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Trump choice for attorney general opposes waterboarding, ban on Muslims

By Julia Edwards Ainsley | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Donald Trump's candidate for attorney general on Tuesday said he opposed banning Muslims from entering the United States and, taking a tougher stance than the president-elect, said waterboarding is torture and illegal. Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, the nominee, responded to questions at a Senate confirmation hearing, the first in a series this week for nominees to serve in the Cabinet [...]

Microsoft tries to soothe regulators and critics with new privacy controls

To address criticism from regulators and public policy groups, Microsoft is making some changes in its privacy practices.Of all the body blows Microsoft has absorbed in the past 18 months over Windows 10, the criticisms of its privacy policies have to sting the most.Last summer, the French National Data Protection Commission (CNIL) issued a formal notice against Microsoft, ordering that the company "stop collecting excessive data and [...]

U.S. senators seek Russia sanctions over hacking, Ukraine, Syria

By Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Senior U.S. Republican and Democratic senators will introduce legislation on Tuesday seeking to impose a wide range of sanctions on Russia over its cyber activities and actions in Syria and Ukraine.The legislation is sponsored by 10 senators - Republicans John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Ben Sasse and Rob Portman and Democrats Ben Cardin, Robert Menendez, Jeanne Shaheen, Amy Klobuchar and [...]

Pakistan opposition cautious on reviving military courts for civilians

By Syed Raza Hassan and Saad Sayeed | KARACHI/ISLAMABAD KARACHI/ISLAMABAD Pakistan's major opposition parties expressed scepticism on Tuesday about the government's proposal to revive special military courts to try civilians charged with terrorism, potentially jeopardising a proposed constitutional amendment.Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's office said on Monday that it would seek to keep military courts in place, days after the secret tribunals' original legal mandate had expired.However, Sharif's [...]

Imran rebukes PM for ‘telling lies’ on Panama Papers – ARY NEWS

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan says Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s statement in the Parliament [regarding Panama Papers] was a complete lie. Speaking to reporters here, Khan said it was a bad luck for Sharif brothers that proofs of his involvement in illegally stashing wealth abroad are now in the Panama Papers. The PTI chief said the names of PM’s children appeared in newspapers worldwide for their [...]

The Islamization Of Britain In 2016: "More Backwards Than Some Parts Of Pakistan"

Submitted by Soeren Kern via The Gatestone Institute, Sharia courts administering Islamic justice in Britain are run by clerics who believe some offenders should have their hands chopped off, according to Muslim scholar Elham Manea. She described the prevailing attitude as "totalitarian" and as more backward than some parts of Pakistan. Teaching children fundamental British values is an act of "cultural supremacism," according to the National Union [...]

Java EE users need more REST, survey shows

Since the dawn of the century, Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) has been at the core of many, if not most, enterprise web-centric, service-oriented, cloud-capable computing assemblies. Lately, though, even its proponents have been asking if the venerable framework has outlived its usefulness, and is being supplanted by lighter, nimbler and simpler setups, such as containers, cloud services, or APIs. Photo: Joe McKendrick All this is happening [...]

Thai king's office seeks changes to draft constitution – PM

BANGKOK Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn's office has requested changes to a draft constitution regarding royal powers, the prime minister said on Tuesday."The request said there are three to four issues that need fixing to ensure his royal powers," Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha Prayuth told reporters. Prayuth did not give details but said the changes would be made. The draft constitution was passed in a referendum in August [...]

American Destroyer Fires Warning Shots at Iranian Boats

Photo The United States guided missile destroyer Mahan in the Mediterranean in 2013. Credit Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jacob D. Moore/U.S. Navy, via Reuters WASHINGTON — In a vivid illustration of the tensions between the United States and Iran, an American Navy warship fired warning shots at Iranian boats that were racing toward it near the Strait of Hormuz, Defense Department officials said on Monday.The episode [...]

We All Lose: Obama's Legacy And What It Means For A Trump Presidency

Submitted by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute, “This light of history is pitiless; it has a strange and divine quality that, luminous as it is, and precisely because it is luminous, often casts a shadow just where we saw a radiance; out of the same man it makes two different phantoms, and the one attacks and punishes the other, the darkness of the despot struggles with [...]

Smoking costs $1 trillion, soon to kill 8 million a year – WHO/NCI study

By Tom Miles | GENEVA GENEVA Smoking costs the global economy more than $1 trillion a year, and will kill one third more people by 2030 than it does now, according to a study by the World Health Organization and the U.S. National Cancer Institute published on Tuesday.That cost far outweighs global revenues from tobacco taxes, which the WHO estimated at about $269 billion in 2013-2014. "The [...]

Mourning for Slain Soldiers, a Somber Ritual in Israel, Is Marred by Discord

The military, security experts and soldiers at the scene quickly rejected that notion. “Those who ran from the scene were not concerned about Azaria, but about their own well-being,” said Yehuda Ben Meir, an expert in national security and public opinion at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. Continue reading the main story Still, the argument — unfolding in full volume on Israeli [...]

