Postal workers plan protest of door-to-door delivery cuts

By Molly Hayes

 

PROTEST PLANNED

Spectator file photo

Postal workers in Hamilton are holding a protest Monday, Jan. 27 against Canada Post's plan to phase out door-to-door home delivery.

 

 Hamilton postal workers will protest outside the Federal Building at 55 Bay St. N. to show their opposition to the slashing of door-to-door residential delivery service. 

 

The protest, scheduled for Monday at 3 p.m., will include active rank and file members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers as well as retired CUPW members and other union groups in the city.

The public is also invited to join. 

Similar protests will take place across the country, timed with the reconvening of Parliament.

Canada Post announced the planned cuts in December, blaming rising costs and falling mail volumes. They also announced plans to raise the price of stamps by more than 35 per cent to 85 cents when purchased in a booklet. Single stamps will cost $1 starting in March. 

The controversial plan to phase out home delivery within five years was met with criticism, especially from those concerned the service cuts will hit seniors and the disabled especially hard. 

The Hamilton Spectator

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4335809-postal-workers-plan-protest-of-door-to-door-delivery-cuts/ 

$800k damage after overnight house fire

ICY STREET
Barry Gray,The Hamilton Spectator Hamilton. Ontario, Sunday, January 26,2014 - Firefighters step carefully on the icy street Sunday morning after an overnight fire caused extensive damage to a home sat 23 Undercliffe Ave. off Aberdeen Ave. in Hamilton Saturday night

 An overnight fire caused $800,000 worth of damage to a south west Hamilton home, after firefighters battled a third floor blaze. 

Crews were called to the home – on Undercliffe Avenue – around 10:19 p.m. Upon arrival, the homeowners were out front, as flames blazed through the top floor. 

Firefighters went inside but were forced to retreat due to instability of the roof. Shortly after they got out, a portion of the roof collapsed. At this point it became a defensive attack on the fire, to protect the homes on either side. 

Thankfully, the fire did not spread. But the home sustained hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage due to the fire and water. 

Sunday morning, the home was covered in ice. The road, too, was frozen over. Crews were figuring out how to melt the ice before the aerial truck could be moved from the hilly street. 

FIRE
ACOLLINSPHOTO Hamilton Fire Crews were called to Undercliffe Avenue just after 11pm for multiple calls of flames showing from the roof of a large home On arrival heavy fire and smoke were visible - crews immediately upgraded the fire to a multiple alarm Crews were still working to get 

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4335458--800k-damage-after-overnight-house-fire/ 

German newspaper to publish Nazi SS leader Heinrich Himmler's love letters, notes, photos

By Kirsten Grieshabe

BERLIN - One black-and white photo shows Heinrich Himmler on an idyllic family outing, holding his wife's hand while his blond, pigtailed daughter is picking flowers. Others show the SS Nazi leader feeding a little fawn or taking a bath at Lake Tegernsee near his home in Bavaria. 

The family-friendly, intimate scenes are part of a previously unseen collection of photos, recipe books and hundreds of letters and notes believed to be written by Himmler, one of the Nazis most responsible for the Holocaust. 

Excerpts from the collection appeared in seven full pages of German paper Welt am Sonntag on Sunday. They contained large-sized images of Himmler surrounded by his family and excerpts from his love letters to wife Magda, calling her "my sweet, beloved little woman." 

    

Heinrich Himmler
str,AP

FILE - The undated file photo shows German Nazi party official and head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler. at unknown location in Germany.

 

 The newspaper said the material is part of an eight-part series it plans to publish. 

 

Welt said it was approached three years ago by Israeli film director Vanessa Lapa, whose family had the documents in its possession. Welt said the documents' authenticity has been independently verified by historians. 

The paper said two U.S. Army soldiers found the trove right at the end of the war in May 1945, inside a safe in Himmler's home in Bavaria. 

Decades later, in the 1980s, the papers surfaced in Israel in the hands of Holocaust survivor Chaim Rosenthal. Welt says it is not clear how he obtained the papers. Rosenthal kept them until 2007, when he sold the documents to Vanessa Lapa's father, who then gave them to his daughter. 

Lapa will debut a documentary she directed on the Himmler files at next month's Berlin International Film Festival. 

Almost 70 years after the end of the Third Reich, the documents provide an unprecedented glimpse into the private life of Himmler and evidence of his radical anti-Semitism. The writings trace his career from the early beginnings and rise of the Nazis in the 1920s, all the way to the genocide of Europe's Jews in the 1940s. 

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4335505-german-newspaper-to-publish-nazi-ss-leader-heinrich-himmler-s-love-letters-notes-photos/ 

 

PM. Stephan Harper-Iseal and Mayor Rob Ford

    
   Stephen Harper, future prime minister of Israel(?)
Harper's love for Israel was so over the top this week, frankly, Canadians should be jealous. The PM took a massive delegation over there this week and reaffirmed Canada's support for Israel in a big way. Sycophant Steve even sang "Hey Jude" for Prime Minister Netanyahu. (REUTERS/Ammar Awad)

     

Rob Ford, mayor of Toronto, amateur video star
Another video of Toronto’s mayor has surfaced, this time with him taking on a Jamaican patois while drunk and ranting in a restaurant.
Ford says he fell off the wagon in his quest for sobriety. But considering that a second video shows him hanging out with accused drug dealer Sandro Lisi, it’s starting to seem like he hasn’t really changed his ways. Plus, he’s refusing to say how he got home that night.
It really makes you wonder what politicians got away with back before everyone was armed with a video camera. (Michael Peake/Toronto Sun/QMI Agency)

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/24/5-political-fails-this-week

(There are three others, not worth mentioning - Mike)

Mad scramble for the Rob Ford crack video

First posted: Friday, January 24, 2014 10:19 PM EST | Updated: Saturday, January 25, 2014 09:37 AM EST 

  

 Mayor Rob Ford and his executive committee meet in Toronto, May 13, 2012. (Jack Boland / QMI Agency)

For some, like the media and the alleged gangsters hoping to cash in, it was the pot of gold and Eldorado all rolled into one.

