Amid Iraqi Chaos, Moktada al-Sadr, an Old Provocateur, Returns

 BAGHDAD — They came from the slums of this city’s underclass, the alleyways and the simple halls of the seminary in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, and the outer reaches of the rural south.

They waved Iraqi flags and demanded change. The crowd packed Baghdad’s Tahrir Square on Friday morning, chanting by the tens of thousands against corruption and for decisive reforms in how politics is conducted here, as they waited for their man to appear.

“No, no to thieves! Yes, yes to reforms!”

Then Moktada al-Sadr, the cleric and political provocateur whose command of the Iraqi Shiite street is unmatched, stepped up to the rail of a makeshift stage on the rooftop of an old girls school and appealed to the people’s grievances in terms at once revolutionary and patriotic.

“After today, the prime minister has to act!” he said. Referring to the barricaded heart of the central government, he said, “Today we are at the door of the Green Zone, and tomorrow the people will be inside!”

The time is ripe for demagogues again in Iraq, where the public is seething with anger over corruption, a grinding war and a collapse in oil prices that has shaken the economy. With an ineffective political class unable to rise above internal scheming, Iraq is struggling to face its most pressing concerns, the primary one being winning the war with the Islamic State and reuniting the country.


 Mr. Sadr and his fearsome militia were once a primary enemy of the United States, and he played many roles in shaping Iraq after the American invasion: populist cleric, Iranian proxy, Iraqi patriot, political kingmaker. In seizing a chance on Friday to return to the political spotlight, he positioned himself as a nationalist in the face of Iran’s growing role in Iraqi affairs, and as a source of aid for a weak prime minister.

“Today I am among you to say to you, frankly and bravely, that the government has left its people struggling against death, fear, hunger, unemployment, occupation, a struggling economy, a security crisis, bad services and a big political crisis,” Mr. Sadr told the crowd.

Above all, it was a reminder of the confused state of internal Shiite politics that even as he was seeking to harness public rage against the political elites, he had actually called the street rally to support the reform policies of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

Mr. Abadi’s proposal to tackle corruption and install technocrats in the country’s ministries has stalled over the opposition of powerful militia leaders and some pro-Iran politicians. For his part, Mr. Sadr has offered to have his ministers resign in protest to lend Mr. Abadi’s agenda some steam. Despite that, and the support of the most senior Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, it remains unclear whether Mr. Abadi’s agenda will be able to win the help of any other political blocs.

If nothing else, Mr. Sadr’s appearance in Baghdad on Friday was a chance to “get himself back in the center of things,” said Kirk Sowell, an analyst based in Amman, Jordan, who publishes the newsletter Inside Iraqi Politics.

Mr. Sadr was once at the very heart of things in Iraq, but in recent years had receded somewhat from the public eye.

 When the United States invaded in 2003, Mr. Sadr was just shy of 30. But he drew on the political inheritance of his father, a pivotal and immensely popular Shiite cleric assassinated on Saddam Hussein’s orders in 1999, to emerge as a powerful voice for the Shiite underclass.

He forged a movement that melded martial, political and social elements. His militia, the Mahdi Army, once fought the Americans and the Iraqi state, and it was blamed for atrocities during the sectarian civil war of 2006 and 2007.

Nowadays his militiamen are largely under the control of the government, and his anti-Americanism, once a defining issue for him, is less ardent. Recently, through his contacts among Shiite militia leaders, he helped secure the release of three Americans kidnapped in Baghdad. At the rally there was some bashing of the United States, but it felt more perfunctory than strident.

Once an open client of Iran, Mr. Sadr has in recent years gone his own way, and is widely seen these days as an Iraq-first advocate of cross-sectarian unity. His militia, reconstituted after the extremists of the Islamic State captured Mosul in the summer of 2014, was renamed the Peace Brigades.

Today, as he seeks to redefine himself once again, Mr. Sadr, now 42, has positioned himself as a backer of Mr. Abadi, who is seen as increasingly weak in the face of the growing influence of Iran. Tehran supports Mr. Abadi’s political rivals, who command militias.

“Abadi, as a person, is kindhearted,” said Saad Thamer, 37, a supporter of Mr. Sadr’s who attended the rally. “But he is very weak


The militias have become exceedingly popular among the Shiite public, challenging Mr. Abadi’s authority, because they are seen as the protectors of the Shiite majority against the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State.

It has also been a challenge to Mr. Sadr, who has lost of some of his support at the grass-roots level as young men flock to other militias seen as more powerful. His embrace of the Iraqi state has also sometimes worked against him by contradicting his image as a populist figure.

“From an anti-establishment young leader, he compromised his stance by working more with the Iraqi political establishment, which cost him a loss of some popularity among his followers,” said Maria Fantappie, the Iraq analyst for the International Crisis Group.

Iraq is a place where everyone has his enemies, and Mr. Sadr has his share. One of his chief critics is the former prime minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who once counted on Mr. Sadr’s support to secure a second term after national elections in 2010.

Mr. Sadr later broke from Mr. Maliki, and tried to oust him from the premiership. In a recent interview, Mr. Maliki said Mr. Sadr was seeking to exploit Mr. Abadi’s weakness to re-establish his own influence. “He’s supporting Abadi, but in his own way,” Mr. Maliki said. “He wants to control Abadi.”

During his time in office, especially in 2011 when the Arab Spring uprisings set off a protest movement in Iraq, Mr. Maliki feared what would happen if Mr. Sadr commanded his followers to take to the streets. He did not, and the protests died out.

But Mr. Maliki said Mr. Sadr’s re-emergence presented dangers for Iraq, and warned, “He has power and weapons.
Saturday, 26 February 2016

Prince Ali seeks postponement of FIFA presidential election

ZURICH — FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali is asking for Friday's election to be suspended after his request for the use of transparent voting booths was rejected.

     In this Dec. 4, 2015 file photo FIFA presidential candidate Jordanian Prince Ali Al Hussein speaks at the National Press Club in Washington. Prince Ali is one of the five candidates to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA President on Friday, Feb. 26, 2016. Prince Ali is asking for Friday's election to be suspended in a dispute over voting procedures.

The Jordanian prince's lawyers said Tuesday they are seeking "provisional measures" from the Court of Arbitration for Sport to postpone the vote to select Sepp Blatter's successor.

CAS said it received a request from Prince Ali, asking the court to direct FIFA's election monitoring panel to use transparent voting booths and independent scrutineers "in order to safeguard the integrity of the voting process and to ensure the vote is conducted in secret."

The prince's campaign team has offered to provide the transparent booths to help prevent voters photographing their ballot paper.

In previous soccer elections, voters have reportedly been pressured to take a mobile phone into the booth and provide visual proof of who they supported.

CAS said FIFA has been asked to submit written answers to the prince's request. CAS said it would issue a ruling no later than Thursday morning, a day ahead of the scheduled election.

Prince Ali's lawyers said in a statement that the FIFA's rejection of his request for transparent voting booths would deny "any right to a fair and transparent voting process."

The lawyers, Francis Szpiner and Renaud Semerdjian, said FIFA was only requesting that voters leave their mobile phones behind when they go to the voting booths.

"This request is not sufficient," the statement said. "FIFA remains silent upon the measures to enforce it and sanctions associated with it."

FIFA turned down a demand for a fast-track hearing on Prince Ali's request, the lawyers said.

"As a consequence, we are now seeking provisional measures before CAS to suspend the coming election," the statement said.

Ali is one of five candidates in the race, along with Sheikh Salman of Bahrain, UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino, South Africa's Tokyo Sexwale and former FIFA executive Jerome Champagne of France.

Sheikh Salman, who replaced Prince Ali as the FIFA vice president for Asia last year, dismissed the complaint.

