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A high-ranking US military commander says that the US army is "getting dangerously small", urging greater support from the Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, US combatant commanders told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the future plan to reduce the US Army down to 450,000 active duty soldiers would leave the military too small to meet its needs. "We are getting dangerously small," said General Lloyd Austin, US Commander of Central Command, when asked about the size of the US Army compared to the need for the country’s armed forces. General Joseph Votel, commander of Special Operations Command, also said that the US Army is at "high risk" because of the decline in forces and the high demand for US military power. 

The army is facing increasing demands across the spectrum of US military operations, from current counter-terrorism activities to "threats from the four major challenges out there… [North] Korea, Iran, China and Russia," Votel claimed. In late 2015, the US Army presented a troop reduction plan that would leave it with force strength of 450,000 domestic and foreign forces by mid-2018. The reduction shows a cut of more than 20 percent from the 120,000 soldiers in 2012.

This is while the Senate refused to agree to the Pentagon’s proposal on Monday that closing and consolidating unnecessary military bases would net a 25 percent saving for the military budget. Over the past several years, the US Congress has turned down every request by the Pentagon to consolidate or eliminate a military base. The US army has verily been ramping up its military operations in tension-ridden areas particularly in the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East.

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09.Mar.2016

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A five-storey building under construction has collapsed in Nigeria’s Lagos State, leaving 15 people dead. According to officials, the deadly incident occurred on Tuesday in Lekki, which is an upmarket area of the state. "Fifteen dead including a woman and her baby while 11 rescued alive" said Ibrahim Farinloye, from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). 

The cause of the collapse is still unknown but it came after the first significant rainfall of the season overnight. Lagos witnesses frequent building collapses in its thickly-populated areas, mainly over their poor workmanship and materials. Nearly 120 people, most of them South Africans, died when a guesthouse caved in in a northern suburb of Lagos in September 2014.

Located in the southeast of Lagos, Lekki is home to the state’s most expensive real estate and has developed rapidly in recent years, with many wealthy Nigerians and expatriates owning properties there.

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09.Mar.2016

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A judge will decide by the end of this month whether to proceed with a proposed class action lawsuit filed by a Jamaican fashion model against Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's modeling agency, the judge's office said.

Alexia Palmer accuses Trump Model Management LLC of lying to the federal government in its work-visa application that said she would be paid a $75,000-a-year salary while living in the United States, according to court documents.

Instead, according to court papers, Palmer received a total of $3,880.75 during the three years she was under contract with the agency. The complaint alleges “fraudulent misrepresentation” and violations of U.S. immigration and labor laws. It asks for $225,000 in back pay.

The suit was originally filed in October 2014. A decision on a pending motion by Trump Model Management to dismiss is expected by the end of March, the clerk for Judge Analisa Torres, who is presiding over the case in the U.S District Court, Southern District, told Reuters.

If Torres rules the case can proceed, it could revive attention on Trump’s foreign labor practices at a time when the celebrity billionaire's rise in American politics has riveted the world’s attention.

Trump’s lawyers have called the case "frivolous" and "without merit." In court documents, they said Palmer wasn’t an employee and was more than adequately compensated for a “very brief stint as a fashion model,” which they say amounted to less than 10 days of work over three years.

Reuters could not independently confirm that assertion.

“At the end of the day, this model just didn’t have a successful career, and we fully expect to win,” said Lawrence Rosen, a lawyer for Trump Model Management.

Although Trump owns the modeling agency, the suit does not name him. Trump's campaign spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, said in a statement that Trump Model Management's treatment of Palmer was in line with "standard practice in the modeling industry."

Palmer's lawyer, Naresh Gehi, says his client was cheated of earnings and seduced by a life of glamour that never materialized. "The visa application the company filed with the government requires that people are paid the full amount," Gehi said. "It’s a requirement.”

Palmer, who was 17 when she came to New York in 2011, was not available to comment.

 

TOP JAMAICAN MODEL

Sylvia Ayass, a lawyer who has worked with models on visas like Palmer's, said agencies typically pay what they state on visa applications.

Trump has won Republican frontrunner status in the 2016 election in large part by positioning himself as a champion of the American worker who will deport illegal immigrants, build a wall with Mexico and do away with the off shoring of U.S. jobs.

This is not the first time Trump's labor practices have drawn criticism. A Reuters story published in August revealed that Trump's companies sought to import at least 1,100 workers on temporary visas since 2000. Of those, 250 were filed for foreign fashion models, according to the Reuters analysis of federal Department of Labor data.

Using a federal visa program called H-1B that allows U.S. employers to hire "specialized" foreign labor, Trump's modeling agency offered Palmer "at least $75,000 per year" for three years. It listed that salary on her H-1B visa application in 2011, according to the court documents reviewed by Reuters.

Rosen, the lawyer for Trump Model Management, said the $75,000 a year figure was simply a guess, not a guarantee.

Under that contract, Palmer agreed "to promptly reimburse" Trump Model Management "for any and all costs and expenses" that the agency incurred relating to her modeling.

