Month: October 2016

Budalang’I MP, Ababu Namwamba who was elected on an ODM tickets caused storm when he defected to join Julia Ojiambo’s Labour Party of Kenya.
ODM followers have been castigating the legislator following his defection; a hostile crowd that had gathered outside Glory Worship Centre in Bangladesh in Mombasa, recently confronted Ababu demanding that he declares his political affiliation.
Ababu’s 2017 re-election will be an acid test for him since the region overwhelmingly voted for Raila Odinga in 2013 general election.
While the stress of being re-elected is eating him up, good news for the legislator came from his wife who announced she was pregnant with twins.
“  Ababu’s wife, Priscah Ababu, broke the good news.
 
The good news also means double stress for Budalang’I MP; Ababu is already a father of two and two more are on the way coming. If he loses 2017 election then he becomes jobless. Remember what happened to Former Garsen MP, Danson Mungatana, when he lost his seat in 2013 election?
 
 

Monique Kabuye was hosting her last show on ast Friday and was saying a poignant goodbye to her listeners of two years. Unbeknown to her, her hubby had planned a romantic surprise and as she was busy bidding her listeners goodbye, her husband sneaked into the studio with flowers, a guitar and their young daughter.
Right behind him was  host David Oyuke who came in carrying cake and a bunch of balloons.
He then started serenading her with a beautiful song to mark her last day at the Mid-Morning show.
 
But for her husband, this is a deed he does a lot “I
 
As for Monique this is what she told EDaily about her exit
 
 

The toll from a powerful explosion in China rose to 14 dead and 147 injured Tuesday, state media said, as authorities censored discussion of the incident online.
Monday’s blast in Xinmin, in the northern province of Shaanxi, tore through five prefabricated buildings, destroying or damaging 58 others, the official Xinhua news agency said.
It may have been caused by illegally stored explosives, an initial investigation found.
Pictures showed widespread damage, with windows blown out of buildings, a crater in the street, and bloodied victims lying on the ground.
Rescue efforts had concluded by Tuesday morning, and more than 100 of the injured were still hospitalised, Xinhua said, citing local authorities.
The explosion comes at a time of heightened vigilance for the ruling Communist Party, which holding a high-level meeting in Beijing, the “Sixth Plenum”.
Outraged social media users said that there were comparatively few reports on the incident available online, and others had been deleted, with comments on many platforms disabled.
“They’ve closed off discussion of the incident and don’t dare reveal the numbers of casualties and deaths,” wrote one incensed user. “Such a big incident, and they’re preparing to quash it under pressure.”
Another cried: “The one-party dictatorship that controls the throne is only interested in the good of the party, not of the people! Where is China’s future?”
Industrial accidents are common in China, where safely regulations are often flouted.
Giant explosions at a chemical storage facility in the northern port of Tianjin last year killed at least 165 people, sending a monumental fireball skyward and mangling structures kilometres away.

Cord Leader Raila Odinga has come to the rescue of under-fire Auditor General Edward Ouko over alleged procurement malpractices.
The Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) recently concluded investigations involving Ouko who is alleged to have irregularly procured an audit vault software whose price had been inflated from Sh18 million to Sh100 million.
During a campaign rally in Kisii, Raila said the allegations facing the Auditor General  have been “cooked” by the government in an attempt to intimidate Ouko and mask massive corruption dealings.
“If they try and touch Ouko, we will mobilise all Kenyans and go to the streets, just like it was done in Brazil and ensure all the thieves go home,” Raila said.
Raila said that Ouko was the one who has been unearthing massive corruption dealings in government hence the latest allegations.
 
Ouko was last week criticised by President Uhuru Kenyatta during the Governance Summit at State House on matters corruption.
Uhuru wondered why Ouko wanted to travel to the United States to conduct investigations over the whereabouts of the controversial Eurobond funds.
Mr Ouko earlier in May, said his office had secured appointments with top US and UK financial institutions as part of an ongoing audit of the $2 billion transaction.
The auditors said that they will visit JP Morgan, Federal Reserve Bank, City Transaction Services New York, JP Securities, Barclays Bank, ICB Standard Bank and Qatar National Bank to scrutinise various transaction data.

An elderly Australian man was jailed for 15 years Tuesday for sexually abusing Indonesian girls on the resort island of Bali after luring them to his house with promises of gifts.
Robert Andrew Fiddes Ellis was found guilty of abusing 11 girls since 2014 at the home where he was living on the island. The 70-year-old would bathe the children, aged between seven and 17, and touch them inappropriately, prosecutors said.
“His actions could have damaged the victims’ futures,” said judge Wayan Sukanila, as he announced a guilty verdict and handed down the 15-year sentence at a court in the Balinese capital Denpasar.
The judge said the case could also taint the image of the Indonesian island, which attracts millions of foreign visitors each year, as a tourist destination.
Ellis, who has long, white hair and a big bushy beard, was arrested in January after a tip-off from local child protection officials and accused of luring the girls back to his house with promises of money and other gifts.
Last week the pensioner admitted to journalists at the court that he had bathed the girls in exchange for cash but insisted that he had done nothing wrong and it was “not a serious thing”.
After being convicted, the elderly man looked creastfallen and told journalists: “I’m 70 now, 15 years would take me to 85. I don’t know if I’ll live that long.”
Asked if he thought the court’s decision was fair, he said: “Well it doesn’t seem to be.”
His lawyer Yanuar Nahak said he would file an appeal as police had treated Ellis unfairly, only focusing their probe on him and failing to investigate two other people who had allegedly brought the children to the pensioner.
In addition to the jail sentence, Ellis was ordered to pay a fine of two billion rupiah (around $153,000) or serve an additional six months in jail.
Bali is a popular holiday destination for tourists from around the world, who flock to the island for its beaches, resorts and nightlife.
Ellis is not the first person to be jailed for child sex offences. In 2009, 61-year-old Australian Philippe Robert Grandfield was sentenced to eight years prison for paying underage boys for sexual favours.

The masked thieves made away with jewelry worth millions of dollars and left the reality star pretty shaken up too.
Closer home, Ugandan socialite Zari  Hassan who is also Diamond Platnumz’s wife was recently robbed. Luckily she was not harmed but the thugs made away with her purse that contained her essentials and valuables like her credit cards and cellphone.
 
Taking to one of her social media pages, Zari said this about the incident

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday Ankara could launch a ground operation in Iraq to remove any threats to Turkey that may arise.
“If there is a threat posed to Turkey, we are ready to use all our resources including a ground operation… to eliminate that threat,” Cavusoglu said in an interview with Kanal 24 broadcaster.
“It is our most natural right,” he added.
Cavusoglu referred to Turkey’s ambitious offensive in Syria as an example of how Turkey took the threat to its security seriously.
Since August 24, Ankara has supported opposition rebels to clear the Islamic State group (IS) from its border and halt the westward advance of the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG.
Turkey views the YPG (People’s Protection Units) as a terror group linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is waging an insurgency in Turkey’s southeast.
The PKK is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union but Washington believes the YPG is the most effective force against IS in Syria.
The PKK has bases in the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq which the Turkish military regularly hits with its warplanes.
Cavusoglu said any threat against Turkey in neighbouring regions of Iraq — including the northern district of Sinjar — could draw a response.
“If the threat to us increases (there), we can deal with them using our rights under international law and our strength including a ground operation,” he added.
The minister said Monday the PKK wanted to make Sinjar a “second Qandil”, but such actions would not be allowed and that Turkey would “intervene more actively” to stop it happening.
Ankara also said this week it had already hit IS positions with its artillery at the Bashiqa camp in northern Iraq. But Baghdad has denied Turkey’s participation in military operations to retake the northern city of Mosul.
Cavusoglu previously said that as a result of the artillery fire from the camp, 17 “terrorists” had been killed. He added that four F-16 fighter jets were also on standby to take part in any international coalition air strikes in Iraq.
An offensive to push IS out of Mosul, Iraq’s second biggest city, has entered its second week with Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters continuing their advance on the city.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s ramped up rhetoric about further military action continued with Cavusoglu warning that if the YPG militia in Manbij, northern Syria, did not leave the city, “we know how to remove them with our own resources”.

Ngina’s brother, Muhoho Kenyatta, was thought to be the real party animal; he has been caught on camera one too many times having nice time with Amina Mohamed’s niece, Firyal Nur Al Hossain at various hangouts.
 
Well, Ngina also loves hanging out at exclusive entertainment hotspot in the city. The First Daughter was seen enjoying quality time at Tree House, Museum Hill on October 21st at around 10pm.
Media reports say that Ngina arrived at the uptown entertainment hotspot shortly after 10pm under heavy security.
Apparently Ngina was at Tree House to show support to her cousin Kavi Pratt, who is an Afro-Fusion singer.
 
It seems the First Daughter is allergic to liquor or something close to that, she kept off alcoholic drinks that Friday night.
The President’s daughter reportedly kept herself busy with soft drinks while partying at Tree House as her company enjoyed smoking shisha.
 

Sky World Lounge diversifies its night entertainment, having different themed night’s everyday of the week. Tonight, they host rhumba night this coming weekend, with re-known rocking it on the discs.
The joint, since its inception last year, has only hosted contemporary musicians such as Lady Maureen, and emerging various artists and deejays for its growing cosmopolitan audiences.
According to the organizers, the rhumba fiesta is scheduled for tonight plus every other Wednesday in the next coming weeks. Sky World has changed the entertainment scene by introducing variety but still keeping standards of the urbanite and mature crowds that frequent the joint.
Tonight’s audiences should expect a mixture of old popular and new tunes freshly released by rhumba artists in DRC and France, an entertaining night that will warm you the audience.
The themed night starts at 7pm till late, it is a strictly adults only affair. Sky World is located on Tom Mboya.

The explosion was followed by heavy gunfire at the Djiboutian base in the city of Beledweyne.
Witness Ismail Mahad described seeing “clouds of smoke caused by the heavy blast” followed by “exchange of gunfire at the Djiboutian camp”.
“There was a suicide attack targeting the Djiboutian military base in western Beledweyne,” said Abdullah Ibrahim, a local security official who added the number of casualties was not yet known.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab militant group said, via its Radio Andalus media organisation, that it was responsible for the attack, claiming “the death and injury of many soldiers”.
The Shabaab, which is fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu, regularly attacks AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) bases as well as government and civilian targets.
In recent weeks Ethiopian troops deployed in the nearby area have withdrawn from some of their positions, with no explanation given for the movement of troops back towards Beledweyne, the provincial capital.
Each time Shabaab fighters immediately reoccupied the abandoned towns.

The victim, Ruphus Karimi is nursing some serious wonds at the Chaaria Mission hospital where he is receiving treatment. Ruphus says that the Tycoon and his men beat him up after picking him from his home then later dropped him off at the farm where he is said to have stolen the Miraa from.
The young man narrated the inhuman manner the Tycoon used to chop off his right hand saying,
Apparently Karimi’s case is among the many hushed cases that happen in Igembe south County. There are reports that wealthy men are used to hurting teenage boys after accusing them of petty theft.
 