"We had the election last May and nobody complained about the voting booths," the sheikh told The Associated Press in an interview. "Some people will always bring some excuses as well. I think he's just preparing for Friday's result."

Champagne also had a complaint rejected Tuesday against a decision by the three-member FIFA election panel.

On Monday, he objected after FIFA approved election hall passes for 20 additional UEFA staff and seven from the AFC. Champagne said that gave the confederations an unfair advantage with greater lobbying power.

In a written reply to Champagne seen by The Associated Press, election panel chairman Domenico Scala said the extra accreditations were "perfectly in line with the relevant and consistent FIFA practice" for continental bodies.

China's Zheng Saisai shocks reigning Australian Open champion in Qatar

Angelique Kerber's first WTA Tour outing since her brilliant Australian Open triumph ended in disappointment as the top seed suffered a shock 7-5 6-1 loss to Zheng Saisai at the Qatar Open.

     China's Zheng Saisai returns a shot to Germany's Angelique Kerber during the first round at the Qatar Wednesday.


 Kerber upset the odds to defeat Serena Williams in the Melbourne showpiece last month, but the German - who has played in the Fed Cup but not on Tour since her win - looked flat in Doha.

Zheng deserved credit for a tenacious showing and accurate ground strokes, while Kerber's 38 unforced errors gave the Chinese plenty of cheap points en route to the biggest win of her career.

Next up for Zheng is a tricky contest with wildcard Eugenie Bouchard.

The Canadian continued to show signs that she is back to her best by defeating Denisa Allertova 7-6 (7-0) 7-5.

There was also disappointment for Simona Halep, Belinda Bencic and Lucie Safarova on a day of upsets.

Second seed Halep was up a set and 4-1 in the second before losing 11 out of the next 12 games in a 6-7 (1-7) 6-4 6-1 to qualifier Elena Vesnina.

Bencic - the sixth seed - was put to the sword 6-4 6-2 by Coco Vandeweghe, a week after losing in the first round in Dubai to Jelena Jankovic – herself beaten 3-6 6-4 7-5 by Monica Niculescu.

As for defending champion and seventh seed Safarova, she lost 7-6 (8-6) 7-5 to wildcard Cagla Buyukakcay.

It was a straight-forward outing for third seed Agnieszka Radwanska as she saw off Kateryna Bondarenko 6-4 6-4, but ninth seed Roberta Vinci had to save three match points in a 2-6 6-4 7-6 (7-3) win over Daria Kasatkina.

Garbine Muguruza easily saw off Nao Hibino 6-2 6-0, a win that will see her move above Halep in the rankings, while Caroline Wozniacki's resurgence continued in a 6-3 6-3 victory over Daria Gavrilova.

Petra Kvitova and Carla Suarez Navarro, the fifth and eighth seeds, were comfortable winners. The former beat Czech compatriot Barbora Strycova 7-6 (7-2) 6-4, while the latter saw off Donna Vekic 7-6 (7-5) 6-4.

Timea Babos put paid to 16th seed Sara Errani's hopes in a 6-4 6-1 victory, Andrea Petkovic was a 6-3 6-3 winner against Margarita Gasparyan, Julia Ostapenko beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6 (7-5) 6-0 and Timea Bacsinszky overcame Yulia Putintseva 6-2 7-6 (7-0).

27th Group Army becomes first army in PLA to relocate HQ

President Xi Jinping (L, front), also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, confers a military flag to Commander Liu Yuejun and Political Commissar Zheng Weiping of the Eastern Theater Command in Beijing, capital of China, Feb 1, 2016. Xi on Monday conferred military flags on the five newly-established theater commands of the People's Liberation Army (PLA)

 The 27th Group Army recently became the first army of the People's Liberation Army to relocate its headquarters in the country's new military reform, the military newspaper PLA Daily reported on Thursday.

The 27th Group Army, which has a long and honorable history, received a relocation order from the Central Military Commission on Dec 2 to move from North China's Hebei province to new barracks in Shanxi province before Jan 5.

The army's leading group later held a meeting to arrange the relocation work. Soldiers and officers left for Shanxi's barracks separately on Dec 14, 23 and 27.

The relocation was completed by the end of last year.

143 barracks and more than 2,600 pieces of equipment in the headquarters in Shijiazhuang has been registered and recorded. The remaining fifty-one million yuan in maintenance fees for the 27th ground army will be left to a newly established ground force unit, the PLA Daily reported.

In November, the Central Military Commission held a three-day PLA reform meeting in Beijing, during which President Xi Jinping, also the chairman of the Central Military Commission, gave guidelines on reform.

The general command for the PLA Army, the PLA Rocket Force and the PLA Strategic Support Force were established. President Xi conferred military flags at their inauguration ceremony held on Dec 31 in Beijing.

After the reshuffle, the People's Liberation Army was regrouped into five new theater commands to replace the former seven military area commands. The five commands are the Eastern Theater Command, the Southern Theater Command, the Western Theater Command, the Northern Theater Command and the Central Theater Command.

President Xi conferred the military flags of the five theater commands to their leaders on Feb 1 in Beijing.

The amazing art of flower buns

Flower bun art resembles cucumbers. [Photo by Wang Zirui/Asianewsphoto]

A flower bun art festival is ongoing in Hebi city of Henan province, which puts on display more than 300 pieces of creative flower buns from Shaanxi, Shanxi, Anhui, Henan provinces in Central China.

The age of the creators ranges from 8 to 66 years old. Flower buns, an edible art form, is a traditional folk art in China with a long history dating back to the ancient Han Dynasty. During important occasions, people always make flower buns to wish for happiness and good fortune.

         Flower bun art resembles red peppers.[Photo by Wang Zirui/Asianewsphoto]

These flower buns resemble two turtles. [Photo by Wang Zirui/Asianewsphoto)

 This flower bun art portrays several dragons on a round plate. [Photo by Wang Zirui/Asianewsphoto]

CDC investigates 14 more possible cases of sexually transmitted Zika virus

Times New York - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is investigating 14 new reports of possible sexual transmission of the Zika virus.

The CDC said several of these cases are among pregnant women, although it did not specify how many.

"These new reports suggest sexual transmission may be a more likely means of transmission for Zika virus than previously considered," the CDC said in a  written

Two of the cases are in women whose only known risk is sexual contact with a male partner exhibiting symptoms of the virus after returning from an infected area, according to the CDC.

Lab results are pending for four additional suspected cases among women. There are eight other suspected cases under investigation

The CDC is working with state health officials to investigate all of these cases. Officials have not said which states they are working with or where these women live because the risk applies to all women in the United States, according to Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, deputy incident manager for Zika virus at the CDC.

"We have been a little surprised by the number of suspected cases we've received," she told NMP

The CDC is urging individuals to follow its previously issued guidance of abstinence or condom use for women, especially those who are pregnant, whose male sexual partners have traveled to a Zika-infected area. It also issued a notice through their Health Alert Network that notified health care providers, labs and local, state and federal public health employees about urgent public health information.

The recommendations single out partners of pregnant women because the virus has been linked to the neurological birth defect microcephaly. Infants with the disorder have unusually small heads and sometimes developmental delays that vary in severity.

The CDC restated there is no evidence that women can transmit the virus to their sexual partners and that the most likely way to become infected with the Zika virus is from infected mosquitoes.

In February, the CDC confirmed the virus had been transmitted to the sexual partner of an individual in Texas who had traveled to a Zika infected area -- a first for this outbreak but not a first in and of itself. The first known case of sexual transmission of the Zika virus was occurred in 2008, when a microbiologist from Colorado State University returned from Senegal, reunited with his wife and infected her with the virus.

