JAN 28 OTD A DAY THAT IS ALL BUT MUNDANE

#OTD 
On This Day: U.S. hostages smuggled out of Iran by Canadians
On Jan. 28, 1980, six Americans hidden for three months in the Canadian Embassy in Tehran were smuggled out of Iran by Canadian diplomats.

UNLIKE THE WAY IT WAS PORTRAYED IN THE AMERICAN PROPAGANDA FILM ARGO  Argo: True story? The facts and fiction behind the Ben Affleck ...

By UPI Staff
Tony Mendez, a retired American CIA technical operations officer, arrives at the 24th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival awards gala on January 5, 2013. Mendez arranged the freedom of six American  diplomats held hostage in Tehran in 1980. His actions were depicted in the film "Argo." File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 28 (UPI) -- On this date in history: 

In 1547, Henry VIII died and 9-year-old Edward VI became king of England.

In 1782, the U.S. Congress authorized creation of the great seal of the United States.

In 1813, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was published.

In 1958, the Lego Group received a patent for its toy building blocks.
File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI

In 1965, British Queen Elizabeth II accepted a new national flag design for Canada that included a red maple leaf in its center.

In 1974, Israel lifted its siege of Suez City and turned over 300,000 square miles of Egyptian territory to the United Nations, ending an occupation that had begun during the October 1973 war.

In 1980, six Americans hidden for three months in the Canadian Embassy in Tehran were smuggled out of Iran by Canadian diplomats. The so-called "Canadian Caper" was featured in the 2012 movie Argo.

Argo: The true story behind Ben Affleck's Globe-winning film ...

https://www.bbc.com › news › entertainment-arts-21003432

Jan 14, 2013 - Ben Affleck's film Argo tells how in 1980 the CIA - with Canadian help - sprang a group of Americans from Iran. But how much of it is true and ...

Argo: True story? The facts and fiction behind the Ben Affleck ...

https://slate.com › culture › 2012/10 › argo-true-story-the-facts-and-fiction...

Oct 12, 2012 - 2012 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Argo, the new movie from actor-director Ben Affleck, has mostly been getting raves—including a qualified ...

In 1982, kidnapped U.S. Army Brig. Gen. James Dozier was rescued in Padua, Italy, after being held 42 days by Italian Red Brigades militants.

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Red Brigades, Italian Brigate Rosse, militant left-wing organization in Italy that gained notoriety in the 1970s for kidnappings, murders, and sabotage. Its self-proclaimed aim was to undermine the Italian state and pave the way for a Marxist upheaval led by a “revolutionary proletariat.”

Red Brigades | Italian militant organization | Britannica

https://www.britannica.com › topic › Red-Brigades

The Red Brigades' History in Italy - Stratfor Worldview

https://worldview.stratfor.com › article › red-brigades-history-italy

Feb 11, 2014 - Formed in the 1970s and based in Italy, the Red Brigades was a militant organization based on Marxist-Leninist ideology that sought to ...

[PDF]

Political Terrorism: An Historical Case Study of the Italian Red ...

https://scholarcommons.usf.edu › cgi › viewcontent

by MVH Sundquist - ‎2010 - ‎Cited by 26 - ‎Related articles

fall of the Italian Red Brigades represents a classic case study from which ... civilian "sit-ins" to more extreme encounters of terrorist militant attacks. During the ..

In 1985, dozens of the biggest names in popular music recorded "We Are the World," royalties of which benefited the starving people of Africa.


In 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 72 seconds after launch from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members, including civilian teacher Christa McAuliffe.

I WATCHED IT HAPPEN LIVE 


File Photo courtesy NASA

In 1997, five former police officers in South Africa admitted to killing anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko, who died in police custody in 1977 and whose death had been officially listed as an accident.

In 2004, the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq told congressional government officials "were almost all wrong" in believing Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and called for an outside independent investigation of the apparent intelligence failure.

Q&A: Britain and America's WMD inquiries | World news ...

https://www.theguardian.com › World news › Iraq

Feb 4, 2004 - theguardian.com, Wednesday 4 February 2004 17.09 GMT ... look at "our war against proliferation and weapons of mass destruction" in a wide sweep. This means intelligence on Iraq, North Korea, Iran and Libya, and as ... The US's former chief weapons inspector has also argued that Iraq was still a threat ...