 
The boys are hospitalized due to the serious injuries and since their families are poor, they end up seeking help from these rich fellas who step in to cover the medical bills. They later end up surrendering their large farms to these tycoons as a way of paying off their debt.
Police are said to have launched an investigation as reported by the Standard and the accused tycoon has already reordered a statement that will help bring justice to Ruphus Karimi and the rest.
About a month ago a 17-year-old boy from Mutuate Village in meru suffered the same fate but unfortunately ended up losing both arms.
                                               

His uncle was the last Emperor of China, reigning over the Middle Kingdom from the Forbidden City. Now Jin Yulan scours the antique shops of Communist-ruled Beijing for trinkets that might once have belonged to his family.
The Qing dynasty ruled over China for 268 years until it was deposed after the 1911 revolution. But interest in the past is growing and when Jin opened an exhibition of his artefacts this week dozens of enthusiasts attended.
A retired teacher dressed in a polo shirt and jacket, Jin says he likes things “with a sense of age, with a kind of culture and history to them”.
“I never knew the life of the court,” he laments. “I can’t say how good life there was or how succulent the food would have been. But I feel a link with my ancestors and this bond will last forever.”
Born in 1948, shortly before Mao Zedong’s Communists took power, Jin has had a life of marked contrast to the Imperial finery of his forebears.
During the Cultural Revolution — when Mao’s Red Guards sought to destroy China’s heritage — he was exiled to the countryside of Henan and ended up spending more than 20 years in the central province, only returning to the capital in the 1990s.
“The Red Guards sacked our house and confiscated our belongings,” he said. “They took 90 percent of what we owned.”
Jin’s uncle Pu Yi was aged two when he took the throne in 1908. Abdicating while still a child in 1912, he later served as Tokyo’s puppet emperor of Manchuria after Japan invaded in the 1930s.
He was arrested by Soviet forces in 1945 and imprisoned by China’s new Communist authorities until 1959.
When he was freed, his Aisin-Gioro clan held a dinner that was “the largest family reunion since the fall of the Qing dynasty”, Jin said.
“Pu Yi took my hands, he was very kind. It was the first time that I had seen him. He was wearing the same black cotton clothes that he would have worn in prison — the only thing he had removed was his number.”
Pu Yi was later set to work as a gardener by the Communists and died of cancer in 1967.
“We spoke very freely. I saw him more as a human being than an emperor,” Jin says, highlighting the contrast between his uncle’s earlier and later life. “When he was younger, people would kowtow before him.”
Jin started collecting pieces as a boy, scouring flea markets and occasionally picking up items that could have belonged to his family.
One of the artefacts on display in the exhibition, at a museum in a former aristocratic residence in Beijing, is a kaleidoscope given to Pu Yi’s father by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany during a visit to Berlin in 1901.
Jin played with the kaleidoscope as a child, and managed to take it with him to Henan, dismantling it, stuffing it into a bag and sneaking it under the noses of the Red Guards.
A photo from the late 1920s shows Pu Yi surrounded by his brothers and sisters. “The child sitting on the floor is my father,” Jin explains of the emperor’s half-brother, who died last year at the age of 96, the last of his generation.
He has not been to the Forbidden City, his family’s former home and now a UNESCO world heritage site and Beijing’s top tourist draw, for 30 years, claiming he does not think it is “worth the price of the ticket”.
But with the passage of time, people are becoming increasingly interested in Qing history, he says.
“The dynasty is dead, but we can look at it from an objective point of view and I think most people are well disposed to the imperial family.”
According to Wang Qingxiang of the Jilin Academy of Social Sciences, the official Chinese assessment of Pu Yi found that he “made some mistakes” but gave a “good judgement” on his post-prison life.
Wang has published 60 books about Pu Yi and the Qing dynasty, but said the subject has become more sensitive in recent years, with authorities now taking four months to approve his works for publication, compared with “no strict scrutiny” in the past.
Jin insists he has no nostalgia for the Qing dynasty, admitting that by its end it was paralysed by corruption and no longer able to govern China.
“It was time to go,” he says.

Bangladesh cricket have pulled down a raunchy advert starring new Test star Sabbir Rahman and a model following social media outrage in the religiously conservative country, an industry official said Tuesday.
The advert has been airing on television since August but drew fresh attention this week after Sabbir’s superb batting brought the nation agonisingly close to its first-ever victory over England.
The advert shows Sabbir holed up inside his house drinking a nonalcoholic malt beverage called Oscar before being discovered by the model who is dressed as a policewoman.
The model seductively handcuffs the 24-year-old batsman before he responds that drinking Oscar means “a little privacy is indeed needed”.
“Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has circulated a directive to stop broadcasting of the ad,” a Bangladesh cricket board official said on condition of anonymity.
“It does not fit with the image of Bangladesh cricket,” he told AFP.
The advert has drawn sharp reaction online, mostly from those opposed to 34-year-old model Naila Nayem whose previous promotion of breast cancer screenings was seen by some as sexually suggestive.
“Absolute nonsense! I wonder why would Sabbir act in such a sexually tickling ad with Naila!” said Facebook user Rahat Khan.
Bangladeshi cricketers are feted like rockstars by millions in the socially conservative Muslim-majority country and are in huge demand to promote everything from noodles to mobile phones.
Sabbir was thrust into the national spotlight after hitting an unbeaten 64 runs in his first Test, which saw Bangladesh almost pull off an upset against England.
There was no immediate comment from Sabbir or Nayem.

Church officials believe the motive for Monday’s incident was robbery and not Jewish extremism, which has been blamed for previous vandalism at Christian sites in Israel, said Wadie Abunassar, a spokesman for bishops in the Holy Land.
Abunassar could not say how many chalices were stolen from the Basilica of the Transfiguration or how much money from the donation box had been taken. Communion bread had also been thrown on the ground.
No graffiti was painted on the church as usually occurs with vandalism by extremists, Abunassar said. A report has been made with police.
The church is located on Mount Tabor in the Galilee region of northern Israel, where Christians believe Jesus became radiant and spoke with Moses and Elijah.
Gospels in the Bible’s New Testament include the story.
Tourists and pilgrims regularly visit the church built on the site.

Leg-spinner Yasir Shah took six second-innings wickets in Pakistan’s crushing 133-run second Test win over West Indies in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday as they took an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
The wily spinner finished with 6-124 to secure his second 10-wicket haul in Test cricket after claiming four wickets in the first innings as West Indies were bowled out for 322 before tea on a weary fifth and final day pitch at Sheikh Zayed Stadium.
Shah had deprived West Indian batsman Jermaine Blackwood of his second Test hundred when he bowled him for 95 in the pre-lunch session.
West Indies, set a mammoth 456-run target for an unlikely victory, fought hard and batted for 108 overs with Shai Hope also scoring a fighting 41.
Hope and Devendra Bishoo put on 45 runs during their eighth-wicket stand before left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar (2-51) had Hope and Bishoo (26) caught to finish the match.
In between Babar’s wickets, Shah had Miguel Cummins bowled for nought to finish the match with figures of 10-210, having taken 4-86 in the first innings.
Pakistan won the first Test by 56 runs in Dubai, leaving the third and final Test in Sharjah starting from Sunday inconsequential.
Captain Misbah-ul-Haq was delighted with the series win.
“It’s a good win and I am very happy,” said Misbah, who equalled Imran Khan’s record of most matches as Pakistan captain with 48. But this is Misbah’s 23rd victory while Imran only had 14.
“The pitch was not helping the spinners so it was tough to get West Indies out even on a fifth-day pitch but we have match-winners like Shah who bowled very well.”
West Indies captain Jason Holder was pleased with his team’s fighting spirit despite the defeat.
“We’ve shown signs of improvement,” said Holder, who has now lost eight of his 11 Tests as captain.
“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to start the game the way we like. They scored too many runs on the first day, we didn’t bat well in the first innings. Pleased with the guys like Blackwood, the way they showed application.”
Blackwood defied Pakistan’s spin-cum-pace attack in the first session, adding 63 for the fifth wicket with Roston Chase (20) and another 57 with Hope for the sixth.
When it seemed Blackwood would complete his second Test hundred, Shah produced a beautiful delivery which kept straight and hit the batsman’s pad, dislodging the stumps.
Blackwood hit 11 boundaries during his enterprising 127-ball stay.
Shah then trapped Jason Holder leg before for 16 to complete his five-wicket haul, the second in the series.
Resuming at 171-4, West Indian pair Blackwood and Chase batted without any problems for the first nine overs, but in the 10th of the day Shah produced a sharp turning ball which took the edge off Chase’s bat to wicket-keeper Sarfraz Ahmed for an easy catch.
Pakistan took the second new ball with the score on 223-5 but Blackwood hit two boundaries in Sohail Khan’s first over.
Shah then took two more wickets to derail the West Indies.

The party attracted peoples from different generations and of course the celebrities and the commoners who enjoy partying in style.
 As expected this year’s Mashujaa party had to be interesting simply because comedian Jalang’o was the MC of the night. He was however accompanied by his fellow comedians Fred Omondi, Chipukeezy and Dr. Ofweneke who spiced up the night with their jokes.
The DJ on the decks gave the crowd a reason not to sit still as he played captivating music from both our local artistes and international acts.
Judging from the photos making rounds on social media it is evident that Mashujaa party was quite lit.
Anyway, this party was founded a few years ago aiming to bring people together in order to celebrate the heroes in the country. This annual event was made possible by the main sponsors,Tusker.
 
 

For starters, is a Co-operative Bank mobile banking service which enables you to access a variety of banking, money transfer and payment services. All you need is your ID Card/Passport and a registered mobile phone number, it doesn’t matter which mobile phone network you are on.
Co-operative bank has decided to reward its customers who transact via the new MCo-op cash app; free airtime, smart phones, cash prizes and laptops are some of the gifts Kenyans will be taking home from the ‘Transact Uzawadiwe’ campaign.
To participate, simply download the new MCo-opCash App from Google Play for android users or App store for Iphone users.
Transact using MCo-op cash app then share your transaction details. Share your transaction details
Step 3 simply invite your friends to participate using the hashtag #TransactUzawadiwe.
Remember MCo-op Cash can be used for simple things such as buying airtime, withdrawing money at a Co-op agent or Co-op ATM, transferring money to and from your Co-op account, paying bills e.g KPLC, DSTV, ZUKU, STARTIMES, checking balance or get a statement, applying and pay for a loan etc.
Hurry download MCo-opCash App and transact and you could be the lucky winner of laptops, cash prize, smart phones etc.
 
 

At least 12 people have been shot dead in a bloody terrorist attack in Mandera over the night.
The 12 had been lodged in at Bishaaro Guest House in Mandera town when the terrorists suspected to be Al- Shabab struck. 
According to police reports, they used improvised devices to break open the metal gates before breaking into rooms and shooting the occupants.
 
