Starting Saturday evening, no alcohol can legally be sold in Thailand, in accordance with the country’s new Referendum Act.
Polling will take place on Sunday, and the act forbids selling or giving away alcohol from 6 P.M. the night before. The ban will continue until 12 midnight Sunday night.
Violating the 2016 Referendum Act is punishable by up to six months in prison and a 10,000 baht fine.
Sales will be permitted at duty-free stores, but the alcohol cannot be consumed within the country until Monday morning.
So far four Americans have been found to have contracted the virus by mosquitoes in the Miami area.
Health officials have said they do not expect infection to be as widespread as it has been in other countries because of better sanitation, mosquito control and use of window screens.
The biggest health concerns are for pregnant women.
“If I were a pregnant woman right now, I would go on the assumption that there’s mosquito transmission all over the Miami area,” warned Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical medicine expert at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas.
In addition to four confirmed cases, medical authorities have said they expect there are many others already infected — and not just in Florida.
“This is not just a Florida issue. It’s a national issue – we just happen to be at the forefront,” said Governor Rick Scott.
German investigators in the case of Munich mass shooter David Ali Sonboly, who early on stated that the man was linked to Norwegian political mass killer Anders Breivik — Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae was quoted saying there was an “obvious” link, which was widely reported in the media — have changed their minds on that point.
German authorities are now discounting the reports that Sonboly had been particularly influenced by a study of Breivik’s attack, although the attack on Utoya took place five years earlier to the day.
Sonboly purchased a 9mm pistol on the internet, according to Bavarian investigators. He may have lured victims to the mall by promising them free food at a restaurant there. He fired 57 bullets of 300 he brought in a backpack before being silenced by one police bullet.
Sonboly was a German with Iranian citizenship. He possessed a collection of books about mass shootings in his room, according to police.
He is believed to have planned the mall attack one year in advance.
The young man had a history of psychiatric treatment, having been counselled for a period of two months.
The video, released by the Islamic State shortly after the train attack in Wurzburg, Germany, has been confirmed by the Bavarian interior minister to be the attacker, a 17-year-old Afghani asylum seeker Muhammad Riyad.
The video the Islamic State published shows the youth explaining the motive for his actions, placing his attack in the context of perceived injustices committed against Muslims by Western nations.
He also explains that he planned the attack well in advance, while living in Germany
German shoe company Birkenstock is the first major brand ever to pull out of Amazon’s U.S. online store.
The business relationship will end in January.
Birkenstock said it also will forbid all it’s third-party sellers from using Amazon to sell their shoes.
The problem, according to Birkenstock, is Amazon does not provide sufficient assistance in combating counterfeit, particularly from China, which hurts company profits for many companies big and small.
Birkenstock USA CEO David Kahan (obtained by CNBC): “The Amazon marketplace, which operates as an ‘open market,’ creates an environment where we experience unacceptable business practices which we believe jeopardize our brand. Policing this activity internally and in partnership with Amazon.com has proven impossible.
The CEO also said that Amazon won’t help prevent counterfeits unless companies let Amazon sell their whole product line.
Shared by redditor pmmeamilleniumfalcon, who introduced himself as a youth who has just moved out for the first time and was looking to save some money, this delicious looking and healthy dish of food is a rice-and-beans based one, with some seasoning to make it more appetizing.
pmmeamilleniumfalcon also shared the recipe:
1 can of red beans ($.70)
1/2 tub of mushrooms ($.75)
1/2 cup of rice ($.20)
1/2 bunch of parsley, chopped ($.50)
1/2 bunch of scallions, chopped ($.50)
Dollop of Greek yogurt ($.37)
Little bit of curry powder, salt, pepper ($.10)
Total: $3.12, made 4 servings.
The youth explained that there was not a lot of preparation involved, either. Just cook the rice and beans/curry powder/mushrooms (separately for about 10 minutes), then add scallions, parsley and yogurt, as well as salt and pepper for seasoning.
