Donald Trump says he could shoot someone and still not lose voters

During a rally on Saturday in Iowa, Donald Trump said he wouldn't lose any support in the presidential race, even if he shot someone... 

"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" - Donald Trump.

Donald Trump's comment came during a campaign rally Saturday at Dordt College in northwest Iowa. The 1,500-seat theater completely filled with hundreds more watching the speech from an overflow room.

More than 1 million people in Russia are HIV-positive, official says

Russia's AIDS epidemic is at a dangerous tipping point after the number of people registered HIV-positive passed the 1 million mark, the country's top AIDS specialist said on Thursday, warning the rate of infection had reached record levels.
Vadim Pokrovsky, the head of the federal AIDS center, told Reuters that the prevalence of the disease was on the verge of becoming common throughout the population, instead of concentrated primarily within a certain group.

Almost 20 percent of the country's drug users and nearly 10 percent of the country's gay people were HIV-positive, he said. Between 55 and 60 percent of cases are linked to drug use and around 40 percent to heterosexual sex. Gay sex accounted for only about 1.5 percent.

Russia registered its millionth HIV-positive patient - a 26-year-old woman in the south of the country — on Wednesday, said Pokrovsky. But he added the real number of HIV-positive Russians could be as high as 1.5 million, or 1 percent of the population, based on his and other expert estimates.

"The epidemic is gathering strength. Unfortunately the measures that have been taken have clearly not been enough," Pokrovsky said.

He warned that Russia was "on the threshold" of moving from a concentrated epidemic, where HIV is highly prevalent in one subset of the population, to a generalized epidemic, where HIV rates among the general population are sufficient for sexual networking to drive new infections.

"We're in a transitional phase," he said. "In separate regions we can say there is already a generalized HIV epidemic."

The Russian epidemic has been driven by very harsh drug laws and a lack of harm reduction and needle exchange programs, as well as repressive homosexuality laws, according to UNAIDS and the World Health Organization.
A report released by UNAIDS in 2014 called out Russia for its "appalling record" on HIV and drug policy. "The Russian Federation… continues to steadfastly deny the evidence on the effectiveness of harm reduction, and the rates of HIV infection among people who inject drugs in the country are among the highest in the world," it said.

A federal law banning "gay propaganda" has also hindered access to HIV prevention services among the LGBT community, according to activists.

 

Pokrovsky said 204,000 people had died of HIV in Russia since the first case was recorded in 1987. He expected the number of new cases in 2015 to be at least 93,000, up from just under 90,000 in 2014.
That, he said, would be the largest number of new cases since Russia began keeping data almost 30 years ago.
The escalation comes as Russia struggles financially, beset by low oil prices, Western sanctions and a falling ruble.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called last October for a series of urgent measures to respond to the growing epidemic. The government plans to spend 40 billion rubles ($475.20 million) on fighting HIV/AIDs in 2016. Pokrovsky said 100 billion rubles was needed.

Government data shows 24,000 HIV-positive people died in 2014, the last full year for which data is available. Of those, around 12,000 died as a direct result of AIDS. Pokrovsky said the real number who died from AIDS was likely to be higher.
He said he expected data for 2015 to show a 5-10 percent increase in the number of deaths.

Bill Cosby Wins In Court As Judge Dismisses Defamation Lawsuit !

Renita Hill filed the claim saying she had been "emboldened" by the actions of Mr Cosby's other alleged victims but a Pittsburgh federal judge dismissed the case "with prejudice" meaning it cannot be amended and refiled.

Seven women are suing him,claiming he portrayed them as liars when they went public with their accusations but Mr Cosby filed a counterclaim, alleging their claims were only for financial gain.

The 78-year-old is also seeking unspecified monetary damages and said the women inflicted emotional distress.
Ms Hill's defamation case said she was made out to be a "liar" and "extortionist" when the comedian, his wife and his lawyer issued blanket denials.

But judge Arthur Schwab agreed with Mr Cosby's legal representatives that the statements were opinions protected by the First Amendment.

'Innuendo and undisclosed facts'

"Even considering these three statements together as a combined, single statement, this newly 'conjoined' statement does not lead to an inference that the plaintiff is a 'liar and an extortionist'," he said.

Ms Hill's legal representative, George Kontos, said he would be appealing the decision, adding he strongly disagreed with the judge's reasoning.
"The basis of his opinion is these are constitutionally protected, 'pure' opinions,'' said Mr Kontos.
"But, looked at as a whole, they contain all sorts of innuendo and undisclosed facts."

Mr Cosby has not responded specifically to Ms Hill's allegations that he drugged and assaulted her several times after they met on the TV show Picture Pages in 1983.She claims she was 16 at the time and the abuse continued for four years. She also says Mr Cosby helped pay for her college fees and travel to cities where he was performing.

Mr Cosby has repeatedly denied all accusations against him made by more than 50 women.
He has, however, admitted in court proceedings that he obtained and gave women sedatives over the years, but he maintained the women took the drugs willingly.