"The report of the case in Dallas raised concern so doctors are beginning to think about it when they see patients," McQuiston said, adding that another possible reason for the increase in these possible cases could be reflective of the travel patterns and people returning from infected areas..

FIFA reduces bans for Blatter, Platini from 8 to 6 years

FIFA reduces bans for Blatter, Platini from 8 to 6 years


ZURICH - Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini had their bans from soccer reduced from eight years to six by FIFA's appeal body on Wednesday, two days before the sport's ruling body tries to turn the page on years of scandals by electing a new president

Blatter and Platini were initially found guilty of wrongdoing by FIFA's independent ethics committee, which is led by a German judge, over a previously-secret 2011 financial transaction.

Platini, the UEFA president, said not being cleared was an "insulting decision, shameful and a denial of rights" - and announced he will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Blatter, as FIFA president, authorized a payment of 2 million Swiss francs ($2 million) to Platini which was found to be unethical and a conflict of interest.

But following hearings last week, an in-house appeal committee comprising members of federations voting in Friday's presidential election decided to relax the suspensions. The committee is headed by Larry Mussenden of Bermuda, who is currently campaigning to win a May vote to become president of CONCACAF and a FIFA vice president.

"The appeal committee considered that Mr. Platini's and Mr. Blatter's activities and the services they had rendered to FIFA, UEFA and football in general over the years should deserve appropriate recognition as a mitigating factor," FIFA said in a statement.

Blatter said in a statement that he was "deeply disappointed" with the verdict. Having hoped to be cleared in time to preside over the electoral congress on Friday, Blatter might have run out of time for an urgent CAS hearing.

Both Blatter and Platini have constantly denied wrongdoing and claimed they had a verbal deal for additional salary that former France great Platini would receive for working as Blatter's presidential adviser from 1999-2002.

Platini had been the leading candidate to succeed Blatter in FIFA's emergency election before the payment was revealed in September.

"The reasons given against me are baseless, trumped up and surreal, given the facts and explanations that I gave during the hearing of the appeals board," Platini said in a statement released through his legal team. "This decision is in reality a political decision taken by the FIFA administration."

He added: "I am the victim of a system that had only one goal: To prevent me from becoming FIFA president in order to protect certain interests that I was about to bring into question."

Platini said he would pursue all possible means to appeal, starting with CAS, and that he had asked his legal team to launch an appeal to the Lausanne-based court "without waiting."

Platini has previously said he asked for a salary of 1 million Swiss francs when approached in 1998 to work for the newly-elected Blatter.

Blatter said there was a contract for 300,000 Swiss francs, the same as FIFA's then secretary general in line with its salary structure, plus a "gentleman's agreement" to get the rest later.

Swiss law obliged FIFA only to pay the deferred money within five years. It was not until 2010 that Platini, by then UEFA president, reportedly asked for the balance, and was paid in February 2011.

That timing has raised suspicion as the payment came during a FIFA presidential election campaign. UEFA later urged its members to support Blatter — who promised them it would be his final term — against Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar.

Blatter won that 2011 election unopposed after Bin Hammam was implicated in bribing Caribbean voters. From then on, Platini was the likely successor to lead FIFA.

Platini's provisional suspension by the ethics committee last October, pending a full investigation, stalled his presidential bid and the ban in December effectively ended it.

Both were fined by the ethics judges in December. Blatter was ordered to pay 50,000 Swiss francs ($50,000) and Platini was fined 80,000 Swiss francs ($80,000).

The Platini payment emerged during a wider Swiss federal investigation of FIFA business, including suspected money laundering in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests.

Switzerland's attorney general, Michael Lauber, opened criminal proceedings against Blatter in September for alleged mismanagement and misappropriation of FIFA funds.

That case also relates to Blatter signing off undervalued 2010-2014 World Cup broadcast rights for the Caribbean to former FIFA vice president Jack Warner.

Platini's status in the Swiss investigation is "between a witness and an accused person," Lauber has said..

How to make a man crazy in love with you

Men love sensual women. Apart from this they fall head over heels with women who are good-looking, intelligent, feminine yet sporty and men also love for their women to be unique in everything. Though these are the common desires we women are familiar with from a man’s point of view, there are a few more things men secretly desire from the women they date. Are you ladies ready to take a look at some of the things almost every man desires.

You will be amazed to see that these things on the list are simple yet important to a man. So, take a look at some of the things men fall for, when it comes to a woman they desire or are with. Ladies, get ready to make a few changes in your life to suit your man’s needs and make him extra happy

1. Independence – Have you heard of the phrase – ‘Be a strong confident woman.’Well, most men love and desire for their women to be a confident woman. It shows pride and in a way boosts a man’s ego that their woman can make a decision!

2. Confidence – Confidence is the key to get to a man’s heart. When a woman is confident, a man feels like the luckiest in the world. This is a secret, men desire in the lady they are in love with.

3. Touch Of Flirting – One of the many secrets men desire in a woman is they should be the flirtatious type too. Not only does this help to boost your romance it helps to make the man feel more alive and wanted by his woman when you flirt with him.

4. Honesty – Who doesn’t like honesty in relationships. Did you also know that honesty is a silent turn on for a man. He appreciates his woman to be honest no matter what and guess what – it goes both ways (be honest with her as well).

5. Just Being You – It is important to be you when your around him. Men want to fall in love with the real woman, the real you. This is what makes you so attractive in his eyes. So, just be you and you will be his forever.

6. A Sports Lover – If your the type of gal whose in love with her man’s kind of sport, be sure that you are his favourites from the many he has dated. It is every man’s secret desire.

7. A Smart Woman – Ladies, buckle up as being smart is the new sexy. Men prefer for their ladies to be smart and at times be that damsel in distress too. So, play safe with your man as this what he desires the most out of you in the relationship.

Easy 7 Tips on How to Keep Your Relationship Strong

Everybody wants to make their relationship stronger and healthier, but many people don’t know how to do that. Many couples sometimes find themselves working against one another when times are rough.

Financial issues are the number one cause of fights and divorces. Making a relationship strong is not always easy, but the advantages of keeping a long-term, committed relationship outweigh the problems and difficulties that you face. Here are a few effective ways to keep your relationship strong.

1. Stop arguing over money

As I mentioned above, finances is one of the greatest causes of fights. Although we are in a recession now, you and your partner should stop arguing over money to keep your relationship strong. Don’t complain and don’t bicker. Think together about things you spend on, how you could make more money and how you can save. Work together and your relationship will be much stronger.

2. Be more affectionate

To keep your relationship stronger you should be more affectionate and bear in mind why you love your boyfriend or husband. Don’t forget to tell him that you miss or love him. You can choose something that you know he will like at the supermarket, or give him a massage.

3. Make your partner a priority

Give your relationship a priority in order to keep it strong and healthy. Sure, it will not be your top priority all the time. You will have some situations where your children need to come first, or where you should pay more attention to your career.

Even if your relationship cannot be your number one priority, it should always be a priority. Devote your time to your partner, when possible. Be thoughtful, attentive and focus on your relationship. If your phone rings in the middle of a conversation, ignore it – you can call back later.

4. Respect each other when you argue

No one wants to argue, however it’s a part of life. When you argue with your partner, make sure you do it well. Try to listen to one another and don’t interrupt. You should hear each other and try to understand each other no matter what.

5. Share things with your partner

A common relationship complaint is that your partner withdraws. It can be because he is upset or stressed, or he is worrying about something. Try to talk to him and ask him to share his problems with you. You should also share your love, fear, worries and responsibilities with your partner. Even if your partner can’t help you, he will appreciate the fact that you trust him.

6. Be friends

Just because you are a couple, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be friends as well. Don’t say things that you would never say to your close friend. Spend some quality time together having fun, so that your relationship does not become all about the seriousness.