Among the 12 killed were ten members of a theater group that had travelled to perform plays based on set books for students preparing for their KCSE exams.
A gunfire battle ensured after police responded to the attack and the terrorists fled heading to the Somalia border.
Reports confirm that 10 people including those wounded have been rescued though rescue efforts are hampered fears of booby traps left by the attackers.
 
More security personnel has been deployed in the area to take charge of the situation. The County police commander confirmed the attack.
Mandera Governor, Ali Roba has condemned the attack and called for the Mandera people not to be fooled by the terrorists’ acts of targeting non-locals. He said the terror attacks were isolating Mandera economically by scaring investors away.
“Al-Shabaab is making it look like they are targeting non-locals but their aim is to make sure we don’t attract investors Population of Mandera needs to wake up from slumber and realize attacks are aimed at economic isolation,”  he said.
Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow asked the police to pull up their efforts given the frequency of terror attacks in Mandera and Wajir. “In the last 3 months we have had attacks in Wajir and Mandera We are urging the security forces to scale up their work,” he said.

In an interview with Business Daily, Acheing Abura disclosed she was trying to raise Kes 4 million to have her son, Prince Abura, travel to the UK for medical treatment.
Achieng Abura disclosed.
 
The legendry songbird also revealed her efforts to raise the cash was unsuccessful since her friends failed to help her.
Also Read:
Well, Kenyans haven’t deserted Acheing; they have responded with generous contributions towards the fundraising drive she established for her son.
Before she passed on, Acheing had set up an online fund on M-Changa to raise money for a sickly Prince Abura.
Just after she died and Kenyans learnt of the awkward situation her son was left in, well-wishers quickly responded by donating money towards the kitty.
 So far over 3 million shillings has been raised; 4 million is the amount required to have Prince Abura flown to the UK for treatment.
 
Meanwhile Kenyans have also been contributing towards the funeral of the fallen songstress; a major fundraiser will be held on October 27. You can contribute towards the same by sending your contribution to Mpesa No: 0722803758 (Lynette Abura)
 

Whaling nations defeated a renewed bid Tuesday by southern hemisphere states to create an Atlantic sanctuary for the marine mammals hunted to near extinction in the 20th century.
A proposal by Argentina, Brazil, Gabon, South Africa and Uruguay, which needed a 75 percent majority, mustered only 38 yes votes out of 64 cast at an International Whaling Commission meeting, an outcome lamented by conservationists.
Its main detractors were whalers Japan, Norway and Iceland — with backing from a number of African, Asian and small island states.
“With all the problems currently facing whale populations that have previously been devastated by commercial whaling, it is clear they need a protected zone where they will be able not just to survive, but to rebuild and thrive,” said Greenpeace whale expert John Frizell.
“What is the most disappointing is that all these efforts are ultimately being undermined by IWC member countries who are thousands of miles away, not even in the southern hemisphere and some even on the other side of the world.”
The proposal, backed by countries which depend on whale-watching tourist dollars, has been shot down at every IWC meeting since it was first introduced in 2001.
“It is very disappointing that once again, a proposal for a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary has been harpooned,” said Matt Collins of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
“A sanctuary in this region would have provided strong protection to a wide range of whale and dolphin species.”
The proposed scheme involves creating a whale sanctuary of 20 million square kilometres (eight million square miles) in the South Atlantic ocean.
Backers say about 71 percent of an estimated three million whales killed around the world between 1900 and 1999 were taken in southern hemisphere waters.
The most targeted species were fin, sperm, blue, humpback, sei and minke whales, they say — and many populations are still recovering under a 30-year old moratorium on all but aboriginal whale hunting.
According to the proposal filed with the commission, the sanctuary would “promote the biodiversity, conservation and non-lethal utilisation of whale resources in the South Atlantic Ocean”.
But Japan, under fire for its annual whale hunts in the name of science, which critics say is a cover for commercial whaling, expressed vehement opposition.
Tokyo argues that stocks of some species have recovered sufficiently to make them fair game for hunters, and that simply declaring all whales off-limits was not in line with environmental imperatives.
“Sustainable use of marine living resources, including whales… is perfectly consistent with environmental protection,” Japan’s IWC commissioner told delegates on Monday.
“This proposal is against the principle of sustainable utilisation of marine living resources,” he said of the sanctuary.
Two other sanctuaries exist today, in the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean — where Japan conducts some of its hunts.
New Zealand and Australia have submitted a proposal for scientific whale hunts, such as those Japan says it conducts, to be much more closely scrutinised.
While there are no reports of hunting in the South Atlantic today, Brazil’s IWC commissioner Hermano Ribeiro told AFP on Monday a sanctuary would provide “some kind of security”.
“There is a whale killing and catching in the (Southern Ocean), who may tell us that if a particular species begins to be depleted the whale-catchers for science will not come to the South Atlantic?
“We want to avoid that,” he said.
Whale-watching is an estimated $2-billion-dollar-a-year (1.8-billion-euro) industry, employing some 13,000 people around the world.
There are an estimated 51 species of cetaceans — whales, dolphins and porpoises — in the South Atlantic.

A source at the agency said the investigation touched on alleged misuse of funds alloted for fighting Boko Haram, Nigeria’s notorious jihadist group.
“We have arrested Reuben Abati and he is undergoing interrogation in connection with some issues bordering on graft,” Economic and Financial Crimes Commission spokesman Wilson Uwujaren told AFP.
Uwujaren said Abati was arrested on Monday and was still in custody.
Another EFCC official, who did not want to be named, said Abati “is being questioned in relation to (an) ongoing investigation into the misappropriation of funds earmarked for arms to fight Boko Haram.”
Abati was a popular columnist and chairman of the editorial board of the independent Guardian newspaper before his appointment as Jonathan’s spokesman.
The journalist is accused of receiving money from former national security adviser Sambo Dasuki, currently facing a slew of charges over alleged bogus arms deals in which money meant for military procurements to fight Boko Haram was diverted for political purposes.
The funds were allegedly used to finance Jonathan’s re-election in the 2015 vote which he lost to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.
Another EFCC source told AFP the former federal capital territory (Abuja) minister, Bala Mohammed, was also in custody.
“The FCT minister was arrested yesterday and he is being grilled in connection with some funds running into millions of dollars he allegedly misappropriated while in office,” he said.
He said Mohammed, a former senator, was also being detained over “questionable” land allocations in the nation’s capital.
“He is answering questions for allocating choicy plots of land to his sons and cronies,” he added.
Buhari has launched a wide-ranging campaign against corruption targeting key members of the previous regime.
Former ministers, prominent party chiefs, media owners and relations of the former president are facing charges.
The focus on officials from the former ruling party has led some critics to claim Buhari is using the anti-graft crackdown as a way to silence political foes.
In a statement in Lagos on Tuesday, PRNigeria — a media consultancy group — quoted Jonathan as saying it was impossible for his former spy master, Dasuki, to have stolen $2.2 billion as being alleged by the EFCC.
“I don’t believe somebody can just steal $2.2 billion,” the former president said after his lecture at the famous Oxford Union in London.
“We bought warships, we bought aircraft, we bought lots of weapons for the army and so on and so forth and you are still saying 2.2 billion, so where did we get the money to buy all those things?,” he asked.
Jonathan said corruption allegations under his watch were exaggerated.
“Yes, there were some issues. Yes, there are still corruption issues but some of it were overblown. I’d say exaggerated and they give a very bad impression about our nation. You cannot say the national security adviser stole $2.2 billion. It is just not possible,” he added.

Eurozone officials announced Tuesday they have approved 2.8 billion euros for Greece from its huge third bailout after the cash-strapped nation delivered the needed reforms.
Following the latest disbursement approved by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Greece will have received 31.7 billion euros of the 86-billion-euro bailout granted in July 2015, its third since being engulfed by debt in 2010.
“Today’s decision to disburse 2.8 billion euros ($3.0 billion) to Greece is a sign that the Greek people are steadily making progress in reforming their country,” the ESM’s managing director Klaus Regling said in a statement.
An ESM spokesman told AFP the funds would likely be disbursed Wednesday.
The left-wing government of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has reached milestones in pension reform, bank governance, the energy sector, and revenue collection, according to the director of the ESM, the Eurozone body controlling Greece’s bailout loans.
The government won office in January 2015 initially opposed to creditor demands.
“It has also taken further steps in making the new privatisation and investment fund operational,” Regling said of the government which won office in January 2015 initially opposed to creditor demands.
If Greece implements more of the reforms under the bailout programme, its economy could “accelerate next year and the government may be able to start issuing bonds again next year,” Regling said.
Athens has not issued bonds since 2014, the only time that has happened since the start of the crisis in 2010.
Two weeks ago Eurozone finance ministers unlocked 1.1 billion euros for Greece but held back the other 1.7 billion over Athens’s mountain of unpaid bills over doubts from Germany.
The eurozone had demanded more data before approving disbursement. The 1.1 billion euros is to be used for debt servicing, while the 1.7 billion euros will go to a dedicated account for clearing arrears, the Luxembourg-based ESM said.
Athens has also lived up to pledges to clear arrears, which will boost the economy, Regling said.
“I hope our good cooperation with the Greek government continues, so that the second review of the programme can be completed in a timely manner,” he added.
Athens is eager to win the latest bailout cash and complete a second review by the end of the year, which would then trigger talks on reducing the country’s huge debt load.
Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse and paymaster which holds elections next year, is loath to forgive any of Greece’s debt, but tackling the problem is a firm demand of rescue partner, the International Monetary Fund.
The Washington-based IMF, a key player in Greece’s three bailouts, has said it won’t give a penny to the latest one until it sees a concrete plan from the Europeans to substantially cut Greece’s massive debt burden.
But the IMF and EU creditors disagree sharply on how much Athens can improve its finances through ongoing reforms.
On top of last year’s bailout of 86 billion euros, Greece received two earlier bailouts costing 240 billon euros.

A bomb blast at a guesthouse in northeast Kenya killed at least 12 people on Tuesday, in an attack claimed by Shabaab militants who last hit the area earlier this month.
“We have found 12 bodies so far after we managed to access the building,” a senior police officer told AFP.
“We are still combing the area with the help of anti-terrorism police and sniffer dogs in the ongoing search and rescue.”
Eleven men and one woman were killed in the 3:30 am (0030 GMT) blast at the Bisharo lodge, a police source told AFP. The toll was confirmed in a government statement that said part of the building was collapsed by the blast.
Kenyan media reported that some of the dead were members of a theatre group due to perform for school children in Mandera.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab militant group claimed the attack in a message broadcast by its Radio Andalus media organisation, claiming 15 were killed.
“This attack is part of a series of attacks in which the Mujahideen are hunting down infidels” in northeast Kenya, the group said.
It is the second Shabaab strike in Mandera in three weeks. The previous one on October 6 killed six people at a gated residential building that mainly housed non-Muslims, less than a kilometre from the volatile Somalia border town of Beled Hawa.
Also on Tuesday, a Shabaab suicide bomber attacked an African Union military base housing Djiboutian soldiers in the central Somali city of Beledweyne.
It is not known how many were killed in that attack which comes as Somalia is in the process of selecting parliamentarians, and a new president, due by the end of November.
Mandera governor Ali Roba said the raids in Mandera were designed to divide communities and destroy the economy.
“This is an attack that is aimed at making sure we don’t attract investors, we do not attract a professional workforce, we do not have interaction with the rest of the country,” Roba told a press conference on Tuesday morning.
Northeastern regional security boss Mohamoud Saleh said he suspected “local criminal gangs” of complicity since border security had been stepped up after the October 6 attack.
Another security source who did not want to be named told AFP local politics might also be involved, with some seeking to trigger a declaration of a state of emergency that would prevent elections taking place as scheduled next year.
“There is serious political tension in the county,” the source said.
The Shabaab has fought to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu since 2007, but turned its sights on Kenya when the army was sent into Somalia in 2011 to fight the Islamic insurgents.
Since then the militants have targeted civilians in different parts of Kenya, including a dramatic assault on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall in 2013 in which at least 67 people were killed.

