APPLE DEPENDS ON TAXPAYERS.
CAN TAXPAYERS DEPEND ON APPLE?
Ridiculously extravagant purchases of the filthy rich
For as long as there have been celebrities, there have been stories about their extravagant spending. Many of these stories are just urban legends, but many others are true, and while the average Joe may respond to them with contempt, make no mistake, it's contempt laced with bitter jealousy.
As demands grow for more international help to fight Ebola, Cuba's former president, Fidel Castro, has said his country will send almost 300 extra doctors and nurses to Africa.He also said Cuba was ready to cooperate with the United States in the interest of global peace.The announcement came as President
Obama urged Americans to avoid hysteria over Ebola, as Donna Larsen reports.
A Dallas bus and train station was closed on Saturday after a report that a woman fell ill at the facility, but the transit authority denied an earlier report that the woman had been on awatchlist for possible exposure to Ebola.The woman exited a northbound train at the White Rock Station and vomited, leading the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system to close the station as a precaution."The person being treated by Dallas Fire Rescue at White Rock Station is NOT on any Ebola watchlist," Morgan Lyons, a DART spokeswoman, wrote in an email."There are no indications of any biohazards or spills on any vehicle she has used," said Lyons. "We're inspecting the train and the platform and will clean the facility and vehicle as needed consistent with our protocol."Earlier, a Dallas television station reported the woman had been one of the people in the area monitored for possible exposure to the often-fatal Ebola virus.The incident highlights the heightened state of awareness of the dangers of spreading the disease, especially in Dallas, where a Liberian national became the first person infected with the virus to die in the United States. Two nurses who cared for him have also contracted the virus. (Reporting By Frank McGurty and Grant McCool)
Thousands of Canadians will have to walk a little further to get their mail starting Monday as Canada Post begins phasing out door-to-door delivery in some communities.
Earlier this year, Canada Post sparked a national outcry when it announced that community mailboxes will replace door-to-door service in 11 communities starting this fall.
It marks the first phase of a five-year program that will ultimately affect about 5 million addresses.
Community mailboxes are seen in a Winnipeg neighbourhood on Sunday, October 19, 2014.
On Monday, service is changing for:
12,500 addresses in Winnipeg
7,900 addresses in the Ottawa neighbourhood of Kanata
10,450 addresses in Calgary
450 addresses in Fort McMurray
In Winnipeg, letter carriers will be taken off routes Monday in West Kilodonan, Garden City and The Maples, according to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. The homes affected have the postal code R2P and R2V.
One Winnipeg customer said her community box is just around the corner from her house, and so she has “no concerns” about the change.
“I think it’s good if you’re away for a few days and your mail is there and no one knows really that you’re away,” she told CTV Winnipeg.
However, the union has launched a constitutional challenge in federal court over the change, saying it violates the rights of senior citizens and people living with disabilities.
“I still think it stinks,” Stratford, Ont., resident Gordon Moore told CTV News, adding that Canada Post failed to consider senior citizens in its decision.
“Their excuse is everybody does stuff on the Internet,” he said. “But getting back to the seniors again, we’re not good at the Internet.”
In February, Canada Post said it understands that some customers may be unable to access a community mailbox, “and it is committed to ensuring that no one is left behind from accessing the mail service.
“As it transitions existing neighbourhoods like these, it may need to offer additional solutions for people with significant mobility challenges, who lack viable alternatives and would face unacceptable hardship.”
In February, Canada Post said the first areas to switch from home delivery are close to neighbourhoods that already have community mailboxes. Delivery will not change for apartment buildings, seniors’ homes or condominiums that have delivery service to a lobby or mailroom, or for customers who have their mail delivered to a rural box at the end of their driveway.
Most businesses in larger communities will also retain door-to-door service.
Canada Post estimates that moving the five million addresses to community mailboxes will eventually save between $400 million and $500 million annually.
President Obama found himself in an unusual situation Monday.
As he was casting his ballot early in Chicago, minding his own business behind the voting booth, a young man, Mike Jones, walked by and warned him "don't touch my girlfriend."
