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Cyberattacks came to the fore of American politics after Russia mounted an influence campaign to subvert the 2016 presidential election, resorting to tactics such as hacking emails from Democratic operatives and using social media to ignite fiery debates on hot-button issues.
General John de Chastelain, head of the disarmament body, handled and checked a number of guns, bombs and bullets before they were destroyed by the IRA, and expects to meet the Provisionals' representative again soon, it emerged yesterday.
As Ian Paisley's hardline Democratic Unionists claimed there was no proof that decommissioning had taken place, as no details had been made public, the Ulster Unionists released a transcript of their discussion with the general.
It revealed that he and his two fellow commissioners had handled, counted and verified the weapons, and that there was more than one single bullet and one ounce of explosives, although no exact figures were given.
The general said no photographs were taken, but that the decommissioning method amounted to more than just putting a concrete cap on arms bunkers. He was satisfied the weapons were permanently unusable.
The Ulster Unionist party chairman, James Cooper, said: "The reality is that the DUP know that decommissioning has started but they don't know how to deal with it."
The 110-strong UUP policy-making executive, meeting today in Belfast, is expected to endorse Mr Trimble's plans to go back to Stormont after the IRA move.
But Mr Trimble could face other battles as he needs the support of all of his assembly members to get re-elected to the post of first minister, which he quit in July in protest at lack of progress on disarmament.
Almost five decades, if not more, separate Gul Chandni, the poem and Gul Chandni, the book. Is there something one can pick in Zehra Nigah’s choice in terms of the title of her latest offering? Seen in isolation, it may perhaps not indicate anything beyond a matter of personal fascination with either Gul Chandni [Garde...
It is downright impossible for anyone to slap a tag on Nigah. She has always been beyond compartmentalisation. She was, for instance, never labelled — or owned or disowned — as a Progressive even though her poetry has had colours, shades and hues that fall in that very pigeonhole. Her poems on Vietnam, for instance — t...
The same is the case with contemporary happenings at any given point in her literary journey. She wrote ‘Night Shift’ about the tough, almost sub-human life of immigrant labourers in the Gulf countries back in the 1970s. Also found in her works is ‘Qissa Gul Badshah Ka’ [The Story of Gul Badshah], about life in the tim...
Another thread running through Nigah’s creativity is that of feminism. But it is not of the conventional variety. It is not about one being better, or worse, than the other; just that the baseline approach and diction is different. Years ago she penned ‘Ma’ay Nee’ [O Mother!], a dialogue between a daughter and a mother...
Her life experiences, however, are gender-specific and the woman in her clearly — and understandably — reflects in Nigah’s poetry where she talks of human interaction. While she remains beyond any label, it is not too far off to say that capturing multi-layered human relationships — and the even more multi-layered sens...
It is downright impossible for anyone to slap a tag on Nigah. She was, for instance, never labelled — or owned or disowned — as a Progressive even though her poetry has had colours, shades and hues that fall in that very pigeonhole.
It is one thing to feel it with the emotional intensity that is the hallmark of a sensitive existence, but to express it with the finesse that underpins Nigah’s poetry at large is remarkable. It is this subtlety, poise and elegance that provide the larger canvas of collective human experience to such creativity, which ...
Take, for instance, ‘Samjhauta’ [Compromise], ‘Aik Sachchee Amma Ki Kahani’ [The Story of a Truthful Mother], ‘Hamaray Aur Tumharay Raastay Mein’ [Between Your and Our Paths], ‘Jis Raah Per Gaamzan Ho’ [The Path You Tread], or ‘Zehra Ne Bohat Din Se Kuch Bhi Nahin Likha Hai’ [Zehra Hasn’t Penned Anything In A While]. T...
Though nazm has been Nigah’s preferred medium of expression for long, it is not that she has done away with ghazals altogether. The current volume has 12 of them in addition to about 30 standalone couplets compared to 40 nazms. Regardless of the subjects she chooses to touch and regardless of the medium of expression s...
There is one time-honoured tradition in Urdu literature, though, from which Nigah has always kept a discreet distance: narcissistic self-praise. It is considered part of poetic license and is found in the works of all and sundry, from the masters to those languishing on the periphery. Not Nigah, though.
In ‘Alehdgee’ [Away from the Rut], she has sat in judgement over her own craft and sounds dismissive of it, stressing that — after an initial phase of mis-assessment — she found herself to be nothing but one of many. It is only because she views it against the entire canvas of Urdu poetry. Even then, this haunting feel...
Nasa's Curiosity rover is getting ready to analyse its first rock on Mars. A small stone near the side of the vehicle at its landing site on the floor of Gale Crater has been selected as a test target.
