Month: October 2016

Philadelphia 76ers forward Elton Brand retired Thursday, calling it quits at age 37 after 17 NBA seasons since being the first overall selection in the 1999 NBA Draft.
Brand played in 1,058 career games, 868 of them as a starter, for the Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks and 76ers.
The two-time NBA All-Star averaged 15.9 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.7 blocked shots a game for his NBA career after being rated the nation’s top college player while at Duke university.
Brand spent four seasons with Philadelphia from 2008-2012 and after retiring last year decided to sign with the 76ers last January, playing 17 games and averaging 4.1 points and 3.7 rebounds as the club struggled to a 10-72 finish, the worst record in the NBA last season.
Brand had inked a new one-year contract with the 76ers last month.

Suddenly, it seems America is crawling with nasty women.
Female unpleasantness as a tongue-in-cheek rallying cry is on T-shirts, in memes and in tweets galore — a furious backlash mocking Donald Trump’s latest insult of Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s dis — “such a nasty woman” — came during one of his interruptions of his Democratic rival in Wednesday’s final presidential debate.
Social media lit up as women came to Clinton’s defense.
T-shirts emblazoned “Nasty Woman” went up for sale on e-commerce website Etsy.
“Nasty Woman” took off on Twitter, with actress Lena Dunham, who has campaigned for Clinton, spreading the word.
“RT if you’re a nasty woman and it’s made your life a freakin’ pleasure,” Dunham tweeted.
Trending were #ImANastyWoman, #ImANastyWomanBecause, #NastyWomenVote and #NastyWomanUnite.
Trump’s comment immediately called to mind for many Janet Jackson’s 1986 “Nasty” video, where the singer champions “nasty boys.”
A new video mashing up Jackson’s hit and Trump and Clinton debate clips quickly went viral.
Spotify streams of Jackson’s song soared 250 percent after Trump’s remark, CNN reported Thursday.
A CNN clip of Trump’s “nasty” remark quickly garnered almost 27,000 views on YouTube.
News site Vox.com said that “calling Hillary Clinton a ‘nasty woman’ may have been the best thing Donald Trump has ever done for her campaign.”
It noted the Clinton campaign purchased the web domain nastywomengetshitdone.com, which automatically links to the candidate’s website, www.hillaryclinton.com.
Trump’s comment came in response to a dig from Clinton to the effect that the Republican nominee — who has bragged about his savviness in avoiding paying taxes — might also try to get out of chipping in toward the nation’s pension and health insurance programs.
In their third and final debate before the November 8 election, Trump accused Clinton and her campaign team of drumming up allegations that he has groped almost a dozen women.
“I believe,” Trump said, “she got these people to step forward,” accusing Clinton of running a “very sleazy campaign” and adding of the claims aired by several women dating back decades: “It was all fiction.”
“Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger,” Clinton said.
“He goes after their dignity, their self-worth, and I don’t think there is a woman anywhere who doesn’t know what that feels like.”

“Two men pretended to be couriers to get the door opened,” a police source said.
After threatening staff there with tear gas canisters, they escaped “with about 10 watches with an estimated value of 500,000 euros ($546,000)”, said the source.
A spokesman for Girard-Perregaux’s parent company Kering confirmed the value of the stolen watches.
In March, a Chopard jewellery store in the nearby Place Vendome was robbed of an undisclosed amount of merchandise by two men armed with a pistol and a grenade.
Security was stepped up in the chic square after a series of violent robberies there in 2014.
Both raids were in the same area that reality TV star Kim Kardashian was robbed in a luxury apartment by armed men who got away with jewellery worth around nine million euros ($10 million).

Police in Ivory Coast used tear gas on Thursday to break up a demonstration against a proposed new constitution and briefly detained several opposition politicians, according to an AFP journalist.
A draft of the new basic law, which President Alassane Ouattara says will put an end to years of crises in Ivory Coast, but which the opposition derides as dangerous and anti-democratic, will be put to a referendum on October 30.
A vast deployment of anti-riot police in the economic capital, Abidjan, greeted protesters carrying banners saying “No to the Ouattara monarchy”, referring to the main architect of the proposed constitution.
The opposition has complained it was not included in the drafting process.
Police fired tear gas at the crowd after warning them that they did not have permission for their protest.
Several opposition political leaders were briefly detained, including Aboudramane Sangare, a senior figure in the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), the party created by former president Laurent Gbagbo, who is now on trial at the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“This is Ouattara’s democracy,” said former national assembly speaker Mamadou Koulibaly after being loaded into a police vehicle.
“We are showing the path of disobedience against an authority that has no legitimacy to do what it is doing. We don’t want this constitution,” he said after his release.
After she was released by police, another opposition politician, Danielle Boni Claverie, announced that a “mega meeting” against the constitution would take place on Saturday in the city’s Yopougon district.
The prefect of Abidjan said in a statement that the route and duration of the protest “would have disturbed social, administrative and economic activity” in the city.
“Although no agreement was reached, the concerned parties went ahead with the demonstration in defiance of the authorities,” the statement added.
The draft constitution, which parliament overwhelmingly approved last week, changes the rules on presidential eligibility and establishes a senate and the post of vice president.
Critically, it would lift the current requirement that both parents of a presidential candidate must have been born in Ivory Coast.
In the past, this stipulation prevented Ouattara standing for the highest office and is widely seen a trigger of civil conflict in the country.
Ivory Coast’s main opposition coalition last week called on voters to boycott the referendum.
“We are on the path to boycott,” said FPI chairman Pascal Affi Nguessan during the protest Thursday.
Ouattara told lawmakers earlier this month that under the proposed constitution, the election calendar “will be known in advance by everyone, with fixed dates, so that there can no delays that could disturb our country’s stability.”
Under the draft, presidential terms are set at five years, renewable only once. Ouattara was elected to a second term in October 2015.

Marc Warren took a one-shot lead at the Portugal Masters on Thursday but speculation that the European Tour could witness a round of 59 at the rough-free Victoria Clube de Golfe proved premature.
Scotland’s Warren began with six straight birdies but a bogey on the seventh stalled his momentum before he went on to make three further gains in an eight under par 63.
“I think I’ve had six or seven birdies in a row but never at the start of the round,” said Warren.
“It’s an absolutely perfect start. Everything was going right for me, just the right numbers and landing it close and a couple of tap-ins. It was a great start.”
Callum Shinkwin, David Lipsky, Eddie Pepperell, Matthew Baldwin and Mikko Korhonen are all a shot back.
Defending champion Andy Sullivan was at four under alongside in-form Alex Noren.

Mexico’s government moved closer on Thursday to its goal of extraditing notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the United States by February, after a judge rejected an appeal.
The attorney general’s office said in a statement that a tribunal in Mexico City ruled against Guzman. But his lawyer immediately told AFP he would appeal the ruling to a higher court.
The Foreign Ministry had approved the Sinaloa drug cartel chief’s extradition in May, but his lawyers fought the decision in district court.
The tribunal in the capital, which had been reviewing the case since September 26, “decided to reject the protection” sought by Guzman, the attorney general’s office said.
One of Guzman’s lawyers, Andres Granados, said he would pick up court documents on Tuesday and from then he would have 10 business days to appeal to a “college” of judges.
He also vowed to seek a Supreme Court hearing.
“We are not defeated,” Granados told AFP, adding that he could still take the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
The lawyer said he suspects the government is seeking to violate Guzman’s due process by speeding up his extradition.
Guzman was recaptured in January, six months after his brazen escape from a maximum-security prison through a 1.5-kilometer (one-mile) tunnel that opened into his cell’s shower.
The national security chief, Renato Sales, said last week that the government hopes to extradite Guzman by January or February.
A US government official has told AFP that the extradition process could finish earlier, by the end of this year.
Guzman is facing two extradition bids, one in California for drug distribution and another in Texas on charges that include murder and money laundering.
Guzman’s extradition would set up a major trial in the United States for the head of a cartel accused of providing tons of drugs to addicts in the United States while fueling violence in Mexico.
Guzman was captured in February 2014 after 13 years on the lam, but he escaped a year later from a maximum-security prison near Mexico City, humiliating President Enrique Pena Nieto.
After the slippery drug kingpin was recaptured in January in his northwestern home state of Sinaloa, Pena Nieto demanded his speedy extradition.
The president had balked at extraditing Guzman before his July 2015 escape, preferring to put him on trial in Mexico.
Guzman was returned to the same prison he had escaped from near Mexico City, but in May he was abruptly transferred to a penitentiary in Ciudad Juarez, a city bordering the US state of Texas.
His name was again in the news earlier this week after a federal judge who had analyzed one of his appeals was shot in the head in broad daylight as he jogged in Metepec, near Mexico City.
Another Guzman lawyer, Carlos Castillo, rejected any links between his client and the murder Monday.
While the judge, Vicente Antonio Bermudez, had analyzed Guzman’s case, he did not issue a ruling, Castillo said.
Bermudez’s court, based in the State of Mexico, also reviewed other cases related to drug traffickers.