Amid hacking row, pressure builds on Trump to soften pro-Russia rhetoric

By Phil Stewart | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump is finding himself caught between his desire to improve relations with Russia and fellow Republicans who are pushing for a harsher response to what American spy agencies say was the Kremlin's meddling in the U.S. presidential election.The tacit acknowledgement on Sunday by his incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus, that Russia was behind the hacking of Democratic Party [...]

10-Steps To Curing The "Trading Addiction"

Submitted by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, THE ADDICTION Those who’ve had any brush with addiction know an addict will go to any length to support the habit, including stealing, lies and deception. The addict is aided and abetted by co-dependent friends and family members who cover up for the addict’s bizarre behavior and pretend nothing’s wrong. Breaking the addiction starts with the co-dependents recognizing their role and [...]

Gulf states pay tribute to Rafsanjani: an Iranian 'moderate' with a chequered past

Abu Dhabi // Rulers and officials of the GCC on Monday sent messages of condolence to the Iranian president and the family of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the senior revolutionary figure and pragmatist who had developed good relations with member states and presided over a thaw in Tehran’s relations with Riyadh during his tenure as president. Rafsanjani died on Sunday at the age of 82 after suffering a [...]

Benjamin Netanyahu Sought Deal With Hostile Newspaper, TV Report Says

The meeting between Mr. Netanyahu and the publisher of Yediot Aharonot, Arnon Mozes, took place in 2014, according to Channel 2, but the discussion does not appear to have materialized into action. Continue reading the main story Still, the disclosure caused an uproar. Critics accused Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Mozes of plotting to upend the democratic principle of an independent, free and professional press.“We expect in a [...]

Coca-Cola Lawsuit Claims Beverage Company Misled Consumers To Sell Unhealthy Drinks

The advocacy group The Praxis Project has filed a lawsuit against Coca-Cola and the American Beverage Association (ABA) over claims of engaging in false and misleading marketing of sugar-sweetened beverages. Deceptive Campaigns The suit, which was filed with the federal court of Oakland, California on Wednesday, asked for relief to stop Coke and ABA from making claims that sugary drinks do not promote type 2 diabetes, obesity, [...]

Snake forces cancellation of Emirates flight

A snake found on board an Emirates aircraft forced the cancellation of a flight from Muscat to Dubai. The snake was discovered on Sunday prior any passengers boarding the 10.50am flight, and was cancelled to allow for a cleaning crew to carry out a detailed service before the Boeing 777 aircraft returns to service. “Emirates can confirm that flight EK0863 from Muscat to Dubai on 8 January [...]

Ombudsman to probe Centrelink in wake of debt recovery debacle

The Commonwealth Ombudsman Colin Neave has opened an investigation into the Centrelink automated debt recovery system that has come under fire for sending some letters demanding money repayment in error to welfare recipients.A spokesperson for Neave told ZDNet the Ombudsman is aware of the concerns raised about the automated data matching system used by Centrelink, and has commenced an own-motion investigation into the matter. Although the Ombudsman [...]

Tonight's Forecast Inside the Golden Globes: Lots of Snow with a Chance of Trump Tears

The entire star-studded audience at the Golden Globes practically cried in unison, after Meryl Streep took to the mic to lament over an incident that happened last year regarding what she thought was Donald Trump mocking a disabled reporter. The rift was with NY Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who said Trump was lying about witnessing Muslims celebrating in New Jersey after 9/11 -- which later proved out to [...]

Union Servitude Ends In Kentucky: State Kills Prevailing Wages, Passes Right-To-Work

Submitted by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com, In a major setback for organized labor, Kentucky passed right-to-work legislation and repealed the state’s prevailing wage law. Organized labor suffered its first major legislative setback due to the 2016 elections on Saturday, when Kentucky Republicans gave final approval to right-to-work legislation and repealed the state’s prevailing wage law. Both bills are expected to be signed into law by the governor, [...]

Former Iran president Rafsanjani dies of heart attack

By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin | DUBAI DUBAI Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died on Sunday at the age of 82, state media reported, a big blow to moderates and reformists deprived now of their most influential supporter in the Islamic establishment."Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani was taken to hospital after heart attack and more than an hour long efforts by doctors to revive him were not successful," the deputy [...]

Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ex-President of Iran, Dies at 82

Yet many Western analysts believed that he sought a less confrontational relationship with the United States than other powerful figures in the Iranian hierarchy, for whom hostility toward Washington was a touchstone of ideological purity. Continue reading the main story Mr. Rafsanjani, for instance, was credited with suggesting that “Death to America” be dropped from the litany of slogans at Tehran’s Friday prayers, a weekly moment of [...]