According to the suit, the agreement stipulated that Trump Model Management would take a 20 percent cut of Palmer’s earnings but instead took 80 percent by deducting charges for everything from postage to walking lessons to mobile phone costs and limousine rides, as well as $4,000 in "administrative fees," according to court documents.

The suit said it was seeking class-action status to represent other models who believe they were misled and underpaid after coming to the United States with sponsorship from Trump’s modeling agency.

(Reuters)

 

 

 

 

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09.Mar.2016

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Tunisia’s president says his country is at war after "unprecedented" attacks by Takfiri militants and ensuing clashes leave at least 53 people dead near the Libyan border. “This is an unprecedented attack, planned and organized. Its goal was probably to take control of this area and to announce a new emirate,” President Beji Caid Essebsi said of the Monday raid. Prime Minister Hassid Essid said the attack was an attempt by Daesh militants to carve out a stronghold on the border. Gunmen attacked the city of Ben Guerdane at dawn Monday, triggering fierce fighting with the Tunisian army which continued past nightfall. Corpses lay in the street and gunmen hid in homes as darkness fell, gunfire sporadically ringing out, according to residents. The clashes prompted Tunisian interior and defense ministers to travel to the town to oversee the operation. 

Officials said 35 attackers, seven civilians and 11 members of security forces were killed. Authorities sealed off the nearby beach resort town of Djerba, a popular destination for tourists, and imposed a night curfew in the town. They also closed two border crossings with Libya. Tunisian forces have repeatedly clashed with Takfiri militant on the borders of Libya and Algeria in recent years, but Monday's fighting was unusually bloody. The relative calm in Tunisia has been punctured by growing instability in Libya which has plunged into chaos since former dictator Muammar Gaddadi was ousted in 2011 after a NATO military intervention. France, a key player in the NATO intervention, condemned Monday's attack and identified the gunmen as "terrorists coming from Libyan territory."

President Essebsi said the nation is "unconditionally united" as he praised Tunisian armed forces. "They are at war against this barbarism, against these rats, that we will eradicate with God’s will,” he said. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack but two Daesh-affiliated websites said the terrorist group’s militants were engaged in the fighting. In June 2015, a man armed with a rifle killed 38 people, mostly foreign tourists, on a beach in the Tunisian resort town of Sousse. The attack came more than a month after two militants stormed the Bardo Museum in the capital and shot dead 21 people and injured 44 others, mainly foreign tourists. Last week, Tunisian security forces killed five heavily armed men who had sneaked into the North African country from Libya.

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08.Mar.2016

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France has sparked widespread condemnation after discreetly awarding Saudi Arabia’s crown prince with the country’s highest honor just months after publicly condemning the kingdom for human rights violations. French President Francois Hollande awarded Prince Mohammed bin Nayef the Legion of Honor on Friday during the crown prince’s visit to Elysee Palace, an event which did not receive media coverage. Paris did not confirm the event until Sunday, when officials stated that it was “common protocol” to bestow the honor on visiting dignitaries. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia’s state-run SPA claimed that Nayef was given the honor for his “great efforts in the region and world for combating extremism and terrorism.” 

The award is regarded as one of the world’s highest modern orders of merit and was founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802. The last recipients of the award were a group of WWII veterans. In January, Saudi Arabia executed Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr along 46 other people in defiance of international calls for the release of the prominent Shia cleric and other jailed political dissidents in the kingdom. The following day, the French foreign ministry released a statement denouncing the executions as deeply deplorable.

On Sunday, Social media users vented their anger over awarding the significant medal to Riyadh. Known for its close relations with Saudi Arabia, France has moved over the past years to deepen cooperation with Riyadh, with reports in June 2015 suggesting that the two countries sealed military deals worth up to $12 billion for the delivery of modern weaponry to the Arab kingdom. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls also signed 10 billion euros worth of contracts, mainly in the fields of transport, energy and aerospace, in his trip to Riyadh last year.

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07.Mar.2016

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he United States wants more sub-Saharan African students coming to study at its universities. U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Industry & Analysis Marcus Jadotte is leading the first ever education trade mission to Africa this week.

University overcrowding, teacher strikes and a lack of access to cutting edge research opportunities can make it hard for even the most motivated of students to get ahead in Africa. But going overseas can be even harder.

Of the one million international students who studied at U.S. colleges and universities during the 2014 -2015 academic year, less than 34,000 came from Sub-Saharan Africa.

The U.S. government wants to change that.

“They [African students] should consider studying in the U.S because of the innovative approach to education that we take in the United States, because international businesses are looking for the best qualified, best prepared prospective employees and we certainly believe that it enriches education back home in U.S.," Jadotte said.

He is traveling with representatives of 25 U.S. colleges and universities to recruit students and build partnerships with African universities.

“Many of the universities who have traveled with us on this mission are including scholarships as a part of the conversation with students here as well,"  Jadotte explained.

His message attracted a long line of South African high school students.

Boneng Mofokeng says he is hoping to go to law school at Michigan State University.

“I want to see the world and our country’s economy is not good. Maybe I can have a better life over there," he said.

From South Africa, the delegation heads to Ivory Coast and Ghana.

(VOA)

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07.Mar.2016

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