Chief Weapons Inspector Report on Iraq Weapons - 2004-01-30

https://learningenglish.voanews.com › a-23-a-2004-01-30-1-1-83123127

Jan 30, 2004 - Former top United States weapons inspector David Kay has called ... Mister Kay said he does not believe Iraq had many nuclear, chemical ... the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Armed Services ... He said that people who believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction were almost all wrong.

Kay: 'We Were Almost All Wrong' - CBS News

https://www.cbsnews.com › news › kay-we-were-almost-all-wrong

Jan 29, 2004 - David Kay, Who Led Iraq Weapons Search, Pans Intelligence. ... Former top U.S. weapons inspector David Kay told members of the Senate Wednesday ... include myself here," in believing that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. ... directly, even though Kay no longer has an official government position.

Iraq Weapons Data Flawed, Congress Told - Los Angeles Times

https://www.latimes.com › archives › la-xpm-2004-jan-29-fg-kay29-story

Jan 29, 2004 - 'We were all wrong,' former U.S. arms inspector says, and the misreading of ... David Kay, the former chief American weapons hunter in Iraq, told Congress on ... that Hussein's regime had weapons of mass destruction, Kay said his ... U.S. officials based some of their analysis of Iraqi weaponry on faulty ...

CIA Chief Saw No Imminent Threat in Iraq - Los Angeles Times

https://www.latimes.com › archives › la-xpm-2004-feb-06-fg-tenet6-story

Feb 6, 2004 - Tenet says his agency overestimated Hussein's illicit weapons and relied ... Bush that Saddam Hussein's government posed an “imminent threat,” and the ... several claims about weapons of mass destruction that the White House had ... An intelligence official said later that the Iraqi National Congress, then ...

Netanyahu bribery indictment filed hours after PM drops immunity request 

TWO JAIL BIRDS IN THE WHITE HOUSE HOPING FOR GET OUT FREE RULINGS

ByDarryl Coote

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 

answer questions from members of the media in the Rose Garden at the

 White House on Monday in Washington, D.C. 

Photo by Leigh Vogel/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Israel's attorney general filed an indictment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on bribery and other charges Tuesday just hours after the Israeli leader withdrew his request for immunity.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit charged Netanyahu with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in an indictment filed with the Jerusalem District Court.

He announced the indictment in November, but had been prevented from filing it as Netanyahu sought immunity from prosecution.

The prime minister had sent the immunity request early this month to the Knesset, which was to convene Tuesday to vote on a committee that would debate whether the request should to be granted. But he withdrew the request Tuesday.

"I will not allow my political opponents to use this matter to interfere with the historic move that I am leading," he said in a statement published on his personal Facebook page.

Israel's longest-serving prime minister was charged for receiving gifts as the prime minister, paying for favorable news coverage and implementing regulatory moves to benefit news outlets to spur positive news stories.

Netanyahu has denied all charges against him and said he requested immunity from prosecution until the term of the Knesset expires in order to prevent the government from harm.

RELATED Trump hosts Netanyahu, Gantz to unveil Mideast peace deal

"At this fateful hour for the people of Israel, while I am in the U.S. on a historic mission to shape Israel's permanent borders and ensure our security for future generations, another Knesset show is expected to open in the immunity circus," Netanyahu said in the statement.

The filing of the indictment comes as he was in Washington to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump ahead of the White House's unveiling of its new Middle East peace plan.

His supporters denounced the attorney general's decision to file the indictment so quickly after the immunity request was withdrawn.

RELATED Pence, Netanyahu condemn anti-Semitism, Iran at Holocaust Forum

"If anyone still had doubt that the prime minister is being pursued obsessively, this is more clear, sharp proof," a source close to Netanyahu told the Jerusalem Post. "Their eagerness to file the ridiculous indictment against the prime minister is so great that they cannot even wait a single day for the historic summit in Washington that is one of the most important in the history of the state."

Netanyahu said he will "shatter all the disproportionate claims" he is accused of in the charges.