Under-pressure Frank de Boer saw his Inter Milan side hold on with 10 men to beat Premier League outfit Southampton 1-0 in their Europa League clash at San Siro on Thursday.
Antonio Candreva got the only goal of the game midway through the second half for the Serie A club, who were forced to play out the final 13 minutes a man down after Marcelo Brozovic was sent off.
It was a cruel result for Southampton, who had been the better side and saw Jay Rodriguez have a goal disallowed early in the second half.
The result sees Saints remain on four points in Group K, two points behind Sparta Prague, who beat Hapoel Beer-Sheva 1-0 in Israel.
“It’s very tough, to concede a goal with their only chance is frustrating,” away captain Virgil van Dijk told BT Sport.
“That’s what happens when you don’t score your chances. We had so many opportunities to win the game, but now we need to move on.”
For Inter, it was a first three points in the competition and the win against a team in good form in the Premier League should buy Dutch coach De Boer some time as the Nerazzurri struggle for results.
“I have faith in my players. We have lacked concentration in other games, but today we played with discipline for the entire match,” De Boer said.
“I want to see us play with that malice all the time. It’s fundamental.”
Captain Mauro Icardi, forced to issue an apology to fans in midweek and promise to reprint his autobiography after including an allegedly distorted description of a 2015 altercation with the club’s hardline ‘ultra’ supporters, started for the hosts.
Southampton boss Claude Puel made a host of changes to the team that beat Burnley at the weekend, including giving a first start at left-back to the young Sam McQueen.
It had the air of an historic evening for the English side, who were in the third tier when Inter won the Champions League in 2010.
An army of seven thousand travelling fans from England helped generate an atmosphere at a largely empty San Siro, but the Saints supporters were left frustrated by their team’s inability to translate their dominance into goals.
Yuto Nagatomo had to clear off the line to prevent goalkeeper Samir Handanovic deflecting a McQueen cross into his own net just before the half-hour, and James Ward-Prowse fired narrowly over after being set up by the impressive Cuco Martina.
Rodriguez, sliding in at the back post, was then just unable to get a touch after Shane Long had flicked on a Martina cross, while all Inter offered in the first half was an Eder strike that flashed narrowly past.
The visitors replaced the injured Long with Charlie Austin just after half-time before Rodriguez had the ball in the net in the 51st minute.
After he had been prevented from getting a shot away by a great Joao Miranda tackle, he headed in from the subsequent corner but the Lithuanian referee’s whistle had already blown for an apparent foul by the striker.
Inter went on to take the lead on 67 minutes as Davide Santon delivered a low ball from the left and Candreva came across Van Dijk to finish emphatically into the roof of the net past Fraser Forster.
Croatian midfielder Brozovic was dismissed for a second yellow for catching Pierre Hojbjerg, and Southampton laid siege to the home goal in the closing stages.
However, Van Dijk was denied by Handanovic at point-blank range and then saw a header cleared off the line.
Handanovic produced a great save from Austin before Ward-Prowse volleyed just past in the 95th minute.
Saints will hope to gain revenge when the teams meet again at St Mary’s in two weeks.

Some 1,400 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean were rescued Thursday off the coast of Libya, according to the Italian coastguard, which coordinated the operations conducted mainly by aid ships.
Attempts at the dangerous crossing are continuing despite worsening weather as winter approaches, with more than 2,400 migrants rescued off Libya in total since Sunday.
The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres tweeted that it had rescued 802 people on six rubber dinghies and one small wooden boat, and MOAS, a Maltese NGO, said it had rescued 432 migrants on three dinghies.
Italian coastguards and the crew of an EU counter-trafficking vessel rescued the remaining migrants.
Boats carrying migrants are treacherous even if they don’t sink: exhaust fumes, hypothermia, dehydration and overcrowding have all proved fatal.
On Wednesday, rescuers found five bodies on a dinghy carrying around 200 people, many of them unaccompanied minors.
The Italian interior ministry said Tuesday that more than 145,000 migrants had landed in Italy so far this year, a figure similar to that of the previous two years.
According to the UN, at least 3,654 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year.
Meanwhile, it emerged Thursday that as many as 900 migrants may have died in the 2015 sinking off Libya of an overcrowded fishing trawler, about 100 more than previously thought.
The new toll from the worst maritime tragedy in the Mediterranean since World War II came after forensic scientists, who spent three months examining 675 body bags, discovered that many contained the remains of more than one person, Italy’s missing person chief Vittorio Piscitelli told a news conference in Rome.
Only 28 people survived when the 20-metre (70-foot) trawler capsized in April 2015.

Under-pressure Sebastian Vettel dodged talk about his prospects of a new contract at Ferrari when he faced the media on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters at the United States Grand Prix, the four-time world champion said he was instead focusing on the final four races of this season -? and developments for next year.
“We are all fairly busy at the moment, focusing on the last four races and focusing in particular on next year,” he said.
“I don?t think it?s that important to look into details such as my contract. It?s fine for next year.
“There are a lot of things happening back in the factory, I know we are very busy and that?s where I want the focus to be.”
Vettel spoke amid mounting speculation over his future following a public warning from Ferrari team chief Maurizio Arrivabene that he is not guaranteed a new deal after next year.
“Sebastian has a contract with us. We work together this year and next year. Then during next year we?ll see,” he told Sky Sports Italia.
“Each of us has goals. So it is only right that anyone, no matter who it is, earns their place and their salary.”
Vettel joined Ferrari last year and delivered victories and promise, but this season he remains winless and has slipped to sixth in the drivers? championship.

Which is… his record in big games. Has Pep Guardiola, in his managerial career, actually won a game where his team were not heavy favourites? If there is one, I cannot seem to remember it.When the odds are stacked against him, he has repeatedly faltered.
At Barcelona, everything seemed to be going fine with him managing a team that is considered by many to be the best club team in history.
That is, until he was shamed into resignation by a 2-3 defeat by 10-man Chelsea at Barcelona.
Then he went to another strong side, Bayern Munich, where he endured repeated humiliations in the Champions League semis.
He is now off to a bad start at Man City after losing against every team as strong or nearly as strong as them.
Surely, 4-0 at Barcelona, a team that never changes how it plays, and Pep, being the former manager, should have had enough to nullify their threat.
Let us not forget that all this is in spite of him being the highest spending manager in recent times.This has to call into question the man’s ability to manage his way out of a mess when faced with stronger opposition.
Some have even gone as far as to call him a fraud, with the website titled  being formed to answer this question.
So far, the website says the answer is ‘NO!’ however, I have my doubts.
I would like to know your opinion on this. Leave your view in the comment section below and let’s talk.

ILGA-Europe, an umbrella group for LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex) rights campaigners, said hate speech is fuelling discrimination and physical attacks.
Its executive director, Evelyne Paradis, said “growing populism, extremism and xenophobia” are affecting sexual, ethnic and other minority groups.
“In many countries LGBTI groups find themselves among the most vulnerable,” she told AFP.
Campaigners at the conference in Cyprus said the LGBTI movement had made enormous gains in some countries, successfully campaigning for laws allowing same-sex marriage and banning discrimination.
But they said populist politicians were fuelling a backlash.
“Whereas in the last few years we had seen a decrease in direct targeting of offices of LGBTI organisations’ offices, that’s starting to reappear,” Paradis said.
Brian Sheehan, who co-chairs the group’s executive board, said inequalities created by austerity policies were damaging social cohesion and threatening “the diversity that is at the heart of the European project”.
“Post-Brexit we’ve seen a rise in attacks on foreigners and we also seen a rise in attacks on LGBTI people,” he said of the vote in Britain to leave the EU.
“The notion of being different or other has been politically manipulated.”
ILGA-Europe, which represents 490 organisations from 45 countries, is holding its conference in Nicosia two years after the city held its first Greek Cypriot gay pride parade.
The conference opened with a drinks gala at Nicosia’s presidential palace — something Sheehan said would be unthinkable in many European countries.
“It’s an extremely important event for Cyprus, which has come a long way in recognising rights of LGBTI community in last few years,” said Stella Kyriakides, a member of the Cypriot parliament.
But she said elsewhere in Europe, an influx of refugees was stirring up xenophobia.
That prompted many to vote for far-right parties in local elections in Germany and France, she said.
“I am extremely concerned that we are seeing extremist movements on the rise in Europe and especially in recent years,” she said.
“Xenophobia can instigate a lot of other phobias in societies.”

Olympic champion Tina Maze called time on her skiing career on Thursday, claiming she lacked the motivation and energy to continue competing.
The 33-year-old Slovenian, who captured two golds at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, had already skipped last season to take a sabbatical from the sport.
On Thursday, she chose the Austrian venue of Soelden, which opens the 2016/2017 season and where she won her first World Cup race in 2002, to announce that she was making her absence permanent.
“I have no more motivation, no energy,” said the winner of 26 World Cup races and a four-time victor at world championships.
Maze, just one of six skiers to have won races in the sport’s five disciplines, will not be stepping away from the slopes entirely as she will work as a commentator for television in the coming season.

Nico Hulkenberg expects to compete for victories next season when he joins Renault after five years with Force India, he told reporters on Thursday.
The German driver told a news conference ahead of this weekend?s United States Grand Prix that he wanted to change teams and take his chance to race for a ‘works’ team.
“I believe it is the right step in my career at this point,” he said. “I think and feel I have come a long way with Force India.
“It’s my fifth year and we had good success together, but it?s time for a new challenge.
“Since I was in F1, I wanted to race for a manufacturer team and this is a really good opportunity, the timing was good too. A good decision from my side.”
He added that he believed he had the talent to help the French outfit to improve.
“They have expectations to be at the front and compete for wins and that is what I am looking for,” he added.
“When they bought Lotus, it was not the easiest situation, so it will take time to rebuild, but what I see is a good future and a massive challenge, but I am very up for that and want to build a success story with them.”

Laikipia Governor Joshua Irungu has defended the building of a Sh96.7 million fence encompassing the Rumuruti and Marmanet forests.
What started as a noble cause to mitigate conflicts between residents and wild animals in Laikipia West, has now turned into a gravy train for the ruling elite in the area.the governor told the Daily Nation.The project has been questioned by other county representatives from Laikipia area, with Laikipia West MP Wachira Karani, Laikipia Women’s rep Jane Apollos, Ward rep Joseph Kabachi and Francis Mukuria being among those who have raised alarm over the legitimacy of the procurment process for this project.In response, Governor Irungu has challenged the leaders and residents who have doubts in the project to go to the location and see the progress for themselves.