Ireland was projected to be the EU’s fastest growing economy in 2016. The European Commission put Ireland’s growth forecast for 2016 at almost 5%, to be followed by another 3.7 percent in 2017, well above the EU average of 1.6 percent, which is the same number Germany is expected to grow in 2016.
However, Brexit is affecting Ireland more than any other country. Former prime minister John Bruton called it “the most serious, difficult issue facing the country for 50 years.”
The cause is Ireland’s reliance on trade with the UK, which is the main buyer of Ireland’s services and second-biggest buyer of Ireland’s exports after the US. Around 40% of Irish food exports go to the UK, and this type of product — agricultural — is considered to be highly subject to the tariffs that could result from Brexit.
Economists are now warning of significant negative consequences for the Irish economy following Brexit. A top economist in Ireland, Eoin Fahy, referred to the consequences as “mind-boggling.”
There has also been concern among politicians and intellectuals in the country that Brexit will “reveal tensions between unionists and nationalists that were always there” and lead to a “hardened border” between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Now, Donna Roberts usually tells friends her husband originally texted her by mistake, but the parents of two kids actually met when Mark Ellis found Donna’s phone number on the wall of a toilet at his local pub.
Ellis decided to text the number, which was part of a message that read, “If you want a good sh-g call Donna on …” The message was written by Donna’s ex.
“Hi. What are you up to?” Ellis texted her. He later said he did it partly to see if it was a real number.
Donna, who is a legal secretary, didn’t know how Ellis got her number, but the two people texted back and forth and met a couple of days later.
Now, they have two kids aged 8 and 9, but the kids don’t know the story of their meeting yet.
B.C.’s government has said it will go ahead with allowing property taxes on homes left vacant.
The new tax is one that has been pushed for by Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson.
The purpose of the tax, according to the government, is to address the housing crisis increasingly affecting Vancouver and cities nearby for approximately 100 kilometers — house prices and availability have been dramatically effected as far east as Chilliwack.
The tax could come into effect some time in 2017 at the earliest.
However, critics are already saying the tax does nothing to deal with the problem. They say that a small property tax will most likely not dissuade buyers in a market where prices are dramatically higher each year, and where many houses are purchased as investments from overseas — most notably, China, where an abundance of wealthy people are seeking investments outside of their nation, and many buyers do not even see the homes they buy.
Currently, property tax is relatively inexpensive in Vancouver compared to other popular North American and world cities. For example, a 2-bedroom unit in Yaletown or Coal Harbor which costs around $1 million has a property tax of around $2500 per year. In many American cities, the property tax would be 3 or 4 to 10 times that amount depending on the city. One reason for Vancouver’s low property tax rate is that the provincial government imposes a high income tax rate, which isn’t the case in the states.
Maintenance fees are also lower in Vancouver. This is particularly beneficial to buyers who resell their house, because they don’t need to invest as much in upkeep.
These figures are roughly the same as other Canadian cities.
The lowest metropolitan apartment vacancy rate in Canada is Quebec with 5 percent and the highest is Windsor with 16.5 percent, although London and Victoria also have high vacancy rates.
Thursday night’s attack on white police in Dallas was the worst of five shooting attacks over the course of two days. In three other states, attacks took place hours before Dallas, later that night and the next day.
Lakeem Keon Scott
TENNESSEE
At 2 a.m. Thursday morning in Bristol, Tennessee, a man named Lakeem Scott allegedly fired though a Days Inn window at vehicles on the nearby parkway, killing one person. Scott then fired on officers who came to the scene. Scott was wounded by police gunfire and arrested.
“Preliminarily, the investigation reveals Scott may have targeted individuals and officers after being troubled by recent incidents involving African-Americans and law enforcement officers in other parts of the country,” reported the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
According to CNN, a police report also described witnesses as saying they had heard Scott shouting “Police suck! Black lives matter!”