For Mayor Rob Ford, the elusive crack video was a ticking time bomb.

An hour after Gawker’s explosive story appeared online May 16, Ford’s good friend Alexander Lisi was on the phone making frantic calls to assorted shady characters in Ford’s underworld life. Through the night and into the morning, according to police surveillance records, he made repeated calls to Fabio Basso, owner of the Windsor Rd. home where it was believed to have been shot, and to video seller Mohamed Siad. He and David Price, Ford’s logistics director, were talking as well.

Ford and Lisi were also in constant communication -- according to police intercepts, exchanging 13 texts and phone calls that night alone.

Lisi was on a mission, police claim. His extortion charge would later allege that between May 16 and 18 he “did induce Mohamed Siad or Liban Siyad by threats or violence or menace to deliver said digital video recording.”

Siad was feeling the heat. At 12:47 a.m., a Project Traveler wiretap recorded his call to a woman believed to be his sister. He told her to take the phone out of the red pencil case and keep it safe.
Was this the cellphone that held the lucrative recording everyone was seeking?
After their flurry of phone calls, it appears Ford’s deputies had a handle on where that video might be.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/24/mad-scramble-for-the-rob-ford-crack-video

(For as long as they go with Rob Ford being the number 1 issue facing to Toronto right now, I'll keep showing what the mainstream media seems to think as important to know. Rob Ford is just a man, nice to see a regular guy as Mayor of a city that have true issues he has and will address. Not like those mayors of the last 20 or so years prior to May Ford. At least he tries to do what he was elected to do. Can the same be said those before him?  Mike.)

Texas judge declares pregnant woman dead, orders hospital remove life support

Jana J. Pruet, REUTERS

First posted: Friday, January 24, 2014 05:39 PM EST | Updated: Friday, January 24, 2014 07:27 PM EST 

        

 A Texas judge on Friday ordered a Fort Worth hospital to remove a brain-dead pregnant woman from life support. (Fotolia)

FORT WORTH, Texas - A Texas judge on Friday ordered a Fort Worth hospital to remove a brain-dead pregnant woman from life support, after her husband argued the fetus she has been forced to carry under state law is withering in her lifeless body.

The judge ruled that Marlise Munoz, now about 22 weeks pregnant, is dead. She has been on life support in a hospital since Nov. 26 after suffering what her husband, Erick, believes was a pulmonary embolism.
District Judge R.H. Wallace gave John Peter Smith Hospital until Monday at 5 p.m. U.S. Central Time (2300 GMT) to remove the ventilator.

"The defendants are ordered to pronounce Mrs. Munoz dead and remove the ventilator and all other 'life-sustaining' treatment from the body of Marlise Munoz," the judgment read.

Under Texas law, a person may not withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment from a pregnant patient, even if there is a "do not resuscitate" request from the patient or if the family of the patient seeks to end life support.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/24/texas-judge-declares-pregnant-woman-dead-orders-hospital-remove-life-support

Rape threats part of online harassment case against Stoney Creek man

Woman feels police were slow to take her complaints about vicious tweets seriously

By Amy Dempsey 

 

  

BRUNO
Supplied photo

Vanessa Bruno believes officers haven't done a good job of taking her complaints about online threats seriously, a charge police deny.

 

For six months, Vanessa Bruno was tormented by an anonymous online stalker. She says he figured out where she lived, threatened to wait outside her workplace to rape her and messaged her through a fake online account in the name of her brother, who had recently committed suicide. 

"I thought you were a strong, independent Italian woman! Hahahahaha you're nothing but another soon-to-be rape statistic," the stalker wrote on her blog. "Watch out b----, I'm gonna have you soon." 

Michael Sopinka, 29, of Stoney Creek has been charged with criminal harassment, threatening death and threatening bodily harm. A lawyer appeared in court on his behalf Friday to collect disclosure from the Crown and set a return date for Feb. 21.

None of the allegations against Sopinka, who has been released on bail, have been proven. His lawyer, Frank Crewe, said it's too early to comment on the case. 

Bruno says the alleged perpetrator was a complete stranger to her. 

The case comes at a time when much attention is being drawn to the gendered harassment women face online — in Toronto, where Gregory Alan Elliott, 53, is on trial after pleading not guilty to criminal harassment charges stemming from Twitter exchanges with women; and worldwide, most recently through a widely read and well-reviewed essay by American writer Amanda Hess for the Pacific Standard, "Why Women Aren't Welcome on the Internet." 

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4334573-rape-threats-part-of-online-harassment-case-against-stoney-creek-man/ 

 

2 Sides in Syria Talks Agree to Meet, Averting a Breakdown

GENEVA — The participants in the Syrian peace conference averted a collapse in the talks on Friday, agreeing to meet in the same room on Saturday for the first time.

Earlier, the government delegation had threatened to bolt, while the opposition complained that the government side was not fully committed to the framework of the talks.

After a day of frantic negotiations, however, the United Nations special envoy to the talks announced at a press briefing that the two sides had agreed to meet. “Tomorrow we expect, and we’ve agreed, that we will meet in the same room,” the envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, told reporters.

It was unclear whether the sides would face each other in the meeting or sit separately, with Mr. Brahimi shuttling back and forth, in what are known as proximity talks.

United Nations officials had hoped to hold a face-to-face meeting between the government and the opposition on Friday, the third day of talks aimed at ending Syria’s war. When that failed, Syrian government officials said they would leave if the meeting was not rescheduled for the next day.

     

Members of the Syrian opposition coalition arriving for a meeting with the United Nations special envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday. Anja Niedringhaus/Associated Press

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/25/world/middleeast/syria.html?hp

Planet Hillary

The gravitational pull of a possible 2016 campaign is bringing all the old Clinton characters into her orbit. Can she make the stars align, or will chaos prevail?
    