Moscow said Tuesday that Russian and Syrian warplanes have not conducted any air strikes on the city of Aleppo for the last seven days and are upholding a moratorium on bombing.
“All flights by Russian and Syrian air forces have been completely halted in a 10-kilometre zone around Aleppo since October 18,” senior military official Sergei Rudskoi said at a briefing.
“The moratorium on air strikes by Russian and Syrian planes around the city will be extended,” he added, without specifying a timeframe.
A so-called “humanitarian pause” declared by Damascus and Moscow ran out at 1600 GMT on Saturday, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported there were air strikes afterwards against the opposition-controlled district of Sheikh Saeed.
Russia’s defence spokesman Igor Konashenskov said earlier that six passages for civilians to leave rebel-held eastern Aleppo were still functioning and that 48 women and children left late Monday.
Russia on Monday ruled out early moves to renew its ceasefire in Aleppo after the brief halt ended, admitting that few people had used humanitarian passages to leave the city and blaming failures by the US-led coalition.
Ahead of the ceasefire, Russian and Syrian planes had stopped bombing on Tuesday last week.
The West has accused Moscow of perpetrating potential war crimes in Aleppo through indiscriminate bombing in support of a Syrian government offensive to retake total control over the city.
Nearly 500 people have been killed and more than 2,000 wounded since the Syrian army, backed by Russian airpower, launched an operation to recapture eastern Aleppo on September 22.
Russia is a key ally of Syria’s government and began a military intervention in support of President Bashar al-Assad in September last year.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem is set to hold talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Friday.

World Series managers sent a clear message to their players – pay no attention to the historic title droughts that have created such a tremendous buzz around your games.
The Chicago Cubs, who have not won a title since 1908 in the longest championship futility streak in American sports history, worked out on the eve of the opener of the 112th World Series against the Cleveland Indians, whose title drought since 1948 is the second-longest in Major League Baseball annals.
“I think we all have a tremendous amount of respect for history and what has happened before us or not happened before us, Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “But you go in that room right now, they are very young. Really not impacted by a lot of the lore.”
The Cubs feature five starters who are 24 or younger, including 22-year-old shortstop Addison Russell. Not reaching the World Series since 1945 is ancient history to him and his teammates even as it represents a lifetime’s wait for many of their devoted supporters.
“We are impacted by our city and our fans and the people that attend our games and the conversations that we have,” Maddon said. “But I don’t think when there’s a groundball hit to Addie, he’s going to be worried about stuff like that.
“They’re going to be in the moment. That’s what we’ve done and that’s all I preach. Hopefully they’ll be able to get this done and at that point you can really reflect on everything, interact with folks and really try to get down to the root of all of this.
“But in the meantime, man, I really anticipate and expect our guys to stay right in the moment.”
It’s much the same for Indians manager Terry Francona, who in 2004 managed the Boston Red Sox to their first World Series crown since 1918.
He can feel the excitement in Cleveland fans, who had not celebrated a champion in any sport since the 1964 NFL Browns until the Cavaliers won the NBA crown in June. He knows the Indians have not been to the World Series since 1997. But Francona knows such reflections are best done after the task at hand is finished.
“I just think if you look too far back, you look too far forward, you miss what’s right in front of you,” Francona said.
“These players have earned the right to try and see if we can beat the Cubs, and that’s going to be a tall enough task. But I don’t think we need to go back and concern ourselves with 40, 50, 60 years ago.”
But even he couldn’t resist acknowledging the excitement, adding, “Now, if you win, it makes for a cool story.”
The Indians will play the World Series opener at home for the first time ever Tuesday while across the street, the Cavaliers will raise a championship banner in their season opener.
“This is going to be the number one place to be for sports,” Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis said. “What a special day for a city to do that.”
The Cubs, who won a major league-best 103 games this season, send left-hander Jon Lester to the mound in game one against right-handed pitcher Corey Kluber for Cleveland.
Chicago is favored and despitre Maddon’s talk about focus on the moment, the Cubs can feel the hopes and dreams of long-suffering Cubs fans worldwide resting on their shoulders.
“We know how much it means to everyone,” Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “But at the end of the day, we have to go out and play.”
Lester, who won World Series titles with Boston in 2007 and 2013, is enjoying the Cubs’ date with destiny.
“It’s awesome, especially to be a part of this organization with all the history and all that fun stuff,” Lester said.
“We don’t look ahead of anything. We stay where we’re at. And we’ll enjoy this for the next however many days and see where we’re at the at the end.
“One of us has to win, right?”

Clutching a radio in his hand on a barren hill surrounded by desert peaks, Sahil prepares to guide a pilot flying low overhead toward his training target — the third car in a convoy below.
Under pressure from the Taliban, Afghanistan’s military is increasingly relying on the country’s young air force, and, together with Western allies, is speeding up its training of pilots and ground controllers in order to strike the enemy.
Once a strong flying power supported by the Soviet Union, Afghanistan’s air force was decimated by the civil war of the 1990s and the turbulent period of Taliban-rule.
By the time Western forces started rebuilding it in 2007, there were only a handful of MiG fighters left.
“There are currently 78 trained and available aircrews in the Afghan Air Force,” says Captain James Smith, spokesman for the US 438th Air Expeditionary Wing, which is responsible for training the Afghans.
But there is still a long way to go. The AAF now has around 100 aircraft, including 27 MD-530 attack helicopters, and about 20 small support aircraft, such as the Brazilian built A-29 Super Tucanos — used against drug traffickers in Latin America. It also has approximately 50 Russian Mi-17 transport choppers.
“With the three main bases in Kabul, Kandahar and Shindand, the bad guys know (the AAF) can strike anywhere in the country,” says Captain Smith, adding: “I have been in an MD-530 when firing a rocket and believe me, it’s no joke.”
The “bad guys” — the Taliban — have stepped up their insurgency to record levels following the withdrawal of foreign combat troops in 2014, inflicting more than 5,000 deaths on government forces last year.
Along with training pilots, NATO is also trying to ensure there are enough skilled Afghan Tactical Air Coordinators (ATAC) on the ground.
Hence the exercise in this desert base in Logar, about forty kilometres (25 miles) south of Kabul, to test the abilities of young pilots and future ATACs — “the eyes and ears” on the ground, according to one of the five being trained that day.
“When you are in flight it’s very difficult to tell who’s on the ground — you need to have someone who tells you who is who”, explains Air Force Colonel Andrew Jannsen, the man overseeing the training.
Twenty-two year old Akram, considered by his trainers to be among the most promising, is critical of Sahil’s performance despite the fact he helped the missiles hit their target using a handheld laser device.
“They talk too much, it (took) too much time,” he says.
There are three key points the controller must convey: his own position, that of the enemy, and any civilians in the area.
But the growing strength of the AAF has been accompanied by a rising number of unintended deaths: according to the UN, 133 civilians have been killed and 159 injured in air strikes since January 1, a 72 percent rise on the same period in 2015 — with Afghan crews responsible for two-thirds of casualties.
It is a statistic that Major General Wahab Wardak, Commander of the Air Force, regrets.
“Unfortunately, Taliban often hide in homes. We issue orders to avoid bombing residential zones but these things happen in war,” he says.
“To mitigate civilian casualties the ATAC is the bigger factor,” says Colonel Janssen. “And the pilots themselves can call off the mission if they don’t find themselves comfortable.”
He insists that the officers are also briefed on ways to reduce casualties — unlike in the Soviet-era when, according to Janssen, the mantra was to strike first, ask questions later.
Flying is a dream for many young Afghans. Some “1,800 to 2000” apply for for each batch of the Afghan Air Force Academy in Kabul, says its commander Colonel Naqitullah Woror.
Of this number, around a hundred 18 to 26-year-olds get picked in the first selection. Each recruit is subject to intensive background checks by Afghan intelligence, and must also be sponsored by two officers to attest they have no links to the enemy.
So called ‘green-on-blue’ attacks in which Afghan troops turn their weapons on Coalition partners have been a frequent occurence in recent years, with two Americans dying in such an incident near Kabul last week. “This has never happened with us,” says Woror.
Six women are currently at the academy, hoping to follow in the footsteps of Captain Niloofar Rahmani, the country’s first female pilot who graduated in 2013 and finished her training in Arkansas.
Piloting an aircraft in a flight simulator, female recruit Shamin, 22, says she joined the academy “with the blessing of my family”, despite living in a society that is often reluctant for women to take on such roles.

Two women and two men were killed at a theme park on Australia’s popular Gold Coast Tuesday, police said, with witnesses describing how “everyone was screaming” after a raft apparently flipped on a water ride.
Queensland police said the four victims died on the Thunder River Rapids ride at the Dreamworld park, as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull offered prayers to their families over what he called a “very, very, sad, tragic event”.
“Four adult persons have lost their lives as a result of the incident,” Queensland Police spokesman Todd Reid told reporters on the Gold Coast.
He added that the victims were two men aged 35 and 38, and two women aged 32 and 42. Investigators were notifying their next of kin and no names or nationalities were released.
The ride, which carries circular rafts that can accommodate six persons, “sustained some sort of malfunction, causing two people to be ejected from the ride, another two people were caught inside the ride”, Fuller said.
The Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper reported that water was drained from the attraction in an effort to save trapped victims, but to no avail.
Dreamworld, which opened in 1981 and has over 40 rides and attractions, said in a statement that it was “working as quickly as possible to establish the facts around the incident and is working closely with emergency authorities and police to do this”.
“Dreamworld’s focus and priority is with the families of those involved in this tragedy and will be providing an update to the public as soon as information becomes available.”
Dreamworld said the park would be closed “until further notice”.
A witness who was about to go on the ride said “everyone was screaming” after a raft apparently flipped.
“We saw (a) little girl and we believe it was her mum because it was just her and her little sister that was an infant,” Lia Capes told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“I was speaking to one of the guys and he said it was the raft or the boat thing in front of him, the whole thing flipped and everyone was screaming.”
Another witness, who did not want to be named, told the Gold Coast Bulletin: “My sister and niece were on the ride, they are so traumatised, there is a woman hanging by her foot, crushed from the ride.”
Turnbull said it was a “very sad day” and vowed a thorough investigation into the accident.
“Theme parks are a place for family fun and happiness, not tragedy. This is a very, very, sad, tragic event. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who lost their lives,” he added.
The Thunder River Rapids ride is promoted as a family-friendly “white water rafting” experience, where people “travel down a foamy water track past the Gold Rush Country, speeding up to 45 kph through the turbulent rapids”.
Dreamworld is Australia’s largest theme park, and features what it calls the biggest and fastest thrills rides in the country. It is run by entertainment operator Ardent Leisure Group.
The accident came two years after an eight-year-old Malaysian girl died when she was flung from a ride at the Royal Adelaide Show, and 37 years after the deaths of six children and one man in a fire on a train at Sydney’s Luna Park.

