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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North Korea is a 'big worry for all of us': Obama at G7

"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.

United Airlines finally apologizes, as image takes beating

Yahoo – AFP, Nova SAFO, With Luc Olinga in New York and Roland Jackson in London, April 11, 2017

Oscar Munoz, President and CEO of United Airlines says the company will
conduct a "thorough review" of its procedures, including "how we handle oversold
situations" and how the airline partners with airport authorities and law
enforcement (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB)

Chicago (AFP) - The chief executive of embattled United Airlines unequivocally apologized Tuesday for an incident in which a passenger was dragged off a plane, and promised a thorough review of the airline's practices.

The apology came after a torrent of criticism of the carrier's action on a flight Sunday and its initial explanation of it. In images now seen around the world, a passenger was forcefully removed and bloodied in the process -- the entire event captured on video by passengers and posted on social media.

The 69-year-old passenger had refused to be "bumped" off the overbooked flight -- an airline practice that has come under increased scrutiny since the incident.

"I continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight and I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard," CEO Oscar Munoz said.

"I want you to know that we take full responsibility and we will work to make it right."

The comments were in stark contrast to the company's initial response, in which it seemed to at least partially blame the passenger, inflaming worldwide outrage.

US media published an email Munoz sent earlier to employees, in which he said the passenger "defied" authorities and "compounded" the incident.

"Our employees followed established procedures for dealing with situations like this," the CEO wrote.

'No compassion or concern' 

Andy Holdsworth, a crisis management specialist at the British PR firm Bell Pottinger, said United's initial response focused on the wrong thing.

"Whilst the passenger's behavior was not good, United have shown no compassion or concern for the man," he said.

Munoz said Tuesday that the company will conduct a "thorough review" of its procedures, including "how we handle oversold situations" and how the airline partners with airport authorities and law enforcement.

He promised to release the results of the review by April 30.

But the public relations damage was done, with calls for boycotts, the US Department of Transportation promising a review of the airline's actions, and even the White House weighing in.

"Clearly, when you watch the video, it is troubling to see how that was handled," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.

The furor battered United's stock Tuesday, sending it down 2.9 percent in afternoon trading and closing down 1.1 percent.

It was the second time in about two weeks the airline found itself in the middle of a firestorm.

In late March, two teenage girls were prevented from boarding a flight in Denver because they wore leggings. The airline defended its action at the time by saying the girls were flying on passes that required them to abide by a dress code in return for free or discounted travel.

"They will need to be careful that these small incidents all start to add up and only remind us of the last incident as well as the current one," Holdsworth said.

'You don't really have any rights'

The passenger on the overbooked Sunday flight from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky was one of four involuntarily bumped off in order to make room for United crew that needed to be repositioned.

The incident shined a new light on the practice of overbooking and bumping passengers off flights, which airlines increasingly rely upon to avoid losing money on empty seats when some passengers do not show up for scheduled flights.

If they were to stop overbooking, "the only way of trying to compensate for that over the long term would be to raise fares on everyone else," said industry analyst Robert Mann.

Instead, airlines sell more tickets than there are seats on a plane, and are generally able to properly forecast demand to avoid major disruptions in getting passengers to their destinations, Mann said.

But, sometimes, they miscalculate and there are more passengers than a flight can handle.

In those instances, airlines offer travel vouchers and cash compensation to entice passengers to voluntarily give up their seats for later flights.

When enticing does not work, airlines have wide latitude under the law.

"If you're still in the terminal waiting to board, you can be told you can't board, even if you have a reservation," Mann said.

"And once you're on board, you are subject to being deplaned based on the order of the crew. So you don't really have any rights."

Last year, 434,000 passengers volunteered to be bumped off flights, while another 40,000 were bumped involuntarily and compensated.

Image takes a beating: Protesters rally against United Airlines’ forcible removal of a passenger from a plane at O'Hare Airport in Chicago pic.twitter.com/PZ2mLnHf8z

— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 12, 2017

Alabama governor brought down by humiliating sex scandal

Yahoo – AFP, April 11, 2017

Then Alabama Governor Robert Bentley speaks during an event in Birmingham,
AL, in 2011 (AFP Photo/Mario Tama)

Washington (AFP) - The governor of the conservative southern US state of Alabama resigned Monday, shortly after lawmakers began impeachment proceedings linked to his affair with a senior aide that was made public in humiliating detail.

Robert Bentley, 74, pleaded guilty in an agreement with prosecutors on Monday to two misdemeanor campaign violations and is barred from seeking public office again.

"I have spent the last year in deep and earnest prayer over our state and our people. I pray every morning for wisdom and guidance and forgiveness for the sins I have committed," the former dermatologist and church deacon told a news conference announcing his resignation, never directly acknowledging his romantic relationship with 45-year-old political adviser Rebekah Caldwell Mason.

The relationship between Bentley and his married aide became a topic of speculation in 2015, when his wife of 50 years, Dianne, abruptly filed for divorce.

The scandal broke last spring when the state's top police officer -- fired by Bentley -- provided the news organization AL.com with salacious details of the secret romance.

The media outlet reported on a 2014 phone conversation between Bentley and a woman he called Rebekah that was secretly captured by Dianne Bentley.

