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Tehran begins crackdown in advance of bloody anniversary
Posted on June 18, 2010 by particularkev
Iran is taking steps to quell protests as the anniversary of the disputed presidential election nears, reports MNN.
Multiple sources report they're aggressively deploying paramilitary members, re-arresting activists, and enforcing certain bans on mingling of the sexes and un-Islamic women's clothing.
The crackdown speaks to the oppressive nature of the government. It also means that everyone is under scrutiny, especially Christians.
In the best of times, the open witness of the Gospel is banned, and government spies monitor Christian groups. Believers face discrimination in education, employment, and property ownership.
However, with the increased scrutiny, discipling becomes dangerous work. Church leaders will continue to cultivate growth in the body of Christ, knowing that those who commit apostasy (turning away from Islam to another faith) face prison, abuse or the death penalty. Evangelist Sammy Tippit explains, "These are people who are from Muslim backgrounds who have come to know Christ. So the only thing they can get is from an outside source."
Believers are often isolated because they can't worship together in a traditional church. That's where Tippit's teaching programs are extremely effective via satellite television. He says, "We need to pray that God will encourage them, will strengthen them, and give them the stamina in the face of great challenge."
Tippit recently met with a group of church leaders outside of Iran in order to encourage them and to let them know they're not forgotten. "God met with us in an incredible way. Of course, they were hungry, and they were thirsty–these believers. And these were leaders."
Tippit says, "The only thing that the church can do is encourage them, pray for them, and try to give them some kind of biblical foundation that would enable them to claim the promises of God in the midst of suffering."
Posted in Christianity, Iran, Islam	| Tagged abuse, activists, advance, aggressively, anniversary, apostasy, away, backgrounds, banned, bans, becomes, begins, believers, best, Biblical, bloody, body, certain, challenge, Christ, Christian, Christianity, Christians, church, claim, clothing, commit, continue, crackdown, cultivate, dangerous, death penalty, deploying, discipling, Discrimination, disputed, education, effective, election, employment, enable, encourage, enforcing, especially, evangelist, everyone, explains, extremely, face, faith, forgotten, foundation, God, gospel, government, great, groups, growth, hungry, increased, incredible, Iran, Islam, isolated, kind, know, knowing, leaders, means, members, met, midst, mingling, monitor, multiple, Muslim, muslims, nature, nears, need, open, oppressive, order, outside, ownership, paramilitary, people, pray, presidential, prison, programs, promises, property, protests, quell, re-arresting, report, Sammy Tippit, satellite, scrutiny, sexes, source, sources, speaks, spies, stamina, steps, strengthen, suffering, taking, teaching, Tehran, television, thirsty, times, together, traditional, turning, un-Islamic, way, witness, womens, work, worship | Leave a comment
Lao Christians Expelled from Village Suffer Critical Illnesses
One dead, two hospitalized; village chief threatens other residents.
DUBLIN, May 14 (CDN) — In spite of assurances of religious rights by officials in March, Lao Christians expelled from a village in Saravan Province in January are suffering from a prolonged lack of adequate food and clean water.
The lack of basic resources has led to diarrhea, dehydration, eye and skin infections, fainting and general weakness for the Christians expelled from Katin village, and one person has died, Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF) reported.
A Christian who went by the single name of Ampheng died suddenly in April while praying for one of two other Christians who were hospitalized with illnesses caused by their living conditions, an HRWLRF spokesman told Compass. The exact cause and date of Ampheng's death were not immediately known.
Expelled from their village at gunpoint on Jan. 18 for failing to renounce their faith, the 48 Christians were forced to build temporary shelters at the edge of the jungle, about six kilometers (nearly four miles) away from the village.
They have since survived on food found in the jungle and water from a hand-dug well that is unfit for cooking or drinking, sources told HRWLRF.
District officials in early May gave the Christians permission to return to Katin village and take rice from their family rice barns to prevent starvation, said another source on condition of anonymity.
In addition, some of the Christians have returned to tend their family rice fields, fearing that if the fields are completely abandoned they may lose the right to cultivate them next year. Water buffaloes essential for farm work, however, were confiscated in January along with the Christians' homes and registration papers, according to HRWLRF.
When the Christians interred Ampheng at the local burial ground, district officials fined them for failing to produce the required proof of house registration, according to HRWLRF.
Katin's village chief recently warned other residents that their personal possessions would be confiscated if they had any contact with the expelled Christians. If any family continued to maintain contact despite repeated warnings, their own homes would be torn down, the chief reportedly said.
Official reactions to the plight of the Christians have been mixed. In March, a delegation of provincial and district officials led by Gov. Khamboon Duangpanya visited the Christians at their jungle site and assured them of their legal right to embrace the faith of their choice and to live anywhere in the district.
Just days earlier, however, the district head, identified only as Bounma, summoned seven of the Christians to his office and said that he would not tolerate the existence of Christianity in areas under his control. (See "Lao Officials Visit Expelled Christians, Give Assurances," March 19.)
