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22 Nov TWO INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATIONS LOOM OVER WATER TREATMENT PLANT IN BUDVA AMIDST ACCUSATIONS OF POLLUTION AND CORRUPTION: Invoices inflated by millions while investigation takes forever
Posted at 20:45h in Uncategorized	by	Centar za istraživačko novinarstvo Crne Gore 0 Comments
Numerous works were either fictive or overcharged, lower quality material was used in construction but invoiced as top quality and hence more expensive, experts claim. Wassertechnik Essen LLC has already pocketed around €42 million and requests another €35.34 million to be paid, which is vigorously contested by Budva Municipality. Furthermore, international arbitrations will cost Budva millions of euros. Special Prosecution Office has launched "inquiries" that drag on indefinitely
Invoices for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant in Becici are inflated by more than €20 million according to those involved in the project and the findings of two independent experts. The allegations are further corroborated by various documents that the Centre for Investigative Journalism in Montenegro (CIN-CG), Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and Monitor had access to.
Furthermore, Budva Municipality has not solved the key environmental problem as only the central part of the municipality is connected to the newly constructed plant. The sewage from the territory of Jaz, Petrovac and Buljarica continues to flow into the sea untreated, while the sewerage system for Montenegro's top brand and tourist destination Sveti Stefan (Saint Stephen) has not been built.
foto: private archive
Three million euros were stolen from the municipal treasury through a false invoice before the construction even began as court documents and verdicts show. Moreover, Slovenian expert Dr Joze Duhovnik, hired by the opposition led local government since October 2016 election, claims that €41.4 million invoiced by the German company WasserTechnik Essen (WTE) should be reduced by €12,629 million. That's how much the Germans overcharged according to him. Financial expert Ilinka Vukovic, hired by the Municipality and later on by the Special Prosecution Office (SPO) discovered other controversial invoices with the amount in dispute exceeding €3,5 million. Furthermore, the management costs for the facility were overcharged between €500 to €700 thousand annually during five and a half years when WTE operated the plant.
The city of Budva is at risk to lose additional tens of millions in the launched international arbitrations over mounting disputes with the Germans. The first arbitration is due to begin on 9 February 2021 in Frankfurt. WTE collected so far between €12.5 and €13.8 million for its services to the Municipality (the exact figure is a matter of dispute) and activated the Government of Montenegro guarantee of €29.3 million. WTE claims another €35.34 million. The second arbitration will take place in Geneva. The litigations' costs will be an extra burden to the embattled municipal treasury.
Svetozar Marović
foto: Boris Pejović
However, so far no one has been held accountable for the inflated invoices, fictive works and services, and the instalment of cheaper and poorer quality material and equipment. The exception is the aforementioned theft of the first €3 million confessed in the plea agreement by the then vice president of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and the informal ruler of Budva, Svetozar Marovic. Three of his former associates also accepted the plea agreement with the SPO.
The plea agreement reveals that the money was used to repay Marovic's private debt to a certain businessman Gojko Kapisoda. The prosecutor and the court were extremely lenient and sentenced Marovic to only three months in prison. Shockingly, neither the SPO nor the High Court ordered Marovic to return the stolen millions to the Municipality under the terms of the plea agreement. Moreover, Marovic avoided prison having moved to Belgrade where he lives now. The then executive of the local WTE Wastewater Budva Guenter Faust who made the fake invoice and redirected the money to Marovic got away with his crime having become the witness-collaborator for the prosecution.
The Special Prosecution Office appeals to "ongoing inquiries" when asked about responsibility for not prosecuting other criminal offences in regard to the water treatment project.
Milking the Municipality
The German company WTE signed on 8 July 2009 a so-called DBFO (design-build-finance-operate) contract with the Municipality of Budva on the construction of three wastewater treatment plants in Becici, Jaz and Buljarica, as well as a sewerage system in Sveti Stefan. The overall capacity was to serve the population of 130 thousand. The value of the project was €58.56 million plus interest and variable costs, on condition that the total investment shall not exceed the tender prescribed limit of €85 million. The contract also provided for annual management costs of €1.7 million until 2042 while Budva was to repay the investment by 2034. The project was only partly completed when the water treatment plant in Becici began its trial operation in July 2014. It was officially opened in early October 2014.
Two months after concluding the contract, the Germans founded a subsidiary company WTE Wastewaters LLC Budva which signed a €61 million loan agreement with her parent company in Essen in early June 2010 to finance the project.
To ensure that the work would be properly done, the Germans handed over to the Municipality a guarantee from Bayerische Landesbank of Nuremberg (issued on 9 July 2009) for the amount of €4.25 million. It was valid until 8 July 2014. The then local DPS controlled city council did not ask for an extension. A former municipal official, who wanted to remain anonymous, explained to CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that the Germans offered not to insist on immediate payment of the already accumulated invoices if the locals would forget the bank guarantee. At the time the treasury of Budva was empty.
On the other hand, the government lodged a payment guarantee for the amount of €29.3 million on 16 October 2010. It covered 50% of the overall basic investment and it was payable on first call and without the right to protest. Moreover, five months earlier, the then mayor Rajko Kuljaca issued a payment guarantee for the amount of up to €66 million. However, he neither had the formal consent of the Government nor the decision of the local city council, as the law prescribed. WTE activated the government issued guarantee on 18 December 2019, while the mayor's guarantee is the subject of international arbitration in Frankfurt.
Interlocutors of CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor, who were previously highly positioned in the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), claim that the water treatment project was "preceded by an agreement between Svetozar Marovic and the state (and the ruling party) leadership". Marovic owed money to private individuals. Two of them confirmed it to CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor on the condition of anonymity. Marovic also owed money to First Bank owned by Aco Djukanovic, the brother of the then Prime Minister and now President Milo Djukanovic. The interlocutors from the DPS said that eventually it was "agreed" to include the water treatment facility in Becici in the scheme whereby Marovic's debts would be returned through fictive and "many times inflated invoices at the expense of quality and volume of works". Allegedly the Germans agreed to that.
The press service of President Djukanovic categorically denied the existence of such an agreement. "No, no such idea was ever brought up. And if it was, it would certainly not be accepted" is said in the reply sent to CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor.
Marovic refused to respond to the allegations of his former party colleagues. The representative of the investor also denied allegations of corruption. First Bank replied that their representatives "neither had knowledge, nor took part in the agreements you mentioned". The Bank wouldn't answer on whether Marovic and Property Investments have settled their debts, if there was any outstanding debt and about the collaterals for the loans. The Bank appealed to the legally binding confidentiality and non-disclosure clauses.
However, Marovic's plea agreement with the SPO, and the WTE invoices sent to Budva Municipality that CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor had access to, confirm some of the allegations from our DPS sources.
Skyrocket invoices- from land clearance to maintenance
Soon after the opposition won Budva in October 2016 election, it turned out that the €3 million theft was just one of many.
Dragan Krapović
foto: Zoran Đurić
The then newly elected mayor Dragan Krapovic told CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that their first challenge was to find the project documents which disappeared after the DPS stepped down. "We couldn't find even the basic DBFO contract as the SPO prosecutors carried away the documentation without receipt and they wouldn't return it either. The archive was in disarray".
The municipality managed to obtain some documents and then launched a review. "Dr Joze Duhovnik from Slovenia was chosen for the job. He had impressive international references," says Krapovic.
Suspicious invoices began to emerge.
Thus, at the very beginning of the project the land clearance was charged €56,195, or €2.5/m2, which is at least 20 times the usual price. The clearance included the mowing of grass, removing of shrubbery, trees and stumps on the plot intended for the plant on an area of 22,478m2. Entrepreneurs contacted by CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor gave the land clearing quotes from 7c to 10c /m2 depending on the size of the area. They even offered discounts for large plots.
Đorđije Vujović
Djordjije Vujovic, a City Council member in Budva, told CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that already back in 2011 he heard from a director of Tradeunique (WTE's subcontractor) that they had paid €6 thousand in cash to workers from Ulcinj and that "the investor inflated the invoice by 50 thousand before sending it to Budva Municipality". At the joint meeting in the office of the then mayor Lazar Radjenovic, Vujovic directly asked Ralf Schroder, the executive director of WTE Essen, whether it was true that Marovic's debt of €5 million to the aforesaid Kapisoda would be returned through the project.
"Schroder angrily replied that they were Germans, that they valued money and that he would not talk about it anymore," says Vujovic.
Soon afterwards another bloated invoice arrived- for the earthworks and terrain leveling.
"The supervision verified something that was not done. After the geodetic survey, we determined lower costs and reduced the value of the actual works by €700 thousand" explains Duhovnik in the interview with CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor.
He points out that the works on the equipment in the water treatment facility were bloated by €5,282,218.27. "The technical book defines the quality of the equipment and the building materials. However, on the ground we found low quality, poorer properties of the equipment and of the material itself. The pipelines were already cracking. They installed armature for cheaper pumps (25-30%) as they require less material. However, the supervision approved the price as though the stuff was of the best quality".
The Slovenian team led by Duhovnik found out that the construction works on the plant were inflated by €2.92 million, the project documentation by €1.613 million, and the building permits by €0.922 million. The Slovenians also disputed €1.89 million for the payment of internal supervision of the German company.
"By law, the project supervision should be paid by the Municipality as it is the most important part in the carrying out of the project. In this case WTE paid its internal supervision, which confirmed figures that WTE wanted. At the end, the invoice was sent to the Municipality to pay it, which is unheard of and against the law" explains Dr Duhovnik to CIN-CG/BIRN /Monitor.
WTE Wastewater Budva, led by Guenter Faust at the time, continued to send suspicious invoices while expecting the Municipality to pay them at face value. Financial expert Ilinka Vukovic states on page 99 of her report that "while reviewing the WTE documentation that was extracted by the prosecution office, I had a chance to see an invoice in the total amount of €3,145,000 for the expenses and dues to the parent company (in Essen), while its description includes different types of "meetings and negotiations …"
The aforesaid invoice (dated October 2009 – September 2010) contains generic descriptions with conspicuously large and round figures: organizational concept draft- €350 thousand, negotiations with the Municipality of Budva – €200 thousand, creation of a letter of guarantee – €420 thousand, specifying details of other contracts – €270 thousand, loan facilitation – €360 thousand, defining of payment terms – €230 thousand, ongoing trade consulting and development – €300 thousand, technical concept development – €790 thousand, technical negotiations with the Municipality of Budva – €155 thousand and project management – €70 thousand. In total – €3.145 million.
"You can instantly see that something is wrong with that invoice. Corruption stinks. You have the project management – 70 thousand, then other figures – 300, 350 thousand … WTE obviously thought we were fools ", says Djordjije Vujovic.
Another problematic WTE invoice of €535,095.99 was sent to the Municipality for the talks held with KfW-IPEX Bank from October 10, 2014 to October 29, 2015. Vukovic's report says that the talks didn't lead to a loan approval for the project. WTE was simply doing "a market research without consent from the Municipality of Budva" which mandated the project. Therefore, WTE should have paid the cost.
However, the city of Budva had its own supervisor for the project – the company Pro-Ing LLC Novi Sad (Serbia) which signed the supervision contract worth €678,600 on 19 October 2011. The company's founder and director Goran Vukobratovic told CIN-CG/ BIRN/Monitor that he disagreed with Duhovnik's findings. He believes that Pro-Ing did a good job for Budva.
"Keep in mind that Pro-Ing only supervised the construction works. We were not responsible for the management costs and the control of financial costs. Furthermore, we are not responsible for the invoices sent before we got the supervision", says Vukobratovic.
However, Mrs Vukovic in her report points to a controversial role of Pro-Ing Novi Sad, because Vukobratovic "was a member of the (tender) commission and among those who signed the minutes after the opening of the bids". Mrs Vukovic notes that Vukobratovic was mentioned as a consultant for the tender while it was being prepared.
She further writes that besides the company in Novi Sad Vukobratovic has another Pro-Ing Trade LLC Budva where he is the sole founder. Pro-Ing Trade has done business with WTE Wastewaters Budva for years. "That is an obvious conflict of interests" concludes Mrs Vukovic in her report.
CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor received invoices which Pro-Ing Trade LLC Budva sent to WTE for "making of audit report for obtaining a construction permit for WWTP Budva, including the entire sewerage network and pumping stations in the municipality". One invoice in the amount of €100,800 was issued on 19 May 2011, before the parent company signed the supervision contract. The second invoice in the amount of €39,312 was issued on 27 December 2011, which is after the supervision contract was signed. In response, Vukobratovic claims that "there was no conflict of interests in those two separate jobs".
"Feel free to check with MORT (Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism) if a company can work for another company and at the same time supervise the work of that company on behalf of another entity. You have an example of VODACOM which is an ongoing project in Kotor and Tivat ", notes Vukobratovic.
