Boko Haram crisis: Nigeria air strike ‘kills commanders’

The Muslim Times

Source: BBC

Nigeria’s army says it has killed several commanders of the Islamist group Boko Haram in an air strike and seriously wounded its disputed leader.

An army spokesman told the BBC’s Hausa service that Abubakar Shekau’s shoulder was badly injured in the strike on Friday in north-eastern Borno state.

There has been no independent confirmation of the strike.

Claims by the army that it has killed Shekau have turned out to be false on previous occasions.

The reports should therefore be treated with caution, says the BBC’s Africa Security correspondent Tomi Oladipo.

Boko Haram is fighting to overthrow Nigeria’s government and establish an Islamic State in the north.

An army spokesman said warplanes struck as the militants met for Friday prayers last week at a village deep within the Sambisa forest in Borno State.

The army’s announcement coincided with the arrival of US Secretary of State John Kerry in…

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Law & Order Star Steven Hill Dies at 94 — TIME

stillness of heart

(LOS ANGELES) — Former “Law & Order” star Steven Hill has died. He was 94. Rachel Hill, his wife, said he died Tuesday morning at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. The cause of death was not immediately available, but she said he had several ailments. Steven Hill was a versatile character actor in theater,…

via Law & Order Star Steven Hill Dies at 94 — TIME

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State Judge Will Rule Soon on Florida’s Third Grade Retention Law

Diane Ravitch's blog

A state court judge in Florida will soon issue a ruling that will either validate or refute parents’ right to opt their child out of state testing. The specific issue is the high-stakes third grade reading test; if students don’t pass it, they may be held back, even if their teacher says they are proficient readers.

A state judge is weighing a decision that could shake Florida’s education-accountability system following a marathon hearing Monday in Tallahassee.

After nearly nine hours of testimony and arguments, Leon County Circuit Judge Karen Gievers wrapped up a hearing on state and local policies for allowing students to move to the fourth grade but did not rule on a request that would allow about a dozen students across Florida to advance.

The practical effect of Gievers’ decision, and the appeals that are almost certain to follow, could either validate or shatter the “opt out” movement…

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19 Ways to Describe People

For the next few months, weekly writing tips will include word choice suggestions. That includes:

• colorful and original descriptions
• pithy words and phrases
• picture nouns and action verbs
• writing that draws a reader in and addicts them to your voice

I keep a  collection of descriptions that have pulled me into the books. I’m fascinated how authors can–in just a few words–put me in the middle of their story and make me want to stay there. This one’s on how to describe people.

A note: These are for inspiration only. They can’t be copied because they’ve been pulled directly from an author’s copyrighted manuscript (intellectual property is immediately copyrighted when published).

General

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Paris tourism hit by militant attacks, strikes and floods

The Muslim Times

Source: BBC

Attacks by Islamist militants as well as strikes and floods have led to a big fall in tourism in Paris.

There were a million fewer visitors between January and June compared with the same period in 2015.

Paris welcomes 16 million visitors a year and is one of the world’s top tourist destinations.

The drop is estimated to have cost about €750m (£644m) in lost revenue. One senior official described it as “an industrial disaster”.

France relies heavily on tourism, which generates more than 7% of its annual GDP.

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionThe pigeons still perch by Notre-Dame Cathedral but tourists have taken flight

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionThe City of Light has seen brighter summers

About half-a-million people in the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, have jobs linked to tourism, making it the biggest employer in the area.

But tourism has dipped sharply since…

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Help Florida Parents Fight the Absurd Third Grade Retention Law

Diane Ravitch's blog

I am sorry that I frequently ask for your financial support, but crowd-sourcing is the best way for parents and public education activists to make their case. Unfortunately, we do not have the deep pockets of the Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Walton Foundation, or hedge fund managers. If 1,000 people who read this appeal and others each send a gift of $10 or $20, it will make a difference.

Colleen Wood, a parent of students in Florida public schools and a member of the board of the Network for Public Education, asks for your help for parents who are in court fighting the state’s third grade retention law:

Friends – I know we are pulled in so many different directions, but I’m asking for your help in Florida.

Florida has a mandatory retention policy for 3rd graders who do not pass the FSA (Florida Standards Assessment). Statute spells…

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Gay people not ‘born that way,’ sexual orientation not fixed – US study

The Muslim Times

Source: RT

A cross-discipline study has challenged the belief that human sexuality and gender identity are determined by biology and remain fixed, saying that there is no scientific proof of this. The study cautioned against drastic medical treatment for transgender children.

The notion that sexual orientation is predetermined by biology is an important part of the current LGBT discourse. If a person has no choice over whether to be gay or not, society cannot demand that he or she be straight, so the argument goes.

But regardless of its political worth, the “born this way” paradigm is not backed up by sufficient scientific data, according to a new paper published in the autumn issue of the New Atlantis, a journal focusing on political, societal and ethical ramifications of technological advances.

The study does not claim that being gay is a choice, merely that stating the opposite may be wrong.

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A Start-Up Is Recycling Polluted Air to Make “INK”

TwoIsTheNewOne

A Big Hello To all our Lovely subscribers and followers who have been a  great supporters for us since the day we started blogging . As we promised on the first day of our blog launch. We are up with a category so called “TECHNOLOGY” we call it as “TECHILA”. Probably we are going to come up with new technology for every two weeks. Hope you learn a lot more fascinating WOW Factor things by sailing in our BLOG !! 

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DIVINE PRESENCE: Boriska, This Fascinating Boy From Russia Remembers His Past Life on Mars – By Kristen Cowart

RIELPOLITIK

Source – thespiritscience.net

– “…When the earth had the Lemurian civilization Boriska says that Mars was going through a devastating war. He even went on to say that the advanced Lemurian society on earth died off because they stopped working on spirituality and disconnected from their planet”:

(Boriska – This Fascinating Boy From Russia Remembers His Past Life on Mars – By Kristen Cowart)

Boris Kipriyanovich who goes by Boriska meaning “little Boris”, is an incredibly gifted boy from Zhirinovsk, Russia. He was born in 1996 and ever since he was 4 years old he would visit a mountain known as Medvedetskaya Gryada in order to recharge himself from the world.

Often times children who present themselves with sensitive gifts find refuge in nature and Boriska was no different. At first, Boriska’s parents were worried about him wondering how he would fit in with society. However, they were patient, hospitable…

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BIG BROTHER: ‘Just Another Brick in the Wall’, Children of the American Police State – By John W. Whitehead

RIELPOLITIK

Source – rutherford.org

– “…The nation’s public schools—extensions of the world beyond the schoolhouse gates, a world that is increasingly hostile to freedom—have become microcosms of the American police state, containing almost every aspect of the militarized, intolerant, senseless, overcriminalized, legalistic, surveillance-riddled, totalitarian landscape that plagues those of us on the “outside”:

(Children of the American Police State: Just Another Brick in the Wall – By John W. Whitehead)

We don’t need no education

We don’t need no thought control

No dark sarcasm in the classroom

Teachers leave them kids alone…

All in all it’s just another brick in the wall

All in all you’re just another brick in the wall.

—Pink Floyd, “Another Brick in the Wall”

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The nation’s young people have been given front-row seats for an unfolding police drama that is rated R for profanity, violence and adult content.

In Arizona, a 7-year-old girl watched panic-stricken…

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