Photo illustration by Jesse Lenz; Hillary Clinton: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images. Black Hole: M. Weiss/NASA. Nebula: M. Livio/ESA/NASA. Dark Matter, Vortex and Supernova: NASA. Cluster: Karel Teuwen. Quasar: ESA/NASA. Comet: ESA

 Hillary Clinton was nodding solemnly to the mother of a 9/11 victim when Huma Abedin, standing across the room, called out, “Let’s load!” to the staff members and bodyguards. The former secretary of state had yet to pick up her award from the Voices of September 11th, but her entourage was already preparing to shuttle her off to the next event, a benefit for God’s Love We Deliver, which was co-hosted by the designer Michael Kors and where she would sit next to the Vogue editor and former Obama bundler Anna Wintour. It was just another hectic fall evening in Manhattan for Clinton, and she was keeping herself busy as usual in the “is she or isn’t she” interim. There were paid speeches to give (at $200,000 a pop) to the American Society of Travel Agents and the National Association of Realtors, filled with the wisdom gleaned from being the nation’s top diplomat (“leadership is a team sport” was one favorite; “you can’t win if you don’t show up” was another). There were awards to receive, like the one from Chatham House, a think tank in London, to which Clinton traveled on a commercial 757 like the one she used to command while working at the State Department. (“That was fun!” she said of the flight.) And there were Beverly Hills galas to attend, which soon turned into schmooze sessions, like the ones with Harvey Weinstein and Richard Plepler and Jeffrey Katzenberg, yet another major Obama bundler.

Through it all, the former first lady/secretary of state/likely Democratic candidate for president seemed gracious and untroubled, and yet it was hard not to feel an enjoy-it-while-it-lasts sort of sympathy for Clinton. She had, after all, spent four years at the State Department displaying great political and diplomatic and managerial skill, and in that process shed much of the baggage generally associated with the Clintons. Yet that very organizational meshugas already threatened, once again, to entangle her. Before Clinton had even left the State Department, last February, Ready for Hillary, a political-action committee supported by some of her old pals, had emerged. Emily’s List, another PAC, introduced its Madam President initiative. While working on Barack Obama’s re-election, Jim Messina, the savvy operative, had already courted Bill Clinton. There would even be Correct the Record, an initiative designed to defend Clinton against media attacks. Conservative groups had begun calling her still-presumptive campaign the Queen’s Machine. They had a point.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/magazine/hillary-clinton.html?hp&_r=0

Obama Not Ruling Out U.S. Military Action In Congress

  President Obama says peacekeeping efforts have failed and a military option in Congress may be the only option.


WASHINGTON—Following years of continued fighting and disorder in the troubled region, President Barack Obama revealed today that he has not ruled out taking immediate and decisive military action in the United States Congress.

Admitting that diplomatic outreach efforts in the area have so far proven unsuccessful, the president claimed that his administration is weighing the feasibility of committing combat troops to both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives in order to bring lasting peace and stability to the chaos-afflicted legislature.

“We have not yet made a decision as to how we are going to address this rapidly deteriorating situation, but at this point I can tell you that military action is indeed on the table,” Obama told reporters at a morning press conference, emphasizing that he is “deeply troubled” by the escalating hostilities and diminishing prospects for unity on the Congressional floor.

 “Clearly, sending our young men and women into this tumultuous war zone is not ideal, and I still hope to resolve the situation through peaceful means. But as the conflict continues to worsen, it becomes increasingly evident that the deployment of our armed forces may be our only real option.”

http://www.theonion.com/articles/obama-not-ruling-out-us-military-action-in-congres,34946/

(Remember this is from The Onion)

Fight continues for pregnant, brain-dead woman to be pulled off life support

FORT WORTH, Texas Attorneys for a Texas family will ask a judge Friday to allow a pregnant, brain-dead woman to be removed from life support despite opposition from the hospital, which argues it is legally bound to keep her on support.

   
HUSBAND
Ron T. Ennis,McClatchy-Tribune Erick Munoz, the husband of Marlise Machado Munoz, poses for a photo at his home on Jan. 3, 2014

The case has raised questions about end-of-life care and whether a pregnant woman who is considered legally and medically dead should be kept on life support for the sake of a fetus. It also has caught the attention of groups on both sides of the abortion debate, with anti-abortion groups arguing the fetus deserves a chance to be born. 

The judge will hear arguments as the husband of Marlise Munoz seeks to remove his wife from life support. Erick Munoz said his wife, a fellow paramedic, had told him when she was healthy that she did not want to be kept alive if she ever became ill. 

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4333580-fight-continues-for-pregnant-brain-dead-woman-to-be-pulled-off-life-support/ 

Bill O’Reilly to interview Obama on Super Bowl Sunday

      
(The Washington Post)


Fox News host Bill O'Reilly will interview President Obama during Fox's Super Bowl pre-game show on Feb. 2, Fox News announced Thursday.

O'Reilly previously interviewed Obama on the eve of the Super Bowl in 2011.

The interview will air first on Fox at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time, and additional parts of it will air Feb. 3 on O'Reilly's Fox News Channel show.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/01/23/bill-oreilly-to-interview-obama-on-super-bowl-sunday/?tid=hpModule_ba0d4c2a-86a2-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394&hpid=z10

Chris Jennings to leave post as WH health-care adviser

By Juliet Eilperin and Amy Goldstein

 Senior White House health-care adviser Chris Jennings is leaving, the administration announced Thursday.

       

A Tea Party member reaches for a pamphlet titled "The Impact of Obamacare", at a "Food for Free Minds Tea Party Rally" in Littleton, New Hampshire in this October 27, 2012 file photo.REUTERS/Jessica Rinald

Senior White House health-care adviser Chris Jennings is leaving, the administration announced Thursday.

"It has been a great privilege to work with the President and his incredibly dedicated team on the Affordable Care Act," Jennings said in a statement. "I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to serve.

 It has been an honor to help ensure that the promise of affordable, quality health care embodied in this historic law becomes the reality for all Americans.  This is the cause of my professional life and I look forward to making continued contributions to that end."

