Fury at Saudi election to UN women's rights group

The decision "is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief," said a watchdog. Saudi Arabia is known for its systematic oppression of women, all of whom are required to have a male guardian.

Deutsche Welle, 25 April 2017

Rights groups were outraged on Tuesday after an announcement from the United Nations that Saudi Arabia was elected to the body's women's rights commission. Activists found it ludicrous that a nation with one of the worst records ofgender equality on the planet would have a representative on the 45-member committee.

According to the website for the UN Commission on the Status of Women, its mission to "promoting women's rights, documenting the reality of women’s lives throughout the world, and shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women."

Discrimination against women 'systematic'

The ultra-conservative kingdom imposes strict segregation between men and women who are not related. Women could not vote in local elections until 2015, and domestic violence was first outlawed in 2013. Saudi Arabia retains the distinctions of the being the only country on earth where women are forbidden to drive motor vehicles.

"Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women's rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief," said Hillel Neuer, director of UN Watch - an NGO praised by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for its work it monitoring the international body.

Hiller also took to Twitter to accuse world powers of accepting bribes or making secret deals in order to vote Saudi Arabia onto the commission.

How does Saudi Arabia win seats on U.N. human rights bodies? Cash & secret deals—even with adversaries like Russia. https://t.co/SPjBS062ZQ pic.twitter.com/dtNKeNfqTx

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 24, 2017

Neuer continued: "Saudi discrimination against women is gross and systematic in law and in practice. Every Saudi woman must have a male guardian who makes all critical decisions on her behalf, controlling a woman's life from her birth until death…Why did the U.N. choose the world's leading oppressor of women to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women?"

Not everyone saw the decision as a terrible one, however. Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand, said it was a sign of good faith to Riyadh that its recent steps towards improving the lives of women should continue.

@PaulinaProvidas @HillelNeuer It's important to support those in the country who are working for change for women. Things are changing, but slowly.

— Helen Clark (@HelenClarkNZ2) April 24, 2017

Other still sought to capitalize on the decision. Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders, who recently made headlines for calling Moroccans "scum" and seeking to end Muslim immigration to the Netherlands, took advantage of the situation to promote his party's agenda. The move was not dissimilar to Wilders' pre-election strategy of suggesting that his anti-Muslim rhetoric was partly to protect the rights of LGBT people in the Netherlands.

"Camels are better treated than women"

Parliamentary questions about the election of Saudi Arabia to the UN women's rights commission. pic.twitter.com/7Dd4wX4nfT

— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) April 25, 2017

Saudi Arabia received 47 votes from the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to represent the Asian and Pacific states on the women's rights commission from 2018-2022. According to the report by UN Watch, mathematically, this means that at least 15 liberal democracies most of voted for the kingdom during the secret ballot.

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"Dual Channeling" + "Unexpected Change" (4) - Mar 18 - 19, 2017 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version "Change") - New

"...Light and Dark Balance

The light and dark balance on the planet is starting to rearrange itself and is going to create more wild cards. Wild cards are "unexpected shifts", things that are often shocking in ways that are not positive or negative, but rather are changes in the paradigm of what was. They often push the future, both in consciousness and science.

There are several coming in the form of Human Beings making changes in ways and in places you don't expect. There's one that is way overdue in New York City at the United Nations. It's an old organization with wonderful ideas about helping the planet, but stuck in its own old-energy politics. What will happen there? If you don't see much soon, it may actually cease functioning. Wildcards are not guaranteed. They are timed to match the free choice of those around them. That's what makes a wild card - totally unexpected events. Think of this: An organization set out to create peace on Earth may become more dysfunctional and even fail, or a wild card may come and restructure it all at great controversy and almost no funding. That's what wild cards do.

You may find it in business, in banking or in politics. New ideas never tried before that are radical may exist soon. Expect these kinds of things, but they have to grow on you. There may be some starts and stops. There may be seed planters who don't make it. Then others may come in and make the seeds start growing. That means ideas that were not accepted yesterday may actually be accepted now or in the future. This is because as you evolve, you will see the new wisdom in them. This is all part of the growth process through time.