High level officials failed to intervene last July when villagers seized a Christian identified only as Pew and poured rice wine down his throat, killing him by asphyxiation. Village officials later fined Pew's family for erecting a cross on his grave, and then detained 80 Christians in a school compound, denying them food and pressuring them to renounce their faith.
The heads of 13 families then signed documents renouncing Christianity in order to protect their children, but most resumed attendance at worship meetings within a few months.
Provincial officials did call a meeting in September 2008 asking Katin authorities to respect Lao religious laws and allow the Christians freedom to worship, but their request was ignored.
A communist country, Laos is 1.5 percent Christian and 67 percent Buddhist, with the remainder unspecified. Article 6 and Article 30 of the Lao Constitution guarantees the right of Christians and other religious minorities to practice the religion of their choice without discrimination or penalty.
Posted in Buddhism, Christianity, Communism, Laos	| Tagged abandoned, adequate, allow, Ampheng, anonymity, anywhere, areas, Article 30, Article 6, asphyxiation, assurances, assured, attendance, authorities, away, barns, basic, Bounma, Buddhism, Buddhist, Buddhists, buffaloes, build, burial, cause, caused, chief, children, choice, Christian, Christianity, Christians, clean, Communism, communist, communists, completely, compound, condition, conditions, confiscated, constitution, contact, continued, control, cooking, country, critical, cross, cultivate, date, dead, death, dehydration, delegation, denying, despite, diarrhea, died, Discrimination, district, documents, down, drinking, edge, embrace, erecting, essential, exact, existence, expelled, eye, failed, failing, fainting, faith, families, family, farm, fearing, fields, fined, food, forced, found, freedom, general, Gov, grave, ground, guarantees, gunpoint, hand-dug, head, high, homes, hospitalized, HRWLRF, Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom, identified, ignored, illnesses, immediately, infections, interred, intervene, jungle, Katin, Khamboon Duangpanya, killing, known, lack, Lao, Laos, later, laws, legal, level, living, local, lose, maintain, meeting, meetings, minorities, mixed, name, office, officials, papers, penalty, permission, Persecution, person, personal, Pew, plight, possessions, poured, practice, praying, pressuring, prevent, produce, prolonged, proof, protect, provincial, reactions, recently, registration, religion, religious, remainder, renounce, renouncing, repeated, required, residents, resources, respect, resumed, return, rice, right, rights, Saravan Province, school, seized, shelters, signed, single, site, skin, source, spite, starvation, suddenly, suffer, suffering, summoned, survived, temporary, tend, threatens, throat, tolerate, torn, unfit, unspecified, village, villagers, visited, warned, water, weakness, well, wine, without, work, worship | Leave a comment
Step Right Up… and Win a Prize!
Posted on April 18, 2010 by particularkev
The following article concerns a 'church' that gave away gifts (including cars and ipod) to visitors to their Easter services. This article illustrates just how far 'marketing' has infiltrated the church.
http://www.huliq.com/8738/92355/go-church-easter-win-fabulous-prizes
Posted in Christianity, Church Growth Movement, The Church, USA	| Tagged article, away, cars, church, concerns, Easter, gave, gifts, illustrates, including, infiltrated, ipod, marketing, prize, right, services, step, up, visitors, win | 1 Comment
Young Christian Woman Allegedly Abducted in Pakistan
Muslims said to employ various ruses; forced conversion, marriage feared.
LAHORE, Pakistan, April 13 (CDN) — A Muslim tricked a 19-year-old Christian woman into leaving her house here on April 1, and he and a car full of friends took her away, according to her family.
Sonia Mohan's family said they fear the Muslim, Ali Raza, will force her to convert to Islam and marry him. Raza came to their home in Lahore's Nishtar Colony claiming that her brother, Johnson Parvaiz, wanted to see her outside, Parvaiz said.
"Sonia would not have gone with them if he hadn't told her that I wanted to see her," Parvaiz said. "Ali Raza came to our home and told Sonia that I had asked for her, and she went out of the house with him. They had parked a vehicle outside and left, and afterwards we never heard from her."
He said his sister's cell phone remained off for two days. When it began to ring again they called repeatedly, and finally a man answered the phone and then handed it to Mohan. Parvaiz said she told him not to call her, that she was very happy and that they should not try to find her.
"It was obvious from her voice that she had been forced to say that," Parvaiz said. "I fear that she will first be converted to Islam, and then married, and then it will become impossible for us to see her again."
Initially police were unwilling to register the family's complaint, he said. Only after the family enlisted the help of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) did police begin searching for Raza and Mohan.
Parvaiz added that Raza and his friends had previously told her to convert to Islam, saying that because she was beautiful she did not deserve to live as a lowly Christian. Raza and Mohan had no prior contact except that Raza had harassed his sister that one time, he said; her family complained to his parents, who live in the area.
Parvaiz added that Raza worked in a factory called Combined Fabrics, where he had a reputation of harassing Christian women. Since the alleged abduction he has been missing from work.