7. Don’t get upset over trifles

I cannot remember how many times I have asked my husband not to leave his socks all over the house, or wash his dish after breakfast or dinner when I’m very busy. I cannot also remember how many times my husband has asked me to not forget to turn the heating off, but I often forget about it. We never argue about such small things, though. If you’re angry at him, take a deep breath and exhale your anger out. The trifles are not worth getting frustrated over.

Sure, there are many other ways to keep your relationship strong and healthy, but these are very important to keep in mind. These ways don’t require much effort or time, only thoughtfulness. What do you do to keep your relationship strong? Share your tips with us, please.

10 Fascinating Facts About The Moon You Probably May Not Know!

Yes she is one of the most popular celestial objects in the sky, graces our night sky like a patch of glowing ball.

Lunar is the name of the Earth’s only natural satellite called a Moon.

She is so important to us that we have a day specially named after it. Monday (Moon day).

She is deified as a Goddess to many cultures, one of the determining clock hands of our time measurement and a very fascinating celestial neighbour she is to us.

All of us have seen the moon, in fact we have spent countless nights mopping at it and imagining what actually that is, it has been a subject of our imaginations and lores as children.

Now let us quickly run through several facts about our dear Lunar to get to know her more

1. Formation

The events leading to the wedlock of our Dear Earth to her Moon was not a peaceful ceremony at all.

Not even close to being peaceful.

Early in the solar system’s formation, the whole system was a battle field of hot high speeding debris, asteroids and meteors crashing into each and other into planets.

The earth has gotten a very big share of these celestial bombardments of fire raining meteors of which we have craters testifying to this

So the first billion years of the earth was a very violent one of which brought about earth’s water delivered from these catastrophic bombardments of celestial bombs.

Though a subject of many scientific probings the most widely accepted theory on Moon’s formation is a head on collision between the earth and a Mars sized Asteroid named Theia.

These two very hot planetary objects in the early stage of the system formation 4.5billion years barely 50million years after the earth’s formation collided in a very violent and quaking union.

This collision released debris (remnants of the reaction) lead to the moon’s formation..

So the moon was a child of a violent wedlock between earth and theia.

2. The moon is as bright as Coal

Did i hear you say that? Yeah thats what we all are supposed to say to this one..
I mean we all see this glowing ball brightly throwing down silvery rays of a shadowy beam.

But in actuality the moon is a very very very Dark object not even brighter than a Coal.

The light we get from the moon has nothing to do with the moon, the moon has no light at all but rather acts as a reflective plate for the sunlight it gets from the sun..

You must have noticed that during a crescent or half moon you can see the remaining outline of the full moon but it remains pitch dark, that is because that side is shielded from direct sunlight.

Or during an eclipse the moon becomes a full mean ominous dark opaque object to us.

So without light from the sun hitting the moon, it is just one pitch black piece of coal..

Even with as much sunlight as it gets the moon has a very poor reflective ability that it only reflects 12% maximum of all the light it gets from the sun, compare this with Venus that reflects almost 75%.

If Venus was as close to us as the moon, our nights would just be like evening because Venus is way too bright no wonder it is called the morning sun, when do we get to sleep if that was the case?grin

The earth is by far brighter than the moon, the earth reflects more than 55% of the sun light it gets.. so the earth is more than 7times brighter than the moon.

So the moon is not a light and so doesn’t shine it only reflects a very poor amount of sunlight it gets..

3. The Moon Controls Our Ocean Tide

Yeah where are the “Avatar the last air bender’s Fans” Come out this is for you… The film clearly states the moon as the first water bender grin Well that is so so true because the moon is an important factor in the calibration of ocean tides.

Ok lets not make it look that too simple the moon is not only the factor here but just one of many. Others include the Sun, Earth’s rotation etc..

As you may have noticed, water is a very cohesive compound, water molecules always sticks together notice if you drop two pinch of water close together they merge into one whole.

So the earth’s centrifugal force caused by the rotation water molecules are being pulled away from the surface leading to a bulge near the equator than towards the pole

If the earth simply rotated on its own axis, then even though there would be this bulge there would be no tide. However, because the moon is very close to the earth, its gravity exerts an effect on the rotational system of the earth, causing it to also rotates in tandem with the moon on a different axis.

Because of this additional rotation, there is an additional centrifugal force exerted on the side of the earth that is away from the moon.

Thus, the centrifugal force is greatest on the side of the earth that is away from the moon, and there is a greater bulge in the water on that side.

That is how the moon’s tidal effects manifests on the earth’s ocean tides

4. The Moon is tidally locked to earth

Eheeeeem this should be a question that must have been bothering every curious mind we have here who one or two times might have looked up to gaze at the moon.

“Why is that we only see one side of the moon all the time”

Yes that is true, the moon is tidally locked.. This means that it takes the exact same amount of time for the moon to finish one orbital revolution and also achieve one full axial rotation therefore only one part of it is always faced towards the earth.

this is also known as Gravitational locking …

Following this you can now deduct that the reason why we always have one side of the moon facing us is that in the 28 days circle of the moon before another appearance it takes just about that time for it to fully rotate on it’s axis so when next it appears on earth we get to see the same side.

Moon axial period =28 days
earth’s axial period =24 hours..

See the difference ….

Due to this tidal lock one side of the moon remains perpetually darkened to us (We call this the “Dark side of the moon) and we get to only see just one side

5. Shape

Judging from what we see at night from the part of moon visible, one can conclude the moon is a perfect sphere and wouldn’t be blamed.

But the news is, The moon is not a perfect sphere not at all, the moon has a shape known as Oblate Spheroid …

This is a kind of sphere where the whole body is not perfectly uniformed but has bulging sides leading to little bit flattened poles.

Like a lemon

This is caused by by rotation of an ellipse around is smallest axial points..

Jupiter also has an Oblate spheroid shape but due to the fact that one bulging side of the moon is always visible to us we always perceive the moon’s shape to be spherical from
Here.

6. Water On the Moon

Wait wait wait Don’t freak out grin Yeah i know that just few months ago liquid water was announced on Mars but calm down there’ve always been water on Mars though Frozen we were just surprised to find liquid ones.

So back to the moon, Yes there is water on the moon and many planetary bodies in this Solar system though the conditions on these bodies makes it unlikely for water to thrive in liquid state.

Earth is the only planet were water exists in liquid form in a large scale, Mars has joined the list but just in a small scale.

Over the years there have been speculations of Frozen water lurking in the hidden craters on the moon surface.

Not until the most recent man made probe (LRO) to the moon started orbiting the satellite has the picture became ever clearer.

From Data curled from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Hydrogen and Oxygen atoms have been detected just in the Lunar surface showing there is Water Molecules lurking within the Lunar soil.

Yes it may not be flowing swimmable water type found on earth but in this regard Water is water.

Since has reaffirmed the idea that within some perpetually darkened craters in the lunar world, there may be Frozen water on them.

But all in all the LRO has satisfied our taste for that answer as it confirms that water molecules indeed exists on the moon too..

7. Gravity

Uuuhm like “Everything you throw up must surely come down” Yeah that too works on the moon contrary to the myth that if you are on the moon you will be floating around because there is no gravity.

No, there is gravitational pull on the moon only just drastically lesser than that of the earth.

Gravity is as a result of the distortion of space/time by Mass, so the greater the mass the greater the distortion (Gravity)

Will like us all to take a little experiment to show how gravity works. Take a sheet of clothing or net and spread (suspend in mid air) it across on all four angles (this represents space/time) then bring a heavy object and place it on the fabrics.

You will notice the fabric dents with the weight of the object then bring an object of lesser weight and put within the boundary of the dent you will notice that it will slide down towards the center of the dent.. That is gravity..