So this is where you are currently in the change pattern. You are at the beginning of the growth process. All this with a new grid, with very few time fractals to undo, and with a clean slate from historic energies. Are you ready?

Listen: No prophecy at all has been written about what is happening on your planet now. Zero. There are no elders anywhere or channellers anywhere at the moment giving you good, solid prophecy about what's next. This is because you just went through the tunnel of old energy, the old prophecies, and are barely free of them. This is a new energy that you have never experienced before on the planet. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go read the prophecies.

According to the best and most popular and accepted prophecies of your time, where are you supposed to be right now? The answer is "dead".

Where is the earth supposed to be right now? The answer is "radioactive". No one can exist on a planet that has had a massive nuclear exchange, no matter what your movies say. It's "goodbye" to Humans on the planet. The whole idea of a post-apocalyptic earth is a fantasy. You don't live when there's that much radiation. It affects everything in the air, in the oceans and the very dust that would have been kicked up by thousands of nuclear explosions would be circling the planet and blocking the sun for decades. Dark - life gone.

Dear one, that is the apocalypse that never took place. Instead, you stand here with your kids and a new planet with hope. You may wonder why I'm enamored with all of you, but you don't really know it, not yet.

In a generation or two, somebody will raise a hand and say, "I couldn't help but notice we're different from those before." This is how long it takes, especially to rewrite the old consciousness of expected doom. Two generations may have to go by before someone raises a hand to say, "Look, the sun's coming out [a metaphor]. It's different." Humans are slow to change, but they may notice attitudes changing and that they have a new road to walk on.

So you want to know what your task is at the moment, dear old soul? Your task is to encourage those around you using your compassion and balance. When you hear them talk about the fact that they cannot get ahead, or that things are horrible on the planet, or what the news said last night, speak up in a loving way. When timed correctly. you can say, "I'm really not onboard with that. I feel we have a positive time ahead. Things are different. Can't you feel it, can't you see it? I think we've got a brighter future. We just need to be patient with it and stop wallowing in the drama others are giving us that influences us and makes us fear everything."   .."

"Listening to the Voice of Spirit" (2) - Feb 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (DNA Efficiency is on average at 35 percent now) - (Text version)

“… With free choice, the percentage of DNA efficiently started to go down as humanity grew. As soon as the DNA started to lose percentage, the gender balance was dysfunctional. If you want to have a test of any society, anywhere on the planet, and you want to know the DNA percentage number [consciousness quota] as a society, there's an easy test: How do they perceive and treat their women? The higher the DNA functionality, the more the feminine divine is honored. This is the test! Different cultures create different DNA consciousness, even at the same time on the planet. So you can have a culture on Earth at 25 percent and one at 37 - and if you did, they would indeed clash. …”

“… You're at 35. There's an equality here, you're starting to see the dark and light, and it's changing everything. You take a look at history and you've come a long way, but it took a long time to get here. Dear ones, we've seen this process before and the snowball is rolling. There isn't anything in the way that's going to stop it. In the path of this snowball of higher consciousness are all kinds of things that will be run over and perish. Part of this is what you call "the establishment". Watch for some very big established things to fall over! The snowball will simply knock them down. …”

Dutch businessman found guilty of war crimes in Liberia

DutchNews, April 21, 2017

Photo: Depositphotos

A Dutch businessman has been found guilty of war crimes and smuggling weapons into Liberia by the appeal court in Den Bosch in the latest twist in a legal case dating back over 10 years. 

Guus Kouwenhoven, now 74, had been earlier found not guilty of the charges but the Supreme Court in 2010 ordered the case be heard again. Judges sentenced him to 19 years in prison, one year less than the public prosecution department had demanded. 

On Friday Kouwenhoven was found guilty of delivering weapons to Liberian dictator Charles Taylor in 2000 and 2002 in return for special treatment for his timber company. The weapons deliveries broke international embargoes. 

Some 150,000 people were killed during the Liberian civil war. Taylor was eventually deposed in 20013 and sentenced to 50 years in jail. 

Kouwenhoven was first sentenced to eight years in prison for breaking the UN arms embargo on Liberia in 2006. That sentence was later overturned on appeal in 2008. 