He also says that he can't see a conflict of interests in the fact that he was on the tender commission team which opened and evaluated the bids. "The tender called for a concept to be proposed, not a detailed design. Thus I was not acquainted beforehand with the project details that I was later meant to supervise. The conflict of interests would exist if I had taken part in the drafting of the concept of which I certainly was not privy".
Duhovnik says that those explanations are "typical Balkan style" stressing that "in any normal country, this would be recognised as a conflict of interests".
Germans and Austrians keep silent as they await arbitration to deliberate on their claim
Stephan Zach photo: Bild, EVN/Gabriele Moser
Stefan Zach, the communications manager of the Austrian EVN Group which owns WTE Ltd, acknowledges the competence of Dr Duhovnik but prefers not to comment his findings.
"We will present our objections to Duhovnik's report before the arbitration court in Geneva" replied Zach to CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor.
Speaking of allegations for corruption and the facility's poor quality, Mr Zach points out that "prosecutors checked the company and the plant several times and didn't find anything against WTE despite numerous public accusations". He further says that "the facility does work" and that "WTE has done a good job". However, he admits that the facilities in Jaz and Buljarica were not built "because the municipal authorities sold the land for construction of hotels". This is vehemently denied by the former mayor Krapovic who says that "it is very easy to check and find the opposite".
Krapovic also stresses the problem of management costs of €1.7 million per year (as defined by the DBFO contract) which the Germans charged for since July 2014 and expected to be paid in full.
"We told them that we were not going to pay the management costs for the non-existent facilities in Jaz and Buljarica. Then Schutte offered me to lower the price from €1.7 to €1.2 million, given that we make a deal on some other (controversial) points" says Krapovic.
Hubertus Schutte succeeded Guenter Faust as the executive of WTE Wastewater Budva who left upon discovery of his role in the first €3 million theft.
Budva's Secretariat for Investments told CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that the projected annual management costs for the plant in Becici amounted to €993 thousand, which is considerably less than €1.7 million invoiced by the Germans.
Stefan Zach says that WTE-EVN claims €77 million in total, which is how much the wastewater project in Becici (Budva) cost them. He denies that WTE tried to charge for the facilities it didn't build (Jaz and Buljarica). "Our principle is to charge for what we have built and not for what might have been" says Mr Zach.
Vladan Bojic
photo: vijesti.me
Budva's attorney Vladan Bojic explains in the interview with CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that "WTE-EVN launched the arbitration in Frankfurt at the end of 2019 over the guarantee signed by Kuljaca (Budva's former DPS mayor). Just the fees, administrative costs, motions and other preparations before the hearing in February will cost the city half a million US dollars. The arbitration in Frankfurt may eventually cost us between $1.5 and $2 million. They also launched the arbitration in Geneva over alleged breach of DBFO contract, just in case they fail in Frankfurt".
CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor asked Montenegro's President Djukanovic whether he took any measures, since at the time he was Prime Minister, to ensure that WTE completes the investment in accordance with the contract given the lodged guarantee of €29.3 million. The President's press service contacted the Ministry of Finance and sent us its reply. It says that "since the payment of the said guarantee, the government has not followed developments about the WTE project in Budva Municipality". The statement further says that efforts are made to resolve the question of municipal debt to the national governement as a consequence of the payment it had made.
"Now the project and its follow-up is a matter of the parties thereto from the start and onwards. So the Municipality and WTE should reconsider and agree on all the aspects of cooperation" recommends the Ministry of Finance.
When the then Prime Minister Djukanovic cut the ribbon on 2 October 2014 he pointed out that the new facility would make the marine resources of Budva and Montenegro "cleaner, better and richer". On behalf of the German company its director Franc Mittermeier stressed that the plant was constructed "in accordance with international standards".
However, the ceremony was clouded by the facts that the plant in Becici (meant to serve the population of up to 90 thousand) was only one part of the agreed project. The facility lacked the certificate of occupancy which arrived half a year later for only a quarter of the building. The documentation was incomplete and the facility was not entirely registered in the cadastre.
Six years on and the sea on the coasts of Budva is still away from "better and cleaner". Spanish Iberostar Bellevue hotel told CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that it pressed charges in court against WTE following the incident in July 2019 when sewage was directly discharged for 24 hours into the sea between two 5-star hotels in Becici. Iberostar demands €1 million compensation and complains that WTE wouldn't take calls from the hotel, let alone do something to stop the spilling. Occasionally the stench from the plant still pervades its vicinity and descends to the hotels on the shore. The semi-solid sludge which remains after the sewage treatment is not treated itself as that was never envisaged by the original contract. CIN-CG earlier reported that the sludge is taken to Albania and offloaded in wild waste dumps. The floating oil and grease from the facility occasionally stained the sea in Budva and Becici last summer. The problem is solved by the instalment of a new reduction gearbox in the plant – and paid by the city again.
Petrovac, Jaz, Buljarica and Sveti Stefan still discharge their untreated sewage into the open sea which the sea currents and winds send back to the coast.
Budva is not the only disputed case
Mr Zach emphasises that in the last 20 years WTE-EVN has completed 110 projects in 20 countries but they "never had problems like the one in Budva".
Nonetheless, WTE-EVN projects are not going smoothly in other countries either. In Slovenia WTE has three disputes – Kranjska Gora is in the courts, the Lasko Brewery won the case, and Bled ended in a settlement. It is possible that another dispute may arise in Sentjernej.
In North Macedonia problems were resolved through interstate discussions at the highest level.
A dispute in Bulgaria was resolved by the arbitration in Washington, in which both sides were awarded smaller sums than they had asked for.
Reuters Agency in 2014 announced that EVN was planning to activate a €251 million guarantee from the German government after the collapse of a WTE incinerator project near Moscow.
Three million euro talk over a cup of coffee
In January 2016, police arrested Guenter Faust, the director of WTE Wastewaters Budva. He was released 72 hours later. In his capacity as a witness-collaborator, Faust confessed on 1 May 2016 to the Special Prosecution Office (SPO) that Lazar Radjenovic had told him over a cup of coffee in the Budva café Hemingway that "it would be necessary to pay €3 million through a construction company which was yet to be chosen". The lot fell on Tradeunique whose owner was Mirko Latinovic – later to become a witness-collaborator against Marovic. Faust admitted that the €3 million "originates from the company WTE itself, with calculations which relate to project and servicing costs… Given the overall amount of the project (€60 million) and the fact that WTE spends around €6 million a year, I consider this amount of €3 million to be not very large… and for this very reason the Municipality of Budva will also pay this €3 million".
In his earlier midnight statement on 14/15 January 2016, when he was taken in as a suspect, Faust said before the SPO that Robert Werth, his senior in Germany "granted permission to conclude the contract with Tradeunique".
The sums that the accused admitted to in the almost identical plea bargains do not match each other mathematically. Moreover, the SPO did not extend its investigation so to prosecute WTE bosses in Germany.
It is stated in the plea agreements that, during the period from 21 June 2010 to 28 March 2013 in Budva, Svetozar Marovic incited Lazar Radjenovic, then the vice-president of the municipality, Mirko Latinovic, owner of Tradeunique LLC from Budva, and its executive director Goran Bojanic to abuse their official positions. The aim was to extract €3 million from the Municipality of Budva and use the money "to pay off the debts of the company Property Investments and of Svetozar Marovic" to Gojko Kapisoda. Marovic was the head and founder of the criminal organisation.
Property Investments was already linked to the Marovic family and its businesses.
Thus Bojanic concluded "a contract for engineering services, maintenance and construction of a channel" on behalf of Tradeunique, with Guenter Faust of WTE Wastewaters Budva who was following the instructions of Radjenovic, who in turn had been instructed by Marovic.
At the same time Bojanic signed a contract with the firm Biochem Industries LLC Budva, owned by Stjepan Skocajic (also the skipper of Marovic's yacht) for "design and engineering services worth €3 million, even though he knew that its contracted work would not be carried out by Biochem Industries, but by WTE Wastewaters".
Then Radjenovic transferred money from the municipality's account to WTE Wastewaters' account, and Guenter forwarded the money to Tradeunique's account. Bojanic then, on the orders of Mirko Latinovic, transferred the first €2.808 million to the account of Skocajic's firm. Later on he transferred the sums of €200 thousand, €100 thousand and €50 thousand. On Marovic's order, Skocajic transferred the sum of €2.4 million to Gojko Kapisoda's account to pay off the debts of Marovic and Property Investments per a loan agreement from 2008.
Thus, as it is concluded in the plea agreements with the SPO, Svetozar Marovic and the firm Property Investments obtained "illegal gain of €2.4 million, and Stjepan Skocajic obtained the sum of €277 thousand". Skocajic withdrew the aforesaid €277 thousand from the account of Biochem Industries, either for his own needs (as is written in the plea bargain with Marovic), or else he "handed it over to M.R. to settle the expenses of the company Property Investments that had arisen over the sale of land" (as is written in the plea bargain signed by Skocajic). Thereby the accused "defrauded the Municipality of Budva of €3 million", it is concluded in the plea agreements.
The SPO says "inquiries still under way"
When asked by CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor about the affair with the water treatment plant, the Special Prosecution Office (SPO) sent a scant reply after much waiting saying that "plea agreements were concluded with the accused Svetozar Marovic and Dragoljub Milanovic…, after which the plea bargains were confirmed by the High Court in Podgorica, and this resulted in the return of illegal gain to the Municipality of Budva amounting to €1,096,481.39". The SPO also stated that it was still "conducting necessary inquiries".
The municipality denies that the money has been returned, and the previous mayor Mr Krapovic says that the sum mentioned by the SPO has nothing to do with the WTE plant but with the Copyright case, in which the Municipality of Budva was defrauded of €3.86 million through a series of fictional contracts regarding promotional marketing of the city and the induced court settlement. Moreover, the aforementioned Milanovic also had no part in the WTE scheming. He was the executive director of Gugi Komerc and involved in the affair related to the paving of the plateau on Jaz Beach, where the mega-concerts of the Rolling Stones and Madonna were held.
Krapovic's allegation is confirmed by the plea agreements published on the SPO's website. Svetozar Marovic, under item "d" (one of a total of five criminal offences) was convicted of abuse of office by means of incitement to commit crimes in an organised manner in the case of the WTE plant. For the criminal offences a, b, c and d in the plea agreement, as the architect and head of multimillion-euro theft, he received a sentence of one year in prison in total. Thus it turns that he got three months per offence. Marovic undertook to return €1,096,481.39 of illegal gain which his criminal organisation had made, but this was for point "c" of the plea agreement for the Copyright affair.
The Special Prosecution, according to the agreement signed with Marovic on 9 June 2016, did not require him to return the €3 million. Neither did the High Court, which adopted the agreement in an unamended form.
The Municipality's attorney Vladan Bojic, states in his interview with CIN-CG/BIRN/Monitor that the behaviour of the judiciary in this case is unheard of. "If you hold up a kiosk and steal a few small items you will get at least six months in jail, while Marovic stole millions. Many citizens would agree to serve three months in prison, not for €3 million, but for €300 thousand or even for €30 thousand" said Bojic.
For item "e" of this agreement, Marovic received another 12 months for fraud (later reduced to 10 months). It relates to the case when locals sold land in Kamenovo through his firm Property Investments for €7.5 million. By means of a forged signature, that money was used as collateral for a loan with Prva Banka for Marovic's firm. In the plea agreement signed on 16 May 2016, he received another two years in jail and the obligation to pay a fine of €50,000 for other multimillion thefts. Before this he had spent five months in the pre-trial detention in Spuz. Thus he yet has to serve the remaining 3 years and 5 months of his overall sentence.
Lazar Radjenovic, Stjepan Skocajic and Goran Bojanic also signed plea bargains as members of Marovic's criminal organisation. Mirko Latinovic and Guenter Faust were granted the status of witnesses-collaborators, thereby avoiding criminal prosecution.
Radjenovic, in a plea bargain concluded on 16 May 2015, admitted two criminal offences, one for the WTE water treatment plant and the other for the Copyright case. He was sentenced to a total of six months, or three months per offence, the same what his criminal boss Marovic got.
Goran Bojanic and Stjepan Skocajic were each sentenced to six months in prison, twice as much as their "inciter" and criminal boss Marovic.
Skocajic's firm Biochem Industries LLC Budva was convicted, according to the same plea agreement, as a legal entity and ordered to pay a fine of €100,000 suspended for one year. The High Court agreed with this on 12 September 2017.
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If you think Karlie Kloss is glowing, she is, and it isn't simply because she's newly engaged. While radiant skin is seemingly a fringe perk of being head over heels in love, her glow's been a mainstay for as long as we can recall. It's at the top of our minds since the model turned entrepreneur, her tastefully ginormous engagement ring, and new fiancé Joshua Kushner have been all over the news as of late with the announcement of an upcoming wedding that could have Taylor Swift seated next to Barron Trump, and across from a bunch of girls who code. But more on that in the coming months — and back to her supermodel glow.
Since becoming a Victoria's Secret Angel back in 2011, Kloss has picked up a few beauty tricks that make her perfectly-angled smize truly signature. Between the softly-hazy shadow technique that makes her blue eyes pop and the way she uses shimmer highlighter to pull up those killer cheekbones, Kloss is a lesson in finding what works — and committing (not unlike marriage).
Ahead, we've rounded up the five beauty trends that the supermodel wears so well — which are starting to look a lot like a prediction of what she'll wear down the aisle.