The BBC reports a laser will vaporise the surface of the rock, revealing details of its basic chemistry.
Curiosity landed on 6 August and is to test its locomotion system in the next few days, by rolling forward briefly. A reverse manoeuvre is also planned.
NASA researchers eventually want to send the vehicle 7km to Mt Sharp, a layered rock rising from the floor of Gale Crater.
Before then, Curiosity will visit a nearby site named Glenelg which has three types of terrain. It is 0.5km from the rover's landing site.
Some of the best views in Colorado! Bring your horses! Fabulous master suite with 2 sided fireplace has a sitting room/office that will become your favorite room in the house. Main floor has a beautiful entry, a formal living room, family room with FP, formal dining, kitchen and breakfast nook. Upstairs there are three...
Lee Carney loves food. Whether it is spending months mastering the art of making pizza or his exploration of the world of competitive BBQ, Lee loves to explore new food experiences. He is an accomplished home chef, enthusiastic mixologist and the consummate host. Lee is very close to annexing his living room to use as ...
Paul Mon-Kau is a rare breed. In an age of ever-increasing specialization, his experiences cross what many regard as uncrossable lines.
Members of the La Canada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce committee overseeing the 1982 'Shop in La Canada' campaign gather in front of the Reflections restaurant on Foothill Boulevard (today the home of Dish). Seen, from left, are Greg Smith, Dennis Pruden, Audrey Hedges Tesenholtz, Lorraine Breyer and the campaign's ch...
Verdugo Hills Hospital was given permission by the City Council to display 36 of its blue-and-white flags along Foothill and Verdugo boulevards in observance of the hospital’s 20th anniversary.
La Cañada Flintridge resident and businessman Jeff Dewey was heading up the annual “Shop in La Cañada Flintridge” campaign for the local chamber of commerce. Originally developed in 1975, the effort stressed the importance of La Cañadans spending more of their holiday season buying products in their own city.
An acre of land that had been purchased by the state for the construction of the 210 Freeway but left unused for that purpose was rezoned so that St. Francis High School could use it to build a parking lot.
Hickerson’s Jewelers in the 700 block of Foothill Boulevard lost more than $10,000 in gems and cash when a man held up co-owner Josephine Hickerson and a female customer at gunpoint. Both the victims were forced to put rings, broaches and watches into a duffel bag for the robber, then told to lie on the floor in a back...
The PTAs at the La Cañada elementary schools were holding drives on their respective campuses during November 1952 to collect warm clothing to send to children in war-torn Korea.
Tag Archive \| "tropical storm guillermo"
As of 11 p.m. the downgraded Tropical Depression Guillermo was passing Hawaii Island, about 80 miles northeast of Honolulu, at near 14 mph. The Tropical Storm Watch was cancelled yesterday.
As of 11 p.m. Wednesday (Aug 5) Tropical Storm Guillermo was 190 miles northeast of Hilo with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph. The Tropical Storm Watches have been cancelled.
The National Weather Service in Honolulu has issued a High Surf Warning for south, north and east facing shores of Hawaii Island until 6 p.m. Thursday (Aug 6). Surf is forecast to be in the 10-15 foot range.
As of 11 p.m. Tuesday (Aug 4) Tropical Storm Guillermo is 310 miles east of Hilo packing maximum sustained winds of 65 mph. A Tropical Storm Watch for Hawaii and Maui counties remains in effect.
As of 11 p.m. Monday (Aug 3) Tropical Storm Guillermo is 480 miles east of Hilo packing maximum sustained winds of 70 mph. The Central Pacific Hurricane Center has issued a tropical storm watch for Hawaii and Maui counties.
The Chicago City Council, long known for its liberal worldview and 50-0 votes, found itself bitterly divided Wednesday when support for health care in African-American neighborhoods ran into concerns about abortion rights for women.
For more than an hour, aldermen held an unusually frank discussion about the city’s racial politics and the ethics of providing public money to a private institution that opposes abortion and contraception.
With Mayor Rahm Emanuel looking on from his perch at the front of council chambers, aldermen criticized and cajoled, trying to build support or stoke opposition among colleagues on the issue of giving Presence Health a $5.6 million tax subsidy to help pay for its downtown corporate headquarters.
Supporters noted that Presence also has pledged to build four community care centers in neighborhoods where local health services are scarce. Opponents ripped Presence for the Catholic institution’s stance on reproductive health.
Emanuel, who’s been trying to rebuild his standing among black voters ahead of a 2019 re-election bid, backed the tax subsidy. Even as the meeting was underway, his aides arm-twisted aldermen, trying to keep down the number of “no” votes.