TEXAS
Micah Johnson
25-year-old U.S. Army reservist Micah Johnson killed five of the 12 police officers he shot in a sniper-style attack at a Black Lives Matter-organized protest held in response to widespread media coverage of the recent deaths of two black men by police gunfire. The attack began at approximately 8:30 Thursday night, ending hours later after failed negotiations resulted in the killing of Johnson with a robot-deployed explosive.
The motive for Johnson’s crimes is currently believed to be wanting to kill whites, particularly white police officers, according to police who attempted to negotiate with the attacker.
(NOTE to readers: the following shooting incidents, particularly the two Georgia incidents, seem to have confused news reporters, who have published confused reports with misattributed names. The following is, to the best of our knowledge, correct.)
GEORGIA
Hours after the Dallas attack, 22-year-old Stephen Paul Beck allegedly called 911 with a report of a break in to lure police to his apartment in Valdosta and opened fire when they arrived. One officer took several bullets, one penetrating his equipment.
Beck was also wounded and was arrested.
No photo has been published of Beck but he is reported to be of Asian descent.
Victor Alonzo Majia Nunez
GEORGIA
At around 1 a.m. Friday, a 21-year-old man, Victor Alonzo Majia Nunez, opened fire on a police officer as he was driving past in a stolen vehicle in Roswell, Georgia.
The officer was not struck, and was surprised by the noises, at first thinking they might have been fireworks. The officer chased down the vehicle and arrested Nunez.
MISSOURI
Antonio Taylor
At 11:00 a.m. Friday morning another officer was shot as he was undertaking a routine stop on a speeding car in Ballwin, St. Louis County. When the officer went back to his police car, the driver of the vehicle, Antonio Taylor, got out, advanced on the officer, and fired three shots at him.
“It was clearly an ambush, an attack,” said St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch. “There was no confrontation, no argument, no nothing.”
The gunman fled, and was finally captured after he exited his vehicle and ran.
A collision in Florida in which a self-driving vehicle hit a tractor trailer making a turn at a highway intersection is being investigated by the U.S. government. The crash is the first in which a self-driving car has caused death.
The government is currently investigating Tesla’s auto-pilot system.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Tesla hit the semi truck when the truck was making a left turn on a divided highway intersection.
The Tesla was destroyed as everything below its windshield passed under the tractor, coming to a stop hundreds of feet further on.
The Tesla driver died of injuries from the crash, which happened May 7 in Williston, a city southwest of Gainesville, Florida.
According to Tesla, the car’s system did not notice the white side of the tractor-trailer against the sky. The driver didn’t notice, either, Tesla’s representatives said, and no one hit the brakes.
“The high ride height of the trailer combined with its positioning across the road and the extremely rare circumstances of the impact caused the Model S to pass under the trailer,” said Tesla.
Currently, the NHTSA is undertaking the process of easing self-driving vehicles onto U.S. roads, and Tesla has become famous as a front-runner in the production of popular self-driving vehicles.
After putting in its time, an asteroid called “Asteroid 2016 HO3” has now been confirmed by NASA to be a permanent resident in the Earth’s gravitational field.
The asteroid was discovered earlier this year by University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy, but it has been a “stable quasi-satellite” for almost 100 years.
Asteroid 2016 HO3 is between 120 and 300 feet in diameter (40-100 meters). The asteroid poses no threat of hitting the Earth, and will never come closer than 14 million kilometers (9 million miles) from our planet.
(For point of comparison, the average distance to the moon is less than 400,000 km.
Asteroid 2016 HO3 orbits the Earth somewhat similarly to our regular moon, but in an uneven pattern in which the rock drifts ahead of the Earth for a couple years as both orbit the sun, before the Earth’s gravity pulls the rock back and it falls behind the Earth for a few years. The relationship between the Earth and the asteroid has been likened to a dance.
Image: Paul Chodas, NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