>> term seems subjectively used here.
>> "prone to break": Perhaps, but it's not broken now.
>> than holding it's last release date against it.
> Probably other security issues as well.  I didn't have to look very long.
> could go by without maintenance and still maintain security.
it still has a maintainer.
someone who does can certainly become maintainer and it won't go away.


Blu-ray screencaps of Charlize in The Fate of the Furious have been added to the gallery. Enjoy the new additions!
Blu-ray screencaps of Charlize in Gringo have been added to the gallery. Enjoy the new additions!
New photos of Charlize in Tully have been added to the gallery. Enjoy!
New magazine scans of Charlize from March 2018 have been added to the gallery. Enjoy!
New photos of Charlize from the Tully premiere and after party held on April 18th in Los Angeles have been added to the gallery. Enjoy the new additions!


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Tåsjön är en sjö i Vårgårda kommun i Västergötland och ingår i . Sjön är  meter djup, har en yta på  kvadratkilometer och befinner sig  meter över havet. Sjön avvattnas av vattendraget Svartån.

Delavrinningsområde
Tåsjön ingår i det delavrinningsområde (643900-132050) som SMHI kallar för Mynnar i Säveån. Medelhöjden är  meter över havet och ytan är  kvadratkilometer. Det finns inga avrinningsområden uppströms utan avrinningsområdet är högsta punkten. Svartån som avvattnar avrinningsområdet har biflödesordning 3, vilket innebär att vattnet flödar genom totalt 3 vattendrag innan det når havet efter  kilometer. Avrinningsområdet består mestadels av skog (39 %), öppen mark (13 %), jordbruk (30 %) och sankmarker (15 %). Avrinningsområdet har  kvadratkilometer vattenytor vilket ger det en sjöprocent på  %. Bebyggelsen i området täcker en yta av  kvadratkilometer eller 1 % av avrinningsområdet.

Se även
 Lista över insjöar i Vårgårda kommun

Källor

Externa länkar

Insjöar i Göta älvs avrinningsområde
Insjöar i Västergötland
Insjöar i Vårgårda kommun

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
January Journal
Hello 2018!
It's been a busy start to the year and we're raring to go on some very exciting projects for 2018. So what's new this month? After mourning the loss of Colette in Paris in our last issue, we discover that some of the old faces are opening something nous. In the month that grapes overtook apples to become Britain's best-selling fruit, we also went along to Maison & Objet in Paris to take a look around the latest interior design trends and innovations. It's a perfect mix of concept, retail, influences, design and architecture.
H&M Nyden
We're looking forward to H&M's new co-created affordable luxury brand Nyden aimed at millennial customers. Nyden won't follow trends or the traditional fashion calendar. Drops for its affordable luxury will be limited and price points will vary depending on the product.
Nyden's products will be sold exclusively in pop-up shops and through e-commerce. It will operate via tribe leaders, who will co-create the clothes they want. The first tribe leaders will be Swedish actress Noomi Rapace and tattoo artist Doctor Woo. The brand hopes to appeal to a new customer they call the Netocrat – which might be a more advanced version of the millennial.
"the Netocrat is more sensitive than ever to credibility, authenticity, and personality… They're also more sensitive than ever to exploitation of themselves or other people."
Amazon Go is go!
The first checkout-free Amazon Go store in Seattle has opened to the public. Employees have been able to use the store since December 2016 but there were teething problems in identifying shoppers of similar body types, and issues with children moving products around. Gianna Puerini, head of Amazon Go, said the store had operated well during the test phase: "This technology didn't exist – it was really advancing the state of the art of computer vision and machine learning." Unsurprisingly, people are queuing round the block.
Egg on Cadbury's face?
Barely have the baubles come down when Cadbury announce a hidden white chocolate Crème Egg in a Willy Wonka-esque competition with cash prices. All over the country, shops are dealing with what we shall call 'disturbed packaging'… in other words, people peeling back the foil to check the colour of the egg inside then wrapping them up again. Ew. So we'll be giving those a miss then. #nothanks
Word of the month
Hoarfrost: the heavy frost that settles upon plants, trees and other things when the air drops below freezing and the atmosphere is moist. An ugly-sounding word for a mighty pretty phenomenon. #winterwonderland
How's that going for you? We're intrigued by Seedlip – the world's first alcohol-free spirit (is that an oxymoron?). Over 20 London bars including Nobu and The Coral Room are giving away 500 booze-free cocktails, like the Seedlip NOgroni. To claim your cocktail download one of 500 e-vouchers at DrinkUp.London and then check out the list of participants for this month only.
Sneaking around
Sneakersnstuff has opened its first American store in New York. The space will be its first store outside of Europe, with current locations in Stockholm, Paris, Berlin and London. The store is also set to feature a revolving gallery wall, a massive outdoor mural viewable from High Land Park, and a full bar/club area. We'll be dropping in and attempting not to buy loads of sneakers. #fail #weakwilled
Icehotel #28
The 28th incarnation of Sweden's world famous Ice Hotel is now open. Featuring suites sculpted as a frozen jungle, a mountain gorilla, and a frozen cloudscape. 500 tons of crystal clear natural ice has been used to create the art, ice glasses and ice bars this year. 1,000 hand-polished ice crystals were used to create the chandeliers that hang in the main hall, and surfaces are decorated with 200 hand-sculpted flowers of ice and snow. Sub-zero temperatures make this place way too cool for school. #freezing
The Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire experience will transport guests into the Star Wars universe, allowing them to walk through hyper reality interactive sets with real-time special effects and innovative technology. Hyper reality allows you to not only see, but to hear, feel the heat and the cold, touch and even smell.
The experience will run until 7 March in The Atrium at Westfield London and is currently running at Disney Springs, Orlando, before moving to Downtown Disney District in California in January 2018.
We popped along to Maison & Objet this week to take a look around the latest offerings from the international interior design and lifestyle community. Here's our quick round up of what's hot and what's not.
On the film front, Star Wars fans (including the LukeWarms) are going crazy for The Last Jedi. We've been hearing things like different, exciting, surprising, intense and emotional. If that's not really your thing, and you're not offended by category 5 expletives (in context of course) and eye-watering violence, then we heartily recommended you head towards Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It's f*****g brilliant.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Shrimp scampi is delicious. The combination of garlic and butter when added to shrimp is perfect. Cooking in the crockpot is an easy way to prepare this dish.
Though traditionally served over pasta, there are other options. Spaghetti squash is one option. I also like the idea of cauliflower rice.
Put all the ingredients except the wine in the crockpot. Stir to combine the ingredients.
Make sure the shrimp are peeled and deveined. Add the shrimp to the crockpot.
Cook 1 1/2 hours on high.


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Bernhard August Vilhelm Schill, född 17 augusti 1891 i Stockholm, död 29 januari 1954 i Djursholm, var en svensk arkitekt. Han var far till Lena Åhlman.

Schill avlade studentexamen 1911, utexaminerades från Kungliga Tekniska högskolan 1920 och företog en studieresa till Tyskland, Schweiz och Italien 1930. Han var anställd hos arkitekt Harald Wadsjö 1920–1921, hos professor Ivar Tengbom 1922–1928, vid Byggnadsstyrelsen 1929, hos byggnadsrådet Ragnar Hjorth 1930–1939 och åter vid Byggnadsstyrelsen från 1939. Han var byggnadskonsulent i Djursholms stad  från 1938 och bedrev även egen arkitektverksamhet. Han var suppleant i Djursholms stads byggnadsnämnd 1930–1938.

Källor

Bernhard August Vilhelm Schill på finngraven.se

Externa länkar

Svenska arkitekter under 1900-talet
Födda 1891
Avlidna 1954
Män
Arkitekter från Stockholm