In the end, the mayor won, as has been the norm at City Hall in the decades since then-Mayor Richard M. Daley consolidated power on the fifth floor. But the 31-18 tally proved to be one of the closest margins Emanuel has faced during his nearly seven years as mayor, and following the roll call he took to the microphone...
Sweeping his arms out toward the aldermen and jabbing his finger on his desk, Emanuel admonished those who opposed the deal for applying what he termed a sudden “litmus test” on abortion.
“We never raised a question on (money for hospitals like) St. Anthony, Norwegian, Mercy, Swedish Covenant,” said Emanuel, his voice rising as he listed earlier city financial help for private health care companies.
“Not a peep, not a sound about a litmus test,” he added.
Still, even as he scolded aldermen who opposed him, Emanuel dedicated several minutes of his speech to bolstering his own bona fides on health care.
The mayor dipped back into his political history to mention his role as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff in helping get the Affordable Care Act passed, though Emanuel had cautioned the president against pursuing what became Obamacare, warning he would lose the 2012 election if he pursued it.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel holds a press conference after presiding over a Chicago City Council meeting on Jan. 17, 2018.
In addition, the mayor pointed to his own “100 percent record” on voting on reproductive rights while he was in Congress. Emanuel said supporting Presence wasn’t an “either-or” vote on abortion rights but rather a question of giving people access to health care.
Ald. Ameya Pawar, however, said Emanuel portrayed the issue as exactly that.
The 47th Ward alderman said Emanuel’s argument that council members were hypocritical on the matter was “disingenuous.” The other votes the mayor cited, Pawar said, did not involve taxpayer funding for a corporate office in the Loop. The Swedish Covenant example was not relevant because that hospital does not have the ...
Beyond Wednesday’s controversy, possible political land mines loom next year from an issue that morphed in recent days from a straightforward question of property tax allocation to a fraught debate over abortion and race.
At a post-meeting news conference, Emanuel said he thinks Presence opponents suddenly started complaining about the company’s abortion policies to make political hay out of the issue in the February 2019 municipal elections, when all 50 City Council seats and the mayor’s office will be on the ballot.
“All of a sudden, looming on the short horizon is an election, all of a sudden we change the rules,” the mayor said.
“I respectfully disagree,” Cardenas said.
Ald. Pat Dowell said she was called by Emanuel aides who tried to convince her to change her position after she voted against the subsidy at the Finance Committee meeting last week. “I was not swayed by those arguments,” said the 3rd Ward alderman.
Council members who backed the tax subsidy largely focused on Presence’s pledge to build or redevelop four community care centers in underserved neighborhoods in exchange for the $5.6 million in tax increment financing for its already-built headquarters at 200 S. Wacker Drive.
Ald. Michelle Harris urged colleagues not to be blinded by a fight over reproductive health.
"Women on the South and West sides are not dying from lack of access to abortions" but rather lack access to better health care, said Harris, 8th.
Ald. Anthony Beale said it aggravates him that the council starts debating moral issues when it comes to making improvements in African-American neighborhoods.
Ald. Brian Hopkins said backing the Presence deal doesn’t mean he supports the company’s practices when it comes to abortion. "I do support bringing cancer treatment to an underserved community," said Hopkins, 2nd.
Opponents said public money shouldn’t go to an institution that adheres to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ directives that “elective abortions are never permitted” and “direct sterilization of either men or women, whether permanent or temporary, is not permitted in a Catholic health care institution,” unless i...
Ald. Deb Mell, 33rd, a lesbian, said she would possibly get discriminated against if she walked into a Presence clinic because of the Catholic Church’s position on gay rights. “I’m not here saying these institutions can’t exist, obviously, but I’m just saying that we shouldn’t be using public funds to support them,” sh...
Memorials to honour every British Victoria Cross winner from the Great War are to be built across the country, after the government agreed to extend a “flawed” scheme, under which many recipients were excluded.
Under the original plans, unveiled by ministers last month, only those born in the UK were to be granted a commemorative paving stone in their honour. However, campaigners pointed out that this barred the many British VC winners who had been born overseas, mostly in parts of the empire.
Now, Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, has announced that the project – one of the Government’s centrepiece schemes being planned to mark the conflict’s centenary, from 2014 to 2018 – will be widened to include any VC recipient with “ties” in the UK. Stones will be installed in the place to which they had the gr...
Calls to extend the scheme had been led by the think tank, British Future, which found details of at least 20 British VC winners who would not have been granted a stone, and highlighted by The Sunday Telegraph.
The organisation also coordinated the efforts of local history groups who campaigned to commemorate ineligible recipients, among them Reginald Warneford, a Royal Navy pilot awarded the VC for destroying a Zeppelin in 1915. His plane was damaged and he was forced down 35 miles behind enemy lines, but repaired it with a ...
