothel

 

 

EXCLUSIVE

 

11:00 PM PT -- Lamar is still in a coma and his heart is failing ... our source says he is having serious problems with his kidneys and lungs as well. Khloe Kardashian is currently by his side. 

9:30 PM PT -- Lamar is still alive, but he is breathing with the assistance of machines and remains in critical condition ... according to sources close to the situation.

7:15 PM PT -- The Nye County Sheriff says the airlift of Lamar had to be scratched because his 6'10" frame was too big for the chopper. Instead, he was rushed by ambulance to a Las Vegas hospital.

The Sheriff also says the call came in at 3:15 PM for an unresponsive male at the Love Ranch. Paramedics treated Odom and he was taken to a nearby hospital. Sheriff's detectives conducted an investigation at the brothel. It's unclear what, if anything, they found on scene.

7:05 PM PT --  Sources tell us Khloe and Kim Kardashian ... as well as Kris Jenner are heading to Las Vegas shortly to see Lamar at the hospital.Lamar Odom is fighting for his life after falling into unconsciousness at Dennis Hof's Love Ranch South in Pahrump, Nevada ... TMZ Sports has learned.

Sources at the Love Ranch tell us ... 35-year-old Odom arrived at the Ranch Saturday and was partying with the girls for days. A source at the Ranch said Lamar was taking an herbal substitute for Viagra.

We spoke with Hof  ... who tells us Tuesday afternoon, a woman went into Odom's room in the VIP suites and found him unconscious. 

We're told the woman began screaming for the manager -- who called 911. 

The manager rolled Lamar over on his side and saw "mucus-type liquid coming out of his nose and mouth."

An ambulance took Lamar to Pahrump hospital, where doctors intubated him ... an indication he could not breathe on his own.

We're told Lamar is being airlifted from the hospital to Las Vegas for more treatment.

Our sources tell us, "It's not good." 

We're told Lamar had been partying at the ranch by himself -- with no friends or entourage -- and is now alone at the hospital. 

The ranch staff says they want to be in the room with Lamar but since they're not family they're not allowed. 

http://www.tmz.com/2015/10/13/lamar-odom-unconscious-brothel-hospital/#ixzz3oWd3h7dM

[The Unknown 15043]

South Carolina deputy’s history comes to light after shocking video goes viral Richland County Sheriff’s Deputy Ben Fields has been accused of using excessive force on students and targeting black students

 

The FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice launched a probe Tuesday into the circumstances surrounding a school resource officer’s actions at a high school in South Carolina the day before.

 

Federal investigators will assist the Richland County Sheriff's Department, which found itself in the center of a national controversy after one of its deputies slammed a student on the ground.

Several students at Spring Valley High School in Columbia used their cellphones to record Richland County Sheriff’s Deputy Ben Fields as he flipped an unidentified girl’s desk over and dragged her across the floor Monday.

Witnesses say the teacher called Fields to the classroom because the student refused to turn over her cellphone after she was caught using it during a lesson.

“The sheriff has asked for special agent in charge from the FBI to be a part of the investigation and also for the U.S. Justice Department’s [Attorney] Will Nettles to also take part in this investigation,” Lt. Curtis Wilson of the Richland County Sheriff's Department said in an interview with Yahoo News on Tuesday. “So an outside entity is also involved — not just our investigators from Internal Affairs.”

By Tuesday, the media’s attention turned to Fields’ varied past with the department. He started working for the Richland County Sheriff’s Department in 2004 and joined the School Resource Officer Program in 2008.

Federal court records obtained by Lancaster Online show that Fields was raised in Lancaster, Pa., and graduated from Lancaster Mennonite High School in 2000, where he played basketball and football.

In addition to serving as a school resource officer, Fields is the defensive line and strength and conditioning coach for the Spring Valley High School varsity football team. Videos on YouTube show the officer weightlifting.

http://news.yahoo.com/south-carolina-officer-s-history-comes-to-light-after-shocking-video-goes-viral-160400548.html

[The Unknown 15043]

Rare Earthquake Trio Shakes Phoenix: What Happened?

 

 

A rare trio of earthquakes shook central Arizona Sunday (Nov. 1), startling residents in Phoenix and the surrounding areas.

 

The largest quake was a magnitude-4.1 temblor, which hit at 11:29 p.m. local time. It was preceded by a magnitude-3.2 foreshock at 8:59 p.m. and was followed by a magnitude-4.0 aftershock at 11:49 p.m. Smaller aftershocks may follow, said Ryan Porter, a seismologist at Northern Arizona University.

Earthquakes are "pretty uncommon for Arizona," Porter told Live Science. "So it's not unexpected, but it's not a very common event."