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« December 2007 |
Iran prepares people for 'messiah miracles'
Government broadcasts series on imminent appearance of apocalyptic Islamic 'Mahdi'
Official Iranian radio has completed broadcasting a lengthy series on the imminent appearance of a messianic figure who will defeat Islam's enemies and impose Islamic Shiite rule over the entire world – even speculating on specific dates the so-called "Mahdi" will be revealed.
English-language transcripts of "The World Toward Illumination" programs can be found on the website of IRIB, a public broadcast arm of Tehran.
"Be joyous my heart, miracles of the Messiah will soon be here," reads a poem used to conclude the first broadcast. "The scent of breaths of the One we know comes from near. Grieve not of sorrow and melancholy, as assured I was … last night that a Savior will come, it's clear."
After the coming of the 12th imam, or Mahdi, "liberal democratic civilization" will be found only in "history museums," explained the program.
"Contrary to the views of western theoreticians, who usually depict an ambiguous and dark future for mankind, Muslim experts believe human history, despite its many ups and downs, has a very auspicious fate," explained the program. "Muslims believe hopes for the realization of such a happy ending for the world are called 'Awaiting Redemption,' and means waiting for man's problems to be solved by the Savior at the end of time. This awaiting influences many, and inspired them with activity and enthusiasm in confronting darkness and oppression for changing the existing situation. …"
This messianic figure will be a direct descendant of Muhammad, according to the broadcasts.
"In short, when he reappears, peace, justice and security will overcome oppression and deceit and one global government, the most perfect ever, will be established," it said.
The Mahdi will appear suddenly, according to the report, in Mecca. Though no one can know the day, Shiites believe, the report actually suggests possibilities in the Muslim calendar.
The Mahdi will lead a cataclysmic battle against a descendant of Muhammad's archenemy, Abu Sofyan, culminating in the cities of Kufa and Najaf. His enemy, though, is destroyed later in Jerusalem.
"Another beautiful moment of the Savior's appearance is the coming down of Prophet Jesus (PBUH) from heaven," says the report. "Hazrat Mahdi receives him courteously and asks him to lead the prayers. But Jesus says you are more qualified for this than me. We read in the book Tazkarat ol-Olia, 'the Mahdi will come with Jesus son of Mary accompanying him.' This indicates that these two great men are (sic) complement each other. Imam Mahdi will be the leader while Prophet Jesus will act as his lieutenant in the struggle against oppression and establishment of justice in the world. Jesus had himself given the tidings of the coming of God's last messenger and will see Mohammad's ideals materialize in the time of the Mahdi."
As WND reported last month, in a greeting to the world's Christians for the coming new year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he expects both Jesus and the Mahdi, to return and "wipe away oppression."
"I wish all the Christians a very happy new year and I wish to ask them a question as well," said Ahmadinejad, according to an Iranian Student News Agency report cited by YnetNews.com
"My one question from the Christians is: What would Jesus do if he were present in the world today? What would he do before some of the oppressive powers of the world who are in fact residing in Christian countries? Which powers would he revive and which of them would he destroy?" asked the Iranian leader.
"If Jesus were present today, who would be facing him and who would be following him?"
Ahmadinejad's mystical pre-occupation with the coming of the Mahdi is raising concerns that a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic could trigger the kind of global conflagration he envisions will set the stage for the end of the world.
In a videotaped meeting with Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli in Tehran, Ahmadinejad discussed candidly a strange, paranormal experience he had while addressing the United Nations in New York last September.
He recounts how he found himself bathed in light throughout the speech. But this wasn't the light directed at the podium by the U.N. and television cameras. It was, he said, a light from heaven.
According to a transcript of his comments, obtained and translated by Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, Ahmadinejad wasn't the only one who noticed the unearthly light. One of his aides brought it to his attention.
The Iranian president recalled being told about it by one of his delegation: "When you began with the words 'in the name of Allah,' I saw a light coming, surrounding you and protecting you to the end."
Ahmadinejad agreed that he sensed the same thing.
"On the last day when I was speaking, one of our group told me that when I started to say 'Bismillah Muhammad,' he saw a green light come from around me, and I was placed inside this aura," he says. "I felt it myself. I felt that the atmosphere suddenly changed, and for those 27 or 28 minutes, all the leaders of the world did not blink. When I say they didn't move an eyelid, I'm not exaggerating. They were looking as if a hand was holding them there, and had just opened their eyes – Alhamdulillah!"
Ahmadinejad's "vision" at the U.N. is strangely reminiscent and alarmingly similar to statements he has made about his personal role in ushering in the return of the Shiite Muslim messiah.
He sees his main mission, as he recounted in a Nov. 16 speech in Tehran, as to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance."
According to Shiites, the 12th imam disappeared as a child in the year 941. When he returns, they believe, he will reign on earth for seven years, before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the world.
Ahmadinejad is urging Iranians to prepare for the coming of the Mahdi by turning the country into a mighty and advanced Islamic society and by avoiding the corruption and excesses of the West.
All Iran is buzzing about the Mahdi, the 12th imam and the role Iran and Ahmadinejad are playing in his anticipated return. There's a new messiah hotline. There are news agencies especially devoted to the latest developments.
"People are anxious to know when and how will He rise; what they must do to receive this worldwide salvation," says Ali Lari, a cleric at the Bright Future Institute in Iran's religious center of Qom. "The timing is not clear, but the conditions are more specific," he adds. "There is a saying: 'When the students are ready, the teacher will come.'"
New Muslim congressman avoids loyalty questions
Ellison had been greeted by shouts of 'Allahu Akbar!' from campaigners
When the first Muslim congressman in U.S. history, Keith Ellison (Hakim-Mohammed) of Minnesota, won the 2006 election and was making the regular thank-you-to-my-supporters speech, he allowed his fans to shout, "Allahu Akbar!," the same phrase allegedly used by the 9/11 suicide pilots.
Since November he's addressed various different Islamic groups and organizations, and he's used the Quran to be sworn into office. He's also been linked to Islamic organizations with questionable agendas.
What he hasn't done is respond to requests from WND to confirm that he will, in fact, base his decisions on the laws of the United States on the U.S. Constitution, not the Quran.
It was during his campaign that he raised the issue of his Islamic beliefs himself, and confirmed then that they would play a large role in his decision-making process:
(Story continues below)
"I am inspired by the Quran's message of encompassing divine love, and a deep faith guides my life every day," he wrote in his promotional materials.
He later told a group meeting in Detroit that, "I'm not here to be a preacher, but in terms of political agenda items, my faith informs these things."
He was given unprecedented permission during this week's swearing-in ceremonies to place his hand on a piece of the nation's archival history – the Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson – for his photo-opportunity with family and friends.
The two-volume edition, published in London in 1764, was brought to him in a special case sent by messenger from officials at the Library of Congress.
Ellison said he chose to use the Quran because it showed Jefferson believed wisdom could be gleaned from many sources, although as superstar performer and WND columnist Pat Boone explained Jefferson quoted often from the Bible in his writings, not the Quran.
(Another explanation for Jefferson's possession of a Quran could have been a desire to know his enemies. It was during Jefferson's presidency that the U.S. took on the Muslim slave-traders and pirates on the Barbary Coast of Africa in war.)
Rick Jauert, a spokesman for the congressman, was reached at his campaign headquarters in Minnesota two weeks ago, and confirmed that the congressman does not believe there will be a conflict between his religious beliefs and his duty under the U.S. Constitution.
But when asked which would take priority if there is a conflict, or to describe how the congressman will resolve the differing philosophies provided by the U.S. Constitution and the Quran, which calls for beheading "infidels," he said he could not answer immediately.
Since then, WND has been unable to obtain answers from the congressman or his staff.
One blogger was a little concerned over the situation:
"During the victory celebration for the nation's first Muslim congressman (not that there's anything wrong with that... in principle), Congressman Keith Ellison's supporters scream 'Allahu Akbar!', the same phrase that the 9/11 hijackers screamed, the same phrase suicide bombers scream, the same phrase head choppers scream before slicing off the heads of hapless and bound victims. May God protect this country," the blogger wrote.
In a campaign document talking about his faith, Ellison said, "As a young man I was outraged and frustrated by the racism and injustice I saw in my community and the world around me. Those experiences propelled me to become a social activist, using my words and actions to draw attention to the very serious problems of inequality, racial injustice and poverty in our society.
"As I matured, I had to confront my anger and face it down. I eventually realized that it is easy to be a critic pointing out problems and failings, but it is a far more difficult thing to be part of creating the solution. As my father used to say, 'Any jackass can kick a barn down; it takes a carpenter to build it back up.' Eventually I understood what my father had been telling me, and I committed to being one of the carpenters."
But he confirmed he still holds that "outrage" at the direction of the United States.
Ellison said he decided to seek congressional office because, "I am for peace now, for universal health care, and for a sustainable future."
"I will fight for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and for an international reconstruction effort; for universal single payer healthcare so that Americans can get the medical care that they need whether they have a job that offers insurance or not; for green energy, conservation, environmental justice, and a sustainable future for our country and the world," he wrote.
He recognizes Israel, and said "a lasting peace in the Middle East should be one of the United States' most focused goals."
"Right now Hamas represents the greatest obstacle to this path, and until Hamas denounces terrorism, recognizes the absolute right of Israel to exist peacefully and honors past agreements, it cannot be considered legitimate partners in this process," he wrote.
Jauert explained that Ellison's conflicts between his faith and the law would be no more than those Catholics who support abortion, and then face objections from church leaders who believe they should not be allowed to take part in church rites.
"Not every follower of Islam supports Sharia law," Jauert told WND.
In his speech in Detroit, Ellison said it appears people "see their religion as an identity thing, much in the same way Crips or Bloods might say, 'I'm this, this is the set I'm rolling with.' They've never actually tried to explore how religion should connect us, they're into how religion divides us … they haven't really explored … how my faith connects me to you."
But as WND reported earlier, he's been linked to a radical Islamic school of thought that requires loyalty to the Quran over the U.S. Constitution.
A black convert to orthodox Sunni Islam, Ellison spoke to the North American Imams Federation, or NAIF, at the group's Nov. 19 conference in Minneapolis.
His talk flowed into a breakout session listed on the agenda simply as "American Open University," according to the conference program. It turns out the university is a "distance-learning" center based in Alexandria, Va., and known to local law enforcement as "Wahhabi Online."
Later that day, Ellison met with NAIF's president, Omar Ahmad Shahin, who lectures at the same American Open University. (He also met at the time with New York imam Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.) The radical Islamic school trains many of NAIF's more than 150 members, who control mosques across America.
American Open University supports Sharia, or Islamic law. And its founder and chairman, Jaafar Sheikh Idris, has denounced the U.S system of democracy as "the antithesis of Islam" and argued no man has the right to make laws outside Allah's laws expressed in the Quran.