So back to the Moon’s gravity, the Mass of earth is greater than that of the moon so the distortion of space/time by earth is far more greater.

That is why we witness a gravitational pull of about 9.8m/s approximately 10m/s while on the moon is roughly 1.6m/s.

So notice the deference..

N.B: The moon has no atmosphere so is almost like a Vacuum, this means there is no air resistance on object thrown upwards.. A kite thrown up would glide with the air on earth but on the moon it would fall back down..).

8. Size

There are officially 181 natural satellites orbitting planets and mini-planets in this solar system (A planet like jupiter and Saturn has up to 67 and 64 moons respectively) Greedy bastards angry

Few of these Moons are massive enough to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium so if they orbited the sun directly and not planets they would have been dubbed planets or mini-planets

With Ganymede topping the list of the largest moon in the solar system, this moon of jupiter is larger than Mercury and Pluto.

Our moon comes 5th in the list of largest satellites in the solar system but comes 2nd when the size of the moon is compared with the size of it’s host planet with almost 1/4 of the earth’s size.

with a surface of 37.9 million square kilometers its actually slightly smaller than the continent Asia which is 44million square kilometers

9. The Moon is drifting Away

Yes thats a sad one but very very slowly we are loosing the moon as it drifts further away from us.

The Apollo missions saw the installment of Reflectors on the moon’s surface and from here we shoot laser beams to the reflectors to determine the distance between us and our moon and datas provided shows it is moving away from us though at a very minute rate of 3.8 Cm per year.

So billions of years ago in the early history of the earth the moon would have been so close to the earth that it appears so in the sky

with time the moon will continue drifting slowly further away from the earth until the gravitational attraction from the sun on it becomes greater than that of the earth on it and then earth will become a moonless planet just like mecury and venus are moonless.

The presence of the moon in the earth’s tidal system is slowing the planet down gradually by 2milisecond per century.

So the earth’s axial period is getting longer every century by 2milisecond, going backward into the earth’s history there would be a time the planet is spinning so fast that a day would rarely last 18hours

10. Visitation

Many planetary bodies in the solar system has man made probes orbiting them and taking readings sending back to us a wealth of data for study.

Mars and the Moon are the only of these bodies that has man made probing rovers inside on their surface while the moon holds the record for the only celestial body to have ever seen another human.

Out of all the planets, moons, asteroids and dwarf-planets man has only being able to to make a trip to the moon which is just a three days ride with the amount of technology at our disposal.

There have been 6 manned missions to the moon (The Apollo missions) and another manned mission due for 2023.

This time it won’t be for few hours but long days of study on the surface of the moon by astronauts.

Its no doubt that the future may see a wild range of space exploration starting from our solar system, manned missions to Mars by 2030’s the moon is the closest of this frontier and so hopefully will get more visit than any of the planetary bodies around.

The Apollo missions showed us there is no limit to what man can achieve as man has left an enduring footprint on the surface of the moon as a mark of his tremendous achievement.

Hopefully Mars gets to feel the mark of a live human on it’s surface soon enough and in no distant future technologies that can take us beyond our solar system to explore planets in other star systems will be available.

With all the knowledge we gain from our study of the heavens, it should humble us and give us a sense of belonging and give us the insight to look at our own earth as a jewel that deserves to be preserved because mankind must put an end to senseless exploitation and violence or we will end up killing the earth and killing the earth is our own end.

Top 9 Signs That Your Partner Is Cheating On You!

You’ve got a sinking feeling within the pit of your stomach, something isn’t always proper but you can’t pretty parent out what that feeling is set. Your partner has become remote, he/she is working late on a normal basis or, maybe your partner has moved out of the residence and not using a rationalization.

you believe you studied your spouse is dishonest but whenever you convey it up with your spouse, he/she denies the opportunity.

all of the signs and symptoms are there however you haven’t any evidence.

So, be aware of the signs and symptoms and your instinct however, be careful now not to confuse signs and symptoms with proof

1. “I Like You But I’m No Longer In Love With You.“

if you listen these phrases, a massive caution bell have to burst off. This is one of the maximum steady things a dishonest spouse will say.

 Your spouse might also have a deep, loving bond with you but, excessive feelings of ardour can override the bond with you and reason your spouse to lose sight of his/her authentic feelings.

The dishonest spouse will expand what I call hormone – caused amnesia.

The surging hormones and ardour they feel in their new relationship can motive a few very skewed thinking.

2. “We Are Simply Pals.”

This is additionally any other very predictable announcement on the way to come from a dishonest spouse.

if your partner is spending increasingly time with this new “pal”; then there might be greater to it than mere friendship.

 Your partner can also feel they have loads in commonplace with this character, that this character knows them and matters they’re going via.

whatever the reasons for the friendship, it’s a big warning signal and one you must take critically

3. A sudden want for privacy.

If things the 2 of you used to percentage overtly abruptly end up private pay interest reason some thing is probably up. He/she may additionally start password protective laptop hobby.

mobile smartphone and credit card bills may be hidden. if you ask why or try to discover data that used to be commonplace knowledge between the 2 of you, you’ll be accused of snooping or trying to manage your partner. big caution sign!

4.“I Want A Few Area To Parent Out My Feelings.“

ladies and men who’re concerned with a person else will request more area, time alone or away from the circle of relatives.

they’ll say it’s far due to confusion over their emotions or pressure at paintings.

 this could be a signal that there’s a person else and the partner is attempting to parent out approaches to have more freedom.

5. Ordinary Work Conduct Exchange.

operating late, going to paintings at abnormal hours or, putting in extra time than is normal on paintings related issues may be indications that a spouse is cheating.

6. Spending a Huge Amount Of Time At The Laptop.

In nowadays’s international, with modern technology, a person seeking out an affair doesn’t even ought to depart their home.

 the convenience of net chat rooms, on-line relationship web sites and secret electronic mail bills has prompted an alarming growth in emotional affairs.

In case your partner is on-line greater than usual, striking out in chat rooms and journeying pornographic websites then you definitely have reason to be alarmed.

7. Secretive Phone Calls And Extra Time Spent At The Cellphone.

Emotional affairs arise usually thru the telephone, specially cell phones. if you find your spouse placing up when you enter the room or erasing the history at the mobile phone and turning into protecting when requested about it, then you definitely would possibly need to check your phone information.

8.Conduct That Simply Does Not Upload Up.

Not being where he/she changed into predicted to be. missing time they cannot provide an explanation for. cash that is not accounted for. Receipts for belongings you don’t have. missing garb.

garb that does not belong in your circle of relatives. Being stuck in little lies approximately the info of the day. If some thing is off with their behavior, you must suspect dishonest

9.Your Own Fears and Suspicions

If you locate yourself looking for excuses to your partner’s behavior or seeking to persuade yourself that they could in no way cheat then that may be a caution sign. Your intuition is often one of the best indicators that some thing is wrong.

if you suspect your partner might be dishonest on you, do some investigating and then speak to him/her about what you’ve got located. Do it in a way that is calm and courteous. Ask for honesty.

 Be organized for lies. it is a sad truth that human beings having affairs grow to be outstanding liars. those who never advised a lie earlier than in their lives. consider your intestine intuition but get hard, cold proof additionally.

Samsung shows off Galaxy S7, S7 Edge

                                          Samsung's new Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge



With the S7 and S7 Edge, Samsung is doing what it should have done years ago with its flagship Galaxy brand: Sell solid, eye-catching phones with competitive hardware and software features.


The company went half-way with this strategy in 2015 with the S6 and S6 Edge. The models were sleek and beautifully designed, thanks to an all-new aluminum and Gorilla Glass body. But their battery capacities were smaller. The phones were no longer water resistant. And in an effort to push people to use cloud storage, Samsung took away the ability to add memory.