Then in 2010, the Supreme Court said later the appeal court was wrong to refuse to hear two key witnesses who could only give evidence anonymously and ordered the case to be heard again. 

Kouwenhoven, who is in poor health, was not in court to hear the verdict. He has always denied the charges.

Former Liberian President Charles Taylos was sentenced to 

50 years in prison in 2013

Related Articles:

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Fox dumps embattled host over harassment allegations

Yahoo – AFP, April 19, 2017

Bill O'Reilly, shown in this 2016 photo, had originally planned to return to
 his nightly show on April 24 after taking a "long-planned break" (AFP Photo/
Ilya S. Savenok)

New York (AFP) - Fox News severed its relationship with Bill O'Reilly on Wednesday, dumping America's most-watched cable news anchor over a flood of sexual harassment allegations and dwindling advertising.

"After a thorough and careful review of the allegations, the company and Bill O'Reilly have agreed that Bill O'Reilly will not be returning to the Fox News Channel," 21st Century Fox said in a statement.

The announcement followed growing reports that the corporation headed by Rupert Murdoch intended to sack the veteran host and just hours after the right-wing television personality was photographed shaking hands with Pope Francis in Rome.

The combative host, who has worked at Fox for 21 years, is currently on what he called a "long-planned break" but had originally intended to return to his nightly show on April 24.

New York magazine reported Wednesday that executives were preparing to announce O'Reilly's departure before his return from Italy and were holding emergency meetings to discuss how to sever the relationship without damaging the network.

O'Reilly shot into the headlines earlier this month when the New York Times reported that he and Fox had paid five women a total of $13 million in cases spanning 15 years, in exchange for their silence and agreement not to sue.

O'Reilly had not directly denied the allegations, saying he was "vulnerable to lawsuits from individuals who want me to pay them to avoid negative publicity."

His dismissal on Wednesday comes less than a year after Roger Ailes, the 76-year-old former executive who built up Fox News, resigned under a cloud of his own sexual harassment accusations.

President Donald Trump, an avid Fox News watcher, had leapt to O'Reilly's defense following the New York Times report, calling him "a good person."

But despite rising ratings, dozens of companies yanked their advertising from his show.

"The O'Reilly Factor" has been hosted by a rotating cast of substitutes in his absence, including Dana Perino, former spokeswoman for president George W. Bush.

Fox News boss Ailes looking at exit: media

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Britain arrests Indian tycoon Mallya for extradition

Yahoo – AFP, April 18, 2017

Vijay Mallya secretly fled India in March 2016 owing more than $1 billion after
 defaulting on loan payments to state-owned banks and allegedly misusing
the funds  (AFP Photo/Oli SCARFF)

Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya has been arrested in London following an extradition request from India where he is accused of fraud, British police said on Tuesday.

The flamboyant financier, who co-owns Formula One team Force India, appeared in a London court on Tuesday and was granted bail.

Mallya fled India in March 2016 owing more than $1 billion after defaulting on loan payments to state-owned banks and allegedly misusing the funds.

India submitted an extradition request to Britain in early February after investigators demanded the 61-year-old be brought home to face charges.

India's junior finance minister Santosh Gangwar said the government would do everything in its power to bring Mallya to justice.

"We will not spare anyone who is within the ambit of law. Criminals will not be spared," Gangwar told reporters in New Delhi after the arrest.

"We will definitely work to bring him back to the country."

But the business baron played down the arrest.

"Usual Indian media hype. Extradition hearing in court started today as expected," he posted on his official Twitter account on Tuesday.

Mallya, known for his lavish lifestyle, made Kingfisher beer a global brand and ran a now-defunct airline with the same name.

He stepped down as the director of the Indian Premier League cricket team Royal Challengers Bangalore last year but still owns the Barbados Tridents in the Caribbean Premier League.

In February the Indian government said it was considering new measures to seize the assets of "big time offenders" who fled abroad.

That same month Mallya was sacked from the board of United Breweries, the firm through which he once controlled his business empire.

'King of Good Times'

Mallya's financial dealings are being investigated by the federal Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate, a financial crimes agency.