"There is a basic difference between Islam and this form of democracy," he says. "The basic difference is that in Islam it is [Allah's] law as expressed in the Quran and the Sunna that is the supreme law within the limits of which people have the right to legislate.
"No one can be a Muslim who makes or freely accepts or believes that anyone has the right to make or accept legislation that is contrary to that divine law," Idris adds. "Examples of such violations include the legalization of alcoholic drinks, gambling, homosexuality, usury or interest, and even adoption."
Ellison's campaign also was backed by the Washington-based lobby group Council on American-Islamic Relations, a partner organization to American Open University-affiliated NAIF. CAIR held fundraisers for Ellison, a civil-rights lawyer and one-time acolyte of Louis Farrakhan who admits to making anti-Semitic remarks in the past (under various alias including Keith Hakim, Keith Ellison-Muhammad and Keith X Ellison).
CAIR's founder has argued the Quran should replace the Constitution as the highest authority in the land. The group's director of communications, moreover, has expressed his desire to see the U.S. become an Islamic state.
2006: Muslim year of perpetual outrage
It began with the Danish cartoons. It ended with the flying imams. The year 2006 was a banner year for the Religion of Perpetual Outrage. Twelve turbulent months of fist-waving, embassy-burning, fatwa-issuing mayhem, intimidation and murder resounded with the ululations of the aggrieved. All this in the name of defending Islam from "insult." Let's review.
In late January, masked Palestinian gunmen took over a European Union office in Gaza City to protest the publication of a dozen cartoons about Islam, Muhammad and self-censorship in the Danish newspaper the Jyllands-Posten. They stormed the building, burned Danish flags, and spearheaded an international boycott of Denmark's products across the Muslim world.
The rage was manufactured pretext. The cartoons had been published four months earlier with little fanfare. It wasn't until a delegation of instigating Danish imams toured Egypt with the cartoons – plus a few inflammatory fake ones, including an old image of a French hog-calling contest participant deceptively portrayed as "anti-Muslim" – that the fire started burning. Think the mainstream media will remember that? Not likely. They fell for the ruse and were slow to acknowledge it after American bloggers and Danish television exposed the scheme.
What was really behind Cartoon Rage? Muslim bullies were attempting to pressure Denmark over the International Atomic Energy Agency's decision to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for continuing with its nuclear research program. The chairmanship of the council was passing to Denmark at the time.
Alas, Western journalists, analysts and apologists were too clouded by their cowardice and conciliation to see through the smoke. More than 800 were injured in the ensuing riots, and 130 people paid with their lives. The innocents included Italian Catholic priest Andrea Santoro, who was shot to death in Turkey on Feb. 5 by a teenage boy enraged by the illustrations. The Muslim gunman shouted, "Allahu Akbar!" as he murdered Father Santoro while the priest knelt praying in his church. Several brave moderate Muslim editors who stood up to the madness were jailed, fined and convicted of crimes related to insulting Islam. The Danish cartoonists remain in hiding.
The world soon tired of Cartoon Rage, but the "peaceful" Muslim ragers were just warming up. They found excuses large and small to riot and threaten Western infidels. In India, they protested the magazine publication of a picture of a playing card showing an image of Mecca and also burned Valentine's Day cards. An insult to Islam, they screamed. In Spain, they protested a Madrid store for selling a postcard with a mosque on it with the words "We slept here." An insult to Islam, they protested. In Pakistan, they burned down a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, a Pizza Hut, and toppled Ronald McDonald. In Jakarta, they smashed the offices of Playboy magazine. You know why.
In June, the trial against lioness journalist Oriana Fallaci for insulting Islam commenced in Bergamo, Italy. She had been charged by professional Muslim rager Adel Smith of the Muslim Union of Italy of "vilipendio" – vilifying Islam – in her post-9/11 books slamming jihad. A judge had refused to throw out the case. She faced a pile of death threats and accusations of "Islamophobia" for speaking truth to Islamo-power.
Fallaci's death from cancer during the fifth anniversary week of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks pre-empted the trial in Italy, but her passing did nothing to pre-empt the eternal rage of the perpetually outraged. The day she died, the grievance-mongers were shaking their fists and calling for the head of Pope Benedict XVI for his speech that made reference to a 14th-century conversation touching on holy war and jihad. For engaging in open, honest intellectual and spiritual debate, he was condemned, lit afire in effigy and targeted anew. The ragers bombed Christian churches in Gaza City and Nablus. They murdered Italian Sister Leonella Sgorbati, an elderly Catholic nun shot in the back by a Somalian jihadist stoked by Pope Rage. "Whoever offends our Prophet Muhammad should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim," a Somalian cleric had declared. The Vatican made nice with Muslim leaders.
New outrages are always in bloom. In late September, it was a Berlin production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" that featured the decapitated head of Muhammad. A week later, it was a banyan tree attacked by Indonesian Muslims who wanted to disprove its mystical powers. A few days after that, it was former British foreign secretary Jack Straw, who had the audacity to make the very obvious observation that full Muslim veils impede communications between women and Westerners. Offensive! Disturbing! An insult to Islam!
Not to be outdone, a delegation of extortionist imams boarded a US Airways flight in Minneapolis in November and tried to manufacture an international human-rights incident. They clamored for a boycott and threatened to sue.
The good news: The fire did not catch here this time. The bad news: As Oriana Fallaci warned before her death: "The hate for the West swells like a fire fed by the wind. The clash between us and them is not a military one. It is a cultural one, a religious one, and the worst is still to come."
Quantico mosque leader promoted
Pentagon honors Wahhabi-trained Muslim chaplain
In a special ceremony, the Pentagon recently promoted a Wahhabi-trained Muslim chaplain who catered to al-Qaida detainees at Guantanamo and fought to establish the first mosque in Marine Corps history.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England personally promoted Navy chaplain Abuhena Mohammed Saifulislam from lieutenant to lieutenant commander. Saifulislam also received a Joint Service Commendation Medal at the Pentagon ceremony held on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Pentagon officials say the ceremony was unprecedented.
"It's unusual for a deputy secretary to personally promote an officer of that rank," said one official who wished to go unnamed. "No one has known of such a high-level dignitary doing that."
England also earlier this year personally dedicated a new Islamic center at Marine headquarters in Quantico, Va., on the advice of Saifulislam, a Bangladesh immigrant who became a U.S. citizen in 1995.
The Muslim chaplain, who is stationed at Quantico, recited verses from the Quran in Arabic and English at the summer dedication ceremony, which included representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, several leaders of which have been convicted on terrorism-related charges.
Saifulislam, which is Arabic for "Sword of Islam," received his religious training at a radical Islamic school raided by federal agents after 9/11. The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences, based in Leesburg, Va., is run by Taha Jaber Al-Alwani, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Sami al-Arian terror case. A federal affidavit used to obtain a warrant to search the school alleges Al-Alwani gave at least $50,000 in jihad money "to support suicide bombings."
Saifulislam insists he is moderate and condemns "terrorism," but critics say his Wahhabi background and associations should give the Pentagon pause.
"The Pentagon is giving him a permanent, taxpayer-supported platform from which to convert grunts to Islam," said terror expert Paul Sperry, a Hoover Institution media fellow and author of "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington."
"With the Quantico mosque, the Pentagon is facilitating the study of the holy text the enemy uses, heretically or not, as their manual of warfare."
Saifulislam's promotion along with the dedication of his new Quantico mosque – the first of its kind in the 230-year history of the Corps – comes on the heels of a Muslim spy scandal at Gitmo involving another Muslim chaplain.
Army Capt. James "Yousef" Yee, who ministered to al-Qaida detainees, was charged with mishandling classified information. Yee, a convert to Islam, quit the Army and the charges were dropped. But two of his Muslim military friends at Gitmo were convicted of espionage-related crimes.
Yee's predecessor at Gitmo was Saifulislam, who was first assigned to the terrorist prison camp after 9/11. While at the Cuban base, the Navy imam privately counseled al-Qaida prisoners in their native tongues of Urdu and Arabic. "I must give hope for them to cope," Saifulislam said at the time.
He set up the diet and prayer regimes for the detainees, recommending they be served halal meals – including traditional dates and lamb – prepared according to Islamic dietary law. Gitmo detainees can now choose from a menu of 113 Muslim-appropriate meals.
In addition, Saifulislam saw to it that detainees receive copies of the Quran and have access to prayer beads and skull caps. Saifulislam also set up a program to train guards to be more sensitive to the religious customs of their Muslim prisoners.
West Point bows to Mecca
Multiculturalism appears to trump concerns about Islamist infiltration of the military. Following the Marine's lead, the Army in October dedicated a new mosque at West Point.
The U.S. Military Academy's first worship hall for Muslims boasts green carpets, shoe racks and a pulpit facing Mecca. Officials agreed to set up the mosque, large enough for dozens of followers, after Muslim leaders complained that the office where Muslim cadets gathered for Friday prayers had become too crowded.
The Army has been recruiting international cadets from Muslim countries such as Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. Muslim enrollment at the academy in New York has jumped to 32 from just two in 2001.
"We live in a world where everyone is looking at the United States saying, 'You're anti-Islam,'" explained West Point Chaplain Col. John Cook. "But here at West Point, that's not what we do."
The U.S. military now boasts more than 10,000 Muslim soldiers, many of them black converts. On the eve of the Army's push into Iraq, Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar, a black Muslim convert, fragged commanding officers at a military camp in Kuwait. He killed two of them and wounded 15 others.
Akbar, recently convicted of murder and given the death sentence, said at the time he did it out of loyalty to the umma, or global community of Muslims.
"You guys are coming into our countries," he said, "and you're going to rape our women and kill our children."
Within months of Akbar's traitorous 2003 attacks, the Defense Intelligence Agency issued an internal report warning that Muslim soldiers pose a possible security threat, according to national security reporter Bill Gertz in his new book "Enemies."
It was also in 2003 that Yee was accused of spying for the enemy while serving as a Muslim chaplain at Gitmo. Yee graduated from West Point, site of the Army's new mosque.
TRAIL OF TERROR
Christian woman facing fight for sons
Battle is over husband's desire to see them 'good Muslims or dead'
A Christian woman who once served as an FBI informant on her husband's alleged support of terrorism now is seeking divorce from the self-described radical Muslim who told her he would be proud if their two teen sons blew themselves up for Allah.
But she's finding herself on her own – completely – after a judge allowed her lawyer to withdraw, refused to allow an interested lawyer from appearing in her court, and then refused to allow time for any other replacement to be found before today's trial.
At stake are Rosine Collin Ghawji's sons, whose futures have been defined by her husband as being "good Muslims" or dead, she said.
The situation is developing in the case in which Mrs. Ghawji is seeking not only her freedom from her husband, Maher Ghawji, but also to protect her sons Louis and Takek from any violent Islamic plans their father may have for them.
Joe Kaufman, who has run an anti-terrorism organization for several years, noted that both of the Ghawji sons have, in e-mails and other communications, told friends their father was planning to take them to Syria against their will, and one noted that his grandfather has promised to beat him up when he arrived there.
Mrs. Ghawji's local lawyer was given permission by a Memphis, Tenn., judge on Dec. 19 to withdraw from the case, another lawyer willing to represent her – Larry Klayman -- was denied permission to enter the case, and the court ruled that the trial date – today – would not be delayed.