Nishtar Colony Station House Officer Munawar Doggar told Compass that it did not appear that Mohan, who along with the rest of her family belongs to the American Reformed Presbyterian Church, went with Raza willingly. He said he had delayed registering a case on behalf of Mohan's family only because Raza's family had filed a complaint that Raza himself had been abducted.
After speaking with Compass, however, Doggar said he would file a First Information Report imminently.
"I want to fully investigate the matter so that no injustice is done to any party," he said. "But the family of the girl should now come to the police station and surely their FIR will be registered."
On the day of the kidnapping, Raza's uncle, Zaffar Jamil, filed a complaint that Raza himself had been abducted as a smokescreen to delay police in pursuing the abduction of Mohan, Parvaiz said.
"In this way, the police would reject my police complaint, saying, 'Raza was abducted, so how could he abduct Sonia?'" Parvaiz said.
In his uncle Jamil's complaint to police, Jamil had said that two men identified only as Fahad and Almas – friends of Raza present in the waiting car when Raza allegedly kidnapped Mohan – were the ones who likely abducted Raza.
Compass has obtained a copy of Jamil's complaint. He crafted it in such a way that he can withdraw it at any point, and he says he had only a suspicion about the abduction of Raza and the identity of the supposed culprits. Otherwise police would quickly determine that Fahad and Almas had not abducted Raza, and the tactic to delay justice would be short-lived, Parvaiz said.
APMA Chief Organizer in Punjab Province Khalid Gill told Compass that previously Fahad had employed duplicitous tactics to marry a Christian woman in Youhanabad, Lahore, and that for that reason Raza had sought Fahad's help in tricking Mohan into going with him.
Gill said that in such kidnapping cases, police often delay investigations until after abducted women get pregnant, after which legally it is nearly impossible for courts to return them to their families.
"That is the reason that APMA has been asking for revision of the family laws, and that in such cases where such tactics have been used, the marriage should be declared void so that the girl returns to the family and starts living her life from where it was interrupted," Gill said.
Jamil and Raza's brother, Nasir Dilawar, and Dilawar's wife Majidan, along with Raza's brother Muhammad Asif, have assured Mohan's family that she will be returned soon, but that promise also was only at attempt to forestall legal action, Parvaiz said.
He added that the fact that Raza and his accomplices felt it necessary to employ the ruses to delay police investigations was further evidence that Mohan and Raza had no prior relationship.
The family fears that the longer her return is delayed, the more likely that she will become pregnant or get intimidated into giving a statement in court that she went willingly due to her captors' threats that her father or brothers will be killed if she refuses, Parvaiz said.
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Iranian Authorities Release Assyrian Pastor on Bail
Posted on April 7, 2010 by particularkev
Accused of 'converting Muslims,' church leader faces trial – and threat of murder.
ISTANBUL, April 5 (CDN) — An Assyrian pastor the Iranian government accused of "converting Muslims" has been released from prison on bail and is awaiting trial.
The Rev. Wilson Issavi, 65, was released from Dastgard prison in Isfahan last week. Conflicting reports indicated Issavi was released sometime between Sunday (March 28) and Tuesday morning (March 30).
On Feb. 2, State Security Investigations (SSI) agents arrested Issavi shortly after he finished a house meeting at a friend's home in Isfahan. Along with the accusation of "converting Muslims," the pastor is charged with not co-operating with police, presumably for continuing to hold such house meetings after police sealed the Evangelical Church of Kermanshah and ordered him not to reopen it.
After his arrest, Issavi was held at an unmarked prison facility in Isfahan and apparently tortured, according to a Christian woman who fled Iran and knows Issavi and his family. The Christian woman, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said Issavi's wife, Medline Nazanin, visited the pastor at the unmarked facility. Nazanin said it was obvious Issavi had been tortured, the Christian told Compass.
Issavi's confinement cells were so filthy he contracted a life-threatening infection, Nazanin told the Christian woman.
"They took him to the hospital and then returned him back to the prison," the woman said.
Friends of Issavi added that he is still dealing with the lingering effects of the infection.
During Issavi's imprisonment, authorities threatened to execute him, sources close to the case said. The joy of Issavi's family at his release was tinged with fear as they waited in agony for the possibility of him being killed by Islamic extremists, as is common in Iran when Christians are detained for religious reasons and then released.
"Sometimes they release you just to kill you," the Christian source said.
Issavi has not been informed of his trial date.
Issavi's friend said that low-key ethnic Christians, such as the Assyrians, are largely unbothered for long periods of time. Active Christians are treated differently.
"When you start evangelizing, then you are in real trouble," she said.
Iranian authorities have set up a video camera outside Issavi's church to monitor anyone going in or out of the building, according to the pastor's friend.
Issavi was one of a few Christians in leadership positions arrested in Isfahan in February during what some Middle Eastern experts described as a crackdown on area church leadership.
Isfahan, a city of more than 1.5 million people located 208 miles (335 kilometers) south of Tehran, has been the site of other anti-Christian persecution. In an incident in July 2008, two Christians died as a result of injuries received from police who were breaking up a house meeting.
On Feb. 28, Isfahan resident Hamid Shafiee and his wife Reyhaneh Aghajary, both converts from Islam and house church leaders, were arrested at their home.