Four years after Assange sought refuge in the Ecuadoran embassy in London, the tension between host and guest is plain to see.
Ecuador said Tuesday it has cut Assange’s internet access because of leaks by his anti-secrecy website “impacting on the US election” — a reference to the release of a damaging trove of hacked emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
The leaks have put Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa’s government in an awkward position.
Back in June 2012, offering Assange refuge was a waggish way for Correa, a radical economist, to thumb his nose at the United States, the domineering neighbor that the Latin American left has long loved to hate.
WikiLeaks had infuriated Washington by leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive diplomatic cables and secret files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In granting Assange asylum, Ecuador backed his argument that the criminal investigation he was fleeing — for accusations of rape and sexual assault in Sweden — was a smokescreen to extradite him to the United States.
But Assange appears to have gone too far by letting WikiLeaks wade into the US election with hacks that have embarrassed Clinton and effectively helped her Republican rival, Donald Trump.
Clinton’s team blames the Russian government for hacking Democratic Party emails and the Gmail account of campaign chairman John Podesta — a view shared by the US government.
With polls showing Clinton likely to beat the volatile billionaire on November 8, and recession-hit Ecuador needing to make nice with the superpower to the north, Assange may now be wearing out his welcome.
“Of course Correa’s government is uncomfortable,” said Mauricio Gandara, who is in a position to know, as Ecuador’s former ambassador in London.
“The government is scared because it understands Clinton is probably going to win and could make them pay,” he told AFP.
Correa has repeatedly voiced his support for Clinton in the election.
WikiLeaks on Monday accused Ecuador of severing Assange’s communications at the behest of Clinton’s successor as secretary of state, John Kerry.
“That’s just not true,” State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said Tuesday.
Ecuador also implicitly denied the claim, saying it “does not yield to pressure from other states.”
But Ecuador is keener to pursue good neighborly relations with the United States than it was in 2012.
Then, the South American country was in the midst of a commodities-fueled economic boom. Now, it is stuck in a long recession.
The fact that Ecuador is currently negotiating loans from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank — two institutions where Washington wields outsize influence — may be an “additional factor” in the decision to cut Assange’s internet, said Santiago Basabe, an Ecuadoran political scientist.
Correa’s government “is trapped between the pressure Assange exerts with the relevant information in his possession, and pressure from the United States to stop embarrassing information from being published,” he said.
Losing his internet connection is a particularly low blow for Assange, whose computer had been his link to the outside world.
It is unclear how long Assange will remain in the Ecuadoran embassy.
He denies the accusations against him, but refuses to travel to Sweden over fears he would be handed over to the United States.
Prosecutors dropped their sexual assault case against him last year after the five-year statute of limitations expired.
But the limit on the rape allegation will not run out until at least 2020.
Sweden and Ecuador have agreed to a deal for him to be interrogated by Ecuadoran prosecutors, with questions posed by their Swedish counterparts.
The session was recently postponed until November 14.
Cooped up in a small apartment in the embassy — a redbrick Victorian building in a chic district of London — the 45-year-old Australian reportedly has a sparse existence.
He has a treadmill, a microwave and a sunlamp, and had until now spent the overwhelming majority of his time on the web.
“It’s not worse than a prison cell,” a friend and supporter, Vaughan Smith, told AFP after visiting Assange in August 2012.
“The primary reason that it’s not worse is that he can use a computer and the internet. He can work, and that is his prime concern.”

New York Giants kicker Josh Brown admits committing domestic violence upon his ex-wife in letters, messages and a journal, according to police documents related to a 2015 arrest.
“I have abused my wife,” the NFL player wrote in a journal entry that was part of the material obtained in an investigation stemming from Brown’s May 2015 arrest and included in the case file unveiled Wednesday by the King County Sheriff’s Office in Washington state.
Brown was charged with domestic violence assault after an incident with his ex-wife Molly, who told police he had been physically violent with her more than 20 times over several years.
Brown, 37, admitted in a signed 2013 “Contract for Change” made while in counseling that he physically, verbally and emotionally abused his then-wife.
Saying he had been “a liar for most of my life,” Brown claimed to have been abusive to women since age seven after being molested as a young boy.
“I objectified women and never really worried about the pain and hurt I caused them,” Brown wrote in an email.
The Giants re-signed Brown in 2015 to a two-year, $4 million deal, with team co-owner John Mara saying, “Based on the facts and circumstances we were aware of at that time, we were comfortable with re-signing him.”
The NFL said in a statement Thursday they had re-opened a case against Brown in light of the new information.
“We will thoroughly review the additional information and determine next steps in the context of the NFL Personal Conduct Policy,” a statement said.
“We will not be making any comments on potential discipline until that time.”
The NFL’s domestic violence policy has a six-game ban for first offenders with other lengths of punishment possible depending on circumstances.

With protests spreading across the country, the French government sought to contain growing anger among police officers Thursday as the issue entered the presidential race.
Following a string of attacks on officers, the police are calling for reinforcements and more resources, as well as stiffer penalties for offenders.
Several hundred, all dressed in civilian clothes, demonstrated for a second night on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris on Wednesday, eventually gathering at the Arc de Triomphe to sing the Marseillaise national anthem.
“Police officers need recognition,” Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Thursday.
“They are loved by the French people, and not only since Charlie,” he added, referring to an outpouring of sympathy for police following the attack last year on the Charlie Hebdo magazine.
The execution-style killing of a police officer during the raid by two extremists became one of the emblematic images of the tragedy, the first in a string of Islamist-inspired attacks that have shocked France.
“I call for calm and peace and I say to the police officers of France that they can count on my support, my solidarity, my understanding and my commitment,” Valls continued.
With security at its highest possible level, officers have been up in arms over attacks on officers during patrols in tough suburbs and during street demonstrations.
On October 8, a 28-year-old officer suffered serious burns when he was attacked with a petrol bomb on the outskirts of the capital. He remains in a coma.
Police unions, which have already met Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, are demanding a meeting with President Francois Hollande and calling for fixed minimum sentences for attacks on the police.
Justice Minister Jean-Jacques Urvoas met union representatives on Wednesday and pledged his “entire support to the police… who are exposed to significant and constant risks”.
Police were also set to protest Thursday in the central city of Lyon after officers came under attack in the gritty Venissieux suburb where around 40 youths pelted them with petrol bombs.
Under French law, police may protest only when off duty, out of uniform and provided they leave their service weapons and vehicles behind.
The Socialist government has accused former president Nicolas Sarkozy of cutting 10,00 police jobs during his 2007-2012 presidency.
Sarkozy, who is bidding to clinch the right-wing nomination as he attempts to regain the presidency, described the accusations on Thursday as “lies”.

Lewis Hamilton smiled, talked and even organised a photograph on Thursday as he began his preparations for the United States Grand Prix with a charm offensive at a mandatory pre-race news conference.
The 31-year-old defending three-time world champion, who is 33 points adrift of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg with four races remaining, was on his near-best behaviour two weeks after his infamous Snapchat episode in Japan.
Gone was the abrupt and sulky Suzuka version of Hamilton to be replaced by a man keen to give full answers and deliver some smiles as he requested that Frenchman Romain Grosjean take a photograph, using his mobile phone, that had Hamilton snapped in front of a room full of journalists.
Asked about blocking some reporters from accessing his Twitter account, the Briton said: “I don’t manage every single part of my social media.
“I have a couple of people doing it for me. I don’t have a lot of time to do that. Generally, if you see someone (saying something bad) they just block. It was a blocking spree. I don’t even have the app on my phone.”
Hamilton was asked about the picture taken on his phone during the news conference.
“I took a picture,” he said. “I waited for everyone to finish their questions and answer. It was a good picture and you’re all in it.”
Wearing glasses and smiling, Hamilton was clearly at home and happy to be back on American soil ahead of Sunday’s race at the Circuit of the Americas where he clinched his third title last year.
In Japan, the Englishman had said he would prefer to answer questions that were compiled by fans. His wish was realised when a reporter asked a question on behalf of a fan.
Would Hamilton take a sabbatical?
“I don?t plan on taking a sabbatical unless it is to stop,” he answered.
The second question, also on behalf of a fan, was about how he would feel if Rosberg wins the drivers? championship.
“I will take it like a man, I can’t win them all,” he said.
“But I am still in a position with the points available. Anything is possible. I will then move on once it is decided — all I can do is shape the future, which is next year.
“Life moves on and next season I will come back stronger.”
Hamilton also confirmed with a smile that he had enjoyed the chance to be the first F1 racing driver to appear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the American chat show.
“I was very fortunate,” he said. “I love being in the States, it is a good opportunity for me to reach a new audience who perhaps hadn?t heard of F1, but they were all glued to their seats to learn of something knew.
“I do not think any driver has been on the Ellen show, so I’m proud of that.”
Hamilton also explained that he had missed a tyre test session last week due to a sore foot caused by running in training.
“It’s an injury I’ve had all year and I’ve just coped with it,” he said.
“It was just induced by running. Unfortunately, my physio said that it just takes time and a lot of stretching.”

