Dozens arrested in French clashes over alleged police rape…Read full details

Anti riot police officers stand guard during a protest in Bobigny, a district of northeast Paris, to denounce police brutality after a black man was allegedly sodomised with a baton during an arrest while in their custody in Paris on February 11, 2017. A 22-year-old black youth worker named as Theo, a talented footballer with no criminal record, required surgery after his arrest on February 2, 2017 when he claims a police officer sodomized him with his baton. One officer has been charged with rape and three others with assault over the incident in the tough northeastern suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois which has revived past controversies over alleged police brutality.<br />GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP

Thirty-seven people were arrested in the Paris suburbs when clashes erupted after a protest over the assault of a young black man allegedly sodomised with a police truncheon, a police source said Sunday.

Around 2,000 people demonstrated Saturday outside a courthouse to demand justice for Theo, a 22-year-old youth worker who required surgery after his arrest last week in the gritty suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois.

The protest in the northern suburb of Bobigny near Aulnay-sous-Bois was peaceful at the start but groups of demonstrators later clashed with police and went on the rampage, attacking cars, shops and public property.

Several vehicles were torched and bus shelters and shopfronts smashed in Bobigny and neighbouring areas.

A little girl trapped in a burning car was rescued by a 16-year-old demonstrator, who was heralded as a hero on social media. The police accused “several hundred” individuals of various “acts of violence and damage.”

The rioting capped a week of nightly clashes in the northern Paris suburb over the treatment of Theo, who claims a police officer sodomised him with his baton after a stop-and-search check in a housing estate.

Around 50 people have been detained since the protests began. One officer has been charged with rape over the affair, and three others with assault. All four have been suspended from their duties.

Theo’s case has revived long-simmering frustrations over policing in immigrant communities, where young men accuse the police of repeatedly targeting them in aggressive stop-and-search operations and using excessive force during arrests.

The police for their part complain of being drawn into a cat-and-mouse game with delinquents and drug dealers operating out of housing estates.

In 2005, the death of two teenagers who were electrocuted while hiding from police in an electricity substation sparked weeks of riots in France. Some of the demonstrators in Bobigny on Saturday carried placards reading “Police rape” and “Police kill innocent people”.

Small rallies took place in other French cities, including Rouen in the north, Nantes in the west and Toulouse in the south-west. Theo is still in hospital where he was operated for severe injuries to the anus and rectal area. He was declared unfit to work for two months.

An internal police investigation found insufficient evidence to support allegations that he was raped and said the injuries were not inflicted intentionally. The criminal probe is, however, ongoing.

The Biography Of Syed Balkhi [Age, Life Profile & Net Worth]

Syed Balkhi (born 1984) is a Pakistani-born entrepreneur. He was born in Karachi, Pakistan.

Syed Balkhi started his first business when he was 7 years old selling holiday greeting cards for Muslim holiday (Eid). His mom gave him the initial funds to start, according to him the business was a successful venture. He said; “I tripled her investment within a month.

I loved it so much that I replicated it by selling flags for Pakistan’s
Independence Day celebration. This too was profitable.

The entrepreneur spirit in me could not stop there. I wanted to expand from doing seasonal sales to doing something more regular.

With the help of my mom and grandmother, I started a small snack shop for my neighborhood when I was 9 years old. This was extremely profitable.

At age 12, my family immigrated to the United States.

I found myself facing some of the biggest challenges of my life. I had to learn a new language while dealing with racial tensions from the 9/11 incident.

It was hard for me to make friends when I didn’t know the language. I turned to the internet to find a hobby, and I found myself spending majority of my time playing online games.

On the side, I was searching for something I can do to earn extra money because like most immigrant families, we were financially struggling.

My cousin pointed me to the domaining industry, and I jumped right in. With little guidance, I was able to buy and sell domains.

This gave me a little bit of extra cash, but I still had one problem.
No social life! High school lunch breaks were the worst as I sat in the library trying to play games, but most gaming sites were blocked by the school firewall.

Out of frustration, I learned how to bypass the firewall and created my first web proxy.

When other kids saw me playing games in school, they asked me how I was doing that. I saw the demand and seized the opportunity.

I decided to control the entire chain, so I created numerous web proxies along with arcade sites. This way, I could maximize my advertising revenue.

To promote my web proxies and arcade sites, I started creating web directories.

Next thing you know, I found myself deep in the SEO industry working with some very large brands.

At the same time, I started my freelance web development business.

Fast forward few years, I graduated high school and attended University of Florida — Yes, I did graduate with Honors in Anthropology and Religion.