 In a statement, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough praised Jennings for his work.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/01/23/chris-jennings-to-leave-post-as-wh-health-care-adviser/?tid=hpModule_ba0d4c2a-86a2-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394&hpid=z9

Rick Perry urges move toward marijuana decriminalization

By Sean Sullivan

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) on Thursday voiced support for softening penalties for marijuana use, and touted his work moving in the direction of decriminalization.

"After 40 years of the war on drugs, I can’t change what happened in the past. What I can do as the governor of the second largest state in the nation is to implement policies that start us toward a decriminalization and keeps people from going to prison and destroying their lives, and that’s what we’ve done over the last decade," Perry said, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

Perry made the remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. While he does not favor legalization, he has supported alternate rehab and drug court programs, his spokeswoman noted.

"Gov. Perry has long supported diversionary and rehabilitative programs, like the drug courts we have in Texas that have proven results," said Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed in a statement to Post Politics.
Perry also said "states should be allowed" to decide whether to legalize marijuana.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/01/23/rick-perry-urges-move-toward-marijuana-decriminalization/?tid=hpModule_ba0d4c2a-86a2-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394&hpid=z9

An emerging market problem

By David Ignatius, Published: January 22 E-mail the writer

A funny thing happened on the way to the decline of the United States and the rise of China, Brazil and other emerging markets: Many prominent analysts began wondering if the pessimistic predictions about America were wrong — and whether it was the emerging markets that were heading for trouble.

These international economic fads are always suspect, up or down. They seem to follow what I was (facetiously) told years ago was the guiding rule for columnists: Simplify, then exaggerate. So beware this latest revisionism, just like any other variety.

 But some startling new assessments of global economic trends stand the “declinist” wisdom of recent years on its head. The revisionists argue that U.S. economic fundamentals are now stronger than they seemed, and that those of the BRICs — the emerging giants Brazil, Russia, India and China — are weaker.

Certainly, the financial markets are registering this new view. The Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Index fell 5 percent last year, compared to a nearly 30 percent gain for the U.S. benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 index. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted Tuesday that economic growth will rise this year and next in the United States and decline both years in China.

One influential revisionist has been Antoine van Agtmael, the economist who coined the hopeful term “emerging markets” in 1981. Van Agtmael has written several blistering assessments recently about the former rising superstars.


  



       

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-an-emerging-market-problem/2014/01/22/173a984c-82f3-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html?tid=hpModule_ea22e378-b26e-11e2-bbf2-a6f9e9d79e19&hpid=z9

Ten reasons for GOP’s bright 2014 prospects

By Jennifer Rubin

      

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)  (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)

 Republicans, albeit somewhat early, are increasingly confident about their 2014 prospects. This is not unreasonable given 10 factors:

1. In the House, Democratic retirements have given the GOP openings in North Carolina’s 7th, Utah’s 4th, New York’s 21st and Maine’s 2nd districts. By contrast in the Virginia 10th, where Frank Wolf is retiring, state Del. Barbara Comstock (R-Fairfax) is off to a strong start and has cleared the field of far-right opponents, allowing her to run a center-right campaign that won’t put off independents and Democrats.

2. Progress on immigration and the passage of a budget will help the GOP defuse the Democrats’ accusations they are intransigent and anti-immigrant.

(Click the ling below to see the remaining 8, Mike)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2014/01/23/ten-reasons-for-gops-bright-2014-prospects/?hpid=z3

A question for Bill O’Reilly’s interview with President Obama

By Erik Wemple

 Fox News host Bill O’Reilly will conduct a live interview with President Obama at the White House at 4:30 p.m. on Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 2), right in the midst of pregame festivities, the network announced today. A bonus taped portion of the sit-down session will air on the Feb. 3 edition of “The O’Reilly Factor.” A release from Fox News indicates that the interview will “cover an array of topics.”

    

Bill O’Reilly (Frank Micelotta/Invsion/Associated Press)+

In a similar setting prior to the 2011 Super Bowl, O’Reilly indeed covered a number of topics, including turmoil in the Middle East, whether Obama was dead-set on redistributing America’s wealth and football. It was a perfectly fine session in which O’Reilly showed his much-self-touted ability to be a straight shooter, though he wasn’t quite as smooth and comfy as he always appears on his home set.

Anyhow, O’Reilly’s currency in his audience stems from the idea that he is not ideological, that he has utter political independence and doesn’t align with many of his colleagues at Fox News, including arch-conservative prime-time host Sean Hannity. Though we won’t evaluate the integrity of that notion right now, we will note that O’Reilly complies with the Fox News-wide contempt for the president’s signature issue, the Affordable Care Act. Last November, for instance, O’Reilly made this claim about health-care reform

The affordable healthcare law will change your life and my life. Unless you are a millionaire, who can afford to pay all health bills out of pocket, you are going to get hosed.
For most Americans, Obamacare will make life far more complicated and drive up healthcare premiums. That’s the truth. There is no getting around it. More money out of your pocket, fewer doctors available and businesses cutting back on benefits and hiring — those are the consequences of Obamacare. And if anyone, anyone tells you differently, they are not telling you the truth.

So it’s likely that O’Reilly will hammer away at the president on health care again on Super Bowl Sunday. And one way that O’Reilly may do that could well involve dialing back to his 2011 interview. Have a look at the following exchange from that session. It started when the president cited the views of “a lot of people” who were alienated by Washington and wanted progress on key issues. O’Reilly disputed Obama on the point:

O’REILLY: Other people see it as a huge government intrusion and you guys just want to take over basically decision-making for Americans. It’s an ideological argument. Let me move ahead….
PRESIDENT OBAMA: But Bill, I just want to be clear about this. Because if you look at what we’ve done, what we said was ‘If you’ve got health care that you like, you keep it.’
O’REILLY: I know all that. I listen to it every day.
OBAMA: I know, and I listen to you. And what I hear you saying, Bill, for example, is the notion that us saying to people that don’t have health insurance, “Don’t make me pay for your health insurance, don’t make me pay for it when you go to the emergency room. If you get sick, you have a responsibility to make sure that you’ve got coverage.” There’s nothing socialist about that.