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said his new-look team is relishing the pressure entering their 2016-2017 NBA campaign opener on Tuesday against the San Antonio Spurs.
The Warriors’ blockbuster off-season move for Kevin Durant has made the already formidable-looking Dubs an even more daunting proposition as they set out to regain their NBA Finals crown.
Kerr, however, said Monday his team of all-stars welcomed the burden of expectation that comes with being able to field a team with Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green in the line-up.
The experienced coach suggested the pressure could even motivate his team towards surpassing last term’s record-breaking unbeaten start to the season, when the Warriors went 24-0.
“We all have pressure,” Kerr told reporters. “But that’s a good thing. The alternative is, hey, maybe we can win 30 this year instead of 25.
“A lot of the teams in the league have that, teams that have gone through rebuilding stuff, and they’re trying to get where we are.
“So we’re in a really enviable position, we know how lucky we are to be together with this group. We understand the responsibility that comes with it.
“But that’s fine, that’s a good position to be in.”
A sell-out crowd will pack Oakland’s Oracle Arena to watch the competitive Warriors debut of Durant, who has rapidly blended into the Golden State set-up following his arrival from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“He still has some learning to do. But he has really picked up on just kind of the way we play. There’s a little chaos but there’s some pattern to the chaos and I think he’s embracing the chaos, for sure,” Kerr told reporters.
“I think he’s really adapting well and fitting in well. But it’s only been a few weeks, so the little nuances, there’s still stuff that he’s figuring out.”
Durant, meanwhile, has rapidly made himself at home in the Bay Area, delighting fans after video footage emerged of him dancing in a mosh pit at a Kanye West concert in Oakland on Sunday.
Kerr laughed about his star acquisition’s weekend exertions on Monday.
“I cut practice short a little bit today because I saw he got a great workout last night,” Kerr joked, adding that he was happy to see Durant quickly assimilate to life in the city.
“He has been into the city, he has been around Oakland, he’s trying to get to know his surroundings as well as possible,” Kerr said.
“This is a beautiful part of the world and a great, interesting place to live and he’s having fun and getting used to everything and enjoying himself.”
Durant, meanwhile, said he had no hesitation about heading to the West concert.
“I was happy I was able to go,” he said Monday, laughing off suggestions that he breached an unwritten rule against celebrities in the mosh pit.
“I’m not a celebrity anyway,” he laughed, adding that he had not been concerned for his safety. “Nah — I’m covered man. I’m covered by a higher power no matter what happens.”

Athletics’ world body has decided not to investigate bribery claims against Qatar after a preliminary probe failed to find anything more than “rumours” surrounding bidding for the 2017 world championships.
The IAAF was acting on testimony from UK Athletics chief Ed Warner that the world body’s then vice-president, and now president Sebastian Coe had told him Qatari delegates were handing out cash-stuffed “brown envelopes” before members cast their votes in 2011.
But the body’s ethics board said Coe, when questioned, couldn’t remember hearing the rumour or making the comment, and that nobody present had corroborated Warner’s claim.
“To date, none of the respondents have had any relevant evidence corroborative of Mr. Warner’s recollection or relevant to the alleged factual matters the subject of the purported rumour,” a statement said.
London won the vote to host the 2017 world championships, while Qatar will hold the following edition in 2019 after coming out on top in a ballot in 2014.
Qatar was also embroiled in corruption allegations surrounding its successful bid to host the football World Cup in 2022.
A World Anti-Doping Agency report in January claimed that “corruption was embedded” in the IAAF, whose former president Lamine Diack has been charged with corruption, money-laundering and conspiracy.

Jurors in the murder trial of British banker Rurik Jutting viewed harrowing iPhone footage on Tuesday showing him torture an Indonesian woman whose decaying body was later found dead in a suitcase in his Hong Kong flat.
Jutting, 31, is standing trial for the murders of two Indonesian women, both of whom were killed in his luxury apartment two years ago.
The former securities trader for Bank of America-Merrill Lynch pleaded “not guilty” to the two murder charges Monday, on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter, which was rejected by the prosecution.
Jurors Tuesday watched around 20 minutes of footage of Jutting attacking the first victim, Sumarti Ningsih, 23, who prosecutors said was tortured for three days after she arrived at his flat on October 25, 2014. Jutting had offered her money for sex.
Reporters in court did not view the disturbing footage, which was shown on individual screens to jurors, but were able to hear the audio.
“If you scream I will punch you, you understand?” said Jutting, who also repeatedly asked Ningsih if she loved him.
The only sound from Ningsih in the video was a muted squeal, according to an AFP reporter in court.
The prosecution then showed a number of clips of a topless and ranting Jutting talking to the camera after he had killed Ningsih.
The court heard Monday that he had cut her neck with a serrated knife in the shower after forcing her to lick a toilet bowl.
“About five minutes ago I just killed, murdered this woman,” says Jutting in the iPhone footage.
“I’ve done a lot of coke”, he says.
“I’ve tortured her badly.”
The start of the footage showed a brief glimpse of Ningsih’s body lying awkwardly in the shower.
“Three days of torture, rape and mentally brutalised,” he says.
“I’ve never seen anyone that scared.”
He had used pliers, sex toys and a belt in the attacks on Ningsih, the court heard Monday.
Jutting said the sense of dominance was “addictive”.
“I feel a bit sad because she was a good person, but I don’t really feel guilty,” he said in the video footage.
In more than four hours of monologues, Jutting spoke on camera about masturbation, drugs, prostitutes, and “dark fantasies”, and quoted from television series “Game of Thrones”. He was also seen inhaling a substance through a white tube.
“When I’m high on coke I have the propensity just to do bad things,” Jutting said in the recording.
In one clip he goes back to check on Ningsih’s body which is still in the shower with the water running.
He describes himself as a “part-time rapist and murderer”, then rebukes himself for killing Ningsih, who was mother of a young son.
“I’ve not done anything close to this,” Jutting said in the video, saying he last punched someone when he was 12.
“Jesus Christ, she was a mother,” he said.
The Cambridge graduate closed his eyes when the videos were being shown in court.
Ningsih and Seneng Mujiasih, 26, were found dead in Jutting’s flat in the early hours of November 1, 2014, after he called police.
Jutting cut Mujiasih’s throat hours after he had met her at a bar near his home in Wan Chai and offered her money for sex on October 31, the prosecution said.
Police found her in the living room while Ningsih’s body was discovered in a suitcase on Jutting’s balcony.
In clips shown Tuesday afternoon, Jutting shows off “torture” instruments to use on Mujiasih, including a small blow torch, while dance music plays.
Prosecutors described Monday how he killed Mujiasih after she screamed when she saw a rope gag in the living room.
“There will be no redemption for me,” Jutting said in one of the final video clips shown in court.
The killings shone a spotlight on the seedy underbelly of the finance hub. Jutting’s flat lay streets away from one of the city’s red light districts.
Indonesian migrant organisations in Hong Kong have called for justice for the women, and compensation for their families.

Hollywood may have kicked karate onto the world stage, but its first-ever Olympic inclusion at the Tokyo 2020 Games promises to shine a light on the rich history of the discipline.
At 78, sensei Masahiro Nakamoto has been waiting decades for this decision, insisting there is far more to the martial art than the caricature depicted in films such as Karate Kid and by action stars Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
“This is the art of defence,” the karate master told AFP at his dojo in Naha, Okinawa — an island chain some 600 kilometres (375 miles) from the southern tip of mainland Japan.
“You don’t go just kicking and punching, you receive your opponent’s blow. Defending yourself translates into offence,” he added.
At the Tokyo Games, 80 competitors will take part in the Karate event. It joins surfing, skateboarding, climbing and baseball-softball as new sports included for the 2020 edition.
“The dreams of the world’s karate athletes came true when the (International Olympic Committee) made its decision,” said Japan Karate do Federation vice president Shigeo Kurihara.
“It’s an historic event — it was a day of joy for all of us.”
A blend of indigenous fighting styles, karate was born in Okinawa in the 15th century when the area was ruled by the independent Ryukyu Kingdom. Strong trading links meant the sport was also influenced by Chinese martial arts.
It is far older than the modern Olympics and today has at least 10 million registered practitioners worldwide, and yet it has struggled to make the case for inclusion in the Games.
By contrast, judo, a Japanese martial art, and Korea’s taekwondo are already permanent fixtures on the roster. Judo made its Olympic debut when Tokyo hosted the 1964 Games while taekwondo made its first appearance at the global event in 1988.
Integrating karate into the Olympics has been delayed by divisions in the movement around the world, with stalwarts long preferring to adhere to their interpretation rather than to work together to create an global art form.
“The variety of styles ? more than 20 ? complicated efforts to unify karate,” said Francis Didier, vice president of the World Karate Federation.
“It took a bit too long to modernise the rules of competition,” he admitted.
Sport karate, for example, calls for competition rules where opponents have to control their blows, while traditional karate allows for harder shots but requires significant protective gear, such as boxing gloves and helmets.
The martial art was only brought to Tokyo in the early 20th century when Gichin Funakoshi, regarded as the father of modern karate, moved from Naha.
“Okinawa was the place where karate’s spirituality developed,” explains Kurihara.
Frustrations remain however, that Okinawa’s role in the development of karate has been airbrushed out of history. For Nakamoto, the Olympic Games in four years time, is a chance to redress that.
“This is a great chance to show the world where karate has its roots. The world may be surprised to know that it was developed here,” he said, adding that it was inexorably linked to the island chain’s politics.
When the Ryukyu Kingdom ruled Okinawa for more than 400 years starting in the 15th century, brewers hired karate masters to protect shipments of indigenous rice-based liquor called Awamori, Nakamoto explained.
A vital tool of diplomacy at the time — keeping leaders on good terms with China and Japan.
“Brewers could sell their surplus so it was the jobs of karate masters to protect convoys from robbery,” Nakamoto said.
“In summer, they would rest outside and drink the spirits — so it became part of the skill, to defend ourselves from attack while drunk, or asleep.”
Karate expert and author Stephane Fauchard insists inclusion at the Tokyo 2020 Games will bring people to the sport.
“This is going to boost the sport’s visibility. The Games are a great showcase,” he told AFP.
Still, Fauchard doesn’t expect one big happy karate family.
He explained: “Sport karate will continue to develop in national federations while traditional karate will still be taught in schools. They’ll both benefit from the media attention brought by the Olympics and continue to exist side by side.”
Karate will still have to prove its credentials to retain an Olympic sport beyond 2020 however, the IOC will review whether its inclusion was a success.
Didier argues it’s clear why karate should remain in the games after 2020.
“Karate is relatively inexpensive, and athletes compete in the same arena as their judo and wrestling counterparts, and can be run over a few days.”