Klayman, who'd been contacted about the case a few months earlier, told WND that the facts read "like a John Grisham novel." Only this case is real life, with the FBI holding ex parte meetings with the judge, the federal agency "wiring" her to record and report on her husband, her husband allegedly threatening the children that they would be better off dead than Christian, and allegations of extramarital affairs.
And Mrs. Ghawji, if her allegations are correct, is up against more than just a judicial system and a divorce trial; but against some of the most radical factions in the world today, including the adherents of blind Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, now serving a life sentence in the SuperMax prison in Colorado on accusations he helped in the planning of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings in New York.
The couple married in 1986, and she said she noticed her husband's unusual activities almost from the beginning. She said between 1987 and 1992 she often waited in the women's room of a mosque for hours while her husband was meeting with Rahman, and later the FBI visited her and asked about some of her husband's acquaintances, including a man the FBI described as being on a "terrorist watch list" who had rented an apartment from her husband.
She said it appeared about that time that her husband's brother, Haitham Ghawji, started appearing more often in their lives.
She said a letter from Haitham justified killing non-Muslims and encouraged Maher to join Jihad, and when Haitham was visiting their home, where the family lived in Memphis, in 1996, he wanted to watch the news one evening.
When the report aired about the attack at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in which 19 American military personnel died, he said, "We got them! The Americans … we got them. They think they are going to rule the world, but they do not know what it is to have war on their own soil, but pretty soon they will," she reported.
The next year when the family obtained a home computer, she started watching the communications through it, and eventually talked with the FBI. They asked her to continue monitoring those, and forward to them e-mails, telephone numbers and the like.
She said on Sept. 11, 2001, a few hours before the terrorism attacks, her husband's brother sent an e-mail announcing some of his friends were coming to the U.S., and they should be made to feel welcome.
When, at a dinner party, a guest remarked how difficult it was to bring items on airplanes because of the new security measures, her husband responded: "Don't worry. We will find another way to get them."
A short time later, he erupted in rage because she had been teaching French to a little Russian Jewish boy in their home. At that point he threatened to kill her with a poison other doctors wouldn't detect and announced he was Wahhabi Muslim, whose beliefs include violence against non-Muslims.
It was at that point an FBI agent convinced her to wear a recording device and monitor her husband's financial dealings, which included donations to a front group accused of raising money for Hamas, she said.
It was also then that he cut off financial support for his family and threatened to take the children to Syria, so she sought a restraining order. But a judge, Donna Fields, ordered the boys to spend every other Sunday with their father even though they pleaded not to.
FBI agent Jim Raddatz told her he suspected her husband of leading a double life – as a physician but also as terrorist financier with connections to a Florida organization that he was unwilling to discuss.
But then he also told her her husband had contacted the FBI and they were upset with him because he hadn't provided them with some information.
Ghawji also staged a campaign of rhetoric, condemning the U.S., Jews and Israel, and praising suicide bombers, and at one point looked her in the eyes and said if their children were not good Muslims, they would be better dead.
It terrified her, she said.
Her husband also had an affair, and possibly more, with a spokeswoman working for the Islamic Society of Central Florida, she said, when details of their actions were confirmed by a private investigator.
That organization, she said, tried to sponsor a fundraiser featuring Siraj Wahhaj, who is on the U.S. Attorney's list of potential co-conspirators to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
She alleges her husband told her for as little as $1,000 he could hire a "hitman" to kill her, and expressed pride in being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Documents also show Haitham Ghawji has been linked to convicted felon Rafat Jamal Mawlawi, who also is connected to Enaam Arnaout. On April 4, 2005, the FBI conducted a raid on Mawlawi's residence, and the Memphis Flyer reported authorities finding a hidden stash of loaded weapons and ammunition clips, $34,000 in cash, two pictures of Mawlawi shouldering a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, a gruesome videotape of war casualties with Arabic text and more than 20 passports to Morocco, Syria, Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries.
In a "Government Evidentiary Proffer Supporting the Admissibility of Co-Conspirator Statements," on page 67, the U.S. Government indicated that "H. GHAWJI" was mentioned.
No spokesman for her husband, the courts, or the FBI could be reached for a comment over the New Year's Day holiday.
But just recently as allegations of terrorism connections were developing – and being substantiated, the judge sealed the court records in the two-and-a-half-year-old case, scheduled the hearing, allowed the lawyer to leave the case and took the unusual step of ruling that Mrs. Ghawji would not be allowed to bring her case in any other jurisdiction.
Klayman said from the appearance of government participation in the case, with FBI agents meeting with the judge, he contacted FBI general counsel Patrick Kelley with questions about what was going on, because of issues that include equal protection, due process and others.
Kelley's response to Klayman was that he should "do what you have to do," he said.
Hillary's team has questions about Obama's Muslim background
Are the American people ready for an elected president who was educated in a Madrassa as a young boy and has not been forthcoming about his Muslim heritage?
This is the question Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's camp is asking about Sen. Barack Obama.
An investigation of Mr. Obama by political opponents within the Democratic Party has discovered that Mr. Obama was raised as a Muslim by his stepfather in Indonesia. Sources close to the background check, which has not yet been released, said Mr. Obama, 45, spent at least four years in a so-called Madrassa, or Muslim seminary, in Indonesia.
"He was a Muslim, but he concealed it," the source said. "His opponents within the Democrats hope this will become a major issue in the campaign."
When contacted by Insight, Mr. Obama's press secretary said he would consult with "his boss" and call back. He did not.
Sources said the background check, conducted by researchers connected to Senator Clinton, disclosed details of Mr. Obama's Muslim past. The sources said the Clinton camp concluded the Illinois Democrat concealed his prior Muslim faith and education.
"The background investigation will provide major ammunition to his opponents," the source said. "The idea is to show Obama as deceptive."
In two best-selling autobiographies—"The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream" and "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance"—Mr. Obama, born in Honolulu where his parents met, mentions but does not expand on his Muslim background, alluding only to his attendance at a "predominantly Muslim school."
The sources said the young Obama was given the name Hussein by his Muslim father, which the Illinois Democrat rarely uses in public.
His father was black and came from Kenya. Mr. Obama's mother, the daughter of a farmer, came from Wichita, Kansas. Mr. Obama's parents divorced when he was two years old. His father returned to Kenya.
Later, Mr. Obama's mother married an Indonesian student and the family moved to Jakarta. Mr. Obama returned to Hawaii when he was 10 to live with his maternal grandparents.
The sources said the background check concerned Mr. Obama's years in Jakarta. In Indonesia, the young Obama was enrolled in a Madrassa and was raised and educated as a Muslim. Although Indonesia is regarded as a moderate Muslim state, the U.S. intelligence community has determined that today most of these schools are financed by the Saudi Arabian government and they teach a Wahhabi doctrine that denies the rights of non-Muslims.
Although the background check has not confirmed that the specific Madrassa Mr. Obama attended was espousing Wahhabism, the sources said his Democratic opponents believe this to be the case—and are seeking to prove it. The sources said the opponents are searching for evidence that Mr. Obama is still a Muslim or has ties to Islam.
Mr. Obama attends services at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago's South Side. However, he is not known to be a regular parishioner.
"Obama's education began a life-long relationship with Islam as a faith and Muslims as a community," the source said. "This has been a relationship that contains numerous question marks."
The sources said Mr. Obama spent at least four years in a Muslim school in Indonesia. They said when Mr. Obama was 10, his mother and her second husband separated. She and her son returned to Hawaii.
"Then the official biography begins," the source said. "Obama never returned to Kenya to see relatives or family until it became politically expedient."
In both of his autobiographies, Mr. Obama characterizes himself as a Christian—although he describes his upbringing as mostly secular.
In "The Audacity of Hope," Mr. Obama says, "I was not raised in a religious household." He describes his mother as secular, but says she had copies of the Bible, the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita in their home.
Mr. Obama says his father was "raised a Muslim, but by the time he met my mother he was a confirmed atheist...." Mr. Obama also describes his father as largely absent from his life. He says his Indonesian stepfather was "skeptical" about religion and "saw religion as not particularly useful in the practical business of making one's way in the world ...."
In the book, Mr. Obama briefly addresses his education in Indonesia. "During the five years that we would live with my stepfather in Indonesia, I was sent first to a neighborhood Catholic school and then to a predominantly Muslim school; in both cases, my mother was less concerned with me learning the catechism or puzzling out the meaning of the muezzin's call to evening prayer than she was with whether I was properly learning my multiplication tables."
Mr. Obama graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School; he became the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review. He later settled in Chicago, joined a law firm and began attending and helping local churches.
Mr. Obama is married to Michelle Robinson and they have two daughters, Malia and Sasha. In 1996, he was elected to the Illinois state Senate. Eight years later, he became a U.S. senator from Illinois.
The sources said Ms. Clinton regards Mr. Obama as her most formidable opponent and the biggest obstacle to the Democratic Party's 2008 presidential nomination. They said Ms. Clinton has been angered by Mr. Obama's efforts to tap her supporters for donations.
In late 2006, when the Illinois senator demonstrated his intention to run for president, the Clinton campaign ordered a background check on Mr. Obama, the sources said. Earlier this week, Mr. Obama established an exploratory committee, the first step toward a formal race.
News World Communications
Orthodox priest was kidnapped and beheaded
MOSUL, Iraq Relatives of an Orthodox priest who was kidnapped and found beheaded three days later said Thursday that his captors had demanded his church condemn the pope's recent comments about Islam and pay a US$350,000 (€280,000) ransom.
More than 500 people attended a memorial service Thursday for father Amer Iskender in the northern city of Mosul after his decapitated body was found Wednesday evening in an industrial area of the city.
Iskender was a priest at the St. Ephrem Orthodox church in Mosul.
"He was a good man and we all shed tears for him," said Eman Saaur, a 45-year-old schoolteacher who said she attended Iskender's church regularly. "He was a man of peace."
Relatives, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said the unidentified group that seized Iskender on Sunday had demanded a ransom and that his church condemn a statement made by Pope Benedict XVI last month that ignited a wave anger throughout the Muslim world. In a speech at a German university the pope quoted a medieval text that characterized some of the Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman," declaring Islam was a religion spread by the sword.
Before Iskender was kidnapped, his relatives said, the church already had put up signs condemning the statement and calling for good relations between Christians and Muslims. The message was posted again, they said, after the priest's kidnappers made their demand.
"It was a tragedy," said Hazim Shaaiya, 60, who had come to the memorial service to pay respects. "Father Amer Iskender was a peaceful, kind religious man."
Relatives said the priest's oldest son had been in contact with the kidnappers on mobile telephones. He negotiated the ransom payment down to US$40,000 (€32,000) and had agreed to pay, but contact abruptly ceased Tuesday night.
The International Herald Tribune | iht.com