Now: That exchange wasn’t particularly newsworthy at the time. As O’Reilly suggested, he’d heard many times the president’s rhetoric about people being able to keep their plans. Things have changed in the past three years, however. Last fall, millions of Americans learned of some holes in the president’s pledge, as insurance companies began canceling their plans.
President Obama in November apologized to those who are “finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me.” Since then, the issue has dissipated, though PolitiFact recently celebrated the claim as “lie of the year.” It could be time for O’Reilly to revive it. Mr. President, did you lie to me three years ago?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/01/23/a-question-for-bill-oreillys-interview-with-president-obama/?hpid=z3 

Why Sunnis and Shiites are fighting, explained in two minutes

The divide between the Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam is both ancient and still highly consequential today. In Syria, a Sunni-majority country dominated by members of a Shiite sect, fighting that began as anti-government has taken on sectarian overtones. That has spilled over to Iraq, which is Shiite-majority and has a predominantly Shiite government but is increasingly troubled by Sunni rebels. And the region's major powers have long pushed sectarian interests, with Shiite-majority Iran on one side and Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia on the other.

In this two-minute video, reporter Karen DeYoung and The Washington Post's video team give a very brief history of the Sunni-Shiite divide and what it means for Iraq's escalating violence today. It's important to note that this religious division is one of many factors driving the conflicts in the Middle East. Although theological differences are not in themselves enough to explain the fighting, it's  important to understand the very basics to grasp what's happening in the region.

Here, to illustrate the Sunni-Shiite divide, is a map showing the religious groupings in the region.

     
Data source: The Gulf/2000 Project and United Nations ReliefWeb (The Washington Post

 As you can see, Sunni and Shiite are spread out enough that they have to coexist within their respective countries, typically with one group in a majority and the other a minority. But they're also clustered enough that groups of Sunni and Shiite can develop local power bases that can compete with formal government authority. It's not ideal.

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/01/22/why-sunnis-and-shias-are-fighting-explained-in-two-minutes/?hpid=z4

Rouhani says Iran has ‘serious will’ to make a deal on nuclear program

     
Ruben Sprich/Reuters - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani smiles during a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23.
 By Martin Baron and Anne Gearan, Updated: Thursday, January 23, 2:48 PM E-mail the writers

 DAVOS, Switzerland — Iran’s president said Thursday that his country has a “serious will” to reach a deal that resolves international doubts about its nuclear program, but will not give up what he called peaceful technology or consent to rules that treat Iran differently than other nations with nuclear know-how.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addressed the World Economic Forum here as Iran enters six months of intensive talks with world powers over the bounds of a program that the United States, Israel and other nations suspect is aimed at building a nuclear bomb. His speech, and a round of media interviews here, continue a remarkable revamp of Iran’s image abroad, led by the smiling multilingual cleric who on Thursday called his political philosophy “prudent moderation.”


“We are ready” to make a deal, Rouhani said. “Of course, this is a long and winding and difficult road. However, if we remain serious and keep the will, we can push through.”

The words echo the cautious tone of both President Obama — who gave a deal a 50-50 chance of success last month — and Secretary of State John F. Kerry. Rouhani’s statements about Iran’s nuclear ambitions were also familiar.

“I strongly and clearly declare that nuclear weapons have no place in our security strategy and that Iran has no motivation to move in that direction,” Rouhani said in a brief address that was followed by questions from a moderator. Rouhani would not be specific about whether he would make any outreach to Israel and was vague about what Iran might do to help resolve the civil war in Syria.

Iran’s exclusion from the convening of United Nations-backed peace talks on Syria this week briefly shifted world attention away from the long-running nuclear dispute. The United States had opposed Iran’s inclusion in the Syria talks and accuses Iran of prolonging the war. But it was clear this week that the finger-pointing was a sideshow to the nuclear negotiations that both nations see as the highest foreign policy priority.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/rouhani-says-iran-has-serious-will-to-make-a-deal-on-nuclear-program/2014/01/23/eb4ae534-843c-11e3-8099-9181471f7aaf_story.html

Sochi 2014: IOC jeopardized safety of athletes and fans in awarding Games to Putin’s Russia

  
View Photo Gallery — 2014 Winter Olympic Games preparation: Russia is getting ready to showcase the resort town of Sochi, host of the next Winter Olympics. Appearances notwithstanding, most of the Olympic venues have been declared ready.

By Sally Jenkins, Published: January 22 E-mail the writer

 The Olympics aren’t supposed to kill people. They’re supposed to exalt them. But it’s too late to take the dangerous, despoiling Winter Games away from the thugocracy that is Vladimir Putin’s Russian regime, so the only option is to count on the man’s bulging biceps and hope it’s an adequate “ring of steel” that can keep people safe in Sochi. It’s a cold hard fact that these Olympics have become an agent of death.

Sochi already is a catastrophe, and if it becomes a tragedy too, it will be because the International Olympic Committee has become the tool of “colossal authoritarian branding,” to borrow a phrase from Russia scholar Leon Aron.


The choice is an ugly one: Removing the Games at this late date would devastate Russians who have invested national self-worth in them, and the athletes who have trained for them. Therefore the only option is to watch Sochi become a contest for prestige between two warring parties: a corrupt strongman who wants to flex his political authority, and the murderous jihadists who have vowed to strike in Sochi.

Why should the Olympics lend its prestige to either? But that’s exactly what’s happening.

Let’s be clear about something: The people most at risk in Sochi are ordinary Russians. They’re the ones being drained and even impoverished by these crooked $50 billion Games, and who are at greater risk of being killed because nationalist insurgents in the North Caucasus have promised to add blood to the tab. Scare stories about “black widows” infiltrating the village, and warships on alert, aren’t the half of it.