Police handcuffed, beat and pepper-sprayed Aghajary and then took her to prison. Her husband Shafiee, who was away from the house when police arrived, was arrested an hour later when he returned to the house. Approximately 20 police officers raided the home, seizing Bibles, CDs, photographs, computers, telephones, personal items and other literature.
The couple is still being held. Other details about their detainment are unknown.
Three Christians Released
Elsewhere, three Christians arrested on Dec. 24, 2009 have been released, according to Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN).
Maryam Jalili, Mitra Zahmati, and Farzan Matin were initially arrested along with 12 other Christians at a home in Varamin. Eventually they were transferred to Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, though the other 12 prisoners were conditionally released on Jan. 4.
Jalili, Zahmati and Matin were freed on March 17, though terms of their release were unclear. Jalili is married and has two children.
Iran has a longstanding history of religious repression. Shia Islam is the official state religion and is ensconced as such in Iran's constitution. Every year since 1999, the U.S. Secretary of State has designated Iran as a "Country of Particular Concern" for its persecution of Christians and other religious minorities.
According to the 2009 International Religious Freedom Report issued by the U.S. Department of State, persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Iran continued to get significantly worse.
"Christians, particularly evangelicals, continued to be subject to harassment and close surveillance," the report states. "The government vigilantly enforced its prohibition on proselytizing by closely monitoring the activities of evangelical Christians, discouraging Muslims from entering church premises, closing churches, and arresting Christian converts."
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Pro-Democracy Advocate Released from Prison
Her new Christian faith deepens; authorities allow evangelist Luis Palau to address pastors.
HO CHI MINH CITY, March 30 (CDN) — A Protestant prisoner of conscience who had called for democratic freedoms in Vietnam was released earlier this month after serving a three-year sentence for "propagandizing to destroy the Socialist Republic of Vietnam."
Attorney Le Thi Cong Nhan's sentence had been reduced by one year after an international outcry over her sentencing. She was released on March 6. Remaining in prison for another year is her colleague, Christian lawyer Nguyen Van Dai.
The 31-year-old Cong Nhan had also supported a labor union that sought to be independent. Now serving an additional three-year house arrest sentence, Cong Nhan said in a surprisingly frank interview with Voice of America's Vietnamese language broadcast on March 9 that she has no intention of giving up her struggle for a just and free Vietnam and accepts that there may be a further price to pay.
Cong Nhan, arrested in March 2007, received a Vietnamese Bible from a visiting delegation of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom – with official permission from Vietnam's minister of Public Security – early in her incarceration, but she had to struggle constantly to retain it. Twice she went on a hunger strike when authorities took the Bible away from her.
She had become a Christian shortly before her arrest, and she told Voice of America that while in prison she was able to read the entire Bible.
"In prison the Lord became my closest friend, my teacher, and the one who carried my burdens with me," she said. "When I was released from prison, I received many words of praise and of love and respect – I became a bit worried about this, as I do not consider myself worthy of such. I believe I must live an even better and more worthy life."
Her prison experience has confirmed her calling and faith, she said.
"As a direct result of my prison experience, I am more convinced than ever that the path that I have chosen is the right one," Cong Nhan said. "Before prison I was just like a thin arrow, but now I have become a strong fort."
Luis Palau Allowed to Speak
While Christians in several parts of Vietnam are still subject to abuse from local officials, the country's national authorities have continued to allow high-profile Christian events. On March 17, renowned U.S. evangelist Luis Palau was allowed to address more than 400 pastors in a day-long event at the New World Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.
Palau, who had arrived in Hanoi with his entourage on March 13, had addressed nearly 200 Hanoi area pastors at an evening event at the Hanoi Hilton on March 14. The two events were streamed live on http://www.hoithanh.com, a popular website that reports on Protestant news in Vietnam. Hundreds of Vietnamese in Vietnam and abroad were estimated to have watched the presentations.
The events were deemed significant, if not historic, by Vietnam's Christian leaders. Very rarely is a prominent foreign Protestant leader allowed to address Vietnamese leaders, especially one from the United States.
The events were significant also in that they brought together leaders from virtually all segments of Vietnam's fractured and sometimes conflicted Protestant groups, Christian leaders said. The gatherings included leaders of open churches and house churches, registered and unregistered churches, and urban and even ethnic minority groups from Vietnam's remote mountainous regions.
Two representatives of a Mennonite church headed by activist pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, however, were turned away by police.
Palau and Mike McIntosh, pastor of San Diego mega-church Horizon Christian Fellowship, strongly challenged the Vietnamese church leaders to strive for unity. The assembled pastors were challenged to put aside past conflicts and suspicions for the sake of the Kingdom of God in Vietnam, with Palau saying that unity was a requirement for God's blessing on their churches and nation.
Some Vietnamese leaders responded by expressing remorse for their divisions and committed to start working toward reconciliation.