Luckily for fans, these features are back. The S7 and S7 Edge do a better job of balancing good looks and customer friendly features, but they're still not perfect. Here are the high lights

Samsung has also made the curved screen edges twice as wide as before, making it easier for people to read their messages or the news.

Both screens feature a new "always-on display" mode so that information such as date, time and notifications are visible without having to unlock the phone.

Samsung's new Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge were released on Sunday during Mobile World Congress.

Features

In the U.S. the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will come with 32 GB of storage. The expandable memory slot is built into the SIM card tray, and Samsung says up to 2 TB can be supported.


Gamers may like the new Do Not Disturb feature that prevents calls from interrupting playtime, as well as a new battery conservation mode that changes frame rate and other qualities to use less power. Recording and uploading game play videos are now options too.

Battery life

Batteries in the S7 and S7 Edge are 3,000 mAh and 3,600 mAh respectively, and cannot be removed.

The S6 and S6 Edge by comparison had a 2,550 mAh and 2,600 mAh battery, while the S5 had a 2,800 mAh battery.

Camera

If you find yourself taking a lot of low-light photographs and videos, you might appreciate the fact that the cameras on the S7 and S7 Edge can take in even more light than before -- going to an f-stop of 1.7. The widest aperture for the S6 was 1.9.

In a press demonstration, the cameras also seemed to require a noticeably shorter amount of time to focus on objects than the iPhone did.

Price and colors

Pre-orders begin Tuesday. Anyone who pre-orders will receive a free Gear VR. Sales at major wireless retailers in the United States start March 11.

All the major carriers are offering deals for the new phones. Verizon (VZ, Tech30) hasn't set a specific price yet, but will give its customers an extra 24 GB of data every year "for life." AT&T has set the starting price for the S7 at $23 a month for 30 months. And $27 a month for the S7 Edge.

T-Mobile (TMUS) says the S7 will cost $670, or about $28 per month over two years. The S7 edge will cost $780 or about $33 per month. For people who pre-order, the carrier is also offering a free Samsung Gear VR, six VR games, and year of Netflix (NFLX, Tech30).

Not to be outdone, Sprint (S) says it will offer customers the ability to buy or lease one of the new phones and get a second device for half the price.

The S7 will come in "Black Onyx" and "Gold Platinum." The S7 Edge will also come in "Silver Titanium."

North Korea offered, rebuffed talks with U.S.

North Korea quietly reached out to U.S. officials through the United Nations in New York last fall to propose formal peace talks on ending the Korean War, a response to President Barack Obama's comments that the U.S. was willing to engage Pyongyang as it has with other rogue regimes, senior U.S. officials Told
MNP

That effort fell short, the officials said, with the North Koreans refusing to include their nuclear program in any negotiations as the U.S. required and soon after testing a nuclear weapon.

But it represented a new step from the Obama administration as it tried to lure the hermetic country out of its isolation and extend its track record of successful negotiations with nations long at odds with the United States, such as Iran and Cuba.

The U.S. told North Korea it was willing to discuss a formal peace to replace the 63-year-old armistice that ended hostilities after the Korean War, but only if efforts to curb Pyongyang's nuclear program were part of the discussions.

In doing so, the administration dropped a longstanding demand that North Korea take steps toward"denuclearization" before talks on a formal peace treaty began. Still, the North Koreans refused to allow the nuclearissue to be part of any talks.

"It's a tweaking of the conditions," said Bruce Klingner, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former deputy division chief for the CIA in South Korea, describingthe administration's move.

"Rather than requiring progress on denuclearization before negotiations, it seems the administration agreed to the idea of peace talks but required denuclearization talks to be included," Klingner said.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on the diplomatic exchanges, but the Obama administration disputed their depiction of events, saying it was North Korea that first proposed the talks rather than the United States, which maintained its focus on ridding the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons.

"To be clear, it was the North Koreans who proposed discussing a peace treaty," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. "We carefully considered their proposal, and made clear that denuclearization had to be part of any such discussion.

The North rejected our response."


North Korea has regularly proposed peace talks over the years, pushing the U.S. to replace the 1953 armistice with a formal peace treaty, said Klingner."They periodically raise the idea and it never really gets far," he said.

One issue that complicates the effort is the need to establish parameters for any negotiations before they begin, in particular to ensure that North Korea's conventional threat to the South is defused before there's any demand to remove some of the 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea.

Those soldiers, airmen and Marines provide some deterrent to the North, a highly militarized country that maintains a standing army of 1.2 million active soldiers, 70% of whom are deployed within 100 miles of the border with South Korea, according to Klingner.

A peace treaty should only be signed after arduous negotiations to reduce the North Korean conventional force threat to South Korea, said Klingner, who has taken part in other treaty negotiations.

"You also have to implement confidence-building measures as the U.S. did in Europe," Klingner said, mentioning steps like advance notice of large-scale military exercises and reducing the number of North Korean forces near the demilitarized zone dividing the twoKoreas.

The U.S. attempt to reach out ended definitively with NorthKorea's January 6 announcement that it had tested a hydrogen bomb, following nuclear weapons tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

Though the U.S. has expressed doubt that a hydrogen bomb was indeed tested -- with some officials instead characterizing the explosion as having perhaps contained components of such a weapon -- the U.S. responded last week with a new round of sanctions against Pyongyang.

The measures freeze the assets of anyone doing businessrelated to North Korea's nuclear weapons programs or involved in human rights violations there.

The latest diplomatic dance between the U.S. and North Korea started in October, when Obama signaled that Washington was willing to negotiate a deal similar to the agreement reached last year with Iran, in which Tehran agreed to significantly curb its nuclear program in exchange for international sanctions being lifted.


"As my administration has shown with Iran and with Cuba, we are also prepared to engage nations with which we've had troubled histories," Obama said in an October 16 press conference alongside South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

"At the point where Pyongyang says, 'We're interested in seeing relief from sanctions and improved relations, and we are prepared to have a serious conversation about denuclearization,' I think it's fair to say we'll be right there at the table," he added.

The Obama administration at that time said it would waivethe standard requirement that North Korea make progress on denuclearization before peace talks could begin, but said denuclearization had to remain on the table.

Park said South Korea was also ready to engage with Pyongyang if the regime showed it was serious about curtailing its nuclear arsenal.

"Should North Korea demonstrate a genuine willingness towards denuclearization, we reaffirm that Korea and the U.S., along with the rest of the international community, stand ready to extend cooperative measures to the North," she said.

A day later, North Korea rejected the idea of resuming international talks on ending its nuclear program and suggested instead that the United States negotiate a formal peace treaty to end the Korean War.

Within weeks, senior administration officials said, the regime repeated the message thorough its mission to the United Nations.

In an October 17 statement published by the state-controlled Korea Central News Agency and read in part on state-run television KRT, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said past efforts to focus exclusively on international denuclearization talks had failed.

The statement said that increased diplomatic pressure and sanctions wouldn't bring North Korea to the negotiating table, but that a peace treaty could reduce tensions and make it possible to "finally put an end to the nuclear arms race.

""No issue in which the countries concerned, including the U.S., are interested can be settled unless a peace treaty is concluded before anything else," the statement said.

  "If the United States insists on taking a different path, the Korean peninsula will only see our unlimited nuclear deterrent being strengthened further."
 Tuesday, 23 February  2016

Chinese film wins cinematography award in Berlin

Mark Lee Ping-Bing (second from left, cameraman of Crosscurrent awarded Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution), Xin Zhi Lei (third from left), director Yang Chao (third from right) attending the red carpet before the closing ceremony during the 66th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany on Feb 20, 2016


Gianfranco Rosi's documentary film Fire at Sea, about the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean off the Italian island of Lampedusa, won the Golden Bear prize for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday. The cinematography award went to Mark Lee Ping-Bing for his camera work for the Chinese film Crosscurrent, directed by Yang Chao.