Insurgents from Chechnya, Dagestan and Abkhazia have vowed to strike the Olympics, and they have the capacity to do it. In 2013 there were 375 deaths from attacks in the region. In 2012 Russian forces found a cache of ammunition just 24 miles from Sochi meant for attacks on the Games, including homemade bombs, land mines, mortars and grenade launchers. Then there are infuriated Syrian fighters seeking revenge for Putin’s support of President Bashar al-Assad. To put it plainly, Putin and the IOC have chosen to host an Olympics on the edge of a war zone.

“I must admit it certainly wouldn’t have been my choice,” said Russia expert Mark Galeotti, a professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs, who is currently in Moscow. “And I can’t help wondering if you got Putin thoroughly drunk whether he’d admit it might be a mistake too.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/sochi-2014-ioc-jeopardized-safety-of-athletes-and-fans-in-awarding-games-to-putins-russia/2014/01/22/3c5427a8-83aa-11e3-8099-9181471f7aaf_story.html?hpid=z4

Reputed mobster pleads not guilty in 1978 heist

By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, January 23, 3:59 PM

 NEW YORK — An elderly reputed mobster has pleaded not guilty to participating in a $6 million airport heist dramatized in the Martin Scorsese movie “Goodfellas.”
 
Seventy-eight-year-old Vincent Asaro was named along with his son and three other defendants in wide-ranging indictment Thursday. The allegations include murder, robbery, extortion, arson and other crimes from the late 1960s through last year.

The indictment accuses Asaro of helping to direct the 1978 Lufthansa Airlines heist at Kennedy airport — one of the largest cash thefts in American history.

He and his son pleaded not guilty Thursday in Brooklyn federal court. They didn’t ask for bail and are behind bars.

In addition to the heist, the elder Asaro is charged in the 1969 murder of Paul Katz. Prosecutors say Katz once owned a warehouse where mobsters stored stolen goods.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/indictment-in-notorious-1978-jfk-lufthansa-heist/2014/01/23/b1c9f77c-843d-11e3-a273-6ffd9cf9f4ba_story.html?hpid=z4

 

U.S. Attorney subpoenas Christie’s reelection campaign

By Sean Sullivan

The U.S. Attorney in New Jersey has issued subpoenas to Republican Gov. Chris Christie's reelection campaign and the New Jersey Republican State Committee, the latest development in the ongoing saga surrounding a traffic scandal involving aides to the governor.

An attorney for both Christie's campaign and the GOP state committee confirmed subpoenas were issued for documents. He said both entities intend to fully cooperate with prosecutors.

"We can confirm that the Christie  for Governor re-election campaign and the New Jersey Republican State Committee received subpoenas for documents from the U.S. Attorney’s office, in addition to the subpoena the campaign previously received from the state legislative committee," said Patton Boggs LLP attorney Mark Sheridan. "All three subpoenas focus on the closure of lanes on the George Washington Bridge.

Sheridan added the "campaign and the state party intend to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s office and the state legislative committee and will respond to the subpoenas accordingly."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/01/23/u-s-attorney-subpoenas-christies-reelection-campaign/?hpid=z3

Justice Department says USIS submitted 665,000 incomplete background checks

By Tom Hamburger and Debbi Wilgoren, Updated: Thursday, January 23, 12:17 PM E-mail the writers

 The Justice Department has filed a detailed complaint in a whistleblowers’ lawsuit it joined against a company that conducts security-background checks for nearly half of potential U.S. government hires, adding new detail to accusations that the firm knowingly conducted flawed investigations of individuals seeking security clearances.

The filing against Falls Church, Va.-based USIS includes information about alleged shortcuts the company took in reviewing security-clearance candidates and about a cavalier and joking approach taken by some USIS employees to submitting files to the government that had not undergone a full review.

 “Flushed everything like a dead goldfish,” one manager wrote in one of several e-mails cited in the court filing.

The filing accuses USIS of submitting incomplete background reviews in about 40 percent of the cases it handled — at least 665,000 cases — and, in the process, qualifying for nearly $12 million in performance bonuses.

“Beginning in at least March 2008 and continuing through at least September 2012, USIS management devised and executed a scheme to deliberately circumvent contractually required quality reviews of completed background investigations in order to increase the company’s revenues and profits,” the Justice Department said in the complaint, which was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Alabama.

The cases were incomplete because they had not undergone a promised “quality review,” the government said.

USIS said in a statement that the allegations did not fit the company’s record or approach.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-department-joins-lawsuit-against-usis-over-background-checks/2014/01/23/db16e244-8432-11e3-8099-9181471f7aaf_story.html?hpid=z3

Chris Christie on two levels at inauguration

By E.J. Dionne Jr., Published: January 22 E-mail the writer

 t’s rare that you can look at your television screen and see not only what is happening but also what might have been. Chris Christie’s inaugural address Tuesday was at once a masterful summary of the best thinking among Republicans about where their party needs to move and a compendium of proclamations that now carry unfortunate double meanings.

The New Jersey governor gave the speech he would have given had there been no George Washington Bridge scandal and no allegations about the use of Hurricane Sandy relief money to pressure a local official on a development project.

 You can’t blame him for sticking to the old script. He now has to live his public life on two levels. And Christie’s speech made an important contribution: The tough former prosecutor denounced our dysfunctional, counterproductive approach to the drug problem.

“We will end the failed war on drugs that believes that incarceration is the cure of every ill caused by drug abuse,” Christie declared. “We will make drug treatment available to as many of our nonviolent offenders as we can, and we will partner with our citizens to create a society that understands this simple truth — every life has value and no life is disposable.”

Forget the scandals for a moment: Christie here is speaking for an expanding consensus that (forgive me) bridges left and right, liberals and libertarians, about the foolishness of filling our prisons with those who are the victims of their own crimes. Pushing this cause along could be Christie’s good deed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-chris-christies-blown-script/2014/01/22/97a812c2-83a0-11e3-8099-9181471f7aaf_story.html?hpid=z2

The hidden history of the CIA’s prison in Poland

  
Kacper Pempel/REUTERS - A car drives past barbed-wire fence surrounding a military area in Stare Kiejkuty village in Poland.
 By Adam Goldman, Updated: Thursday, January 23, 12:33 PM E-mail the writer

 On a cold day in early 2003, two senior CIA officers arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw to pick up a pair of large cardboard boxes. Inside were bundles of cash totaling $15 million that had been flown from Germany via diplomatic pouch.