The lead prosecutor in the case, Jose Leite Sampaio, made the announcement in a televised news conference in Belo Horizonte, near Mariana, the site of the disaster, where on November 5, 2015, the failed dam unleashed a torrent of muddy water down the River Doce, killing 19 people.
It was branded Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, drawing comparisons with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion which killed 11 workers and triggered a devastating spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
In a statement, prosecutors denounced the mining companies for reckless policies in pursuit of greater profits that amounted to “qualified homicide,” which in Brazilian law is more serious than ordinary manslaughter.
“Security was always of secondary importance. The increase in production at Samarco sought to compensate for the falling value of the ore in order not only to maintain but also to boost profits and dividends,” Sampaio said. “It should have taken steps to promote the safety of the dam.”
Prosecutors said Samarco — which operated the mine and is owned 50-50 by Brazil’s Vale and Anglo-Australian giant BHP Billiton — ignored basic responsibilities.
They accused the mining companies of not taking into account the fate of communities downstream or even their own employees, saying there were not even “sirens or warning lights” in case of disaster.
The accused included the chief executive of Samarco at the time of the tragedy, Ricardo Vescovi, as well as operations managing director Kleber Terra, and three operations managers.
They could face sentences of “up to 54 years,” prosecutors said in the statement.
The three companies themselves also face charges for a total of 12 different environmental crimes, prosecutors said.
Vale said in a statement that it “vehemently rejects the charges presented by the federal prosecutor’s office.”
BHP also issued a statement, saying it “rejects outright the charges against the company and the affected individuals. We will defend the charges against the company, and fully support each of the affected individuals in their defense.”
The charges still need to be approved by a judge before a jury trial would start.
The breaking of the tailings dam unleashed a massive flood of sludge into the River Doce, reaching the Atlantic Ocean.
Drinking water supplies were cut for hundreds of thousands of people, a village was flattened, and local fishing and tourist businesses were badly impacted. According to prosecutors, 14 tons of dead fish were collected in the aftermath.
The mining companies have agreed to pay billions of dollars in compensation but in May prosecutors filed a civil lawsuit against Vale, BHP and Samarco seeking 155 billion reais ($49 billion).

The 40-year-old former world number one told PBS television’s Charlie Rose program that he had not given up hope of adding to his 14 major victories.
Woods gave an enigmatic response when first asked whether he felt he could reach Nicklaus’s mark of 18 majors.
“To be honest with you, no,” Woods replied. But asked if he accepted that eventuality, he added: “I’ve accepted I’m going to get more.”
When pressed later on whether he meant he still plans to break Nicklaus’s mark, Woods responded: “Correct.”
Woods has not won a major since his victory at the US Open in 2008, and has not played competitively since August 2015.
His much trumpeted comeback at the Safeway Open in northern California this month was shelved on the eve of the tournament, fueling fresh fears about his fitness.
However, Woods said he is optimistic he can return in December, insisting that the competitive fires still raged within him.
“I like beating those guys. That’s why I practice all those hours … is to be ready to take on those guys down the stretch. And do I miss it? Absolutely, 100 percent.
“And to be at my age now, at 40 years old ? I’m the first one to admit: I can’t do the things I used to be able to do. Most people can’t at my age, versus when they were younger. I have to find different ways to go about it.”

Sale boss Steve Diamond has said his side will be up against rugby union’s answer to football superpower Barcelona when they face Toulon in the European Champions Cup on Friday.
French side Toulon will be eager to bounce back after losing at home for the first time in major European competition last weekend following a defeat by Saracens, the reigning English and European champions.
Toulon, three-times kings of Europe, boast a wealth of talent that includes Wales full-back Leigh Halfpenny, Springbok wing Bryan Habana and New Zealand World Cup winner Ma’a Nonu.
A second defeat in a row would leave their hopes of qualification for the knockout stage hanging by a thread and Sale, beaten last week by Welsh side Scarlets, hope to inflict more damage on the big-spenders at their base in Salford, near Manchester.
“In football terms it’s a bit like Barcelona coming to town because Toulon are the biggest club in world rugby. We’ll see how good they are on Friday night,” said Diamond.
“Toulon are the biggest spending team in the world. They’re the most successful side over the last five years and we’re fortunate enough to have them in the group,” the Sale director of rugby added.
“You can see how prominent that is by the size of the crowd — there’s 8,000 tickets sold and the Manchester public come out to watch the big teams. There’s no bigger than Toulon.
“Toulon have everything to do. They’ve got to come to Manchester on a wet, windy night to beat us and get a bonus point — so the pressure is on them.
“The players have got a gameplan to put in place and if they get that right and put in a really good performance, then perhaps we’ll get a win.
“By virtue of us not losing many games over the last four years at home, it makes it a difficult place for sides to come to.
“Toulon were beaten last week taking no points so the pressure is on them really.
“We’ve just got to do what we do well and perform at the highest level and if we do that we’ve got a chance.”

The government has announced plans to have computer assembly plants in Moi and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology universities.
This is a part of the wider plan to supply the devices to schools as the State progressively scales up the programme to cover the entire educational cycle.
It is expected that this will create job and business opportunities apart from the technology transfer that will accrue for Kenyans.
At least 72,000 teachers have been trained on how to teach computers in Kenyan public schools under the government’s Digital Learning Programme (DLP).
According to Education Permanent Secretary Belio Kipsang, the move is to guarantee the success of the DLP that is aimed at revolutionising education for teachers and students alike.
The programme has introduced tablets in the classrooms and will make teaching and learning a lot more exciting for teachers and learners.
Kipsang said the educational technology created opportunities for teachers and learners alike to be innovative given the novelty of teaching and learning environment in the classroom and beyond.
the PS said in a statement wired to newsrooms.
He revealed that some 20,000 public primary schools had been connected to the national grid to build part of the infrastructure that integration of ICT in schools requires.
 Kipsang said, adding that the rest will be connected soon to facilitate teaching and learning on digital platform.

Subukia Primary School is in the hot seat following the the passing of a Standard Eight student after he was purportedly beaten by a teacher.
The teacher is said to have beaten the 14-year-old David Ndung’u last week, after the kid performed badly in the Social Studies subject.
Corporal punishment in schools was banned by the government in 2001.
The instructor allegedly blamed Ndung’u for downgrading the performance of the whole class, which in turn reflected negatively on the teacher’s performance as well.
The mother of the deceased, Elizabeth Nyokabi, narrated the story to the Standard: 
“My son said he was feeling sick when he came back home that day. He later told me a teacher had beaten him severely for failing to score the minimum marks he had set for the class.
He said the teacher caned him everywhere, including on the head,” said Ms Nyokabi.
“He said he was considering not doing the KCPE exams because the teacher had given up on him and he was also tired of the beatings.
I took him to Subukia Hospital where he was treated and discharged, but Ndung’u’s condition worsened last Friday.
By the time he was being admitted, my son was very weak. He could not walk on his own and I had to support him.”At 9pm last Saturday, Elizabeth received the call no parent ever wants to hear: a doctor telling her that her son Ndung’u had died.

EU leaders called Thursday for greater efforts to apply the “leverage” of trade and development with Africa in order to curb migrant departures to Europe and speed up the return of those who arrive.
The European Union has been turning its sights on the central Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy since a March aid-for-cooperation deal with Turkey dramatically slowed the number of migrants landing in Greece, the main entry point for Europe last year.
Adopting a statement at their Brussels summit, the leaders urged EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to present a report at the next summit in December on how much progress has been made with five African countries toward reducing migrant arrivals and increasing returns.
The EU wants so-called “compacts” with those African countries — Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria, Mali and Senegal — ready for the spring, when the weather improves and migrants are likely to head en masse again to Europe on rickety boats.
“More efforts are needed to reduce the number of irregular migrants, in particular from Africa, and to improve return rates,” the final statement said.
The statement says EU countries aim to “apply the necessary leverage, by using all relevant EU policies, instruments and tools, including development and trade” in order to reduce migration flows and return migrants.
Under international law, EU countries must admit genuine refugees fleeing war and persecution, as in Syria and Afghanistan, but can block or send back migrants deemed job seekers, who Brussels say account for most of the African migrants.
EU officials have for months discussed a proposal to promote private investment in countries where many migrants come from in order to encourage them to stay home.
Unlike Turkey, it is difficult for EU countries to work with still lawless Libya to curb the migrant flow and possibly easier to try to ease poverty in Africa.
 
More than one million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa flooded into Europe last year, sowing divisions across the 28-nation bloc and fuelling the rise of far-right parties.
Some 145,000 migrants have arrived in Italy since the start of 2016, almost the same number for the whole of last year.
In the run-up to the summit, the activist group Oxfam denounced the EU approach to migrants as building a “Fortress Europe” that forces them to take dangerous routes into the wealthy bloc.
“As well as closing borders and outsourcing border control to neighbouring regions, the EU is now refocusing its foreign and development policies around the primary aim of curbing migration, of stopping people on their way to Europe and sending them back to where they come from,” it said.
Development aid should be “used for reducing poverty and inequality, not for reducing mobility,” it added.