Organizers and participants said they hope such short events will lead to larger gains. Though the Luis Palau Association had originally planned for a two-day event for 2,000 pastors, most agreed this was an unprecedented first step toward a bigger goal. With an invitation from all segments of the Protestant community in Vietnam in hand, the Luis Palau Association is prepared to help organize evangelistic festivals in Vietnam in 2011, the centenary of Protestantism in Vietnam.
"There is still a long way to go, but we are seeing miracles piling up," said one senior Vietnamese leader. "It could happen!"
One prominent overseas Vietnamese leader wondered if Palau's visit to Vietnam could be compared to Billy Graham's visit to Moscow during the Soviet Communist era.
Also sharing testimonies during the March 17 event were Rick Colsen, a top Intel executive, and John Dalton, Secretary of the Navy under President Clinton.
Posted in Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Christianity, Communism, Luis Palau, Mennonite, Russia, USA, Vietnam	| Tagged 2007, 2011, able, abroad, abuse, accepts, activist, additional, address, advocate, allow, area, arrest, arrested, arrived, arrow, aside, assembled, attorney, authorities, away, became, before, believe, better, Bible, bigger, Bill Clinton, Billy Graham, blessing, broadcast, brought, burdens, called, calling, carried, centenary, challenged, chosen, Christian, Christianity, Christians, churches, closest, colleague, committed, Communism, communist, communists, community, compared, confirmed, conflicted, conflicts, conscience, consider, constantly, convinced, day-long, deemed, deepens, delegation, Democratic, destroy, direct, divisions, early, entire, entourage, era, estimated, ethnic, evangelist, evangelistic, evening, events, executive, experience, expressing, faith, festivals, first, foreign, fort, fractured, frank, free, freedoms, friend, gains, gatherings, giving, goal, God, groups, Hanoi, Hanoi Hilton, happen, headed, help, high-profile, historic, Ho Chi Minh City, hope, Horizon Christian Fellowship, house arrest, house churches, hunger strike, incarceration, independent, Intel, intention, international, interview, invitation, John Dalton, just, Kingdom, Labor, language, larger, lawyer, Le Thi Cong Nhan, lead, leaders, life, live, local, Lord, love, Luis Palau, Luis Palau Association, mega-church, Mennonite, Mike McIntosh, minister, minority, miracles, Moscow, mountainous, nation, national, navy, new, New World Hotel, news, Nguyen Hong Quang, Nguyen Van Dai, official, officials, open, organize, organizers, originally, outcry, overseas, participants, past, pastors, path, pay, permission, Persecution, piling, planned, police, popular, praise, prepared, presentations, President, price, prison, prisoner, pro-democracy, prominent, propagandizing, Protestant, Protestantism, Public Security, rarely, read, received, reconciliation, reduced, regions, registered, released, remorse, remote, renowned, representatives, requirement, respect, responded, result, retain, Rick Colsen, right, sake, San Diego, seeing, segments, senior, sentence, sentencing, serving, sharing, short, significant, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Soviet, speak, start, step, streamed, strive, strong, strongly, struggle, subject, supported, suprisingly, suspicions, teacher, testimonies, thin, together, top, toward, turned, U. S. Commission on international Religious Freedom, Union, unity, unprecedented, unregistered, urban, USA, Vietnam, Vietnamese, visit, visiting, Voice of America, watched, Website, words, working, worthy | Leave a comment
Islamic Assailants Kill Hundreds of Christians Near Jos, Nigeria
Posted on March 12, 2010 by particularkev
Fulani herdsmen strike Christian villages, slaying mainly ethnic Berom with machetes.
LAGOS, Nigeria, March 8 (CDN) — An uneasy calm prevailed in Plateau state, Nigeria today following the killing of hundreds of Christians early yesterday morning in three farming villages near Jos by ethnic Fulani Muslims.
The mostly ethnic Berom victims included many women and children killed with machetes by rampaging Fulani herdsmen. About 75 houses were also burned.
State Information Commissioner Gregory Yenlong confirmed that about 500 persons were killed in the attacks, which took place mainly in Dogo Nahawa, Zot and Rastat villages.
"We were woken up by gunshots in the middle of the night, and before we knew what was happening, our houses were torched and they started hacking down people" survivor Musa Gyang told media.
The assailants reportedly came on foot from a neighboring state to beat security forces that had been alerted of a possible attack on the villages but did not act beforehand.
The attack on Sunday is the latest in several religious clashes in the state in recent months that have claimed lives and property. Plateau state is a predominantly Christian state in a country almost evenly divided between Christians and Muslims. The Muslim minority has been contesting ownership of some parts of the state, leading to frequent clashes.
Bishop Andersen Bok, national coordinator of the Plateau State Elders Christian Fellowship, along with group Secretary General Musa Pam, described the attack as yet another "jihad and provocation on Christians."
"Dogo Nahawa is a Christian community," the Christian leaders said in a statement. "Eyewitnesses say the Hausa Fulani Muslim militants were chanting 'Allah Akbar,' broke into houses, cutting human beings, including children and women with their knives and cutlasses."
Soon after the militants besieged Dogo Nahawa, the Christian leaders said, at 1:30 a.m. they contacted the military, which is in charge of security in the state.