A Indian court in January ordered a consortium of banks to start the process of recovering loans from the tycoon.

Mallya was once known as the "King of Good Times" but dropped off India's most wealthy list in 2014, engulfed by the massive debts of his grounded carrier Kingfisher Airlines.

His huge debt has come to symbolise the problems which bad loans pose to Indian banks and to overall financial stability in Asia's third-largest economy.

Critics say the government has not done enough to tackle the issue of wealthy individuals such as Mallya, who obtain huge loans which they later fail to repay.

Mallya inherited United Breweries Group from his father at the age of 28 and turned it into one of the world's largest spirits makers, hosting extravagant yacht parties with Bollywood stars and politicians along the way.

His profile rose further when he acquired a stake in the Force India F1 team and ownership of the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

But his fall from grace was spectacular.

The businessman was forced to quit as a member of India's parliament last year after an upper house ethics committee recommended his expulsion.

His diplomatic passport was revoked in April last year after he repeatedly failed to appear before investigators.

Mallya, who now lives in a sprawling $15 million mansion in England's county of Hertfordshire, has denied absconding and has criticised the media for what he has called a "witch hunt".

N.Korea behavior 'can't continue', Trump advisor warns after missile test

Yahoo – AFP, Thomas WATKINS, April 16, 2017

Ballistic missiles on display at Kim Il-Sung square during a military parade in
Pyongyang on April 15, 2017 (AFP Photo/STR)

The United States slammed North Korea's latest missile test as a provocation and insisted Sunday it is working closely with China to resolve a crisis that Washington sees as reaching a critical stage.

Amid broader fears that North Korea may again test a nuclear bomb, the Pentagon said Sunday's missile launch was a failure, with the weapon blowing up almost immediately after its early morning takeoff near Sinpo on North Korea's east coast.

Following the test, US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told ABC News: "There's an international consensus now -- including the Chinese and the Chinese leadership -- that this is a situation that just can't continue."

Amid sharply heightened tensions, McMaster said the US and allies were studying all actions "short of a military option," though the Trump administration has not ruled that out.

North Korea watchers remained on high alert, as leader Kim Jong-un was reportedly poised to conduct a sixth nuclear test.

Vice President Mike Pence, who arrived in Seoul on Sunday, assailed the missile test as a "provocation" and assured South Korea of Washington's full support against the threat from its volatile neighbor.

Pence is in Seoul for talks on curbing the North's weapons programs.

Ballistic missiles on display at Kim Il-Sung square during a military

parade in Pyongyang on April 15, 2017 (AFP Photo/AFP)

"This morning's provocation from the North is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face each and every day in the defense of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defense of America in this part of the world," Pence told US military families at an Easter dinner, at the start of a 10-day Asia tour.

Some 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea.

President Donald Trump has ordered a naval strike group, led by the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, to the region, though the vessels remain a long way from the peninsula.

McMaster repeatedly stated that China -- North Korea's key ally -- is increasingly concerned about the reclusive communist state's behavior.

The new consensus is "that this problem is coming to a head. And so it’s time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully," McMaster said.

Trump turned to Twitter to underscore the importance of cooperation with China on North Korea.

Having blasted Beijing throughout his presidential campaign for unfairly manipulating its currency, he tweeted Sunday: "Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!"

US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster arrives at the Pentagon in 

Washington, DC, on March 16, 2017 (AFP Photo/Nicholas KAMM)

'A threat to all people

McMaster said Trump had directed US military, diplomatic and intelligence officials to provide him with options -- in concertation with regional allies including China -- that could be used "if the North Korea regime refuses to denuclearize."

He called Kim "a threat to all people in the region, and globally as well," but cautioned that Trump "is clearly comfortable making tough decisions."

A White House foreign policy adviser, briefing reporters on the plane that carried Pence to Seoul, was asked what steps China had committed to when President Xi Jinping met recently with Trump in Florida.

"There were a number of steps that were discussed," the briefer said on condition of anonymity, adding that when China recently turned back ships bringing North Korean coal, it was a "good first step."

"China is the key," Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Sunday on NBC.

"They can stop this if they want to because of their control over the North Korean economy."