"Since I was not given due process, because all the rules of Knesset work were trampled on a rough foot and since the results of the procedure were pre-dictated without proper discussion, I decided not to let this dirty game continue," he said in announcing his decision to rescind his request.

Benny Gantz -- Netanyahu's chief political rival who will face him in the nation's third election in less than a year after neither politician was able to form a unity government -- responded to the withdrawal saying Netanyahu must go to trial and Israel must move forward.

"Israeli citizens have a clear choice: A prime minister who will work for them or a self-employed prime minister," Gantz said via Twitter. "No one can run a state and 

simultaneously run three serious criminal cases for bribery, fraud and breach of trust."

---30---

SHE HAS A PLAN FOR THAT
Elizabeth Warren unveils plan to fight infectious diseases

By Clyde Hughes

Democratic presidential candidate and Sen. Elizabeth Warren vowed 

to invest more in federal agencies to better handle global health threats 

like coronavirus. File Photo by Pete Marovich/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Amid a deadly global spread of coronavirus, Democratic presidential candidate and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren unveiled a health plan Tuesday she says would fight the spread of infectious diseases and prepare the world better for viral outbreaks.

Called "Preventing, Containing and Treating Infectious Disease Outbreaks at Home and Abroad," the criticizes the Trump administration for shortchanging organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that are responsible for health security.

Warren says in the plan greater investments must be made in public health agencies, hospitals and healthcare providers to better prepare them for dangerous outbreaks -- such as the coronavirus strain that's so far killed more than 100 people in China.

The plan includes strengthening public health systems to help them prevent and manage outbreaks; fully funding the Global Health Security Agenda; approving her "Medicare for All" plan; increasing funds for global health initiatives to fight diseases like HIV, tuberculosis and malaria; and fighting global warming.

"Trump has repeatedly tried to nickel and dime federal programs essential to health security," she wrote. "Trump eliminated the key position that coordinates global health security across the many federal agencies that work to keep us safe. And his response to natural disasters that could lead to serious outbreaks, like hurricanes in Puerto Rico, has been basically non-existent.

"That's why I have a plan to prevent, contain, and treat infectious diseases -- one that will help keep America safe and healthy. And as president, I will work across all levels of government here at home and with our many partners abroad to turn that plan into action."

Warren said she would remove a gag order that prevents health organizations from talking about abortion and re-establish the health security post in the White House that was eliminated by Trump, while investing in the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations alliance that focuses on vaccine development.

"Like so much else, Trump's approach to keeping us safe from disease outbreaks is a mess," she wrote. "But when he's gone, we can fix it."

---30---

Lawyers for a Portuguese computer hacker said on Monday he was responsible for revealing the dealings of Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, a corruption scandal with fallout across Europe and Africa.

AFP/File / FERENC ISZARui Pinto is described by his lawyers

 as a 'very important European whistleblower'

Lawyers for a Portuguese computer hacker said on Monday he was responsible for revealing the dealings of Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, a corruption scandal with fallout across Europe and Africa.

The hacker, Rui Pinto, handed over a hard drive "containing all data related to the recent revelations concerning Ms. Isabel Dos Santos’s fortune" to a whistleblowing organisation in 2018, his lawyers said.

The tycoon daughter of former Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos now faces a slew of corruption allegations stretching across Angola's state oil and diamond industries and banks -- all of which she has denied in interviews from London.

Rui Pinto -- described by his lawyers as a "very important European whistleblower" -- is also behind the so-called Football Leaks, a series of stories about financial dealings and transfers involving clubs in Europe's top leagues.

The football revelations, which first appeared in 2015 and were eventually published in Germany's Spiegel and other European outlets, sparked criminal investigations in countries including Britain and France.

Pinto, 31, was extradited from Hungary last March over allegations that he hacked into the systems of investment fund Doyen Sports and tried to blackmail them in return for not publishing information he had taken.

His lawyers have argued that Pinto -- currently in pretrial detention in Portugal -- willingly stopped the blackmail attempt and turned whistleblower, publishing the documents rather than profiting personally.

But a Portuguese court decided on January 17 to go ahead with his trial on a total of 90 charges.