"But we were shocked to find out that the soldiers did not react until about 3:30 a.m., after the Muslim attackers had finished their job and left," they stated. "We are tired of these genocides on our Christian brothers and state here that we will not let this go unchallenged."
Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) President Ayo Oritsejafor decried the attack on the Christian community as barbaric and urged the federal government to stop the killing of innocent citizens or risk a total breakdown of law and order.
"I have just returned from a trip abroad," he said. "While I was away, I was inundated with reports of another catastrophe in the Jigawa state capital, where several churches were burnt, and just as I was trying to settle down and collate reports from the field, I am hearing of another on Sunday morning."
Director of Social Communications, Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Rev. Monsignor Gabriel Osu said the Sunday killing in Jos is a major setback for the country's effort to gain the confidence of the international community.
"Do you know that because of things like these, anywhere Nigerians travel to they are subjected to dehumanizing scrutiny?" he said. "Any act of violence at this time is totally condemned, and the government should make haste to fish out all identified perpetrators of such heinous crimes against God so that we can move forward as a people united under one umbrella."
On Friday (March 5) the National Youth President of the PFN, Dr. Abel Damina, expressed concern over cases of clandestine killings of Christians in remote parts of Plateau state by Islamic extremists and called on the federal government to retrieve sophisticated weapons in their possession.
"Even as I speak to you now, I am receiving reports that some clandestine killings are still going on in the remote areas of Plateau State by the fundamentalists," Damina reportedly said. "They pounce on Christians and kill them without anybody knowing much of their identity except that they are Christians."
He added that recently he visited the governor in Jos regarding the crisis and secured photos of Christian victims.
"Young men, Christians, were going to their farm to harvest their produce and the fundamentalists pounced on them," he said. "They were called infidels. At the last conference, we received reports with photographs of the fundamentalists using AK-47 rifles to destroy our churches. Where did they get the arms from? We have reports of truck loads of arms that had been intercepted, and we did not hear anything about them."
Posted in Africa, Christianity, Islam, Nigeria, Pentecostalism, Roman Catholicism	| Tagged Abel Damina, abroad, act, AK-47, Akbar, alerted, Allah, Andersen Bok, anybody, Archbishop, arms, assailants, attack, attackers, attacks, away, Ayo Oritsajafor, barbaric, beat, beforehand, Berom, beseiged, bishop, breakdown, brothers, burned, burnt, called, calm, capital, cases, catastrophe, chanting, charge, children, Christian, Christianity, Christians, churches, citizens, claimed, clandestine, clashes, collate, community, concern, condemned, conference, confidence, confirmed, contacted, contesting, country, crimes, crisis, cutlasses, cutting, decried, dehumanizing, described, destroy, Director of Social Communications, divided, Dogo Nahawa, down, Dr, effort, ethnic, evenly, expressed, extremists, eyewitnesses, farm, farming, federal, field, find, finished, fish out, following, foot, forces, forward, frequent, Fulani, fundamentalists, gain, genocides, God, government, governor, Gregory Yenlong, group, gunshots, hacking, happening, harvest, haste, Hausa, heinous, herdsmen, houses, human beings, hundreds, identified, identity, included, infidels, innocent, intercepted, international, inundated, Islam, Islamic, Jigawa, Jihad, job, Jos, kill, killing, knives, knowing, Lagos, latest, law and order, leaders, leading, left, lives, loads, machetes, mainly, major, media, men, middle, militants, military, minority, Monsignor Gabriel Osu, Musa Gyang, Musa Pam, Muslim, muslims, national coordinator, National Youth President, near, nearing, neighboring, Nigeria, Nigerians, night, ownership, parts, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, people, perpetrators, Persecution, persons, PFN, photos, Plateau, Plateau State Elders Christian Fellowship, possession, possible, pounce, predominantly, President, prevailed, produce, property, provocation, rampaging, Rastat, react, regarding, religious, remote, reports, retrieve, Rev, rifles, risk, Roman Catholic, Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholics, scrutiny, Secretary General, secured, security, setback, settle, shocked, slaying, soldiers, sophisticated, started, state, State Information Commissioner, statement, stop, strike, subjected, survivor, tired, torched, Total, travel, trip, truck, trying, umbrella, unchallenged, under, uneasy, United, urged, victims, villages, violence, visited, weapons, woken, women, young, Zot | Leave a comment
Violence Escalates in Mosul, Iraq ahead of Elections
Posted on March 8, 2010 by particularkev
Christians targeted as political tension builds in weeks leading to parliamentary polls.
ISTANBUL, March 5 (CDN) — Political tensions ahead of parliamentary elections in Iraq on Sunday (March 7) have left at least eight Chaldean Christians dead in the last three weeks and hundreds of families fleeing Mosul.
"The concern of Christians in Mosul is growing in the face of what is happening in the city," said Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk Louis Sako. "The tension and struggle between political forces is creating an atmosphere of chaos and congestion. Christians are victims of political tension between political groups, but maybe also by fundamentalist sectarian cleansing."