US Vice President Mike Pence (C) and his wife Karen Pence (in white jacket) 

inspect the honour guard upon their arrival at the National Cemetery in Seoul 

on April 16, 2017 (AFP Photo/Ahn YOUNG-JOON)

'Medium-range' missile test

Congressman Mac Thornberry, McCain's counterpart in the House of Representatives, said Kim's message to the United States was "we are strong and we can hurt you."

"This guy (Kim) is not interested in negotiation. He wants to have an (intercontinental) ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead to threaten us, and I think he's determined to get it. Even failed launches tell them something and improve their program," Thornberry told Fox News Sunday.

Trump has repeatedly said he will prevent Pyongyang from developing a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.

The latest missile launch came a day after Pyongyang staged a massive military parade, showcasing nearly 60 missiles -- including a suspected new ICBM.

But the missile involved in the failed test evidently was smaller. The briefer on Pence's plane called it "medium-range."

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Trump was aware of the failed test but had "no further comment."

North Korea has often test-fired missiles to mark major dates such as Saturday's 105th anniversary of the birth of the nation's founder Kim Il-Sung, or as gestures of defiance when top US officials visit the region.

South Korea's foreign ministry said that by conducting the latest test just a day after displaying a series of missiles, "North Korea has threatened the whole world."

People in Pyongyang watch a public broadcast on February 13, 2017 about 

a missile test by North Korea the previous day (AFP Photo/KIM Won-Jin)

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"Quantum Patterns" - Jan 23 - 24, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

"... The Darkness Can't See Beyond Itself

I want to give you proof yet again of something unusual and very telling of the way low vibration works. Within the first channel of the year [2016], I spoke about the young North Korean leader. I'm going to do it again. I'm going to do it again as a profound example of how low consciousness cannot see above itself. That means that it can only work with what it sees and knows. As powerful, as smart, as intellectual as it thinks it is, it can't get out of its own circle.

The former leader of North Korea was a classic egotist. When he died, his son took over and could do anything he wanted. This boy had watched his father for decades and knew he would take over someday. Naturally, he inherited the attributes his father taught him of self-importance, and he also became egotistically driven to the max. When he took power, he had the choice to make changes that would allow him to be even greater than his father. He wanted something that would elevate his name and his position to the highest egotistic place imaginable. His father was the model, and now he could do anything he wanted to be even more famous. What happened is classic. He completely missed the greatest opportunity that any man has had to become the most famous and beloved person on the earth. The idea never occurred to him. Even though he had been educated in the western world, he missed it.

If he had considered the high road and included the earth instead of a restricted population of his own country, he could have been the most famous and beloved leader on Earth, all of his life. At the moment he took over, all he had to do was to think beyond his circle. He was in the unique position to be a "wild card" and do something amazing - unify North an South Korea, drop the zone of death that was between those countries, bring families together after generations, stop nuclear programs that he really never needed other than to look important and, thereby, give his people abundance, food for all and peace in his region. All of Korea would worship him and the earth would give a sigh of relief in thanks for his wisdom and courage.

He would have received standing ovations upon entering the United Nations great room and they would bow before him and give him the highest peace prizes. He would have his ego stroked and stroked and stroked and stroked and be far greater than his father had ever been. But it never occurred to him. Instead, he perpetuated the dark box he inherited, and now he presides over the lowest energy possible, representing the most dangerous renegade energy on the planet. At the expense of keeping his people poor and impoverished and creating instability in his region, he gets to be a powerful and famous person for a moment in time from a small population. He will not last long. He can't see that what he is doing has no support within the majority of the planet's population, and he will lose everything. Isn't it interesting how strong the circle is that keeps a low vibration low. All of this is beginning to change, dear ones. If you examine individual people and the way they act, you're going to see this coming. You're going to recognize it.  ..."

THE OLD SOUL 2013 TOOLKIT" – Jan 13, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll)  (Text version)

"... The Change in the Way Things Work

Now I'm going to be very cautious with number five, and I'm going to change a paradigm of the way we channel. For 23 years, we have given you information in the soup of potentials that we read around you as the highest probable potential that exists. These things eventually become your reality because they are your free choice, and we know what you're thinking. We know what the potentials are because we know what the biases are, and we see all of humanity as a whole. Potentials are energy, and it gives us the ability to project your future based on how you are working these potentials. We have done this for a long time. Twenty-three years ago, we told you about many things that were potentially going to happen, and now they are your reality.