The girlfriend, Aia Cooper, who was voting in the booth next to Obama, was humiliated, to say the least. "I really wasn't planning on it," Obama joked with the woman. "There's an example of a brother just embarrassing you, just for no reason whatsoever."
"And now you'll be going back home and talking to your friends; what's his name?" the president asked.
"'I can't believe Mike. He's such a fool,'" Obama said, impersonating the woman.
"He really is," she agreed.
Obama continued: "'I was just mortified. But, fortunately, the president was nice about it. So it's all right.'"
"I am freaking out right now," she said, laughing.
The president got the last laugh, though.
"Give me a kiss and give him something to talk about," the president said, as he gave Cooper a hug and a peck on the cheek. "Now he's really jealous."
But Cooper downplayed the moment.
"He gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Just the cheek," she told ABC's Chicago station WLS. "Please, Michelle, don't come after me!"
PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia (AP) — The investigation into the AirAsia crash has turned to the ocean floor, with more sonar equipment and metal detectors deployed Friday to scour the seabed for wreckage, including the plane's black boxes.
Sixteen bodies have been recovered, including seven Friday, six of which were found by a U.S. Navy ship.
A helicopter from the USS Sampson brought the corpses to Pangkalan Bun, the town nearest to the site. They were unloaded and driven off in ambulances.
Rescuers hope the fuselage — if intact — will contain the remains of many of the nearly 150 passengers and crew still missing. The wreckage will be key to explaining what might have caused Flight 8501 to go down.
The Airbus A320 smashed into the Java Sea on Sunday, halfway into a flight from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, to Singapore. Minutes earlier, the pilot told air-traffic control he was approaching threatening clouds, but was denied permission to climb to a higher altitude because of heavy air traffic.
More ships arrived Friday with sensitive equipment to hunt for the plane's fuselage.
"We will focus on underwater detection," said Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo. He added that ships from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the U.S. had been on the scene since before dawn Friday to try to pinpoint wreckage and the all-important flight data and cockpit voice recorders.
The data recorder contains crucial information such as engine temperature, vertical and horizontal speed and hundreds of other measurements. The voice recorder captures conversations between pilots and other sounds coming from the cockpit.
Toos Saniotoso, an Indonesian air safety investigator, said investigators "are looking at every aspect" as they try to determine why the plane crashed. "From the operational side, the human factor, the technical side, the ATC (air-traffic control) — everything is valuable to us."
Soelistyo said bad weather, which has hindered the search for the past several days, remained a worry. A drizzle and light clouds covered the area Friday morning, but rain, strong winds and high waves up to 4 meters (13 feet) were forecast until Sunday. Strong sea currents have also kept debris moving.
Nine planes, many with metal detecting equipment, were also scouring a 13,500-square-kilometer (8,380-square-mile) area off Pangkalan Bun. Two Japanese ships with three helicopters were on their way, Soelistyo said.
Soelistyo estimated the fuselage was at a depth of 25 meters to 30 meters (about 80 feet to 100 feet).
Vice Air Marshal Sunarbowo Sandi said before boarding a Hercules C-130 on Friday that as soon as the wreckage is found, divers will be sent down to recover the passengers and crew.
Soelistyo vowed to recover the bodies of "our brothers and sisters ... whatever conditions we face."
So far, one victim of the crash has been returned to her family — the first of many painful reunions to come. Hayati Lutfiah Hamid's identity was confirmed by fingerprints and other means, said Col. Budiyono of East Java's Disaster Victim Identification Unit.
Friday is the holiest day of the week for Muslims. After Friday prayers, more than 200 Muslims held a short prayer session for the AirAsia victims at a mosque next to the Surabaya police hospital where bodies were being kept.
"We pray that the passengers in this AirAsia tragedy will be received by Allah and that all their sins will be forgiven by Allah," the imam said.
Why I am ashamed to be a man in Afghanistan-BBC Karim Haidari
It has been four nights that I have been struggling to get any sleep.What keeps me awake is
the noise of an angry mob and the images of the bloodied and burned body of a woman,beaten
The frenzied attack on Farkhunda happened thousands of miles away in my hometown of
Kabul,but the violent scenes have followed me here all the way to London.