Mr Katwala said: “The Victoria Cross commemoration scheme should be about what people did for this country, not where they were born. We’re glad the government has accepted this principle and extended what was a flawed scheme.
The project was inspired by the painting of gold post boxes for Olympic gold medallists last year. An open competition is being held to design the stones, with the winner chosen next month. Stones will be given to councils in the men’s home towns, for the authorities to install.
The original scheme had thrown up many anomalies. Of the ten British servicemen to win a VC on the first day of the battle of the Somme, one, Stewart Loudoun-Shand, a major who was killed leading his men over the top, was excluded. Although raised in south London, he was born in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, where his father ...
There were five ineligible VC recipients from Bedford alone, while one of the most colourful of all winners, Adrian Carton de Wiat, was also excluded. Born in Brussels and widely rumoured to be an illegitimate son of King Leopold II, his father became a naturalised Briton. Carton de Wiat served in the Boer War, First W...
Curators at a local museum in Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire, had been campaigning for a commemorative stone for Lt Col Philip Bent, who received a posthumous VC after leading a counter attack, during the Battle of Polygon Wood, in October 1917. He had been born in Canada but raised in Ashby de la Zouch.
In Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute, locals had campaigned for a stone for Sir Reginald Noble Graham, who won a VC while fighting in Mesopotamia, in modern day Iraq, in 1917.
He was ineligible because he was born in Calcutta, even though he was from a family of Scottish baronets, was educated at Eton, then Cambridge, and joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders at the outbreak of the war.
Stewart Noble, from the local heritage trust, said: “I am delighted to learn that the Government have decided that recipients of the Victoria Cross who were born outside Britain will be included in the plan to provide engraved paving stones as a commemoration of their heroism.
In total, 628 VCs were awarded during the conflict. Of these, 365 were born in England, 71, in Scotland, 15 in Wales and eight in Northern Ireland. Twenty four are from what is now the Republic of Ireland. The majority of the remainder – from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, or India – fought for their own Commonwealth ...
NEW YORK \| Stocks pushed higher for a third straight day after a surprisingly strong report on housing provided the latest evidence that the economy is picking up speed.
All major indexes gained less than 1 percent Tuesday, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and the Nasdaq Composite Index closing at new highs for the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 50 points, bringing its three-day point gain to 156.
Stocks got off to a positive start after a report from the National Association of Realtors said home resales jumped 7.4 percent in November. That was much more than the 2.5 percent increase analysts expected. The government’s tax breaks have spurred sales to their highest level in nearly three years.
The report added to a recent string of encouraging news on the economy, including upbeat earnings and forecasts from technology companies and more corporate deal-making.
“It’s just another rung in the recovery ladder,” said Brett D’Arcy, chief investment officer at CBIZ Wealth Management Group.
There were other signs that investors were feeling more confident. Bond prices fell further, pushing yields sharply higher. The gap between yields on short- and long-term bonds has widened to record levels, indicating that investors see the economy growing.
Meanwhile, the dollar rose against the euro as investors bet that the U.S. will recover more quickly than economies in Europe. And a gauge of the market’s volatility dropped to its lowest point since May 2008. The Chicago Board Options Exchange’s Volatility Index, known as the market’s fear index, fell 4.6 percent to 1...
Mr. D’Arcy said he expects the positive outlook on the economy to build on itself and to continue to propel the market forward through the end of the year.
The Dow rose 50.79, or 0.5 percent, to 10,464.93. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 3.97, or 0.4 percent, to 1,118.02, while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 15.01, or 0.7 percent, to 2,252.67. The Russell 2000 Index of smaller companies rose 5.00, or 0.8 percent, to 623.60.
About three stocks rose for every two that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 3.7 billion shares, down from 4.0 billion on Monday.
Trading is expected to be light throughout the holiday-shortened week, which can exaggerate price swings. The market is open a half day on Thursday and closed Friday for Christmas.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to its highest level since August, climbing to 3.76 percent from 3.68 percent late Monday.
Gold prices fell to their lowest level since early November, while oil prices reversed an early slide and rose 68 cents to $74.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
A New York father was outraged when his daughter was asked to complete a homework assignment that ended with a politicized question.
"President Trump speaks in a very superior and [BLANK] manner, insulting many people.
He needs to be more [BLANK] so the American people respect and admire him," the assignment read, asking the student to fill in the blanks with vocabulary terms.
"I was stunned," Ungro said, adding that he told his daughter not to complete that question.
The teacher responded by docking the girl 15 points on the assignment.
"Out of all the sentences in the world that could've been used, she slipped in an anti-Trump statement," he said.
Ungro said after he brought the question to the school's attention, the teacher was reprimanded, calling it "case closed."

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