 Gianfranco Rosi's documentary film Fire at Sea, about the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean off the Italian island of Lampedusa, won the Golden Bear prize for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday.

The cinematography award went to Mark Lee Ping-Bing for his camera work for the Chinese film Crosscurrent, directed by Yang Chao.

It was a fitting end for a festival that went out of its way to make refugees welcome by giving them free tickets.

Rosi paid tribute to those who risked their lives to escape war and poverty, and to the people of Lampedusa who welcomed them.

"Of course now at this moment my deeper thoughts go to all the people that never arrived to Lampudusa on these journeys of hope," Rosi said in his acceptance speech on stage at Berlin's cinema palace for the glittering awards ceremony.

Rosi, who won the top prize for another documentary in Venice in 2013, in this film shows daily life on the small island, mostly through the eyes of a young boy named Samuele
who makes slingshots to shoot at birds and cactuses.

   Mark Lee Ping-Bing receives the Silver Bear award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution for the cinematography inChang Jiang Tu(Crosscurrent) during the awards ceremony at the 66th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, Feb 20, 2016.

In the sea nearby, the Italian navy searches for overloaded boats full of refugees dying of suffocation and asphyxiation by diesel fumes and brings survivors back to Lampedusa for treatment and for transport to refugee centres.

"I want to dedicate this award to the people of Lampedusa who were always extremely open to accept people arriving there," Rosi said.

He noted that the flood of refugees that has made headlines recently began some 30 years ago for the island just off the coast of North Africa.

Rosi said he had asked Pietro Bartolo, a physician on Lampedusa who treats refugees and appears in the film, why the island welcomes the tens of thousands of people who land there.

"He told me Lampedusa is a place of fishermen, we are fishermen, and fishermen, they all accept always, anything that comes from the sea. So this may be a lesson that (we) should learn to accept anything that comes from the sea," Rosi said.

 Director Gianfranco Rosi sits next to the Golden Bear award for the Best Film at a news conference after the awards ceremony of the 66th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany Feb 20, 2016.

The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize went to Death in Sarajevoand its director Danis Tanovic. The best director award went to France's Mia Hansen-Love for her film Things to Come.

The best actor award went to Majd Mastoura for his role in the Tunisian fimInhebbek Hedi, while Trine Dyrholm took best actress for her role in the Danish film The Commune.

The best script award went to Polish director andscreenwriter Tomasz Wasilewski forUnited States of Love.

An award for a film that opens new perspectives was given to the eight-hour Filipino filmA Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery, directed by LavDiaz.

Festival director Dieter Kosslick said that watching Diaz's film was a unique experience, not just for its length, but also because the premiere started quite early in the morning

  Mark Lee Ping-Bing (left, cameraman ofChang Jiang Tuawarded Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution), Xin Zhilei and Director Yang Chao attending the the red carpet before the closing ceremony during the 66th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin,

Director Danis Tanovic receives the Silver Bear award, the Jury Grand Prix for the movie Death in Sarajevoduring the awards ceremony at the 66th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, February 20, 2016
 

 Author and director Mia Hansen-Love receives the Silver Bear award for Best Director in the movie Things to come during the awards ceremony at the 66th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, February 20, 2016.
Monday,  23 February 2016

London mayor says to support Brexit in EU referendum

   London Mayor Boris Johnson speaks to the media in front of his home in London, Britain February 21, 2016. Britain will hold a referendum on European Union membership on June 23

LONDON - London Mayor Boris Johnson, a heavyweight conservative, announced Sunday that he will back the call for Britain to leave the European Union in a national referendum on the country's EU membership.

The announcement was regarded by the British media as a blow to Prime Minister David Cameron's efforts to keep Britain in the EU as Johnson was an eloquent speaker and popular among voters.

Cameron announced Saturday that Britain wouldhold a referendum on June 23 to decide whether to stay or leave the European Union and recommended British people to choose remaining inside the EU, following a deal with leaders of other EU countries which gives UK a"special status" in the community.

Johnson, who Cameron had sought strongly for support, said that he came to his decision after a"great deal of heartache" and he wanted "a betterdeal for the people of this country".

He said that the prime minister had done"fantastically well" to reach agreement with otherEU leaders, but no one "could realistically claim that this is fundamental reform of the EU".

"I will be advocating Vote Leave ... because I want a better deal for the people of this country to save them money and to take back control," Johnson said.

Cameron is scheduled to speak in the British parliament Monday to kick off the campaigns before the referendum.

Opinion polls have shownthat the British public is almost evenly divided while many ruling Tory politicians, including six cabinet members, will side with the so-called"Brexit" camp.
Monday,  22 February 2016

Syria: Dozens killed in Homs and Damascus

Syuria - ISIS has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks in strongholds of the Syrian regime Sunday that killed at least 122 people and scores of others injured, according to Syria's state-run SANA news agency.

The separate car bomb and suicide attacks happened in Homs and southern Damascus, Syrian state media reported, citing local officials and security sources.

The deadliest attacks were on the southern outskirts of Damascus, where three bombers struck in the Sayyidah Zaynab district.

The blasts detonated near the revered "Lady Zeynab" Shia Muslim shrine, SANA reported. At least 83 were killed and 178 others injured there, according to SANA, citing its reporter on the scene and local sources.

Thirty-nine people were killed when two car bomb explosions struck a pro-regime neighborhood in central Homs, SANA reported.

The London-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave the death toll as 46, with more than100 people wounded.

The observatory reported that the Damascus attacks were carried out via a suicide car bomb and by two suicide bombers.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the Sayyidah Zaynab and Homs attacks via the Telegram messaging app.

The U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, condemned the attack, saying that children were among the victims.

 Alawite neighborhood targeted in HomsHoms Gov.

Talal al-Barazi told SANA that two cars packed with "huge amounts of explosives" were detonated near a bus stop in central Homs in the first attacks Sunday.

The blasts targeted students and government employees heading to work, the state-run TV station al Ikhbaria reported.

Images from the site of the blast showed dozens of destroyed vehicles and severe damage to nearby buildings.

The bombings took place in the al-Zahraa district, a regime-controlled neighborhood that is predominantly home to members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect.Al-Barazi said the attacks were aimed at the support base of the Syrian government, as the country's army made gains against rebels around the country.

Fourth bombing in neighborhood since DecemberThe Homs neighborhood has been struck by three similar bombings in the past three months.

At least 24 people were killed and 100 injured in a coordinated car bombing and suicide bombing on January 26.

Twin bombings also struck the neighborhood on December 28 and December 12.

ISIS claimed responsibility for all three previous attacks

Violence has continued to rage in recent days in spite of hopes to implement a "cessation of hostilities.

" More than a dozen countries agreed to the ceasefire at talks in Munich, Germany, earlier this month, but the agreement seems to have had little impact on the ground.

But at a press conference in Jordan on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said a ceasefire was still"possible.

""We are closer to a ceasefire today than we have been, andI take nothing for granted about this," he told reporters at a joint press conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.

Kerry had a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Sunday in which they"continued to discuss the modalities" of the truce, Russian state news agency Sputnik reported, citing the Russian Foreign Ministry.

More than 250,000 people have been killed, more than 1 million injured, and more than half of Syrians displaced since the country's civil war began in 2011, according to the United Nations..
 Monda, 22 February 2016

China's hottest film ever is about mermaids

A goofy comedy about mermaids has become China's highest-grossing movie ever made.