Perhaps I feel guilty for being a man.After all,men are the authors of all wars.Or for being an
Afghan man,Men in my country inflict similar misery upon women time and again in the corner
of the country or another.
I left Kabulweeks before Farkhunda set foot in the Shah-Du
Shamshaira (The King of Two Swords) shrine.
It is a beautiful building on the banks of the Kabul river in the centre of the city.The main
bazaar and the presidential palace are both within walking distance.
People often come here to make a wish or seek resolution to a problem by tying a ribbon
on a tomb in the grounds.
A few weeks before I left Kabul I went to the shrine to tie a ribbon on behalf of a friend in
California.She has asked me to take a picture and send it to her.
As I climbed the steps,I noticed a large group of women gathered nearby.It was a Wednesday,
a traditional day for female worshippers to visit shrines across the country.
I made my way inside and fixed a piece of shiny green polyester to one of the four cloth
covered poles at the tomb,adding to the dozens already there,all in different colours,attached
to the top of the tomb and the interior walls.
“what did you wish for?”a middle -aged woman asked,straining to make herself heard
above the noise of the crowd.I responded,”A wish is a secret,Khala(autie).”
As I was leaving,I noticed at least two old men with long beards and white turbans,sitting
very close to the women and scribbling something on small pieces of papaer.
That too is a common sight. Women come to ask such men for charms or amulets to help
deal with a family problem- to bring good health to their husbands,to keep their sons safe in
the army,or to find good husband for their daughters. It is a source of income for such poorly
educated mullahs-however dubious the service.
In Afghanistan both on television and on social media there is growing criticism of this
practice,with people saying that it is not only an abuse of Islam,but also fraud.
Farkhunda,the woman who was killed in Kabul last week,was one of these critics. A theology
graduate,she went one step further than speaking out in the media.She actually confronted one
of the mullahs selling charms to childless women at the shrine.
In the course of the argument,she was accused of burning the Koran.It seems the crowd
overheard this and attacked her.
She must have underestimated what some men are capable of- not just cheating women
out of their money,but actually -from one moment to the next-taking a woman’s life under the eyes of the police.
There is always a big crowd of young men outside the shrine.They come to look at the woman,
in the hope of maybe catching someone’s eye and engineering an encounter.
At least 20 people have been arrested so far in connection with Farkhuda’s murder.Many are
young,modern urban man.Many have Facebook pages where they claimed responsibility for the
For many Afghans-me included- it is upsetting that young men like this.can suddenly transform themselves into misguided
protectors of the holy book,and they are capable of such appalling voilence.
A young life has been painfully lost to unveil a society where many have a poor understanding
of religion,and where scholars often make premature judgements -only to recant later.
It is a society with a corrupt and incompetent police force,where the end of women’s suffering
is still a distant dream.
SPLIT
After 18 years together, Jon and his girlfriend Jennifer have split, according to a report.
DailyMail.com says In Touch Weekly is reporting Jennifer ended the relationship just
before Jon entered a treatment facility for alcoholism in February.
"She told [him] it was over before he checked into rehab," a source told the publication. "She was tired of waiting for a commitment from Jon."
Since the couple had been together so long without a marriage, many assumed that Jon and Jennifer were happy with their arrangement. But In Touch's source says otherwise.
"Jennifer wants a life that Jon can't give her. Jennifer was tired of it," the source said,
adding that the split was amicable. "People are happy for her and hoping she never takes him back."
Jon, though, has other ideas and reportedly wanted to rekindle the relationship.
The reported split comes as Jon's AMC series "Mad Men" is also coming to an end after
seven seasons. In the series, Jon's character was a hard drinking advertising executive.
The actor said several times in media interviews that in real life he didn't drink as much as his character, Don Draper. Fiction, though, seemed to be become reality when he required rehab earlier this year.
After it was announced that Jon had completed rehab in March, his rep implied that all
was kosher with Jon's relationship.
"With the support of his longtime partner Jennifer, Jon recently completed treatment for his struggle with alcohol addiction," a statement from the actor's camp said. "They have asked for privacy and sensitivity going forward."