Former world number one and 14-time Grand Slam title winner Rafael Nadal shut down his season on Thursday to concentrate instead on recovering full fitness for a fresh trophy assault in 2017.
The 30-year-old has been plagued by physical problems and has now gone through a second successive campaign without adding to his majors collection.
A left wrist injury forced him to withdraw from the French Open before the third round and kept him on the sidelines until the Olympics.
“It is no secret that I arrived to the Olympic Games short of preparation and not fully recovered, but the goal was to compete and win a medal for Spain. This forced recovery has caused me pain since then and now I am forced to stop and start preparing the 2017 season,” Nadal wrote on Facebook.
Nadal, ranked at six in the world, suffered a shock second round defeat to Victor Troicki at the Shanghai Masters last week.
But he had been due to play in Basel next week and then the Paris Masters. He was also well-placed to qualify for the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.
“I am very saddened for not being able to play next week in Basel since I have a great memory of the tournament and the final played against Roger Federer last year,” added Nadal.
“I won’t be able to compete either in Paris-Bercy, where the crowds and the staff have always treated me so well. Now it is time to rest and start preparing intensively the 2017 season.”
Nadal compiled a 39-14 match record during 2016, winning titles at the Monte Carlo Masters and the Barcelona Open.
But he was a first round loser at the Australian Open and saw his hopes of a 10th French Open ended by his troublesome wrist which also ruled him out of Wimbledon.
At the Rio Olympics, he won doubles gold with close friend Marc Lopez but was beaten in the bronze medal singles play-off by Kei Nishikori.
He then suffered a fourth round loss at the US Open, going down in five sets to Lucas Pouille of France.
Nadal’s longtime rival Federer, the holder of a record 17 Grand Slam titles, called time on his season in July after suffering a knee injury.
Both men were in Mallorca on Wednesday to oversee the opening of Nadal’s own tennis academy.
“Roger and I haven’t forgotten how to play tennis and we are working to get back to competing at the highest level,” said Nadal.
“I still have many years to come in tennis.”
His decision to call time on his season means that the year-ending World Tour Finals will be without both Federer and Nadal for the first time since 2001.

President Barack Obama eviscerated would-be successor Donald Trump Thursday for threatening not to concede if he loses next month’s election, calling for a thumping Democratic victory to repudiate his “dangerous” claims of a rigged vote.
Trump cast the United States into uncharted political waters by suggesting he may not recognize the result of the November 8 presidential election and could launch a legal challenge if Hillary Clinton wins.
“I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election… if I win,” the Republican nominee told cheering supporters in Delaware, Ohio.
“Of course I will accept a clear election result, but I will also reserve my right to contest and file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result,” he said dangling his concession.
The bombastic 70-year-old is trailing badly in the polls. But Democrats are showing no quarter.
“When you try to sow the seeds of doubt in people’s minds about the legitimacy of our election, that undermines our democracy,” Obama said.
“When you suggest rigging or fraud without a shred of evidence, when last night at the debate, Trump becomes the first major party nominee in American history to suggest that he will not concede despite losing… that is not a joking matter.”
The unusually harsh comments suggest the White House believes this deeply rancorous election is not just about defeating Trump or winning back control of Congress, but snuffing out his populist credo.
The reality TV star has defied political convention and brought far-right policies and conspiracies to the Republican mainstream.
The final 2016 presidential debate on Wednesday was dominated by Trump’s refusal to say he would recognize a victory by Democrat Clinton, 68, who he accuses of conspiring to rig the vote against him.
“There is no way to rig an election in a country this big,” Obama fired back. “You are much likelier to get struck by lightning than have somebody next to you commit voter fraud.”
His wife Michelle encouraged voters not to fall trap to the Trump campaign’s rigging allegations.
“They are trying to convince you that your vote doesn’t matter,” she told a Phoenix rally. “That the outcome has already been determined, and you shouldn’t even bother to make your voice heard.”
“They are trying to take away your hope.”
Although Trump looks set to lose the election, his campaign sent into a tailspin by a stream of allegations of sexual misconduct, he is likely to garner as many as 50 million votes.
How his supporters react is now foremost in the minds of officials in the White House and beyond.
It is unclear what impact Trump’s stance will have on the election itself.
“Calling an election rigged doesn’t just undermine foundational democratic norms and principles, it also reduces voter engagement,” said Adam Seth Levine, a professor of government at Cornell University.
The campaign between Trump and Clinton has proven to be the caustic coda to decades of partisan rancor in Washington.
Political tribalism has already caused gridlock in government and eroded democratic institutions from the Supreme Court to Congress.
But despite isolated allegations of voter fraud, controversy over the tight 2000 vote and rampant gerrymandering, US elections have been regarded as free and fair.
Asked point-blank by a debate moderator on Wednesday whether he would accept the election result if he lost, the reality television star shattered that consensus.
“I’ll look at it at the time. What I’ve seen is so bad,” he said, repeating unfounded allegations of vote rigging.
Asked again by the moderator, Trump said “I’ll tell you at the time. I’ll keep you in suspense, OK?”
His rival on the debate stage, and a phalanx of his fellow Republicans rushed to tell Trump it was not “OK”.
Clinton declared herself “appalled” by what she said was an attack on 240 years of US democracy.
Trump’s vice presidential running mate Mike Pence insisted “we’ll accept the will of the American people.”
Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, offered assurances. “Barring massive voter fraud, of course he is going to accept the results of the elections,” he said.
Trump and Clinton will later on Thursday attend the same annual charity dinner in New York, an event where the candidates traditionally engage in a “friendly roast.”
But the animosity between them seems almost certain to get in the way.
They would not even shake hands at Wednesday night’s debate, and at one point Trump interrupted Clinton to call her “a nasty woman”.
Clinton, who is vying to become the first woman president of the United States, told reporters she was “both relieved and very grateful” that the debates were now behind her.
Polls show her leading by more than six points and making gains even in states like Arizona, Texas and Georgia that have long been in the Republican column.

May called on EU leaders to work together for a “smooth” withdrawal following Britain’s shock June vote to leave the bloc, but Hollande said her apparent preference for a decisive break means she will not get an easy ride.
“I have said it very clearly: Madame Theresa May wants a hard Brexit? Then talks will be hard too,” he told reporters as he arrived for the two-day talks in Brussels.
May’s announcement earlier this month that she would start formal exit negotiations by the end of March was welcomed by EU leaders, who are pressing for a swift divorce to limit the uncertainty.
But she sparked anger with promises to her Conservative party to limit EU migration while also seeking “maximum freedom” to operate in the bloc’s single market — two things that Brussels says are incompatible.
The French leader’s outburst was in stark contrast to EU president Donald Tusk, who had earlier taken pains to welcome May after she was excluded from last month’s summit of 27 leaders in Bratislava.
“Some media described her first meeting in the European Council as entering the lion’s den. It’s not true. It’s more like a nest of doves,” Tusk told reporters.
But he repeated that there would be no negotiations before Britain triggers Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon treaty, which begins a two-year countdown to leaving.
May will hold her first bilateral talks with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker over lunch on Friday, but no substantive debate on Brexit is expected.
Arriving in Brussels for her first EU summit since taking office in July, May emphasised that Britain was leaving the bloc but said it would play a full part until then.
This included calling for a “robust and united” approach to Russia’s air strikes in Syria, although EU leaders were unable to agree on a threat of sanctions.
“The UK is leaving the EU but we will continue to play a full role until we leave and we’ll be a strong and dependable partner after we’ve left,” May told reporters.
During the summit talks, the prime minister questioned the validity of decisions made without her in Bratislava last month.
But Tusk warned that once Article 50 is triggered, “we have our right and also our legal obligation to meet as 27 to discuss our strategy”.
He told a press conference: “It’s not our choice. If you ask me I would prefer 28 member states, not only for the next month but also for the next years, and decades.”
Over a working dinner on Thursday evening, May gave a brief update of her plans, urging EU leaders to help make Brexit work for both sides.
“We want our departure to be a smooth, constructive, orderly process, minimising uncertainty,” a source in her office said, on condition of anonymity.
The source later shrugged off France’s tough talk, saying: “It’s a negotiation. There’s lots being said.”
May has refused to give details on her plan for Brexit, amid sharp divisions in her government between ministers who back a clean break and others seeking continued ties to protect the economy.
But her stated intention to prioritise cutting immigration, if necessary at the expense of access to the single market, has alarmed investors and sent the pound plunging.
“The British have shown a total lack of preparation politically or administratively. It’s only now that they are waking up to the immensity of the task,” an EU diplomat said.
May’s path to formal exit talks also risks being derailed by a legal challenge at the High Court over her refusal to allow parliament a vote before she triggers Article 50.
Meanwhile the nationalist government in Scotland, where a majority voted to stay in the EU, is threatening a second referendum on independence if it is forced to leave.

Before the age of video games and the internet, children spent their free time largely in the good old outdoors, pushing tyres, playing with dolls and reading riveting kids books. Here are some of the most popular ones from an era gone by, that are sure to set off charming memories for those who read them:Kaka Sungura
This wily wabbit was Kenya’s very own Bugs Bunny, tricking his friends and running off, before eventually getting his just deserts. Harmless fun for the kids in my opinion.Hare is Here:
The Longhorn publication involved the classic tale of the crafty hare pulling fast ones on his peersManywele:
One of those kids books that also is relatable to adults. It explored  themes such as tribalism in rural Kenya, religious hypocrisy, and a strange disease reminiscent of the Aids epidemicAbunuwasi: 
 
Yet another cheeky fellow from the coast whose modus operandi was who would scheme against the community and actually sometimes get away with it. I think this could be the biggest brand in fictional writing in Kenya.Hallo Children Everywhere:

This is one of those children’s media which was geared towards teaching children about the basics of life. Juma and Asha, the stars of this book, would go about their daily tasks while emphasizing the correct way to do them, so that the kids could learn 
Famous five:
The Enid Blyton book about five kids who would set off on adventures solving mysteries was one of the earliest mystery thrillers I can remember. These guys made citizen policing look fun and easy :DSecret Seven
 
Same premise as the Famous Five, just with more kids involved. Despite the repetitiveness of it, this genre was booming at the time, and it was not uncommon to see people who had read all of both series.
Nancy Drew:
This iconic amateur investigator was not just famous in Kenya, but the world over. An early symbol of fearlessness in women.
 