Through out college, I further expanded my online businesses, but I couldn’t keep up.

In 2008, I decided to migrate all of my clients from static websites over to WordPress, so I can get rid of the maintenance part of our business.

Next thing you know, all of my clients were asking questions on how to use WordPress.”

In 2009, Syed created WPBeginner, the largest free WordPress resource site!

In 2011, he created an entertainment site, List25, with his college roommate and best friend David Pegg.

Currently they have over 2 Million subscribers and over 500 Million video views on our YouTube channel!

In 2013, he also launched a product called OptinMonster that helps businesses grow their email list.

In 2013, he acquired ThemeLab where they sell high quality premium WordPress themes.

In 2014, Syed became a partner in SoliloquyWP, the fastest responsive slider plugin for WordPress.

Syed also became a partner in Envira Gallery – a responsive WordPress gallery plugin to help you showcase your photos.

In 2016, he launched WPForms, a drag & drop WordPress form builder with a single goal: make the most beginner friendly WordPress forms plugin.

Syed Balkhi quoted and said; “Through my entrepreneurial journey, I had several failures (not-listed above). I simply learned from those and kept moving forward.”

Syed Balkhi is happily married to his beautiful wife, Amanda Balkhi.
They currently live in Gainesville, Florida as Amanda finishes her p.h.D in Clinical and Health Psychology.

Syed Balkhi net worth is estimated US $5.2 million (net worth estimated in 2017).

• An Uzomedia Biography

Anambra plans N1b social investment programme (Read full details)

Willie Obiano

The Secretary to the Anambra State Government, Prof. Solo Chukwulobelu, says the state has set aside N1 billion in this year’s budget for its social investment programme.

Chukwulobelu made the disclosure at the Community Based Targeting Team training in Awka on Tuesday.

He said that this was done to scale up some of the programmes in the fiscal year.

Chukwulobelu, who commended the Federal Government for initiating the cash transfer programme, said that the programme was timely given the desire of Nigerians for a new lease of life.

He said that the purposeful direction in the management of the national economy and quest for inclusiveness in national development had also made the programme imperative.

Chukwulobelu urged the participants to listen to the presentation by the federal team and understand the way the people could key into the cash transfer programme to ensure a reduction in poverty and inequity.

“The cash transfer component will enhance financial inclusion amongst the marginalised and vulnerable, boost economic activities in the rural communities and stem rural-urban drift,’’ Chukwulobelu said.

He said that the state government had worked assiduously to meet the start-up requirements for the programmes.

According to him, the state government has signed an MoU with the National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office (NASSCO) and set up the state operation coordination unit with requisite operational facilities

Earlier, Mrs Chinwe Iwuchukwu, a Senior Special Assistant to Donor Agencies/Deputy Focal Person, Social Investments, said six local government areas had been targeted in the pilot scheme.

They are Ihiala, Anyamelum, Awka North, Anambra West, Dunukofia and Orumba South.

She said that two participants from each of the council were being trained as the Continued Community-Based Targeting Team to implement the programme for beneficiaries.

The programme, she said, would finance safety nets transfers of N5,000 monthly to carefully targeted poor and vulnerable households included in the single social register.

Commenting, Mr Andrew Adejo, National Coordinator, Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO), commended the efforts of Anambra government on the take-off the programme in the state.

He said that Federal Government was impressed after seeing the seriousness of the state government in benefitting from the pilot scheme as the first state in the South East Zone.

Other benefiting states, he said, were Bauchi, Cross Rivers, Ekiti, Osun, Kwara, Kogi, Niger and Oyo.

Top Iraq commander announces ‘liberation’ of east Mosul (Read full details)

Members of the Iraqi special forces Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) hold a position in Mosul's al-Jazair neighbourhood on January 17, 2017, during an ongoing military operation against Islamic State (IS) group jihadists. Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State group in Mosul retook an area where the jihadists levelled one of the city's most well-known shrines in 2014, officials said. / AFP PHOTO / Dimitar DILKOFF

Iraqi forces have fully retaken east Mosul from the Islamic State group, a top commander said on Wednesday, three months after a huge offensive against the jihadist bastion was launched.

Elite forces have in recent days entered the last neighbourhoods on the eastern side of Mosul, on the left bank of the Tigris River that runs through the city.

Speaking at a press conference in Bartalla, a town east of Mosul, Staff General Talib al-Sheghati, who heads the Counter-Terrorism Service, announced “the liberation… of the left bank”.

Sheghati added however that while the east of the city could be considered under government control, some work remained to be done to flush out the last holdout jihadists.