The men put the boxes in a van and weaved through the Polish capital until coming to the headquarters of Polish intelligence. They were met by Col. Andrzej Derlatka, deputy chief of the intelligence service, and two of his associates.

      
The Americans and Poles formalized an agreement that over the previous weeks had allowed the CIA the use of a secret prison — a remote villa in the Polish lake district — to interrogate al-Qaeda suspects.

 The Polish intelligence service had some more funds, and the agency had a solid location for its newest covert operation, according to former CIA officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the interrogation program, including previously unreported details about the creation of the agency’s black sites.

The CIA prison in Poland was arguably the most important of all the black sites created by the agency in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It was the first of a trio in Europe that housed the initial wave of accused Sept. 11 conspirators, and it was where Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-declared mastermind of the attacks, was waterboarded 183 times after his capture.

 Much about the creation and operation of the CIA’s prison at a base in one of the young democracies of Central Europe remains cloaked in mystery, matters that are classified as state secrets by the U.S. government. But what happened in Poland more than a decade ago continues to reverberate, and the bitter debate about the CIA’s interrogation program is about to be revisited

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-hidden-history-of-the-cias-prison-in-poland/2014/01/23/b77f6ea2-7c6f-11e3-95c6-0a7aa80874bc_story.html?hpid=z1

Peel cops update Kesean Williams murder probe

By Chris Doucette ,Toronto Sun

First posted: Thursday, January 23, 2014 10:00 AM EST | Updated: Thursday, January 23, 2014 03:19 PM EST 

      

 Kesean Williams was fatally struck by a bullet that smashed through a window in his Brampton townhouse around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013. 

It’s been a year since Kesean Williams was gunned down in his Brampton home and the nine-year-old boy’s killer has yet to be caught.

Peel Regional Police have not given up the hunt and at 10 a.m. Thursday the head of Homicide will update the media on their investigation.

“(We’ll) share some evidence, appeal for information and let everyone know we are still working this (case) as hard as ever,” Insp. George Koekoek tells The Sun.

Kesean was watching television in his family’s townhome on Ardglen Dr., near Kennedy Rd. S. and Clarence St., when a bullet pierced the living room window and struck the boy in the head just before 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 23, 2013.

The gunman disappeared into the night.

We’ll have live updates from the press conference at Peel Regional Police headquarters.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/23/peel-cops-update-kesean-williams-murder-probe

Editorial Focusing on Israel's sins

QMI Agency

First posted: Wednesday, January 22, 2014 06:00 PM EST | Updated: Wednesday, January 22, 2014 06:17 PM EST 

         

 Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen share a laugh at the newly christened Stephen J. Harper Hula Valley Bird Sanctuary in northern Israel. The naming honour was one of several accorded the prime minister during his four days in Israel. (DAVID AKIN/QMI Agency)

We always knew the Canadian mainstream media were biased at home. But it's embarrassing to see it play out abroad during Prime Minister Stephen Harper's visit to Israel.

And some say it's the politicians who tarnish our international image!

For starters, they seem obsessed with getting Harper to vocalize -- in front of Benjamin Netanyahu -- the official Canadian policy that Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal.

In truth, if he's asked a question and can easily give a straight-forward answer, he should.

But Harper's response was still apt: "Yesterday in the Palestinian Authority, no one asked me there to single out the Palestinian Authority for any criticism in terms of governance or human rights or anything else." Media was widely reporting with disdain that one of the 208 members of Harper's delegation was a Christian pastor with negative views of homosexuality.

 If that's such a story, why isn't the terrible treatment of LGBT people in Palestine also a major story?

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/22/focusing-on-israels-sins

Letterman takes shots at Rob Ford

By Don Peat ,City Hall Bureau Chief

First posted: Thursday, January 23, 2014 10:33 AM EST | Updated: Thursday, January 23, 2014 12:27 PM EST 

          

 Mayor Rob Ford once again made the Top 10 on The Late Show with David Letterman. 

TORONTO - Mayor Rob Ford slurring Steak Queen performance made for more late night laughs on Wednesday night.

David Letterman played the YouTube video of Ford at the Etobicoke restaurant on the Late Show and used it as the basis for his nightly Top Ten list. The list was entitled, "Top Ten Things Rob Ford Might Be Saying In This Video."

 "He provided us with endless entertainment … and then he went away," Letterman told his audience, explaining Ford's crack cocaine admission last fall.

 Letterman then played the new video of Ford standing in the Steak Queen on Monday night and rambling in Jamaican patois.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/23/letterman-takes-shots-at-rob-ford

Mayor Rob Ford gets stuck in elevator

By Don Peat ,City Hall Bureau Chief

First posted: Thursday, January 23, 2014 11:07 AM EST | Updated: Thursday, January 23, 2014 02:50 PM EST 

         

 Mayor Rob Ford arrives at his office at City Hall today ignoring reporters questions. (STAN BEHAL/Toronto Sun)

 TORONTO - Mayor Rob Ford found himself in a different kind of trouble Thursday — elevator trouble.
Ford was an hour late for his own speech to the Economic Club of Canada after getting stuck in a freight elevator for 45 minutes on his way to the speech.

It wasn’t clear where Ford was as the crowd of around 190 people waited for him to speak over the lunch hour on Thursday. A handful of attendees left the event after getting tired of waiting for the mayor to show up and with no explanation provided.

Just after 1 p.m. — about 50 minutes after his speech was supposed to start — Ford arrived and was swarmed by media.

After Ford ran into a washroom, his press secretary Amin Massoudi informed reporters they had been trapped in an elevator for 45 minutes.

