Trump spokeswoman says Obama aides left mean notes in White House
Washington: President Donald Trump’s spokeswoman claimed Tuesday that Barack Obama staffers left behind catty notes in White House offices for the incoming administration, telling them ‘you will fail.’
Press secretary Stephanie Grisham’s comment, first made to a CNN reporter, prompted swift denials from ex-Obama officials and a torrent of online mockery from Trump opponents. ‘We came into the WH, I’ll tell you something. Every office was filled with Obama books and we had notes left behind that said ‘you will fail,’ ‘you aren’t going to make it,’ a tweet from CNN’s Abby Phillip quoted Grisham as saying. ‘This is a complete and utter lie,’ tweeted Obama administration lawyer Daniel Jacobson. ‘Quite the opposite — we left them briefing books to try to help with the transition as much as possible,’ he said. Jon Wolfsthal, a former senior director at Obama’s National Security Council, called it ‘an outrageous lie…. Shameless and disgusting.@PressSec should be fired.’ Faced by the heated denials — and snarky online gags about the ‘you will fail’ prediction proving true — Grisham said her remark had been over-played. (AFP)
Austria to place police precinct in Hitler’s birthplace
Berlin: Austrian authorities say the house where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 will become a police precinct, ending years of uncertainty over the building that’s become a pilgrimage site for people who glorify the Nazi dictator.
Interior Minister Wolfgang Peschorn said late Tuesday that the ‘the future use of the house by the police should send an unmistakable signal that this building will forever be removed from the commemoration of national socialism.’ Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, shortly before launching a campaign of military conquest and racist extermination across Europe that cost tens of millions of lives. The house in Braunau am Inn, near the German border, will be redesigned following an international architectural competition. It was expropriated from the previous owner in 2017. (AP)
After 6 years, refugee writer tastes freedom in New Zealand
Wellington: For the first time in six years, Behrouz Boochani feels like a free man.
When he arrived in New Zealand last week, he simply wanted to smoke a cigarette and take a long walk down the street. Instead of feeling like he is always running, a new feeling has overtaken him: He’s survived. A refugee from Iran, Boochani was held against his will at Australia’s notorious offshore immigration camp on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea from 2013 until he was recently moved to the capital, Port Moresby.
But even now, the 36-year-old’s future remains uncertain. He arrived in New Zealand on a temporary one-month visa to speak at a literary festival. In an interview with The Associated Press, Boochani said he had no interest in returning to Papua New Guinea, but wouldn’t be drawn on whether he’d seek asylum in New Zealand, pursue a claim to US asylum or do something else.
Any decision he makes is likely to have implications for international diplomatic relations. “I’m really focused on my work here right now. I don’t want to think about those things, or ruin my concentration. I don’t want to politicize things,” Boochani said. “I’m a free man. I want to focus on this festival.” An ethnic Kurd and journalist, Boochani fled from the Iranian regime, eventually making his way by boat to Australia’s Christmas Island. But his escape was not to freedom but instead to a hellish existence on a tropical island. (AP)
Number of Chinese visitors to Hawaii continues to decline
Honolulu: The number of Chinese visitors to Hawaii is decreasing in a trend that has continued for the past four years.
Hawaii Public Radio reported Tuesday that Chinese visitors to Hawaii are down 26 per cent through the third quarter of 2019 that closed at the end of September. The Hawaii Tourism Authority says Chinese tourist arrivals in the state have declined since 2015.
China’s Ministry for Culture and Tourism says about 150 million Chinese citizens traveled abroad in 2018. Officials say that number has more than tripled over a 10-year period, with Chinese travelers generating USD 250 billion in annual economic activity worldwide. Anu Anwar of the Daniel K Inouye Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies says the decline could be a form of political punishment by the Chinese government against its rivals. (AP)
Photos show evidence of life on Mars, claims scientist
New York: As scientists scramble to determine whether there is life on Mars, a researcher from Ohio University in US believes that there is evidence of insect-like creatures on the red planet.
Courtesy photographs from various Mars rovers, Professor Emeritus William Romoser’s research found numerous examples of insect-like forms, structured similarly to bees, as well as reptile-like forms, both as fossils and living creatures.
‘There has been and still is life on Mars,’ Romoser said, noting that the images appear to show both fossilised and living creatures. ‘There is apparent diversity among the Martian insect-like fauna which display many features similar to Terran insects that are interpreted as advanced groups – for example, the presence of wings, wing flexion, agile gliding/flight, and variously structured leg elements,’ Romoser added.
Romoser said that while the Martian rovers, particularly the Curiosity Rover, have been looking for indicators of organic activity, there are a number of photos which clearly depict the insect- and reptile-like forms.
Numerous photos show images where arthropod body segments, along with legs, antennae and wings, can be picked out from the surrounding area, and one even appears to show one of the insects in a steep dive before pulling up just before hitting the ground.
Individual images were carefully studied while varying photographic parameters such as brightness, contrast, saturation, inversion, and so on. No content was added, or removed. Criteria used in Romoser’s research included: Dramatic departure from the surroundings, clarity of form, body symmetry, segmentation of body parts, repeating form, skeletal remains, and observation of forms in close proximity to one another.
Particular postures, evidence of motion, flight, apparent interaction as suggested by relative positions, and shiny eyes were taken to be consistent with the presence of living forms. (IANS)