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika included three uncapped players in a 32-man squad for their European tour Tuesday as they look to bounce back from another demoralising defeat to the dominant All Blacks.
Fresh from unleashing a tirade against New Zealand for a perceived lack of respect after their 37-10 win in Auckland on Saturday, Cheika named Marika Koroibete, Tolu Latu and Kyle Godwin as potential debutants.
Australia face Wales, Scotland, France, Ireland and England on their northern hemisphere jaunt, with the first Test against the Welsh at Millennium Stadium on November 6 — the Wallabies’ 600th.
Flanker Dean Mumm will miss the game after being been suspended for one match after striking All Blacks lock Brodie Retallick in Saturday’s Test, where Cheika refused to congratulate New Zealand on posting a world-record 18th consecutive victory.
Cheika, who took offence at being portrayed as a clown in a New Zealand newspaper cartoon, is also without powerful centre Samu Kerevi, who has been ruled out of the entire tour with an ankle injury that needed surgery.
That opens the door again for Tevita Kuridrani in the starting 13, after Kerevi overtook him in the pecking order.
Aside from rugby league convert Koroibete, hooker Latu and utility player Godwin, there were no real surprises in the squad skippered by Stephen Moore.
Halfback Will Genia will join the team after being released by his French club Stade Francais for a potential Test recall as the tour comes inside World Rugby’s international window.
The trip represents just the third full Grand Slam tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland for the Wallabies since the success of the 1984 side led by Andrew Slack. They depart on Friday.
Australia squad:
Allan Alaalatoa, Rory Arnold, Adam Coleman, Quade Cooper, Kane Douglas, Scott Fardy, Israel Folau, Bernard Foley, Nick Frisby, Will Genia, Kyle Godwin, James Hanson, Dane Haylett-Petty, Reece Hodge, Michael Hooper, Sekope Kepu, Marika Koroibete, Tevita Kuridrani, Tolu Latu, Sean McMahon, Stephen Moore (capt), Dean Mumm, Sefanaia Naivalu, Nick Phipps, David Pocock, Tom Robertson, Rob Simmons, Scott Sio, Will Skelton, Henry Speight, James Slipper, Lopeti Timani
European Tour schedule:
Wales v Australia at Millennium Stadium – November 6
Scotland v Australia at Murrayfield – November 13
France v Australia at Stade de France – November 20
Ireland vs Australia at Aviva Stadium – November 27
England vs Australia at Twickenham – December 4

The United States wants to remain involved in the campaign to quell Islamic militancy in the southern Philippines, its ambassador to Manila said Tuesday after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to kick out American forces.
Ambassador Philip Goldberg said the security threat in the conflict-plagued region was “very serious”, warning the Islamic State group was among a number of foreign militant organisations trying to increase its involvement there.
“We’ve helped the Philippines as it has reduced the threat over time,” Goldberg told ABS-CBN television.
“But we are concerned obviously about any new intrusion of ISIS (Islamic State group) or any other group that wants to take advantage of open space in the south of the Philippines. So we want to continue doing that.”
The United States had deployed from 2002 to 2014 a rotating force of about 600 troops to the southern Philippines to train local soldiers in how to combat Islamic militants.
The presence was scaled down after the United States deemed the militants there had “largely devolved into disorganised groups resorting to criminal undertakings”, according to a US statement in 2014.
Islamic militant attacks spiked after that, most prominently with the homegrown Abu Sayyaf group abducting dozens of foreigners and locals to extort ransoms.
About 100 American troops remain in the south, Goldberg said on Tuesday.
But Duterte, who took office on June 30, has said they are adding to tensions with the Islamic communities in the southern region of Mindanao.
“These US special forces, they have to go in Mindanao,” Duterte said last month.
Duterte, who describes himself as a socialist and part Muslim, has called for their ejection as part of a general effort to dilute his nation’s 70-year alliance with the United States.
Islamic militants have waged a decades-long separatist insurgency in Mindanao that has claimed more than 120,000 lives.
The region is the ancestral homeland of the Muslim minority in the mainly Catholic Philippines.
The major rebel organisations are no longer waging armed struggle, but harder-line splinter groups such as the Abu Sayyaf have remained a threat.
Goldberg warned Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian group responsible for the deadly 2002 bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, and other foreigners were in Mindanao.
“This is a very serious issue,” Goldberg said.
“We are not just dealing with Abu Sayyaf but groups from the region like Jemaah Islamiyah. We see increasing efforts from ISIS to become involved.”

Malaysia is planning to take a “temporary break” from Formula One because of mounting losses, officials said on Tuesday, in ominous signs for one of Asia’s longest-running grands prix.
Officials are due to meet this week to discuss the future of the Malaysian Grand Prix after its current contract expires in 2018.
“The locals are not buying the tickets to watch F1,” Razlan Razali, chief executive of the Sepang International Circuit (SIC), told AFP.
“If there is no economic value, why should we continue? We better take a temporary break.”
Falling ticket sales and ebbing TV viewership have sapped enthusiasm for the race, which has been held at the Sepang circuit near Kuala Lumpur since 1999.
It has become overshadowed by the glittering night grand prix in neighbouring Singapore, while Malaysia is also in the grip of political and economic problems.
Formula One races are often run at a loss but they are attractive to many cities because of their prestige and exposure to global audiences.
Razlan said Sepang, which can accommodate 120,000 fans, drew just 45,000 to last month’s grand prix, and added that race-day TV ratings were also poor.
He noted that hosting F1 is “very expensive.”
In comments on Twitter, Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said competition from other events outside of Malaysia was also taking its toll.
“When we first hosted the F1 it was a big deal. First in Asia outside Japan. Now so many venues. No first mover advantage. Not a novelty.”
“F1 ticket sales declining, TV viewership down. Foreign visitors down b/c (because) can choose Singapore, China, Middle East. Returns are not as big.”
“I think we should stop hosting the F1. At least for a while. Cost too high, returns limited.”
Official figures show Formula One has shed 200 million TV viewers globally since 2008, with common complaints including the predictability of races.
But the sport entered a new era last month when US firm Liberty Media announced a takeover, including a new chairman and plans for greater penetration in the United States.
The Sepang race, known for its tropical downpours and sauna-like conditions, is Asia second-oldest next to the Japanese Grand Prix, which dates back to 1976.
It has been overtaken by Singapore, which hosted the first F1 race under floodlights in 2008 and quickly outstripped Sepang in terms of spectators.
Sepang, one hour’s drive from central Kuala Lumpur, has also failed to match the lively entertainment and concerts at Singapore’s downtown race, officials said.
This year’s Singapore race saw an average of 73,000 spectators attend for each of the three days of the race weekend.
Meanwhile state energy firm Petronas, the race’s title sponsor which also backs the championship-leading Mercedes team, has been badly hit by zig-zagging oil prices, which have crimped Malaysia’s economic growth prospects.
Malaysian politics are also volatile as Prime Minister Najib Razak spars with his predecessor Mahathir Mohamad — whose son quit as the Sepang circuit’s chairman last month — over a money-laundering scandal linked to state fund 1MDB.
Razlan declined to offer precise figures on the grand prix’s losses, but Malaysia’s MotoGP is consistently popular and this year’s race on Sunday is sold out.
Last month’s Malaysian F1 race was touched by controversy when nine Australian fans were detained for celebrating countryman Daniel Ricciardo’s win by stripping down to swimwear emblazoned with the Malaysian flag.
Displays of public indecency are frowned upon in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has been given a new deal by Guangzhou Evergrande after guiding the Asian giants to their sixth consecutive Chinese Super League title, the club announced, putting to rest doubts about his future.
“Continue the fight! #Be the best forever#” the team wrote over a picture of Scolari on its verified Weibo social media account Tuesday.
The Brazilian signed a “1+1” deal with Evergrande, the club said. It did not define the term but reports described it as a one-year deal, with an option for another year.
Well-heeled Evergrande, owned by an eponymous property company and Chinese internet giant Alibaba, have a stranglehold on Chinese football and a record of ruthlessly replacing coaches.
They were poised to replace Scolari next season and bring another World Cup-winning manager, Marcello Lippi, back to the club.
But they stepped aside to allow the Italian to take the helm at China’s national team, who are once again struggling in the latest round of World Cup qualifiers.
Even with Lippi on board China look unlikely to reach the next World Cup, slowing President Xi Jinping’s push to turn the country into a football powerhouse.
Scolari, who won the World Cup with Brazil in 2002, had said over the weekend he hoped to see out his contract.
The Brazilian led the team to win the AFC Champions League in 2015, but his stock plummeted when their title defence ended at the group stage in this year’s competition.

 
But it is not so much the ghosts that are spooking the inhabitants but the hordes of booze-fuelled thrill-seekers prowling around the settlement.
“There’s always some people who mess around. The village generally would rather Halloween did not happen,” Chris Housman, chairman of Pluckley Parish Council, told AFP.
Nestled by the chalk hills of Kent in southeast England, Pluckley is a tranquil village of some 800 souls that was recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book, Britain’s earliest public record.
It has an old church, a graveyard, the Black Horse pub and a butcher’s, and ivy creeps up the walls of its red-brick buildings.
On the face of it, Pluckley is an idyllic, quaint village in the English countryside.
But maps posted around the village reveal there is more to Pluckley than meets the eye.
“The area has 12 official ghosts, as well as many that are less well known,” it says.
“Pluckley is an odd village,” said Steve Moyle, the managing director of tour operator Ghost Hunt Events.
“In the daytime, it is a quiet, peaceful and friendly place. At night, the atmosphere changes and it becomes a mecca for would-be ghost hunters.
“People congregate around the graveyard, the station and the woods as these are the places that the stories tell of ghostly apparitions and strange goings-on.”
In the name of journalistic research, AFP trekked to several sites where ghosts have been recorded over the years.
The first port of call was St Nicholas Church and its graveyard which plays host to — as all good phantom-haunted places should — a “White Lady”, and also, more intriguingly, the “Red Lady”, whose nickname comes from her being buried with a rose.
The latter is the ghost of a local notable and has apparently haunted the scene for almost a millennium in search of her stillborn child.
The graveyard contains many leaning, weathered headstones, with their illegible inscriptions worn away just enough to get the imagination working — but not quite enough to conjure up visions of ectoplasmic activity.
A few miles away, more daring ghost-hunters can lose themselves in the Dering Woods — also known as the Screaming Woods, where the piercing shrieks of birds are easier to pick out than the mournful cries of any resident spectres.
In truth, among the numerous villagers AFP spoke to, only one confessed to believing in ghosts.
“Quite often I do catch things at the corner of my eyes or things move. You hear footsteps in the pub,” said Sarah Knight, landlady of the Black Horse.
“My back pocket gets tugged when I’m hoovering,” the 35-year-old said.
Some in Pluckley point out that the pub sells a tourist guide to the village’s ghost stories and it is therefore in their interests to keep the legends going to drum up custom from thirsty ghost-hunters.
Nonetheless, the allure of “the most haunted village in England” brings people into Pluckley around Halloween on October 31, attracting all manner of revellers from the curious to hellraisers in search of one of the 12 official ghosts.
“Sometimes it’s really bad,” said Linda, a woman in her 60s who works in Pluckley.
“They get drunk, wander in the village. Once they tried to burn the school down.”
John Bridgeman, 63, who lives opposite the church, finds the visitors’ ghost-hunting efforts laughable.
“A group of a dozen or so come and go with flashlights and then they wonder why they don’t see a ghost,” he said.