On Feb. 23 the killing of Eshoee Marokee, a Christian, and his two sons in their home in front of other family members sent shock waves across the Christian community. The murder took place amid a string of murders that triggered the mass exodus of families to the surrounding towns and provinces.
"It is not the first time Christians are attacked or killed," said the archbishop of the Syrian Catholic Church in Mosul, Georges Casmoussa. "The new [element] in this question is to be killed in their own homes."
The capital of Nineveh Province some 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of Baghdad, Mosul has been known as the most dangerous city for Christians. At least 275 Assyrian Christians have been murdered by Islamic insurgents since 2003, according to a report prepared by the International Committee for The Rights of Indigenous Mesopotamians.
While in 2009 the organization listed 16 deaths, since January there have been at least 13 murders, eight of which took place the second half of February.
The movement of internally displaced persons to surrounding areas started in mid-February and tripled between Feb. 24 and Feb. 27 to about 683 families, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Although the rate of displacement into areas around Mosul has slowed, the report estimates that 720 families had fled the city as of March 1. This represents about 4,320 people.
Christian Students Affected
The murders have not only driven families away from the cities but have also kept students away from university. Three of the Christians killed in February were university students. As a result, around 2,000 Christian students are staying away from their classes until the tension in Mosul eases.
"We believe that the attack against these students was somehow related to the political situation in Mosul," said General Secretary of the Chaldo-Assyrian Student and Youth Union Kaldo Oghanna. "This has affected our people in Mosul badly, and they have left the university."
Oghanna said that the union has proposed that the Ministry of Education open a new university in a safer area of the Nineveh plains for the nearly 3,000 Christian undergraduate students and 250 graduate students studying in Mosul. He also said that they have appealed to the university's administration to make necessary exceptions for the Christian students who have not attended classes in the last few weeks.
Although some local Christian leaders say they expect the tension to ease after Sunday, security may not improve as the Christian community is caught in political tensions between Arabs and Kurds vying for control of the province. Archbishop Casmoussa said regardless of who is behind the murders, the Christian community demands justice.
"We urge the Central and Regional Government to pursue the murders and their masters and judge them according to Iraqi laws, even if they are supported by religious or political parties," Casmoussa said. "Enough is enough. Are we to pay the price of political struggles or ambitions?"
Sako said that in other cities security has improved, and that Christians are eager to cast their votes.
The election on March 7 will decide the 325 members of the Council of Representatives of Iraq, who will then elect the prime minister and president of Iraq. Of these seats, five are reserved for the nation's Christian minority, estimated at around 600,000. Most of them live in the Nineveh plain.
At the beginning of the Iraq war, there were about 1.2 million Christians living in Iraq. Iraq's population is roughly 30 million.
Posted in Christianity, Iraq, Islam, United Nations, War, War on Terror	| Tagged 2003, 2009, ;province, administration, affected, ahead, ambitions, appealed, Arabs, Archbishop, Assyrian, atmosphere, attacked, attended, away, badly, Baghdad, beginning, behind, believe, between, builds, capital, Casmoussa, cast, caught, central, Chaldean, Chaldo-Assyrian Student and Youth Union, chaos, Christian, Christianity, Christians, cities, city, classes, cleansing, community, concern, congestion, control, Council of Representatives of Iraq, creating, dangerous, dead, deaths, decide, demands, displaced, displacement, driven, eager, eases, elect, elections, element, escalates, Eshoee Marokee, exceptions, exodus, expect, face, families, fled, fleeing, forces, front, fundamentalist, General Secretary, George Casmoussa, government, graduate, groups, growing, happening, home, improve, improved, insurgents, internally, International Committee for the Rights of Indigenous Mesopotamians, Iraq, Iraqi, Islamic, judge, justice, Kaldo Oghanna, killed, killing, Kirkuk, known, Kurds, laws, leaders, leading, left, listed, local, Louis Sako, mass, masters, members, Ministry of Education, minority, most, Mosul, movement, murder, murdered, murders, necessary, new, Ninevah, Ninevah Province, northwest, open, organization, parliamentary, parties, pay, Persecution, persons, plains, political, polls, prepared, President, price, Prime Minister, proposed, provinces, pursure, question, rate, regardless, regional, religious, report, reserved, safer, seats, sectarian, security, sent, shock waves, situation, slowed, sons, started, staying, string, struggle, students, studying, supported, surrounding, Syrian Catholic Church, targeted, tension, towns, triggered, undergraduate, Union, United Nations, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, University, urge, victims, violence, votes, vying, War | Leave a comment
EU Visit to Orissa, India Triggers Barrage of Accusations
Posted on February 13, 2010 by particularkev
Hindu nationalists protest delegation as Christians cite injustices.
NEW DELHI, February 8 (CDN) — A delegation from the European Union concluded a "fruitful" trip to India's violence-torn Orissa state on Friday (Feb. 5) amid a swirl of protests by Hindu nationalist groups and cries of injustice by Christians.
The delegation was able to hold "open and frank" discussions with Kandhamal officials on the visit, said Gabriele Annis of the Embassy of Italy.