- 'Broken system' -

According to his lawyers, the hard drive Pinto handed over on the Angolan tycoon's finances provided the source material for revelations about "all the actors that might be involved in the fraudulent operations committed at the expense of the Angolan State".

The New York-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) -- which had also worked on previous financial scandals including the 2016 "Panama Papers" -- began publishing stories on dos Santos in mid-January.

The consortium said it had trawled more than 715,000 files and produced stories it said revealed a "broken international regulatory system".

AFP / John SAEKIFactfile on Angolan businesswoman

 Isabel dos Santos, charged with money laundering

Within days, Angola's prosecutors announced charges against dos Santos, as the so-called Luanda Leaks scandal swirled around allegations that she had syphoned off hundreds of millions of dollars of public money into offshore accounts during her tenure at Sonangol, Angola's state-owned oil giant.

Hundreds of companies, many based in tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands, are alleged to have helped dos Santos accrue her fortune.

A Portuguese banker who worked for Eurobic -- in which dos Santos is the main shareholder -- was found dead last week in an apparent suicide. He was named in the Luanda Leaks documents and later described in media reports as her account manager.

Pinto had forwarded the hard drive to the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa and the ICIJ, his lawyers said.

He had "sought to help understanding complex operations conducted with the complicity of banks and jurists which not only impoverish the people and the State of Angola, but may have seriously damaged Portugal’s general interest", the statement said.

Angolans call Isabel dos Santos "the princess", and she is Africa's richest woman according to Forbes, which estimates her assets at $2.1 billion.

27JAN2020

Xi says China fighting 'demon' virus as nations prepare airlifts

DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM ONLY BELIEVES IN ONE DEMON; MAXWELL'S
Xi says China fighting 'demon' virus as nations prepare airlifts

AFP / NICOLAS ASFOURI
Many streets in Beijing are nearly 

 amid fears over the coronavirus epidemic -- with the death

 toll soaring above 100, China and foreign governments

are stepping up measures to try to contain it

China is battling a "demon" virus that has so far killed more than 100 people, President Xi Jinping said Tuesday, as nations readied planes to airlift foreigners trapped at the epicentre of the outbreak.

Xi made his remarks during talks with the head of the World Health Organization in Beijing amid growing global concerns about a novel coronavirus that has infected thousands in China and reached more than a dozen other countries.

In a development that could cause more jitters abroad, Japan and Germany reported the first confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission outside of China.

AFP / Naohiko HattaChinese President Xi Jinping speaks during a 
meeting with World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom 
 Ghebreyesus (not pictured) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing

 -- he called the epidemic a "demon"

The infection is believed to have originated in a wild animal market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where it jumped to humans before spreading rapidly across the country, prompting authorities to enact drastic nationwide travel restrictions in recent days.

Countries are also concerned about the fate of thousands of foreigners stuck in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people that has been sealed off by Chinese authorities in a bid to contain the disease.

Tokyo deployed a plane to the virus-stricken metropolis late Tuesday that was scheduled to repatriate Japanese nationals on Wednesday, the same day that a US aircraft is expected to bring American citizens back to their homeland.

France and South Korea are also planning to fly out their citizens later this week, and several other countries, including Germany, were considering doing the same.

"Chinese people are currently engaged in a serious struggle against an epidemic of a new type of coronavirus infection," Xi told WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"The epidemic is a demon, and we cannot let this demon hide," the Chinese leader said, pledging that the government would be transparent and release information in a "timely" manner.

AFP / NICOLAS ASFOURI  Fever checks are being conducted
 across China, even at this condo building in Beijing -- anger
 is simmering on Chinese social media over the official
 response to the health emergencyHis comments came after anger simmered on Chinese social media over the handling of the health emergency by local officials in central Hubei province.

Some experts have praised Beijing for being more reactive and open about this crisis as compared to its handling of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic of 2002-2003.

But others say local cadres were more focused on projecting stability earlier in January than adequately responding to the outbreak during regional political meetings.

Since then, the number of cases has soared -- doubling to more than 4,500 in the past 24 hours.

- Contagion abroad -

The WHO last week stopped short of declaring the outbreak a global emergency, which could have prompted a more aggressive international response such as travel restrictions.