"When I stand behind you, and I put my arms around you, and I put my hands on your breasts, and I put my hands (unintelligible) and just pull you real close. I love that, too," the governor is heard saying.

"Baby, let me know what I am going to do when I start locking the door," he said during another part of the tape.

"If we are going to do what we did the other day, we are going to have to start locking the door."

Robert Bentley, then Governor of Alabama, attends the groundbreaking

 ceremony for Airbus airplane-assembly plant at Brookley Aeroplex in 

Mobile, AL, in April 2013 (AFP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

Last week, an impeachment investigation report prepared for the Alabama House Judiciary Committee said Bentley tried to cover up the affair "in a process characterized by increasing obsession and paranoia."

"To ensure the silence of his staff, Governor Bentley encouraged an atmosphere of intimidation," it added. "Concern over the recordings appears to have become an obsession."

The report revealed that Bentley once opened the door of his hotel room in Washington clad in boxer shorts, thinking Mason was the other side when it was actually hotel staff.

On the same trip in 2014, Dianne Bentley attended a group dinner with her husband and Mason, and saw the text messages he was sending his mistress while seated next to his wife, including "I can't take my eyes off of you."

Bentley once mistakenly sent his wife a text message that said, "I love you Rebekah," accompanied by a red-rose emoji.

Dianne Bentley was able to access other text messages sent by her husband because he had given her his state-issued iPad, not realizing texts from his iPhone would show up on her tablet because the devices were linked.

As part of his plea deal, Bentley must surrender $37,000 in campaign funds and perform 100 hours of community service.

He pleaded guilty to failing to properly report a $50,000 loan made to his campaign, and using campaign funds to pay nearly $9,000 for Mason's legal fees last year.

Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey was sworn in as governor Monday evening.

Canada province axes rule forcing women to wear high heels at work

Yahoo – AFP, April 8, 2017

"In some workplaces in our province, women are required to wear high heels
 on the job. Like most British Columbians, our government thinks this is wrong,"
the province's premier Christy Clark said (AFP Photo/Andrew Chin)

Montreal (AFP) - Believe it or not, some companies in Canada's British Columbia province can force women to wear high heels at work. But not any more.

The premier of the province, Christy Clark, announced Friday that companies can no longer impose such a rule.

"In some workplaces in our province, women are required to wear high heels on the job. Like most British Columbians, our government thinks this is wrong," Clark said Friday.

Clark, who belongs to the Liberal Party, called the practice dangerous and discriminatory.

"There is a risk of physical injury from slipping or falling, as well as possible damage to the feet, legs and back from prolonged wearing of high heels while at work," she added in a statement Friday, co-signed by the province's labor minister, Shirley Bond.

"I expect employers to recognize this very clear signal that forcing someone to wear high heels at work is unacceptable," said Bond.​

Clark has thus endorsed a Green party bill aimed at changing workplace laws so that safety regulations -- including those involving footwear -- are the same for men and women.

A month ago, 25 restaurant chains in Ontario stopped forcing female employees to wear heels and short skirts as part of their uniform.

Related Article:

"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. …”

Trump strategist Bannon dropped from National Security Council: official

Yahoo – AFP, April 5, 2017

US President Donald Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon was dropped from
the National Security Council on April 5, 2017 (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm)

Washington (AFP) - Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump's chief strategist, has lost his seat on the powerful National Security Council in a high-level shakeup, a US official confirmed Wednesday.

Trump's elevation of Bannon to a permanent spot on the NSC had been widely criticized as injecting politics into White House deliberations on sensitive defense, foreign policy and intelligence matters.

A former head of the far-right website Breitbart and now chief White House strategist, Bannon is regarded as a controversial proponent of the nationalistic anti-globalism that helped propel Trump to the White House.

In a presidential memo dated April 4, Bannon no longer appears on the list of regular attendees of NSC meetings.

Confirming that he has been removed as a permanent NSC member, a White House official said the move resulted from a reorganization by Trump's new national security advisor, Lieutenant General HR McMaster.

McMaster took over February 20 after his predecessor Michael Flynn was fired amid a scandal over his secret conversations with Russia's ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said McMaster has his own ideas about how to do things and Trump had promised he could name his own people to the NSC.

Dutch tax office opens hunt for tax-dodging American Express users

DutchNews, April 4, 2017    

Photo: DutchNews.nl

Credit card company American Express has been told to hand over information to the US tax office tax authorities about Dutch residents with bank cards linked to accounts outside the Netherlands, Bloomberg said on Tuesday. 

The US tax service has asked for the information to help the Dutch government determine if residents are complying with local tax laws, Bloomberg quoted a justice department statement as saying. 

The Dutch made the request under a treaty which allows the exchange of tax information between the two countries.

‘The department of justice and the IRS are committed to working with the United States’ international treaty partners to identify individuals using secret offshore accounts to evade tax laws,’ said acting assistant attorney general David Hubbert in a statement. 

The case focuses on tracing the identities of Dutch taxpayers who had American Express cards between 2009 and 2016 that were linked to bank accounts outside the US. 

Efforts to trace potential tax cheats through other payment agencies have succeeded but American Express has so far refused to cooperate, the Volkskrant said in its report. 

Dutch investigators arrested two people last week as part of a five-country probe linked to Credit Suisse accounts.

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