Free land and free slave labour! That was the mouth watering financial promise that encouraged white settlers to sail across the Indian Ocean in search of fertile lands in this country we now call Kenya.
Of course given this combination, as well as the fact that Kenya has pretty good weather all year round, there was plenty of time left over for the colonialists to enjoy themselves. This community fond of wanton debauchery came to be known as the Happy Valley Set, and these are their stories:
It is said that Hugh loved killing lions for fun. As you may be thinking, he finally met his match in 1894, when he was mauled by an attacking lion. As a result, he limped for the rest of his life
Josslyn abandoned his career as a British diplomat and eloped with Idina Sackville, a married woman to Kenya. Their home became a gathering point for many colonial parties, and was notorious for its orgies.Lord Erroll was horsewhipped in public at Nairobi Railway Station after being caught with someone elses wife, Molly Ramsay-Hill, whom he married a few years later. Molly later died from an overdose of alcohol, morphine and heroin.Lord Erroll was later shot dead by the husband of a woman he was eyeing.
She moved to Kenya after eloping with Lord Erroll. She was famous for hosting crazy parties which included wife swapping and drug abuse. She would welcome her party guests naked in a bathtub made of green onyx stones
She and her husband Frederic were invited to Kenya by a colonial family for lion hunting(quite the popular hobby back in the day apparently). She had an affair with Lord Erroll and later with Raymond de Trafford. Alice later abandoned her husband for Raymond. She then shot Raymond and shot herself at a railway station after he said that he couldn’t marry her. Fortunately or unfortunately, they both survived the gunshots. Alice was tried in court but got away with a four dollar fine. She and Raymond then finally married, but divorced soon after. Alice later returned to Kenya where she committed suicide by shooting herself in 1941.
Kiki and her second husband Jeromy first moved to Kenya in 1926 after being gifted land along Lake Naivasha by a friend. Kiki was known for big game hunting and drug abuse, especially coke and heroin. She was nicknamed “the girl with the silver syringe” since she used to always carry her syringe in her bag and inject drugs in public without regard for those who might be looking. She had an affair with Prince George of the British Royal Family, whom she introduced to drugs and is alleged to have borne a child with. After her son was killed in World War 2, she committed suicide, jumping out of a New York apartment

Barcelona’s Uruguayan star Luis Suarez on Thursday collected the Golden Shoe award for the leading scorer in Europe last season and admitted he never imagined being the most prolific member of such a star-studded attack.
“I didn’t imagine myself as the top scorer, I only thought about being a champion, winning the Champions League, which I have done,” said Suarez at a prize-giving ceremony in Barcelona.
“I have team-mates who make it easy but I am not going to take credit from myself because it needs to be done and you need to be in the right place,” Suarez, 29, said of his goal-scoring exploits.
The former Liverpool striker, who moved to the Camp Nou in 2014, scored a remarkable 40 goals in La Liga last season as Luis Enrique’s side edged out Real Madrid to take the title.
That tally allowed him to pip Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain, scorer of a Serie A record 36 goals for Napoli, to the award.
Cristiano Ronaldo was third with 35 goals for Real.
He said of all his goals among those that stood out came in the 4-0 destruction of Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu.
“There were many beautiful goals, important ones, but the ones I liked the most for what they meant were the two against Real Madrid and one against Atletico Madrid because it allowed us to stay top,” he said.
It is the second time Suarez has won the Golden Shoe — in 2013-14 he shared the prize with Ronaldo after netting 31 times for Liverpool in the Premier League.
Ronaldo has won it a record four times, while Suarez’s Barcelona team-mate Lionel Messi is a three-time winner.
He gave a nod to Messi and Neymar, the other member of the so-called MSN.
“I am in the best team in the world, with the best players,” he said.
“When you fix an objective you can reach it but the priority is the collective and winning titles as a team.
“If individual prizes come with that then it’s even better. But if it’s not me who wins them then let it be Leo or Neymar!”
Suarez is the second Uruguayan to win the trophy after Diego Forlan, who took the Golden Shoe when with Villarreal in 2004-05 and again as an Atletico player in 2008-09.

Pentagon chief Ashton Carter on Thursday decried North Korea’s latest missile test and again vowed an “overwhelming” response if Pyongyang were ever to launch a nuclear weapon.
North Korea on Thursday — Wednesday in the United States — conducted what appeared to be a failed test of a powerful medium-range missile that experts warn could be deployed as early as next year.
“We strongly condemn last night’s attempt, which even in failing, violated several UN Security Council resolutions,” Carter said at a joint press conference with his South Korean counterpart, Han Min-Koo.
Carter went on to repeat a pledge he and Secretary of State John Kerry had made in Washington on Wednesday, ahead of the most recent missile test.
“Make no mistake: Any attack on America or our allies will not only be defeated, but any use of nuclear weapons will be met with an overwhelming and effective response.”
It was the second failed launch in less than a week of the Musudan, which has a theoretical range of anywhere between 2,500 and 4,000 kilometers (1,500 and 2,500 miles).
The lower estimate covers the whole of South Korea and Japan, while the upper range would include US military bases on Guam.
On Wednesday, Kerry said the United States would deploy a missile-defense system to South Korea as soon as possible, despite opposition from China.
Washington sees the US-built Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system as protection against North Korea’s pursuit of missile and nuclear technology.

Five years since Moamer Kadhafi was killed in a NATO-backed uprising, the strongman’s quixotic Green Book — once Libya’s sacred and ever-present scripture — is now ridiculed in the conflict-hit nation.
Published in 1976, it became Libya’s unofficial “constitution”, announcing a “third way” between capitalism and socialism that shaped political, economic and social life in the North African state for close to four decades.
“The Green Book followed us wherever we went, at school, on television and in the street,” says Ahmad, a local journalist, who only gave his first name due to the sensitive topic.
Kadhafi unveiled his much-heralded “third way” seven years after he led a group of Libyan army officers in a 1969 coup d’etat that toppled the monarchy.
His vision, mixing elements of pan-Arabism and anti-colonialism, quickly gave way to despotic rule that suppressed all dissent and fostered the discontent that led to the 2011 uprising.
“Just before the 2011 revolt, regime security agents gave me copies of the Green Book. They told me to hand it out to people around me,” says Ahmad.
“I got rid of them recently because I was afraid it could get my relatives in trouble,” adds the father of eight.
During his chaotic rule, slogans from Kadhafi’s eccentric worldview permeated every aspect of Libyan daily life.
In homes, phrases from the book appeared on food labels, since everything was imported and packaged by the state, while in schools they were a key part of curricula.
Quotations from the Green Book also adorned the walls in public buildings and even the stationery in offices.
Kadhafi maxims such as “compulsory education is imposed ignorance” were scrawled on the sides of buildings and shops had to strictly adhere to the text’s prescribed phrasing or face punishment.
“Most of us didn’t read it and the parts that we knew about we couldn’t understand,” jokes Ahmad.
Kadhafi was killed by rebel fighters in his hometown of Sirte on October 20, 2011, but residents of the capital have not forgotten their distain for the strongman or his once-infallible book.
Sitting behind the counter at his Tripoli book store, shop owner Abdessalam says he got rid of all the copies he once had.
“My bookshop would be burned down instantly if I offered that book for sale,” he tells AFP in a hushed voice, eyes scanning the aisles for eavesdroppers.
“No one here is a supporter of the Kadhafi regime but just the fact of possessing the text… could have disastrous consequences,” said Abdessalam, who also declined to give his surname.
Since Kadhafi’s ousting, Libya has descended into chaos, with rival forces vying to control territory and the country’s vital oil wealth, and rival administrations claiming to be the legitimate, post-uprising government.
Even if the colour has faded, graffiti mocking Kadhafi’s Green Book can still been found on the walls along Tripoli’s seafront, with one poking fun at the “masterpiece”.
Another shows both the slain strongman and his book in a garbage bin with flies swirling around and the words: “Burn in hell with your book”.
Nearby, another artist has used an Arabic wordplay to change the title of the book to the word “idiots”.
Libyans often point with derision to slogans found which Kadhafi presented as original proclamations, including: “Woman and man are human” and “Woman has periods, man does not.”
Despite the painful memories the book still evokes, some people have held on to a few copies for posterity.
“I collected all the editions, they are scattered here and there and over the years my family has hidden them,” says Maha, a travel agent in her 50s.
In spite of his celebrated pomp, Kadhafi never built a statue of himself, so demonstrators during the 2011 uprising looking for an icon to destroy gathered and set on fire copies of the Green Book.
“This book has been witness to one of the most terrible pages in my country’s history,” says Maha as she sips her small cup of thick, black coffee.
Ahmad adds: “The Green Book has disappeared from circulation but you can still see its effects. The misfortunes we live with today are the result of the thinking spread by that book.”

Opposition leader Raila Odinga was a notable absent during the Mashujaa Day celebrations held at Machakos County.
Raila in a statement told Kenyans that he was scheduled to address students, scholars, public service officials and political leaders at the London Metropolitan University during the opening session of the London Political Summit 2016.
The Cord leader is scheduled to address the Summit on The Place of Opposition in a Hostile Political Environment.However, Cord Co-Principals Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetangula were present at the celebrations held at the Kenyatta Stadium in Machakos town.
Earlier there had been unconfirmed reports that the opposition had planned to hold a parallel Mashujaa Day celebration in Makueni County, which the opposition later distanced themselves from.
The three Cord principals are held up in a bitter battle for the coalition’s flag bearer position as they look to unseat President Kenyatta and Jubilee’s grip on power during next year’s general elections.
The ceremony was briefly held up as a several people were injured during a stampede as they attempted to force their way in moments after President Uhuru Kenyatta arrived.
Security agents comprising Kenya Defense Forces (KDF), the Administration Police (APs) as well as officers from the National Youth Service (NYS) had a difficult time controlling a crowd that milled outside the stadium.