Directed by Hong Kong's Stephen Chow, "The Mermaid," has raked in 2.47 billion yuan ($379 million) over just 12 days at the box office, the official Chinese state news agency Xinhua said.

The success of the film, which tells the story ofa mermaid who falls in love with a businessman she is sent to assassinate, is thelatest sign of China's growing might at the box office.

Chinese ticket sales surged 49% last year to reach 44.1 billion yuan, Xinhua reported, and China had its best day at the box office ever February 8 -- the first day of the Lunar New Year, a festive time when many Chinese are back home for a week-long holiday.

China's white-hot growth contrasts with the North American market -- comprising the U.S. and Canada, which grew around 7% to $11.1 billion over the same period, according to Rentrak, a firm that monitors movie viewing.

Related: China box office hits new record for a single day

Homegrown movies are challenging Hollywood's traditional dominance at China's box office, and foreign film makers are adding Chinese stars to their movie line-up in order to boost their appeal.

2014 comedy, "Monster Hunt," was previously China's biggest box office hit. It took in 2.44 billion yuan last year, knocking Hollywood car chase movie "Furious 7" off the top spot.

The Chinese government limits the number of foreign films that can be shown in Chinese theatres each year.

 Approved films face the heavy hand of government censors, who cut anything the Communist Party considers offensive or subversive. And industry regulators give domestic movies favorable release times, such as public holidays.

For those in the U.S. who want to see what the fuss is about, Sony Pictures released the film in select U.S. theatres last Friday, the companysaid in a statement.
Monday, 22 February 2016

London Mayor Boris Johnson to push for Brexit

London - The charismatic, Conservative mayor of London Boris Johnson has announced he's backing calls for Britain to leave the European Union.

Johnson's support for the "Vote Leave" campaign presents a serious headache for Conservative leader and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Cameron has been pushing for Britain to stay in the EU, and only last week struck a deal with the bloc's leaders to give the UK "special status." He's expected to address the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament, on Monday, the first day of the formal referendum campaigning period.

The vote Britons will vote in an "in or out" referendum on June 23. Cameron argues the British economy will suffer if the country opts out.In a 2,000-word opinion piece in the Telegraph on Sunday,Johnson said leaving was a "once-in-a-lifetime chance tovote for real change.

""This is a moment to be brave, to reach out -- not to hug the skirts of Nurse in Brussels, and refer all decisions to someone else," he wrote.In a press conference Sunday, Johnson said his decision to defy the prime minister's view caused "a huge amount of heartache.

"The last thing I wanted was to go against David Cameron or the Government," he said.

"I will be advocating Vote Leave or whatever the team is called -- I understand there are many of them -- because Iwant a better deal for the people of this country, to save them money and to take back control.

"Prime Minister: Let us stayBefore Johnson showed his hand, Cameron appeared on Sunday morning television to push for a vote to stay.

"If Boris and if others really care about being able to get things done in our world, then the EU is one of the ways in which we get them done," he said.

"Having that seat at the table in the EU -- just as being a member of NATO -- is a vital way that we project our values and our power and our influence in the world.

"Britain is one of the biggest economies in the European Union -- and is a net contributor to the EU budget.

Critics say membership of the EU is a costly burden that brings regulations and excessive migration.

Advocates say membership is good for the economy and leaving could be an expensive disaster.
Monday, 22 February 2016

Suspect drove Uber fares between killings, source says

The man accused of killing six people and injuring two more in a Saturday evening shooting rampage in Kalamazoo, Michigan, was an Uber driver who picked up and dropped off passengers between shootings.

The source, who is not authorized to speak to media, said investigators believe Jason Brian Dalton was even lookingfor fares after the final shooting of a nearly seven-hour killing rampage

"We got about a mile from my house, and he got a telephone call. After that call, he started driving erratically, running stop signs," Matt Mellen told the affiliate.

"We were kind of driving through medians, driving through the lawn speeding along and then finally, once he came to a stop, I jumped out of the car and ran away.

"Mellen said he called the police: "He was surprisingly calm, I was freaking out."The ride-sharing company confirmed to MNP that Dalton, 45, was an Uber driver and said he had passed a background check

"We are horrified and heartbroken at the senseless violence in Kalamazoo," Uber's chief security officer Joe Sullivan said to MNP in a statement.

"We have reached out to the police to help with their investigation in any way that we can

Rampage lasted nearly 7 hours

Michigan State Police said the first shooting was reported at 5:42 p.m., after a woman was shot multiple times in an apartment complex parking lot. Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeffrey Getting said the woman -- who was with her three children -- is in serious condition but expected to survive.

Then, more than four hours later, a father and son were shot and killed at a car dealership. Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley said the pair were there looking at a vehicle. Authorities identified the victims as Tyler Smith, 17, and Richard Smith,53

Minutes later, at around 10:24, Michigan State Police say Dalton pulled his Chevy HHR into a Cracker Barrel restaurant parking lot and opened fire on a Chevrolet Cruze and an Oldsmobile minivan, killing Mary Lou Nye, 62; Mary Jo Nye, 60Bio; Dorothy Brown, 74; and Barbara Hawthorne, 68.

A fifth victim, a 14-year-old girl riding in the Chevrolet's front passenger seat, was initially thought to have been killed as well, but is now listed in critical condition, according to the state police. "Call it a miracle," said Getting.

"But she's alive now."He said all five were together in a group.After another two hours or so, at approximately 12:40 a.m.,police took Dalton, 45, into custody, ending a nearly seven-hour nightmare.

Police seized a semiautomatic handgun from Dalton, whom Getting described as "even-tempered" at the time ofhis arrest."There is just no question more people would have died if (police) didn't find him when they did," Getting said.The prosecutor later told CNN:

"These were very deliberate killings.

 This wasn't hurried in any way, shape or form.""They're on video. We've watched the video with law enforcement. They were intentional, deliberate and -- I don't want to say casually done -- coldly done is what I want to say," said Getting.

Motive unknownThe cruel randomness of the rampage seemed to rattle officials in the western Michigan city

This is your worst nightmare," Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas told MNP affiliate WOOD-TV."When you have somebody just driving around randomly killing people.

""We just can't figure out the motive," said Hadley, the public safety chief. "There's nothing that gives us any indication as to why he would do this or what would have triggered this.

The victims did not know him; he did not know the victims."Dalton, who has been interviewed by investigators, had no prior criminal record, Hadley said, and was not known to authorities."For all intents and purposes, he was your average Joe. This was random," said Hadley.

Getting appeared to struggle at times for the right words, ifthere were any, at Sunday's news conference.

"There is this sense of loss, anger (and) fear," he said.

 "On top of that, how do you tell the families of these victims that they were not targeted for any other reason than they were a target?"Getting said he was confident that Dalton acted alone and that there is no connection to terrorism.

 Formal charges will be brought Monday, he said, when Dalton is expected to be arraigned.

"I would expect six counts of murder, two counts of assault with intent to commit murder, six counts of felony firearm, and then we'll see from there."'Typical American family'For the past 10 years, Sally and Gary Pardo have lived across the street from Dalton's single-family home on Douglas Street in Kalamazoo

Sally Pardo told MNP that Dalton is married with two children and that they seemed to be a "typical American family.

""This seems so out of sorts for him," said husband Gary Pardo, who described Dalton as "quiet" and "nice."He did tell MNP. however, "I know he liked guns."Getting, the prosecutor, said he didn't know whether Dalton had a license for the handgun that was seized at the time of his arrest.Hadley, the public safety chief, said authorities have seized other weapons from Dalton's residence as well.

It was not immediately known whether those weapons were used in the commission of crimes..
Monday, 22 February 2016