The New Phytologist feature dedicated to Bioenergy Trees (an outcome of the 26th New Phytologist Symposium) is provisionally scheduled for vol 194, issue 1, which will be published online at the beginning of February. The cover page below will highlight the feature. The Symposium was great and the series of review and research papers are exciting.
The deadline for students and early-stage career scientists (researchers in their first post-doctoral position) applying for travel grants to the New Phytologist Trust is 18 May 2012 for the 30th New Phytologist Symposium. I would be grateful if you could forward this information to members of your research group who may be planning to apply for a grant.
The root epidermis of Brachypodium distachyon and Oryza sativa comprise hair (H) cells and nonhair (N) cells (imaged using cryo-scanning electron microscopy). The morphology of cells in the root hair zone of (a, b) B. distachyon and (c, d) O. sativa is shown. Blue and red colours highlight H cells in B. distachyon and O. sativa, respectively. Bars, 100 μm.
Following the Bioenergy Trees NPS meeting last month at Nancy, we have a number of updates now on the website (www.newphytologist.org/bioenergy), including: Photos from the Symposium, Podcast interviews with the Poster Prize Winners and copies of the winning posters, Podcast interviews with lead organiser Francis Martin and Poster Prize Judge, Steve Strauss, Feature article written by New Phyt's intern Karina Vanadzina, giving an overview of 2nd generation biofuels and the contribution of the Symposium to this research.
Don't forget to follow us on Twitter (@NewPhyt) for updates about this and other New Phyt symposia and for information about the journal.
Our colleague, Berthold Heinz, is now inviting you to the forthcoming meeting that is being held in Vienna, Austria and which will be relevant for many of you working on bioenergy trees.