The “important lines and important areas are finished,” he said, adding that “there is only a bit of the northern (front) remaining.”

Wednesday’s announcement marks the end of a phase in the operation launched on October 17 to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second city and the last major urban stronghold IS has in the country.

The offensive, Iraq’s largest military operation in years with tens of thousands of fighters involved, began with a focus on sparsely populated areas around Mosul.

CTS entered the city proper in November and encountered tougher than expected resistance from IS, whose fighters launched a huge number of suicide car bombs against advancing Iraqi forces.

The going was tough for weeks but a fresh push coordinated with other federal forces and backed by the US-led coalition was launched in December and yielded quick and decisive gains.

– Narrow streets –
The west bank of Mosul is a bit smaller but is home to the narrow streets of the Old City — impassable to most military vehicles — and to some of the city’s traditionally most dyed-in-the-wool jihadist neighbourhoods.

Brigadier General Yahya Rasool also stressed that despite Sheghati’s announcement, there would be more fighting in east Mosul in the coming days.

“Sheghati is the head of CTS and he was talking about areas under CTS control. There are some neighbourhoods that are still being liberated and that could take a few days,” he told AFP.

All the bridges across the Tigris in Mosul have been either blown up by IS or destroyed by coalition air strikes, which has made it very difficult for IS to resupply its fighters in the city’s east.

It will also make it difficult for elite Iraqi forces to attack the west bank without redeploying to other fronts west of the river that have been largely static for weeks.

Interior ministry and federal police forces have held positions just south of Mosul airport, which lies on the southern edge of the city and west of the Tigris, since November.

Punching into densely populated areas however and confronting intense resistance from IS in urban environments is a type of operation which is left largely to CTS.

– Blow to IS –
The fighting inside Mosul has been complicated by the continued presence of much of its population, which did not or could not flee when Iraqi forces started advancing.

According to the United Nations, around 150,000 people are currently displaced as a result of the three-month-old offensive.

Mosul lies around 350 kilometres (220 miles) northwest of Baghdad in the country’s north and had an estimated population of close to two million when IS overran it in early June 2014.

Jihadist supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a “caliphate” straddling parts of Iraq and Syria from a mosque on the west bank of Mosul days later.

The full recapture of Mosul by government forces would effectively end IS’s days as a land-holding force in Iraq and deal a death blow to its claim of running a state.

Observers have said they expect a short lull in operations after east Mosul is brought fully under control.

“Mosul is already effectively surrounded, and IS has no choice but to fight on or surrender in the city and its surroundings,” Omar Lamrani, Middle East analyst with the Stratfor think tank, said.

“Nevertheless, that does not mean that a deadly insurgency will not continue after Mosul is retaken, as IS will be able to operate as an insurgent force in Iraq at some level for a long time to come even as its conventional fighting ability is heavily degraded.”

Top Iraq commander announces ‘liberation’ of east Mosul

Tiger praised for raising the stakes (Read full details)

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods’ return can only mean good things for golf which reaped the rewards of his popularity, former world number one Ernie Els said Wednesday.

Woods, a 14-time major winner, is returning after a long injury layoff and launches his 2017 campaign at Torrey Pines in California next week.

Els, a four-time major winner himself, said the current crop of players had a lot to thank Woods for.

“Certainly based on the US tour, we wouldn’t be playing for the money we are playing for (now) if it wasn’t for him,” Els told reporters on the eve of the of the SMBC Singapore Open at the Sentosa Golf Club.

“It can only be good if he plays well when he comes back because there’s going to be more spectators around the world getting fired up about the game,” he said.

“Some of the youngsters are playing great golf, so it would be great to see if Tiger can get in the mix at some of these big events and create even more of a buzz,” Els added.

Golf has seen the emergence of exciting young talent such as Justin Thomas, 23, and Hideki Matsuyama, 24, during Woods’ absence and they are challenging the sport’s top echelons.

Thomas is the current world number eight and Matsuyama is number six.

World number five, American Jordan Spieth, is 23 and held the top spot for a total of 26 weeks between 2015 and 2016.

Younger players also won the praise of world number seven Adam Scott, who said technology was helping them mature their game.

“These young guys come out and manage their game in a very smart way. Certainly Jordan (Spieth) and Justin Thomas seem to do it right now,” he said.

“That is a big help for young guys if they play with a wise old head on their shoulders and all that firepower.”

The $1 million Singapore Open, co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour Organisation, tees off Thursday.

Competitors include world number 15 Sergio Garcia of Spain and defending champion Younghan Song from South Korea.

Tiger praised for raising the stakes