But now I'm going to depart from that scenario and I'm going to give you a potential on Earth that is not the strongest. I am going to tell you about a Human Being who has a choice. This potential is only about 50 percent. But I'm going to "read a potential" to you that you didn't expect. It's about a paradigm that is starting to shift.

Let's talk about North Korea. There's a young, new leader there. The potential is that he will never, ever hear this channel, so I can talk freely about him. He is facing a dilemma, for he is young and he knows about the differences in the energy in his land. He feels it. The lineage of his departed father lies upon him and all that is around him expects him to be a clone of this lineage. He is expected to continue the things that he has been taught and make North Korea great.

But he's starting to rethink them. Indeed, he wants to be a great leader, and to be heard and seen, and to make his mark on North Korea's history. His father showed him that this was very important. So he ponders a question: What makes a world leader great?

Let's ask that question to someone in an older earth paradigm from not that long ago. He will be an expert and a successful one. So this is a valid exercise, asking someone from the past who knows. We will ask that question to a man who you know and whose name is Napoleon. For us, this was yesterday and some of you were there. 

If you asked Napoleon, "What makes a world leader great?", he will say, "the size of the army, how much area can be efficiently conquered with a given amount of resources and men, how important the leader appears will then be based upon how many citizens call him emperor or king, the taxes he can impose, and how many fear him." Not only was that Napoleon's reality, but he was right for the energy he was part of at the time. So Napoleon went back and forth between world leader, general and prisoner. He accomplished almost everything he set out to do. His expertise was obvious, and you remember his name to this day. He was famous.

What makes a world leader great? What I am showing you is the difference in thinking between then and now. There are some choices that this evolving young Human Being has that could change everything on the planet if he wanted. His father would tell this boy that what makes a world leader great is the potential of his missile power, or how close he can get to having a nuclear weapon, or how he stands up against the power of the West, or how he continues to aggravate and stir drama as a small country - getting noticed and being feared. His father would tell him that this is his lineage and that is what he's been told all his life. His father did it well and surrounded himself with advisors who he then passed on to his son.

Now, there's a 50 percent chance of something happening here, but this is not a strong potential, dear ones. I'm bringing this forward so you can watch it work one way or the other. For if the son continues in his father's footsteps, he is doomed to failure. The energy on the earth will see it as old and he will be seen as a fool. If, however, he figures it out, he could be the most famous man on the planet... which is really what his father wanted.

If Kryon were to advise this man, here's what I would tell him. He could be the greatest known leader the current world has ever known, for what he does now will be something the world will see as a demarcation point from the old ways. Not only that, but what he does now will be in the history books forever, and because of his youth, he has the potential to outlive every other leader on the planet! So he's going to have longer fame than anyone ever has.

I would tell him this: Tell the border guards to go home. Greet the south and begin to unify North and South Korea in a way that no past prophet ever said could happen. Allow the two countries to be separate, but have them as two parts of a larger Korean family with free trade and travel. Start alliances with the West and show them that you mean it. Drop the missile programs because you will never need them!

This will bring abundance to the North Korean people that they never expected! They will have great economic sustenance, schools, hospitals and more respect than ever for their amazing leader. The result would be fame and glory for the son, which the father had never achieved, something that the world would talk about for hundreds of years. It would cause a United Nations to stand and applaud as the son walked into the Grand Assembly. I would ask him, "Wouldn't you like that?"

Doesn't this seem obvious to most of you? He could achieve instant fame and be seen as the one who made the difference and started something amazing. But watch him. He has a choice, but it's not simple. He still has his father's advisors, but one of which he's already dismissed. He may get it, or he may not. There is a 50 percent chance. But I'll tell you that if he doesn't do it, the one after him will. Because it is so obvious. 