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Books & Shovels launched @ the 2014 N.Y.C. Poetry Festival, & made way thru New York towards Springfield IL for our This Is Poetry feature. From Springfield, we headed West thru Kansas City MO and passed into Lawrence KS where, the most reliable vehicle we've had to date, was completely totaled. The front end crumpled like an accordion. Leaking a cocktail of fluids, we pulled into a Walmart lot to regroup. We kicked it there for a couple days, scraping together funds & a plan. The kindness of strangers shined thru an oddball mechanic who traded us a 1989 Ford E150 for the scrapped Volvo & the last of our cash, well below its value.
Rejuvenated, we hit the road to Denver CO, where lived about for a month before shooting East towards New Hampshire.


I've talked about music before (usually to say, 'I don't know much about music'), but in honour of Women in Music month, I thought it time to talk some more!
And then there's songs with titles such as 'Will You Miss Me When You're Sober' and 'Alive and Brilliant': gorgeous, raunchy, suggestive, strong, luscious songs.
What am I expected to do!?
And here's something you might've thought you'd never see: two of Australian's gutsiest singers performing Love Hurts.


text:
InlandEmpire.us
UCR Researchers Developing Next-Generation Batteries
Tags: Energy Innovation Riverside UCR
Riverside, CA – Researchers at the University of California, Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering have developed a technique to create high performance lithium-ion batteries utilizing sulfur and silicon electrodes. The batteries will extend the range of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, while also providing more power with fewer charges to personal electronic devices such as cell phones and laptops.
The findings were published in an article titled, "Advanced Sulfur-Silicon Full Cell Architecture for Lithium Ion Batteries," in the journal, Nature Scientific Reports. Cengiz Ozkan, professor of mechanical engineering, and Mihri Ozkan, professor of electrical and computer engineering, led the project.
"The demand for renewable energy has pushed the need for higher-performance batteries," Cengiz Ozkan said.
"This has limited the amount and extent of research done on the sulfur-silicon full cells, which is why the team proposed and tested a new approach to incorporate lithium into a sulfur-silicon full cell," Mihri Ozkan said.
As a result, researchers have turned toward new lithium-ion battery systems with higher capacities. Silicon is the most promising anode candidate, storing up to 10 times the capacity of graphite anodes. Sulfur is the most promising cathode candidate, with up to six times the capacity of cathodes. Sulfur-silicon lithium-ion full cells, utilizing silicon as the anode and sulfur as the cathode, are one of the highest-capacity potential systems that have been studied. However, the practice of building sulfur-silicon full cells is challenged by the limitations in materials and equipment.
Continue reading the full story here: https://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/50725
About UC Riverside
The University of California, Riverside (www.ucr.edu) is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment is now nearly 23,000 students. The campus opened a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS.
Contributed by Richard Chang, UCR, Senior Public Information Officer
UCR News
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Nominations Open for the 2019 Spirit of the Entrepreneur Awards!
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A new waterfront landmark on Vancouver's North Shore, The Polygon offers a one-of-a-kind space to encounter contemporary visual art with a focus on photography. Visit us in the revitalized Lower Lonsdale area, located next to Lonsdale Quay. We encourage everyone to come!
SUMMER FRIDAYS – open late until 9pm!
Visit thepolygon.ca for current exhibitions, events and tours.


Three minutes to 'just-stepped-out-of-the-salon' hair? Yes, please. Our 3 Minute Total Miracle quenches thirsty tresses, puts that frizz back in its place and provides a lovely shine, all with a delightfully fruity fragrance.
Calling all busy bees, our Total Miracle 3 Minute Miracle does exactly what it says on the tin: performs a miracle on your mane in less time than it takes to book a salon appointment. The fabulously-fragrant formula, injected with apricot and Australian macadamia oil, is specifically designed to give hair seven must-have benefits in mere minutes—it strengthens hair against damage, gives hair silky softness, protects from split ends, nourishes with moisture, protects against humidity and even gives hair a brilliant luster. In other words, use this product to avoid having to make small talk with the hairdresser.
Treat your tresses by working into clean wet hair.
Find something to do for three minutes (like pretending you're in your favorite music video).
Three minutes to 'just-stepped-out-of-the-salon' hair? Yes, please.