This does not mean Arizona is seismically inactive. In fact, geophysicists have recordedhundreds of quakes each year in the state, though most are too small to be felt by humans. Particularly active is the Northern Arizona Seismic Belt in the north central part of the state, which is part of the wider Intermountain Seismic Belt of Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and southeastern California. Central Arizona is seismically quieter, however.

Researchers haven't yet fully analyzed Sunday's quakes, which occurred between the depths of 3.1 miles and 5.9 miles (5 and 9.5 kilometers), near Black Canyon City. However, it's likely that the quakes occurred as a result of extensional forces pulling the crust apart in the area, Porter said. [The 10 Biggest Earthquakes in History]

Arizona's seismic profile is split into three parts, according to the Arizona Geological Survey. In the northeast corner, east of the seismic belt, is the Colorado Plateau, a tectonically stable island in the crust that also covers parts of Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. The southern part of the state is the "basin and range" region, a landscape that alternates mountain ranges with basins or valleys. The topography of this region forms when the crust pulls apart, creating faults. On one side of the faults, the uplift of the crust forms abrupt, steep mountains; on the other side, the dropping of the crust creates flat basins.

Between these two regions is the transition zone, a rugged geological gray area that slices from the northwestern corner of Arizona through the central part of the state, running between Flagstaff and Phoenix, and finally to the eastern border of the state. This transition zone marks the change from the stable, tectonically quiet Colorado Plateau to the stretched-apart basin and range geology to the south.

Sunday's quakes were "in that transition zone between the relatively undeformed Colorado Plateau and the highly extended basin and range to the south," Porter said. In that transition zone, some of the same forces that pull apart the crust in southern Arizona are at play.

No one has mapped the area of the fault that slipped, called a focal mechanism, during Sunday night's quakes, Porter said. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will likely release that information within days. However, a blog post by Arizona State University geology professor J. Ramón Arrowsmith noted that, just east of Black Canyon City, several active faults that run north to south have been mapped. The three latest quakes were lined up in a row running north to south, consistent with the patterns seen to the east.

Most people who felt the quake reported light or weak shaking. According to the USGS, more than 4.6 million people live in the areas where shaking was reported.

A magnitude-4.1 quake produces only minor damage, but faults in the transition zone are capable of producing temblors of up to a magnitude 7, according to the Arizona Geological Survey. The largest quake on record in Arizona was significantly smaller than that, however. That record holder, a magnitude 5.6, struck in July 1959 and shook items off of shelves in homes and stores in Fredonia, Arizona, where residents also reported damage to walls and chimneys. The shaking from that quake may also have caused a rockslide at Mather Point in the Grand Canyon, which is now one of the major visitor hubs in Grand Canyon National Park. 

The Arizona Geological Survey recommends that residents be earthquake-ready by securing heavy objects on shelves and walls, and evaluating heavy appliances like water heaters and refrigerators for safety in the event of a quake. During a quake, the safest thing to do is "drop, cover and hold on," preferably under a sturdy table or desk. More information on earthquake readiness is available in a 2012 pamphlet published by the Arizona Geological Survey. 

"Earthquakes do happen in Arizona," Porter said. "You should always be prepared, but it's not something to be panicked over."

 

http://news.yahoo.com/rare-earthquake-trio-shakes-phoenix-happened-190024210.html

[The Unknown 15043]

Late Saudi king's 'secret wife' gets huge UK payout

 

 A British judge on Tuesday ordered a huge financial payout for a woman who claims she was the "secret wife" of the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.

 

Judge Peter Smith ruled that Palestinian-born Janan Harb, 68, should receive more than 15 million pounds ($23 million) and two expensive apartments in London's Chelsea neighborhood that had been promised her.

The High Court judge said her claim to having been promised a financial settlement by one of the king's sons was "credible."

Harb had told the court she secretly married the king in 1968 when he was still a prince. She testified that he had promised to look after her financially for the rest of her life. Harb had told the court the king's family opposed their marriage because she was a Christian. She converted to Islam right before the marriage.

Her testimony indicated she had been promised the financial settlement by Prince Abdul Aziz, the son of another of the king's wives, when he met with her at London's posh Dorchester Hotel in 2003 when the king was seriously ill.

The court did not rule on whether she and the king had ever married, but on whether the prince had promised her a cash settlement and the luxury London properties.

The prince denied the assertion in written statements, but refused to testify in person or be cross-examined, earning a contempt of court citation. He was ordered to make a 25,000 pound charity donation.

The judge told the prince's lawyer his case had been severely damaged by the prince's refusal to appear because the case revolved around whether his or Harb's statements were believable. He also criticized Harb for her lavish lifestyle and gambling debts.

Harb said she was "very relieved" by the decision Tuesday and criticized the prince for not honoring his father's wishes.

"This has been 12 years of misery for me. I am very happy with British justice," Harb said.

The prince's lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/saudi-kings-secret-wife-gets-23-million-uk-141333880.html