At the end of 2015, prosecutors in Pennsylvania charged the comedian with an alleged sexual assault in 2004. It was the first time Mr Cosby had been charged with any offence after months of accusations.
He is currently on $1m (£675,000) bail.

bbcnews.

Jimmy B denies endorsing Yumkeleh for Sierra Leone presidency- “Am not SLPP or APC”

following an interview on 98.1 radio democracy this morning where the godfather of sierra Leone music jimmy Bangura aka Jimmy B some miscreants are now on social media misinforming the nation that a man who has spent his entire life trying to entertain sierra Leoneans both home and abroad as a member of the main opposition sierra Leone people’s party SLPP .the general public is hereby informed that the music legend has never been a party card carrier for any political party and he has no intention of joining a political party for now ,but he clearly stated that he supported late president Kabba because he believes in his leadership qualities  then as an individual and their was nothing wrong for such because the man was a democrat who respected the sacred document called the constitution of sierra Leone.

Jimmy Bangura also told the nation that the statement made by Collabo that 98% of musicians wants MORE TIME for president Koroma is false and he and all the others like steady Bongo, King Fisher, Daddy Saj, Emerson etc do not support more time and advised Collabo to refrain from using the name of artists to propagate rumor and he promised to call on Collabo as his younger brother to advise him on the issue and he also stated that anything against the constitution he will not support.
As more time is now thing of the past let me remind all that the selected vice president of sierra Leone Dr victor Bockarie Foh has warned all those using the name of his Excellency the president Dr Bai Koroma for more time to desist and that president Koroma is a democrat and will not run for a third term or more time or extra time as the Ebola is amongst the many challenges of governance system.
Finally music legend Jimmy Bangura is not a member of any political party in sierra Leone even though he stated that as a citizen he has the right to vote as many others,his main aim is to contribute to the socio- economic development of his country.

Incredible story of a Monkey that adopted a lost puppy

This monkey adopted a lost puppy on the street of New Delhi, India and they have been living together ever since. According to local media reports, the monkey never lets the puppy stay out of his reach. They eat and play together and whenever other dogs try to mess with the little puppy, the monkey chases them away. This is amazing because monkeys and dogs don't generally get along. See more photos after the cut...

Photos: Celine Dion & her kids at late husband René Angélil's funeral

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The heart broken singer led her three children, Rene Charles, 14, twin boys Nelson and Eddy, 5, to the funeral of her late husband. A huge number of well-wishers also gathered for the funeral service, filling the aisles of the church and the area outside. The funeral service was broadcast live yesterday

Angélil died of throat cancer at the age of 73 on January 14.

 brother Daniel two days after Rene, following his battle with cancer.

Angelil started out as a singer in the 1960s, forming Montreal, Canada pop rock group The Baronets with his childhood friend Pierre Labelle. He went into management when the band split in the 1970s, and represented fellow Quebec entertainers Rene Simard and Ginette Reno, among other pop acts.

He won the Felix Award for Manager of the Year in 1987 and 1988, but his career really took off when he discovered Celine Dion as a pre-teen. Rene helped the French-speaking singer develop her signature sound throughout her teens and they fell in love, marrying in December, 1994. Celine, who is 26 years younger than her husband, became his third wife.

Angelil suffered a string of medical setbacks over the past two decades - he had a heart attack in 1992 and underwent cancer surgery in 1998. He also battled and beat throat cancer, but the disease returned in 2013, forcing him to undergo surgery again. The health crisis forced him to step down as Dion's manager, and in September, 2015, his wife revealed that Angelil's cancer was terminal.

Celine's 14-year-old son Rene-Charles made his mum proud at the funeral of his father Rene in Montreal, Canada yesterday by delivering a heartfelt tribute and a promise to live up to his dad's standards.

The teenager arrived at the Notre-Dame Basilica with his mother and twin brothers, Nelson and Eddy, and comforted Celine throughout the service, which was streamed online and telecast in Canada.  The family were also joined by Angelil's adult sons Patrick and Jean-Pierre from a previous marriage.

The singer looked on proudly as Rene-Charles addressed the thousands of mourners first in French and then in English.

War on women: Sierra Leone’s religious leaders wage war against women

on Thursday convened an inter-faith summit to discuss the fate of the proposed controversial Safe Abortion Act recently passed by parliament.

The Act could not become law after the Inter-Religious Council asked
President Ernest Bai Koroma not to give it his signature, which is required to make it into law. The religious leaders then decided to convene a meeting to come up with a final position.

At Thursday’s meeting held at the Saint Anthony’s Catholic Church in Freetown, presentations were made by representatives of the various religious denominations in the country. The Council also invited other stakeholders, including the medical profession, lawyers, and women’s groups.

Almost all those who spoke kicked against allowing the Act to become law.
The ‘Safe Abortion Act 2015′, passed in December, has been promoted as a response to high fatalities and post birth injuries due to unsafe abortions. If it becomes law, the Act will allow women to have an abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy at will which appears to be the major bone of contention.