Until Tuesday, all reported cases in more than a dozen countries had involved people who had been in or around Wuhan.

AFP / DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS 
Face masks are being used as a frontline defense in China 
and around the world against the deadly coranavirus -- here,
 a passenger is seen arriving at London's Heathrow airport


But in Japan, a man in his 60s apparently contracted the virus after driving two groups of tourists from the city earlier in January, the health ministry said.

And a 33-year-old German man contracted the disease from a Chinese colleague from Shanghai who visited Germany last week, according to health officials.

Vietnam has been investigating a possible case of human-to-human transmission.

The development came after countries including Sri Lanka, Malaysia and the Philippines announced tighter visa restrictions for people coming from China.

China has taken its own drastic steps to stop the virus, which health officials say is passed on between people through sneezing or coughing, and possibly through physical contact.

AFP / Patricio ARANA Countries or territories with confirmed cases of 
the new 2019 novel coronavirus

Zhong Nanshan, a renowned scientist at China's National Health Commission, told the official Xinhua news agency on Tuesday that the outbreak could peak in a week or 10 days.

Authorities initially sealed off Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province late last week, trapping more than 50 million people.

China has since extended the Lunar New Year holiday to keep people indoors as much as possible, and suspended a wide range of train services.

On Tuesday, authorities urged Chinese citizens to delay any foreign travel "to protect the health and safety of Chinese and foreign people".

Wuhan, meanwhile, has been turned into a near ghost-town under a lockdown that has largely confined the industrial hub's residents to their homes.

With a ban on car traffic, the streets were nearly deserted apart from the occasional ambulance -- although the city's hospitals are overwhelmed.

"Everyone goes out wearing masks and they are worried about the infection," said David, a Chinese man who works in Shanghai but ended up trapped in Wuhan after it was put under quarantine.

Maxwell's demon - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Maxwell's_demon

Maxwell's demon is a thought experiment created by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1867 in which he suggested how the second law of thermodynamics might hypothetically be violated. In the thought experiment, a demon controls a small door between two chambers of gas.

Maxwell's Equations - Hyperphysics

hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu › hbase › electric › maxeq

Maxwell's equations represent one of the most elegant and concise ways to state 

the fundamentals of electricity and magnetism. From them one can develop ...

China now world's second-largest arms producer after U.S.

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

By Ed Adamczyk


Visitors observe aircraft at China's Military Museum in Beijing.
 A study released on Monday indicates that China is the 
world's second-largest arms producer, ahead of Russia and
 behind only the United States. 
Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 27 (UPI) -- China is the world's second-largest arms producer, after the United States, a Swedish research center announced on Monday.

Information on China's weapons manufacturing has been unreliable in the past because of a lack of transparency, causing the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute to exclude Chinese companies from consideration until now.

For years, the United States has ranked first and Russia second in the organization's SIPRI Top 100 list of arms-producing and military services companies.

Credible data from 2015 to 2017 relating to four large Chinese companies has emerged, a SIPRI statement said Monday, allowing development of "reasonably reliable estimates of the Chinese arms industry."

Those estimates put China ahead of Russia in arms sales, 
behind only the United States.

Image courtesy of SIPRI

The four Chinese companies combine for $54.1 billion in sales, and would place each among the top 20 armaments producers in the world.

One, Aviation Industry Corp., would rank sixth in the world with $20.1 billion in sales. Another, China North Industries Group Corp., would be the world's largest producers of land armaments systems with $17.2 billion in sales.

RELATED Lockheed awarded $32.9M deal to upgrade Taiwan's F-16s

The SIPRI study's largest arms makers, including the Chinese companies, are, in order: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon, all of the United States; Britain's BAE Systems; China's Aviation Industry Corp., the United States' General Dynamics; the trans-European Airbus; France's Thales; Italy's Leonardo, and China North Industries and China Electronics Technology Group.

The survey excludes China from its list of arms sales by country, but indicates that the United States has 57.9 percent of the international arms market, followed by the United Kingdom with 9.6 percent and Russia with 7.1 percent.

RELATED State Department approves $2.75B sale of F-35Bs to Singapore

JEAN DE ARC OMD