We show you this to tell you that this is the evolvement of the Human species. It is the slow realization that putting things together is the answer to all things, instead of separating them or conquering them. Those who start promoting compromise and begin to create these energies that never were here before will be the ones you're going to remember. Dear ones, it's going to happen in leadership and politics and in business. It's a new paradigm...."

Superyacht seized in Den Helder port as part of corruption probe

DutchNews, April 14, 2017

A 75 meter long superyacht, worth €113m, has been placed in sequestration in Den Helder port after a judge in Zwolle ruled that the vessel be held while its owner is investigated under charges of corruption in Switzerland and France. 

The ‘Ebony Shine’ is owned by Teodoro Obiang, son of the long-serving president of the tiny West African state of Equitorial Guinea, the NRC said on Friday. 

Teodoro Obiang is being charged on a number of points including money laundering and stealing from the state treasury. The yacht was seized while it was in a Den Helder dockyard for regular maintenance. Obiang claims it is the property of the state of Equitorial Guinea. 

Obiang serves as vice president of the country and has an annual salary of €100,000. Equitorial Guinea has a population of 800,000 and is a former colony of Spain. 

The vessel, built by Feadship in Makkum, has two jaccuzis, a spa, a pool and gym, a helipad, several jetskis and a cinema seating 12. 

Equatorial Africa is one of the richest countries in Africa due to its oil income which amounts to about €3.7bn a year. Only 2% of of this goes for health care and 3% to education. Apart from a small elite, most of the country lives on less than €2 a day.

Taiwan bans eating dogs and cats

Yahoo – AFP, April 12, 2017

The tradition of eating dog meat dates back hundreds of years in many
Asian countriesView photos (AFP Photo/Hoang Dinh Nam)

Taiwan has banned the eating of dogs and cats, lawmakers said Wednesday, as pressure grows to improve animal welfare after a spate of cruelty cases that stirred public outrage.

Parliament passed legislation to outlaw the consumption, purchase or possession of dog and cat meat, with offenders facing a fine of up to Tw$250,000 ($8,170).

Authorities can also name and shame those who break the law.

"This shows that Taiwan is a society with advanced animal welfare," said lawmaker Wang Yu-min who proposed the new rules.

The bill also hiked the penalty for killing or abusing animals to a maximum two-year jail term and a stiff fine of Tw$2 million.

Dog consumption -- believed by some in Taiwan to help boost male potency -- was common on the island decades ago but has become less popular amid growing calls to protect animal rights.

In 2001, Taiwan amended its animal protection law to ban the slaughter of pets -- which included dogs and cats -- for food, although there was no penalty on eating or buying the meat.

More than 10,000 canines are killed every year at China's notorious dog meat

festival in Yulin (AFP Photo/JOHANNES EISELE)

Sales of pet meat were banned at the end of 2003.

But a string of much-publicised animal abuse cases have continued to triggered deep public concern and demands for tougher protection laws.

Last year, the military was forced to apologise after a video surfaced of three soldiers torturing and strangling a stray dog to death with an iron chain, prompting several street protests.

And in 2014, a male hippo famous for regularly performing at a private zoo in central Taiwan died after breaking a leg and sustaining other injuries during transportation, sparking a public outcry.

Reactions to the new law were mixed, with some deeming it unfair to only single out cats and dogs for better protection.

"This is the cute animal protection law? only cute animals are protected while the rest deserve to die?" read one message posted on Apple Daily's website.

Dog meat consumption is also common in countries such as China, Indonesia,

Vietnam and South Korea (AFP Photo/SONNY TUMBELAKA)

"Why doesn't the parliament amend laws to toughen punishment on drunk driving, fraud and homicide? what a lousy job it is doing," said another post.

Dog meat consumption is also common in countries such as China, Vietnam and South Korea.

Last year, China's most notorious dog meat festival drew crowds despite international outrage, as more than 10,000 dogs were killed at the event in conditions activists described as brutal.

South Koreans are believed to consume somewhere between 1.5 million - 2.5 million dogs every year, but the meat farming industry is in decline, with little demand among the younger generation.

In Vietnam, cat meat -- known locally as "little tiger" -- is also a delicacy and although officially banned it is widely available in specialist restaurants.