“The biggest crime before God is shedding blood,’ said Archbishop
Tamba Charles, the head of the Catholic Church in Sierra Leone.

The Deputy Minister of Justice, Mr Arrow Bockarie, said he was alive today because his parents did not abort him, while Health Minister Dr Abu
Bakarr Fofanah said the law would increase unsafe abortion rather than decrease it.

A presentation by the Medical and Dental Council also showed that the
regulatory arm of the medical profession in the country was against the law.

The Inter Religious Council is now set to present its position paper to the President on Wednesday, after a planned meeting with parliament early next week.

Liberia asks IMF for additional finance and more time

Dear Madame Lagarde

In March 2014, Liberia was hit by the unprecedented outbreak of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). (photo: IMF Chief Lagarde and president Sirleaf). 

The outbreak permeated the social and economic fabric of our country, significantly undermining our economic activities and thwarting our medium-term development program – the Agenda for Transformation (AfT).

However, the measures put into place, including actions aimed at preventing and controlling infection rates, increasing community engagements and ensuring safe burials, as well as the support of our development partners and the international community, have led to successful containment of the epidemic.

On September 3, 2015 our country was declared Ebola free for the second time by the World Health Organization (WHO). Liberia became the first of the three most-affected countries in West Africa to have been declared Ebola free after more than a year of battling the epidemic, even though more recently there have been a few isolated cases.

We are grateful to the IMF for the financial support it provided to Liberia during the crisis for a total of US$130 million through an ad-hoc augmentation under the ECF, disbursement under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF), and debt relief under the Catastrophe Containment and Relief (CCR) Trust.

The economic impact of Ebola has been compounded by the steep decline in commodity prices.

Prior to the outbreak, our country had been growing at about 8 percent on average since 2011, domestic institutions were being re-built and social and health indicators were improving. However, the epidemic weakened activity in all sectors of the economy, with real GDP growth declining from close to 8½ percent in 2013 to 0.7 percent in 2014.

As the country embarked on the road to recovery in 2015 after the devastating Ebola crisis, it is being further confronted by the sharp decline in prices of our major exports, namely iron ore and rubber.

As a result, planned investments in the mining sector have been put on hold by existing mining operators.  A prolonged period of low commodity prices would significantly undermine our tax and export revenues, and could significantly weaken our medium term growth prospects.

We remain fully committed to the objectives set under our ECF-supported program, although the Ebola outbreak weakened our capacity and led to delays in program implementation.

Taking into account the extremely challenging context, looking back to June and December 2014, our performance remained broadly satisfactory. We met most of the end-June 2014 quantitative performance criteria (PCs) and indicative targets (ITs) except the floor on government revenues, net foreign exchange reserves position, and the ceiling on net domestic assets of the central bank.

We missed the floor on government revenues owing to shortfalls in tax and nontax revenues. The floor on net foreign exchange position was missed following a placement of reserves with a domestic LIBERIA 2 bank.

Nonetheless, revenue performance improved markedly in FY2015 in part with the establishment of the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) on July 1, 2014. We met only two out of seven end-December 2014 PCs due to the Ebola outbreak.

We met three out of seven structural benchmarks (SB) (payroll cleanup, publication of FY2016 budget calendar, and pilot on integration of credit-financed projects into the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS)), whereas the SBs on enhancing cash and liquidity management, strengthening the quality of national accounts and submitting the insurance law were completed but with a delay.

Impurity reigns in Sierra Leone: Allie Kabba sent back to prison

Sierra Leone tonight  is a simple, though chilling statement by supporters of opposition politician Alie Kabba: “Where there is no justice, there can be no hope”.

Alie Kabba has once again been denied bail and sent to the country’s notorious maximum security prison, after court received ‘orders from above’. He will next appear at the High Court, where he can present his evidence and plead his innocence.

Supporters of Kabba say that he is a political prisoner of conscience, whose freedom has been denied once more by a politically controlled court in Freetown, on a flimsy and orchestrated technicality regarding the terms of his bail.

Only in Sierra Leone are you likely to find the rather bizarre contradiction of having a member of parliament – IB Kargbo, who has committed serial crimes, by first failing to declare to the country’s electoral commission that he was still working as a public servant whilst contesting a by-election; and worse, using ministerial letter headed paper to write a letter soliciting an unlawful agreement with the Lebanese government, to import waste into Sierra Leone for cash.

Despite these serious crimes, IB Kargbo walks a free man, a parliamentarian and a presidential adviser. No one in the judiciary and the government is batting an eyelid, whilst Alie kabba is sent to maximum security prison today, for alleged bigamy involving a government minister – a charge the government is struggling to prove.

Why? IB Kargbo is a senior member of the ruling APC and a close confidante of the president; Alie Kabba is a candidate for the presidency in 2018, and he is seen as the most powerful critic of the government’s failed policies.