After making a splash on the tiny, honeymoon island of Guam, English coach Gary White is already proving a hit in the cut-throat world of Chinese football.
The 42-year-old, who left the palm-fringed Pacific island to manage Shanghai Shenxin earlier this year, has his eye on winning promotion to the Chinese Super League next season after saving the team from relegation.
“I came in June and the club was basically in free-fall,” White told AFP in a telephone interview. “Now there will be pressure to go up.”
White, who formerly played for English non-league club Bognor Regis, began coaching in 1998 when he was living on a council estate in Luton, north of London, and faxed every national association in the world looking for work.
Following spells with the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas before Guam, he arrived in Shanghai, where he was forced to plunder the reserves after being told there was no money in the transfer kitty.
“I got rid of a lot of dead wood and made some tough decisions,” he said, after guiding his side to a top-10 finish in China’s first division, one below the Super League.
“The first thing I had to do was get the players to think more positively because they didn’t have much belief, there was no motivation,” added White.
“It’s been a lot of hard work: getting to know the players, taking them for coffee to find out what makes them tick.”
White led all three national sides he has coached to their highest FIFA ranking. But at Shanghai he faces a battle to keep his best players out of the clutches of richer clubs.
“Most clubs in China are just teams where somebody’s gone to the supermarket and bought the best ingredients,” he said, referring to the Chinese game’s eye-watering spending power.
“There’s so much money in China, they can get any player they want. A lot of the bigger clubs are short-term thinkers.”
“Shenxin is a long-term thinking club,” added White, whose billionaire chairman Xu Guoliang owns a gold mine.
“A lot of the players in the first team have come through the academy system. They try to give kids a chance.”
With Chinese clubs outspending their English Premier League rivals in this year’s winter transfer window, top targets such as Jackson Martinez, Alex Teixeira, Ramires and Hulk are increasingly accepting lucrative offers from China.
“They’re definitely putting the money behind the talk,” said White, who has pitted his wits against the likes of Clarence Seedorf and Fabio Cannavaro in China’s League One.
White credits his Chinese wife Rui and baby son Flash for helping to ease the transition from island life to the hustle and bustle of Shanghai.
“It’s a very ruthless environment in China, but my wife has been great with the language and culture,” he said. “She’s also started to get into football.
“When we beat Cannavaro’s team (Tianjin) and everyone was celebrating, she was the first one to say: ‘You need to get focused, it’s just one game!’ She helps me keep my feet on the ground. No messing about!”
White offered some tips to young English coaches struggling to get a foothold in the game.
“If I had any advice it would be to go and further your horizons a little bit, don’t sit around waiting for offers,” he said. “Go into uncomfortable areas — it’s where you really find out about yourself.”
He also believes English coaches have not been helped by the scandal that cost Sam Allardyce his job after one game as England manager, when he was caught in an embarrassing newspaper sting.
“It really was disappointing with Sam,” White said. “I think it’s a disgrace. It doesn’t help the market for English coaches in terms of clubs looking at you.”
But he said his ultimate goal was managing England — which would complete quite a journey after his stints in Bognor, Guam and Shanghai.
“I’d definitely love to coach the national team and put some pride back into the national team,” said White. “It would be a wonderful honour. That would be my end goal.”

Cleveland sports fans, who endured more than 50 years of futility, will celebrate in style on Tuesday with an NBA title, a return to baseball’s World Series and a truckload of ice cream.
For some, the partying has already started ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers raising their NBA championship banner before the league season opener against the New York Knicks and the Cleveland Indians playing host to the Chicago Cubs across the street at in Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven playoff final opener.
“It’s a special day for our fans, for Cleveland, for northeast Ohio to be able to enjoy,” Cavaliers star LeBron James said.
“It’s a day that will go down in history for anyone that lives (here), they’ll never forget it. I’m happy I’m a part of it.”
Not since the 1964 NFL Cleveland Browns has the city known such sporting success, and many of the failures in between were epic. It’s a city once ridiculed by some as a “Mistake by the Lake.” It’s Cuyahoga River was so polluted that it caught fire in 1969.
That’s the legacy that helped prompt the Cavaliers’ hashtag “WonForAll.”
“Knowing what our city has been through as far as our sports and everything for the last 50-plus years, our fans deserve it,” James said. “Our fans, no matter what has been going on, the Browns, the Indians, the Cavs, they continue to support us.”
Downtown businesses are already decorated, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame adorned with the C logo used on Indians’ players caps.
There will be a rap concert, giant television screens and even ice cream thanks to an offhand comment James made when asked how the party could get any better.
“It’s going to be great,” James said. “We get to host the World Series and we get our rings on the same night at the same time. If we had a retractable roof it would be probably the loudest we ever heard, so it’s pretty special.
“From a fan’s perspective, is there any better way? I don’t know, having an ice cream truck outside of both arenas at the same time as well — the icing on the cake.”
Midwest-based Blue Bunny ice cream has sent a truck that’s expected to be parked between the venues, tweeting, “Hey Cleveland, KingJames asked for an ice cream truck to make tomorrow even more fun. Free ice cream is coming ? see you soon!”
The Cavaliers moved their tip-off time 30 minutes ahead to avoid the games starting at the same time, and giving James the chance to watch the Tribe after his game.
“If our game ends before theirs then I’ll watch it, for sure,” he said.
Indians pitcher Corey Kluber, who starts the opener for Cleveland, said the “vibe” James and the Cavaliers started in June with their NBA Finals victory has been an inspiration to them in their quest for a crown.
“It was an unbelievable run they went on,” Kluber said. “It definitely sent a vibe through the city. You could just feel the energy through that run after they won. It has been great for Cleveland the fact they won a championship. And hopefully we can bring them another one.”
James has been a very public supporter of the Indians but long has been known as a backer of baseball’s New York Yankees and the NFL Dallas Cowboys because of their winning history.
“I’m a supporter of winners,” Jame said. “As a kid growing up I needed inspiration to get out of the situation I was in.
“But I’m definitely in support of what the Indians are trying to do right now.”
And he loves having helped ignite the spark.
“That’s what we want to do,” James said. “Part of my whole mindset is to inspire as many people as I possibly can from kids growing up in my inner city to professional athletes.”

They know how you browse the internet, your favorite TV shows and where you shop and travel.
Data collected by internet and media companies is a powerful tool, and the big mergers planned by AT&T with Time Warner and Verizon with Yahoo offer those firms more data that can be used to target consumers with content and advertising.
Privacy advocates say the prospect of firms using all that online and offline data without safeguards could be alarming.
“Twenty-first century media is all about the ability to gather information on a single individual regardless of where they are — whether they are using mobile phone or watching TV or in a grocery store,” said Jeffrey Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy rights group.
The $85 billion deal unveiled Saturday would combine AT&T, one of the largest mobile telecom and residential internet operators, with Time Warner, the media-entertainment giant with powerful brands including the Warner Bros. studio, HBO, CNN, Cartoon Network and a major online game studio.
AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson said the deal would offer better choices to both consumers and advertisers.
“We’ll develop content that’s better tailored to what specific audience segments want to watch, when, where and on which device,” he said.
“And we’ll use the insights to expand the market for addressable advertising. Addressable advertising is far more effective and more valuable both to the advertisers and to our customer.”
Google and Facebook have become leaders in online advertising by analyzing consumers’ web browsing habits, but Chester said merging technology and media groups is troubling because of the array of data from different sources, including location data from mobile phones even when they are not in use.
“Those companies that control our data — as well as the devices and applications we rely on (especially mobile) — will be formidable gatekeepers,” Chester said.
“They will be able to influence the content and communications we both receive and send. It’s not too far out to see the next deal be Google/Comcast or AT&T/Time Warner/Facebook.”
The tie-up comes as the Federal Communications Commission is set to consider privacy rules for internet service providers like AT&T and Verizon.
The rules would require consumers to “opt in” to allow companies to combine data from different sources to deliver ads and content.
“The FCC privacy rule is critical to ensuring there are safeguards,” Chester said. “Right now there are no safeguards.”
Greg Sterling of the Local Search Association, a trade group of firms using location-based marketing, acknowledged that many consumers are fearful of how their data is used for targeted messages.
Still, he said many people soften their opposition if they see a tangible benefit to allowing their data to be collected.
“People are uneasy about being tracked across the internet, but you do see people saying consistently they want advertising to be more relevant, more personal, there’s demand for that in the abstract.”
Data collection by companies “can help with maps or navigation. They can offer deals and services without having to ask for them. They’re trying to be concierge services, and it relies to some degree on capturing this data.”
Sterling said AT&T will remain well behind Google and Facebook in online advertising even with Time Warner, but that Verizon “is in a slightly better position” with the ad technology from its newly acquired AOL and vast audience of Yahoo users.
John Verdi of the Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington think tank, said that in both the AT&T-Time Warner and Verizon-Yahoo deals, “data is a key asset” but that the companies should respect promises made when the data was collected.
“Users are typically concerned when data is collected about them and used in unexpected ways,” Verdi said.
“It’s important for companies to keep the promises they made after the merged entity moves forward to maintain the trust of consumers.”

A much-hyped rematch between Australian boxers Anthony Mundine and Danny Green was announced on Tuesday for the Adelaide Oval in February.
It is 10 years since Mundine famously beat Green on points in front of more than 30,000 people at the Sydney Football Stadium and there has been bad blood between the pair ever since.
Two-time WBA super-middleweight champion Mundine, 41, has not fought since he lost to American Charles Hatley in November last year.
But the former rugby league star is confident of beating his nemesis in the February 3 bout, which is expected to draw a huge crowd and television audience.
“I’ve been fighting with a bad hip — a very bad hip — for the last seven, eight years,” Mundine said.
“That’s fixed now. I feel my feet are back, my movement’s back. I’m going to be as sharp as I was in 2006.”
Green, a former WBA light-heavyweight champion, said he was in good shape despite being 43.
“I feel good, really good. I’m 43 years old, never felt better,” said Green, who defeated Kane Watts on points last August to win the vacant Australian cruiserweight title.
“I train like a demon day in, day out. Ask my mates, families in gyms back home, I live to train. I’m cool, I’m relaxed. I’m a hell of a fighter, better fighter than him.”
Both men suggested they would hang up their gloves after the fight, which has a weight limit of 83kg.