“I want to thank the Economic Club of Canada for hosting today’s event and getting me locked in the elevator for 45 minutes,” Ford said as he began his speech.

 Economic Club president Rhiannon Traill confirmed she was with Ford, his staff and Hilton employees when they got stuck in the hotel’s freight elevator between floors.

“It was unfortunate, he was very gracious about it,” Traill said. “We finally got out and he was able to deliver his speech.”

What did they talk about for almost an hour?

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/23/ford-addresses-economic-club-of-canada

Mayor is doing 'fantastic': Doug Ford

By Don Peat ,City Hall Bureau Chief

First posted: Thursday, January 23, 2014 12:42 PM EST | Updated: Thursday, January 23, 2014 03:17 PM EST 

      

 Doug Ford. (Toronto Sun files)

TORONTO - Councillor Doug Ford would rather have Mayor Rob Ford on his “worst day, worst night” running City Hall than every city councillor combined on their “best night.”

Ford made the comments on AM640 on Thursday morning after avoiding the media spotlight for two days after he assured reporters his brother wasn’t drinking again just a few hours before the mayor admitted he was off the wagon.

“I didn’t know,” Ford told AM640 host John Oakley. “I agree with Rob, it is a minor setback. Rob overall is doing fantastic.

 On Tuesday, Ford told reporters at City Hall that video of the mayor ranting in Jamaican patois and hurling insults at Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair wasn’t filmed on Monday.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/23/mayor-is-doing-fantastic-doug-ford

“He just had a minor setback as they say, fell off the wagon, but Rob’s resilient and he hopped back on and he’s a fighter.”

Justin Bieber arrest details released

                                   
Miami Beach Police released this mugshot of singer Justin Bieber following his arrest Jan. 23, 2014.


MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Teen pop star Justin Bieber was arrested in South Florida early on Thursday on a drunk driving charge after he was caught drag racing on a main thoroughfare in a rented yellow Lamborghini, police said.

In the latest off-stage incident to grab headlines, Bieber initially resisted arrest and later told officers he had consumed alcohol, pot and prescription drugs, police said.

Officers observed Bieber and another sports car accelerate at high speed from a stop position on a four-lane road in a residential area a few blocks from the South Beach tourist district, Miami Beach Police Chief Raymond Martinez told reporters.

Two SUVs had blocked the road so the 19-year-old "Boyfriend" singer could race a friend who was driving a rented red Ferrari, police said.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/23/justin-bieber-arrested-for-drag-racing-dui-in-miami-beach

Rob Ford: New video shows mayor rambling, slurring his words

By Robyn Doolittle

 

 

Mayor Rob Ford vented his anger at police Chief Bill Blair in an incoherent and apparently intoxicated rant caught on videotape taken at a Rexdale steakhouse early in the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 21.

"----sucker," Ford says, followed by the words "Chief Blair." 

    

FORD
Screen capture from YouTube

Screen grab of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford caught on video that surfaced on youtube rambling and speaking Jamaican patois.

 

 

In a reference to the police surveillance of Ford and friend Alexander Sandro Lisi, Ford complains about the money spent when they "chased me around five months." 

Ford also suggests he was running "counter surveillance" on the police. "He's hiding here, I'm hiding here," Ford says, gesturing. 

"Do you know how much money that costs?" Ford asks.

The video ends with a restaurant employee saying Ford is the best mayor in the world."

Ford, who has repeatedly said he has not had a drink since November, admits he was drinking Monday night after a video surfaced online today. 

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4327245-rob-ford-new-video-shows-mayor-rambling-slurring-his-words/ 

Harper right on Israel & Palestine

          
Prime Minister Stephen Harper (C) delivers a speech at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem January 20, 2014. REUTERS/Baz Ratner


Prime Minister Stephen Harper got it right in his speech to the Israeli Knesset on Monday.
In his first trip to the region, Harper described Israel and Canada as "the greatest of friends." This is not simply because there are almost 350,000 Jewish Canadians.

It's not just, as Harper noted, because of our longstanding free trade agreement.

It's because of "shared values." As the prime minister said, "Israel is the only country in the Middle East, which has long anchored itself in the ideals of freedom, democracy and the rule of law." They are quite simply the only country like us in that part of the world.

We must not approach human rights and democracy in the world from a relativist position.

On that note, these words from Harper are worth repeating: "Most disgracefully of all, some openly call Israel an apartheid state "¦ Think about the twisted logic and outright malice behind that: A state, based on freedom, democracy and the rule of law, that was founded so Jews can flourish, as Jews, and seek shelter from the shadow of the worst racist experiment in history, that is condemned, and that condemnation is masked in the language of anti-racism." We're tired of the Israeli Apartheid Week shenanigans that happen here.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/20/harper-right-on-israel--palestine

Prime Minister Stephen Harper heads to Middle East for a week long visit

By By Lee-Anne Goodman 

 

  OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper and a sizable entourage left Saturday for the Middle East on a six-day trip that will include a visit to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. 

Harper will address Israel's parliament, the Knesset, on Monday, making history as the first Canadian prime minister to do so. It will be the prime minister's first visit to Israel since winning power in 2006. 

HARPER Sean Kilpatrick,The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and wife Laureen depart Ottawa for Israel on Saturday, January 18, 2014. On his inaugural trip Harper will be visiting Israel, West Bank, and Jordan.

Spokesman Jason MacDonald says Harper will promote commercial relations, as well as peace and security in the region, when he meets Israeli leaders and, later in the week, the King of Jordan. 

Harper is a passionate supporter of Israel and is expected to receive a glowing reception from Israeli leaders. 

 "We have been challenged many times in the region, by Iran, by Syria, by the attacks of terrorists, and each time he presents his position and we feel it's the right position; it's not a partisan position," Israel's ambassador to Canada, Rafael Barak, said in an interview from Jerusalem in the days leading up to the visit.

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4323707-prime-minister-stephen-harper-heads-to-middle-east-for-a-week-long-visit/