Germany’s Angelique Kerber, who won two of the season’s four Grand Slam titles, secured the year-ending world number one ranking on Thursday, the WTA announced.
Kerber is the 12th player to achieve the year-end top spot and only the second German woman after Steffi Graf, who achieved the feat a record of eight times.
“It is a great honour and achievement to finish the year as the No.1 player in the world,” said Kerber, who will look to finish 2016 in style next week at the WTA Finals in Singapore.
“This is one of the things I’ve always been dreaming of — to become No.1. I have worked extremely hard to become the best player I can be and this is a reflection of that effort and the wonderful year I have had.”
Kerber became the oldest player to make her debut at number one on September 12 at 28 years old.
She succeeds Serena Williams who held the year-end number one ranking for the past three years.
Kerber began the season by claiming her maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in her first major final.
She also advanced to the Wimbledon final, captured a silver medal in singles at the Rio Olympics, and claimed her second Grand Slam title at the US Open.

The students had planned to deliver a list of demands to Zuma’s office at the Union Buildings in the latest stage of weeks of often violent demonstrations.
But police in riot gear prevented about 500 students from approaching the buildings, with some protesters trying to force their way through high fences.
The students held posters saying “Free education for all”, “South Africa is radically unequal” and “We want peace and free education”.
Stun grenades were fired after the students threw objects at the police.
The march was part of a wave of unrest at universities around the country, as students protest against fee increases that they say force poor students out of education.
Students have torched buildings in several institutions and dozens have been arrested during daily running battles on campuses in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg and elsewhere.
The violence has forced some universities to close, disrupting the completion of the academic year.
Student protests began last year, when many so-called “born frees” — who grew up after apartheid — staged huge demonstrations which forced the government to abandon planned fee hikes for 2016.

In a confidential report to the Security Council obtained by AFP on Thursday, the panel described the arms deals that are not recent and involve Israeli and Bulgarian firms.
The council has threatened to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan to try to end the fighting that has killed tens of thousands of people and driven 2.5 million from their homes.
While the arms deals date back to 2014 or earlier, “this evidence nevertheless illustrates the well-established networks through which weapons procurement is coordinated from suppliers in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and then transferred through middlemen in eastern Africa to South Sudan,” said the report.
The panel said rebel fighters loyal to Reik Machar recently turned up in the Democratic Republic of Congo armed with Israeli-made automatic rifles that were part of a stock sold to Uganda in 2007.
The weapons were likely taken from South Sudanese government stocks either through battlefield capture or defections, said the report sent to the council last week.
The panel said the Israeli-made rifles were likely part of a larger group of weapons that was transferred to South Sudan from Uganda.
After receiving a tip from Spain, the UN experts are looking into an arms trafficking network based in Europe that received an “extensive list of small arms, munitions and light weapons” from the rebels in 2014.
The deal which also involved a middleman from Senegal provided for shipments that were at least partially delivered, they said.
A Bulgarian firm delivered a shipment of small arms ammunition and 4,000 assault rifles to Uganda in July 2014, which were later transferred to South Sudan.
The firm, Bulgarian Industrial Engineering, worked through an intermediary in Uganda identified as Bosasy Logistics, whose chairman Valerii Copeichin is a Moldovan national.
The report said recent arms supplies were likely to have been made “through the same modality.”
UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous has called on the council to move quickly to cut off the arms flow, but Russia opposes the move while African countries have expressed reservations.
“I think an arms embargo should happen now and that’s even very late,” Ladsous told reporters on Tuesday.
“The rainy season is coming to a close and that has frequently been the time of the year when people go back to military operations.”
The council has said it will impose an arms embargo if Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon determines that the government in Juba is blocking the deployment of a UN-mandated regional force.
South Sudan descended into war in December 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of plotting a coup.
The nearly three-year war has been marked by appalling numbers of rapes and killings.

The jailing of Eduardo Cunha on corruption charges put one of Brazil’s most Machiavellian politicians out of play ?- so why is the country’s elite so nervous about him?
Cunha was jailed Thursday to await trial on charges of bribe taking, money laundering and stashing his illicit gains in Swiss accounts.
It was a shocking comedown for the former speaker of the lower house who launched the impeachment of former leftist president Dilma Rousseff, leading to his fellow center-right PMDB party member Michel Temer taking over the presidency.
But the possibility that the Brazilian wheeler dealer, often compared to Frank Underwood in Netflix’s dark political series “House of Cards,” could cooperate with prosecutors is causing alarm among other politicians, analysts say.
Prosecutors leading the investigation into a huge embezzlement and bribery scheme at state oil company Petrobras have repeatedly used plea bargains to extract new information and expand their probe. Cunha, the ultimate insider, would potentially be a mother lode.
“Who in Brasilia would be safe from a plea bargain with Cunha?” asked law professor Ivar Hartmann at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro.
“Cunha has a major destructive potential,” Alberto Almeida, director of the Analysis Institute, said.
The Petrobras scandal has already put a host of leading politicians in the crosshairs. Ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the mentor of Rousseff, is the subject of three cases and there is speculation that he could be next to face arrest.
However Temer’s government is also reeling from the probe. Three of his ministers facing investigation had to step down soon after he took over the presidency in August.
One of them, Romero Juca, resigned as planning minister after the leak of a recording in which he appeared to discuss wanting to shut down the investigation, dubbed Operation Car Wash.
Although Cunha was a close ally of Temer and others in the new government, they are likely to be fearful of what he might say if prosecutors put him under pressure.
“I have no doubt that if Cunha has to choose between saving his party’s reputation or his own skin that he’ll opt for his own skin,” Hartmann said.
Even without a plea bargain, Cunha is keeping Brasilia on its toes with his promise to write a book — something that being incarcerated will give him plenty of time to do.
If Cunha spills the beans on his insider knowledge “the crisis could affect the inner core of the government,” said analyst Marco Antonio Teixeira at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.
So far the Temer government has reacted with notable caution. Brazilian media reports said that ministers had been instructed to avoid comment.
Temer, on a trip to Tokyo, would not be drawn on speculation that more cabinet members could be downed by the Car Wash probe. “For now these are just allegations,” he said.
But Temer may end up having to sacrifice ministers, Hartmann said. The priority is “to shield Temer, protect him, because losing another minister is acceptable as long as Temer doesn’t fall.”

President Vladimir Putin backs an armed OSCE mission to war-torn eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin said Thursday, in spite of objections by pro-Moscow rebels.
“Putin agreed to the deployment of such a mission during the talks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, referring to Wednesday’s four-way talks on the conflict with the leaders of Germany, France and Ukraine.
“There is an understanding on the positive nature of the deployment of such a mission, but it needs to be worked out in the framework of the OSCE.”
The OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) has 580 unarmed staff based in the conflict zone and has had its mandate extended to the end of March 2017.
Despite Putin’s endorsement of armed OSCE observers, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the process of ensuring local elections in the rebel-controlled areas needs to advance before an armed OSCE mission could be put in place.
The idea of arming that mission does not sit well with the separatists’ self-proclaimed “people’s republics” in the industrial regions of Lugansk and Donetsk.
One of the Donetsk separatist leaders, Denis Pushilin, told AFP that his self-proclaimed republic was against the measure and that it had not been agreed upon in 2015 peace agreements known as the Minsk accords.
“The fact that we are against an armed OSCE mission is not only the personal position of the leadership of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic,” Pushilin said.
“It has been confirmed at rallies with several thousand people that took place on our territories.”
In June, more than 5,000 people took to the streets of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk to protest against the presence of OSCE monitors in the war-torn region, one of many rallies against the monitoring group.
Merkel said Thursday that “no miracles” were achieved on the Ukraine crisis during the talks but said they had led to some progress on ending a deadlock in the peace process.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said all sides had agreed to draw up a roadmap by the end of November for applying the frayed 2015 Minsk peace accords following months of impasse.
Russia, which annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, is backing the pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine in a conflict that has claimed nearly 10,000 lives since it erupted over two years ago.
Moscow has denied accusations that it has sent troops and weaponry across its border to fuel the conflict.

The video, displaying animated figures of women with circle-shaped breasts, aimed to explain to women how to check for suspicious lumps.
Sweden’s Cancerfonden said it has tried to contact Facebook without any response and has decided to appeal the decision to remove the video.
Facebook was not immediately available for comment.
“We find it incomprehensible and strange how one can perceive medical information as offensive,” Cancerfonden communications director Lena Biornstad told AFP.
“This is information that saves lives, which is important for us,” she said. “This prevents us from doing so.”
Facebook faced outrage in September for repeatedly deleting a historic Vietnam War photo included in a post by Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg.
It said the iconic photo of a naked Vietnamese girl fleeing a napalm bombing violated its rules but later backtracked on the decision.

President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the release of 7000 inmates serving jail terms on petty offences during the Mashujaa Day celebrations held at Machakos County.
The president at the same time urged the new Chief Justice David Maraga to speed up cases on corruption to enable culprits “fill the new spaces” in an apparent swipe at senior government officials.
The President also asked the Chief Justice to crack the whip on the anti-corruption cases before courts and jail those he said had been stealing from Kenyans.
“These offenders are those of petty offences such as those accused of stealing chicken and we are now telling the new CJ that there is now space to bring in more people with serious offences like corruption which has turned out to be a big issue in the country,” Kenyatta said.
He was received at Athi River by Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua, as they unveiled, the late Paul Ngei’s statue at the Machakos junction before proceeding for the Mashujaa celebrations.
Cord leader Raila Odinga missed the event as he was said to be away at the United Kingdom.
However, Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka and his Ford-Kenya counterpart graced the event.
 