Despite tensions over conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, Russia and the West have maintained a strong working relationship in the Arctic and Canada’s new Liberal government is looking to further bolster that cooperation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has continued to press Moscow over its annexation of Crimea and its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in a long-running civil war.
But his Liberals have softened the previous Canadian administration’s isolationist policy enough to allow for talks with Russia on other matters, such as the far north — despite Kiev’s objections.
A joint conference in Ottawa has been scheduled for November 24.
Canada and Russia control three quarters of the Arctic.
“Preventing scientists from these countries from talking to one another is irrational. Our government wishes to be rational,” Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, parliamentary secretary to Foreign Minister Stephane Dion, said in a speech last month.
“We wish to establish links with Russia — cautiously — because we believe that that serves the interests of Canadians and Russians,” as well as “those in Ukraine and Syria,” she said.
The overtures are welcome, said a Russian official, who contrasted former prime minister Stephen Harper’s hard line with Trudeau’s “greater flexibility” in the bilateral relationship.
“It’s much better,” said the official, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin “views the Arctic as a region that should be void of conflict.”
Russia’s opening of a string of bases in recent years — with interest in the Arctic growing as rising temperatures open up shipping routes and make hitherto inaccessible mineral resources easier to exploit — should not be seen as hostile moves, the Russian diplomat told AFP.
Rather, the Russian bases were established to support Arctic search and rescue efforts as the need arises along new shipping routes.
“Currently, only our military has the capability to carry out search and rescue operations in the Arctic,” the Russian official explained.
Russia is betting on increased shipping through its Arctic waters linking Asia to Europe, and has set up a number of outposts capable of answering distress calls.
In contrast, Canada has been vocal in asserting its Arctic sovereignty, but has been slow to build up infrastructure along its Northwest Passage.
“We’re not going to attack Canada,” said the Russian source, laughing off concerns about Russian militarism in the far north, which led Norway to ask Washington to deploy troops in Vaernes, about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from the Russian-Norwegian frontier.
The desire to cooperate in the north was evident at an Ottawa meeting last week of Arctic states, organized by the European Union.
The EU is not a member of the Arctic Council, but the bloc’s member states Denmark, Finland and Sweden are part of the group that also includes Canada, Iceland, Norway, Russia and the United States.
Created two decades ago, the Council is the main platform for discussions about the Arctic between riparian countries and nations granted observer status at those meetings.
Despite recent geopolitical tensions, says EU ambassador Marie-Anne Coninsx, “this cooperation has continued, including with Russia, independently of certain positions taken by Russia that we do not like, such as the annexation of Crimea, which is unacceptable.”
“It’s the intention of all members of the Arctic Council, and observers, that the Arctic not be politicized. The Arctic is all of our responsibility and must not be politicized,” she said.

The Major League Soccer careers of Didier Drogba and Steven Gerrard could end without either man kicking another ball as their teams head into nerve-wracking sudden-death playoff games starting Wednesday.
Two of the biggest names of the English Premier League’s golden era, Liverpool icon Gerrard joined Los Angeles Galaxy in 2015 just a few months before Chelsea legend Drogba headed to Montreal Impact.
However, both Gerrard and Drogba’s seasons are hanging by a thread as their respective teams face knockout games this week which could end their campaigns.
The Galaxy face a one-off game against Real Salt Lake at the StubHub Center in Carson on Wednesday, with Gerrard, on the mend from a recent hamstring injury, far from certain to make the matchday squad.
Drogba’s Montreal teammates, meanwhilem face an awkward trip to face D.C. United in Washington with the Ivorian striker struggling with a sore back.
Failure of the Galaxy and Montreal to negotiatate their first-round opponents could in all probability spell the end for Gerrard and Drogba.
Gerrard, 36, fueled speculation about his future at the weekend with a social media post interpreted in some quarters as a farewell message to Los Angeles fans.
“Living in Los Angeles and playing for the great Galaxy supporters has been a privilege,” Gerrard wrote. “You have made this place feel like home to me. This city and this club will always hold a special place in my heart. Thank you.”
It came as reports in Britain said former England captain Gerrard had held talks with Liverpool about returning to Anfield in a coaching role.
Gerrard, who was in England earlier this month to undergo treatment on his hamstring, trained separately from his Galaxy teammates on Monday after returning to California.
Galaxy coach Bruce Arena, meanwhile, is bracing for a tough test against a Salt Lake side his team took four points from in the regular season.
“I think we played them twice this year, beat them at home and had a tie on the road there,” Arena said. “Always a good team. Obviously, a team we’ve seen before in the playoffs. We expect a tough match.”
Drogba, meanwhile, faces an acrimonious end to a career in Montreal that has unraveled rapidly after a successful debut season.
The 38-year-old has scored 21 goals in 32 appearances for Montreal since making his debut for the club in August 2015.
But Drogba’s first full season in the MLS this year has been marked by tension between the player and his club, with the nadir coming on October 16 when the striker refused to be a part of Montreal’s matchday squad after being told he would not be in the starting line-up.
Montreal President Joey Saputo insisted the feud between Drogba and the club had been settled, though it did not prevent MLS from hitting the player with a fine last week for the no-show.
Drogba did not play in Sunday’s final regular season game — a 3-0 away defeat to the New England Revolution — and has complained of a back problem which prevented him from training last week.
Impact coach Mauro Biello, who rested several first team players from the defeat to New England, said Monday Drogba was still complaining of a sore back, describing the forward’s status as “day to day.”

Duterte voiced outrage at comments made the previous day by the top US envoy to Asia that his fiery rhetoric and crime war, which has claimed about 3,700 lives in four months, were bad for business.
“These Americans are really crazy. Their style is to walk here. They think they are somebodies,” Duterte said, as he held up a newspaper with headlines reporting the criticism from US assistant secretary of state Daniel Russel.
“Russel says ‘Duterte comments causing worries in business communities’. Then you pack up and leave. We will recover, I assure you.”
Duterte then flew to Japan, one of the top US allies in Asia, for a three-day visit that is partly aimed at building on two-way trade of more than $18 billion dollars last year.
“With Japan as the Philippines’ top trading partner, I shall seek the sustainment and further enhancement of our important economic ties,” Duterte, 71, said in prepared remarks at Manila airport.
“I look forward to meeting business leaders in Japan. I will tell them clearly that the Philippines is open for business.”
Upon arrival in Tokyo, Duterte proceeded to a hotel for an event with members of the local Filipino community.
More than 100 of them waiting outside gave him an enthusiastic welcome, calling his name and waving small Philippine flags. A smiling Duterte approached them and shook hands.
Duterte will meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and have an audience with Emperor Akihito during the trip, which follows his headline-grabbing state visit to China last week.
Duterte, a self-proclaimed socialist with close links to communists, announced in Beijing the Philippines’ “separation” from the United States, throwing into doubt a 70-year alliance that is anchored on a mutual defence treaty.
He quickly walked back from his comments after returning from China, saying “separation” did not mean he would “sever” ties and that the US alliance would continue.
But his anti-American vitriol also continued.
Duterte said Tuesday he was not a “lapdog” of the United States, and again voiced anger at American and European criticism of apparent extrajudicial killings on his watch.
“You are a son of a whore,” he said referring to his critics.
“Do not make us dogs. Do not. As if I am a dog with a leash and then you throw bread far away that I cannot reach.”
Duterte has previously branded US President Barack Obama a “son of a whore” and told him to “go to hell”.
Russel, the US envoy, said after meeting Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay on Monday that many people around the world were becoming increasingly worried about Duterte’s tirades.
“The succession of controversial statements, comments and a real climate of uncertainty about the Philippines’ intentions have created consternation in a number of countries,” Russel said.
“Not only in mine and not only among governments, but also growing concern in other communities, in the expat Filipino community, in corporate boardrooms as well.”
Japan, which is wary of China’s rising influence in the region, signalled it would be looking for clarification from Duterte about his foreign policy plans.
“It is important to have good communication and to listen directly to what Mr Duterte has in mind,” Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters when asked about the firebrand leader’s comments on ties with Washington.
Abe had worked to improve bilateral relations with Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino.
Japan provided patrol boats to support the Philippines in its territorial row with Beijing over rival claims to the South China Sea, as it sought backing in its own maritime dispute with China.
Aquino took Beijing to an international tribunal over its extensive claims in the South China Sea — where it has built artificial islands capable of hosting military facilities — and the Philippines won a resounding victory in July.
But Duterte has sought not to use the verdict to anger China, instead worked to improve ties and attract billions of dollars in Chinese loans and investments.

Rangers manager Mark Warburton has cautioned his club not to spend rashly in a bid to bridge the gap with rivals Celtic.
The 54-year-old Englishman’s warning came on the back of Rangers’ second Old Firm defeat of the season as they lost 1-0 to Celtic in a League Cup semi-final on Sunday.
Celtic, who top the Scottish Premiership, dominated domestic football while Rangers, currently fifth in the table, were exiled in the lower leagues following financial collapse in 2012.
Celtic are also reaping the financial benefits of reaching the Champions League group stages, which will increase their spending power compared to their rivals.
Warburton knows a thing or two about money having spent 20 years as a City trader prior to exchanging it for a career in football coaching.
And while acknowledging a financial gap exists between the Glasgow rivals at the moment, Warburton says it’s imperative Rangers spend wisely in the transfer market and build from the grassroots up rather than chase a short-term fix.
“The worst thing Rangers could do is spend recklessly to try to close that gap too quickly,” he said.
“There is a financial gap that exists at this moment in time.
“They (Celtic) have a squad packed with international players. They are in the Champions League this year and are getting all the benefit of that in terms of playing experience and financial income.
“We recognise and respect that. We then have to sit down and decide how do we close it? How do we improve our squad? Can we invest astutely and wisely?
“We have to set aggressive targets to try and close the gap. If our supporters can see that, we will be in a good place.
“I read some ludicrous comments this morning about how my City background should make me aware of the power of financial muscle. I’m not a rocket scientist but I’m not a fool.
“Of course you recognise the implications of a rival club with a strong financial base at this moment in time. But what is also important is the target setting so we know what we have to do in what time frame in what gap.
“The worst thing we could do is not build strong foundations here, and from the chairman and the board down the club is very clear what we have to do.”
Their hopes of a League Cup final may be gone but Warburton, whose side host St Johnstone on Wednesday, says Rangers can’t afford to mope.
“There can’t be any hangover, and there is no use in feeling sorry for yourself. There are no fitness or fatigue issues,” he said.
“St Johnstone played yesterday (Sunday) too (they beat Dundee 2-1 in a Premiership clash) just two hours ahead of us and Tommy Wright and his team will be working hard to recover. We are looking forward to what will be another tough game on Wednesday.”
Fixtures (kick-offs all 1845GMT)
Dundee v Partick Thistle, Kilmarnock v Hearts, Motherwell v Inverness CT, Rangers v St Johnstone, Ross County v Celtic