 
 
 
 

Serbia jailed three French nationals Thursday for kidnapping a toddler from a Belgrade street in a bizarre bid to use her DNA in a family dispute.
The trio snatched the two-year-old in 2015 because she bore a resemblance to the young daughter of one of the French women, who was involved in a bitter custody battle with her estranged partner, according to the verdict.
A source close to the inquiry said Emeline Oeillet, 27, plotted with her mother and step-father to submit the Serbian girl to paternity tests so that the DNA match would come back negative, allowing her to claim her ex-partner had not fathered their child.
Oeillet was handed a seven-year sentence for the kidnap, and her mother Alexia Branchu, 51, was jailed for nine years. Branchu’s husband Sebastien, 46, was jailed for ten years.
The trio insisted they had the agreement of the Serbian toddler’s family to “borrow” her, but this claim “of a pre-existing agreement with the parents of the Serbian girl was not proven”, according to the judgement quoted by media.
“The telephones and computers of the accused were analysed and no trace of contact with the parents of the Serbian girl were discovered,” said judge Dragan Milosevic.
The Serbian family’s lawyer Natasa Jovicic said claims of an agreement “were not worthy of comment”, adding: “From the point of view of the victims, no punishment is sufficient for someone who tries to harm your child.”
According to the verdict, the French trio followed the toddler and her mother as they entered a Belgrade supermarket on March 13, 2015, and snatched the child as they came back onto the street.
“The accused tore the girl from the hands of her mother and violently pushed the mother to the ground,” the judge said.
“They then put the child in their car where they changed her hairstyle, switched her clothes with others prepared in advance, and fled.”
The three were intercepted by Serbian police several hours later, on the motorway heading towards Croatia.
The two women will appeal their sentences, their lawyer Irina Borovic said. Sebastien Branchu did not exercise his right to defend himself.

A Hungarian street newspaper published a special edition Thursday including a section produced by journalists from a top political daily which was unexpectedly closed earlier this month, firing fears of growing government control of the media.
The Without Shelter paper, which is sold by homeless people, teamed up with Nepszabadsag staff to publish a special 12-page section as part of its latest edition.
The insert contained contributions from high-profile Hungarian writers, but not words from Nepszabadsag reporters themselves as they have not yet been laid off and remain bound by an exclusivity clause.
“Nepszabadsag was a paper bought daily by 40,000 people who liked it as it was on paper, in their hands, and now they have lost that daily routine,” Nepszabadsag’s deputy editor Marton Gergely told AFP Thursday at the homeless facility where vendors collect copies of the paper for distribution.
“The readers are sad and we wanted to give them something to keep in their hand to remember Nepszabadsag. We are also in a phase of mourning and this is a part of dealing with it,” he said.
Nepszabadsag’s closure on October 8 came as a shock to its 60-strong staff of journalists who were not given advance warning.
Publisher Mediaworks, owned by Austrian magnate Heinrich Pecina, said halting the left-leaning paper’s online and print operations was done purely for commercial reasons, citing losses in recent years.
But critics said the decision was a fresh sign of populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s push to stifle critical media voices.
As the leading opposition paper, Nepszabadsag — meaning “Freedom of the People” — had published several news scoops that embarrassed the right-wing government, especially in the run-up to the recent anti-migrant referendum.
Speculation has been mounting that the title will soon be sold to an oligarch close to Orban.
Since the paper’s closure, Nepszabadsag staff have set up shop in a makeshift office donated by a sympathetic company in Budapest, as they consider their next moves.
Without Shelter editor Robert Kepe hailed the paper collaboration as a “show of solidarity”.
“It was an elegant gesture by Nepszabadsag to do this as the sellers will benefit from it. On the other hand, we show our support during their difficult situation,” he told AFP.
The street paper, printed fortnightly by the nonprofit Menhely (Refuge) Foundation, published some 20,000 copies Thursday — 12,000 more than usual.
The limited one-off edition was in high demand, with vendors reporting brisk business in underpasses and train stations in Budapest.
“Lots of people have pre-ordered (the new edition), I’m taking 150 copies down to a countryside town tomorrow,” 49-year-old seller Agnes Mag told AFP Thursday.

“Around four kilometres (two and a half miles) from here, at the end of the road, there’s my house and even my car,” Lass says as he gazes towards the columns of acrid black smoke rising from Bashiqa.
He is one of thousands of Kurdish peshmerga fighters joining Iraqi federal forces in a major US-coalition-backed offensive on Mosul, the country’s second largest city and the last significant urban area held by IS.
Lass was forced to flee Bashiqa, 25 kilometres (16 miles) northeast of Mosul, when the jihadists unleashed a lightning assault capturing swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory before declaring a “caliphate” straddling the two countries in 2014.
Now he says he and his comrades can’t wait to push IS back.
“We would die for this region. We have resisted all occupations, by (now-executed president) Saddam Hussein, by others, and now this one by IS,” says the 33-year-old.
“The Kurds will retake every centimetre (inch) of their land.”
Iraqi and international forces have slowly regained major cities from IS using US-led air strikes and elite counter-terrorism commandos to battle the jihadists street by street, most recently in Fallujah, west of Baghdad.
Extremist holdouts offer fierce resistance in the form of snipers, booby-trapped buildings and vehicle-borne bombs.
But, as Lass acknowledges with a chuckle, the peshmerga fighting to secure Bashiqa in recent days have encountered an altogether different problem: an almost total lack of resistance from IS.
“We can’t find anyone to fight us,” he says. “IS never fight man to man, they fire their mortars from further and further away and that’s it.”
Along the road snaking through the scorched plain, explosions from mortar rounds fired by IS fighters in Bashiqa towards the peshmerga puncture the quiet.
The Kurds relocate to a hill overlooking the road and carefully load four rockets into a truck-mounted launcher.
Equations scrawled on a notepad provide the trajectory, and fighters film on their mobile phones as the projectiles scream into the distance.
Lass, his face creased by the sun and fringed by a thick, black beard, says he had to flee his home with his four children in the middle of the night when IS came.
He took refuge in Arbil, the Kurdish regional capital, before joining the peshmerga like many displaced Kurds.
Fellow volunteer Chafiq Bradosti says he quit his job as a notary to help recover “every inch of Kurdish soil from the terrorists”.
“It’s an important day for me, I am proud to be with the peshmerga liberating this land from IS,” says Bradosti, binoculars slung round his neck.
The line of pick-ups and cars carrying peshmerga lengthens beneath the hill, with some fighters wearing the traditional Kurdish billowy trousers and headscarves and others decked in military fatigues.
Some heads are topped by turbans, others with berets. While the outfits may vary, nearly every fighter has a mobile phone in his hand ready to take selfies and film any combat that breaks out.
Each also brandishes an automatic rifle, either the ubiquitous Kalashnikov or a more modern, US-made M-16.
Iraqi lawmaker Salim al-Shabake circulates among the troops in full military uniform.
A beaming smile behind his moustache, the MP notes “the very high morale of the peshmerga” and insists their advance on Mosul will be “extremely quick”.
In spite of Shabake’s upbeat prognosis, progress is meticulously slow, as the peshmerga must remove mines and roadside bombs planted by IS before any advance.
Senior Iraqi officials have warned that the operation for Mosul could take months.
Near Bashiqa, the peshmerga wait for coalition air raids to strike IS targets before advancing on three fronts towards the town.
Provincial council member Hussein Zaiar Ali says that fighters and officials will also need to ensure fleeing civilians are cared for.
“We have taken steps to accommodate the displaced and 13 camps are ready,” he says, adding that the council plans to “provide services to inhabitants after the liberation” of Bashiqa.
But Lass and his colleagues insist they won’t stop there.
“We will defend Kurdistan, and all of Iraq,” he says, as a pillar of smoke from an air strike drifts slowly above the town.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, will visit Northern Ireland in November to learn about its peace process, the Colombian embassy said on Thursday.
Santos, who is struggling to implement his peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) after it was rejected by voters, will visit the British-ruled region on November 2.
The embassy said in a statement that the Colombian leader’s visit was due to Northern Ireland’s “importance as a model of peace and reconciliation”.
Santos will meet officials and visit the Girdwood community centre in north Belfast on November 3 to discuss peace and reconciliation with local residents.
His state visit to Britain at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II will begin on November 1.
Northern Ireland was riven by three decades of conflict which largely ended with the Good Friday peace agreement in 1998, although there are still sectarian tensions and paramilitary activity.
More than 3,500 people died in the conflict.
Two architects of the peace process — David Trimble, a Protestant from the pro-British Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and John Hume of the mainly Catholic Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) — were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the same year.
Santos is seeking a solution to the political fallout caused by voters who rejected the peace accord negotiated between the FARC and the government.
Santos — who has staked his legacy on making peace — had extended the army’s ceasefire to December 31 if no solution to the impasse was found by then.
The FARC, which had criticised Santos’ deadline, has also confirmed its willingness to continue negotiations and maintain a bilateral ceasefire.
The Colombian leader won the Nobel Peace Prize just a few days after voters shot down the historic accord in a referendum that would have ended more than 52 years of conflict.
The prize appeared to encourage the peacemakers.
Since the accord’s rejection, Santos has held marathon talks with political figures including the country’s former president Alvaro Uribe — who led opposition to the agreement — as well as religious leaders and victims of the armed conflict.