"We had a very good meeting with the Kandhamal district administration," Annis told reporters. "It is fruitful. We had open and frank discussion. It helped us in understanding the situation and understanding happenings over the past 15 months."
The delegation was led by Christophe Manet, head of Political Affairs of the European Commission delegation to India and consisted of members from Spain, Hungary, Poland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Finland and Sweden. A delegation from five European countries had visited Orissa earlier in November 2009, but the government of Orissa denied them permission to visit Kandhamal district, where Christians say they continue to be threatened and destitute.
Archbishop Raphael Cheenath said on Saturday (Feb. 6) that despite the claims of the state and district administrations, life for the Christian victims of violence in August-September 2008 remains far from normal: thousands still live in makeshift shanties along roadsides and in forests, he said, and local officials and police harass them daily.
"The block officers have been playing with the facts, indulging in corrupt practices and cosmetic exercises whenever political and other dignitaries come to visit or inspect," the archbishop said in a statement. "Innocent people are coerced into giving a false picture. The chief minister must investigate the role and functioning of the entire district administration . . . It is strange that officers in whose presence the violence took place and thousands of houses were burnt are still in office and are declaring that there is peace in the district."
Following attacks in the area after Hindu extremists stirred up mobs by falsely accusing Christians of killing Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on Aug. 23, 2008, more than 10,000 families were displaced from their homes by the violence. Since then, Cheenath said, an estimated 1,200 families have left the area. Between 200 and 300 families reside in private displacement camps in the district, and more than 4,400 families still live in tents, makeshift shelters or the remnants of their damaged houses, he said.
The number of attack victims who have received financial assistance from the government, churches or Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) is unknown, but is estimated at 1,100 families, Cheenath added.
He criticized Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Chief Minister of Orissa Naveen Patnaik saying, "Both of them had promised to provide adequate compensation for the damages caused during the 2008 communal violence. But the victims have not been adequately compensated."
Cheenath said the state government had decided not to compensate any riot-affected religious institutions even though India's Supreme Court had directed the government to compensate them for all damages.
"This is a national calamity and demands a special package for the affected people, which should include land, income generation, education and healthcare," the archbishop said.
Extremist Makeover
Prior to the visit, Christian leaders expressed their shock at Kandhamal district authorities attempting a cosmetic makeover by evacuating nearly 100 Christians from G. Udayagiri.
In letters to the EU delegation, the state government and national human rights and minorities commissions, Dr. John Dayal of the All India Christian Council narrated the plight of the 91 members of 21 families from 11 villages who were living under plastic sheets along a road in the marketplace area of G. Udayagiri.
Dayal said the group included 11 married women, three widows, an elderly man with a fractured hip and thigh, and two infants born in the camp. They had faced almost daily threats, he said, as they had not been allowed to return to their villages unless they renounced their faith and became Hindus.
Soon after the decision to allow the EU delegation, the water supply to the makeshift site was cut off and police and civil officers drove away the residents, who had only plastic sheets to protect them from the cold, he said. The refugees said officers later gave them permission to come back at night but to keep the area clear.
"The families are in G. Udayagiri, they have moved in front of the road, and they are in a very bad state," the Rev. Samant Nayak of G. Udayagiri told Compass. "They are literally on the road."
He said that approximately 55 families were living in G. Udayagiri, where they had been given land, and a Christian NGO was helping to construct houses for them.
The Press Trust of India reported that Orissa officials were nervous about last week's delegation visiting Kandhamal but finally gave permission under pressure from the central government. State officials finally allowed the visit with the pre-condition that the delegation would be allowed only to interact with people and not engage in fact-finding, according to a senior official in Orissa's home department.
The Kandhamal district collector, Krishna Kumar, told Compass that all went well and "no untoward incidents took place," but sources reported at least one minor disturbance in Bodimunda village. On Wednesday (Feb. 3), one house was reportedly damaged there in a scuffle that also resulted in two arrests by the local police.
During their Kandhamal visit, the EU delegation was reportedly forced to cancel a meeting with judges of Fast Track courts established in Phulbani, in Kandhamal district, to prosecute hundreds of those accused in the 2008 violence, due to protests from the local lawyers' association.
Kumar, however, pointed out that the lawyers' protest was secondary to the lack of clearance from the High court for the meeting with the judges. "The same was not informed to us prior to the visit," he added.
The anti-Christian violence in August-September 2008 killed over 100 people and burned 4,640 houses, 252 churches and 13 educational institutions. Archbishop Cheenath said justice is critical to long term peace.
"The two Fast Track courts, and the court premises, have seen a travesty of justice," he said in the Feb. 6 statement. "Witnesses are being coerced, threatened, cajoled and sought to be bribed by murderers and arsonists facing trial. The court premises are full of top activists of fundamentalist organizations. The witnesses are also threatened in their homes with elimination, and even their distant relatives are being coerced specially in the murder and arson cases against Member of Legislative Assembly [MLA] Manoj Pradhan."
Though some witnesses have testified on Pradhan's alleged involvement in crimes in depositions, he has been acquitted in case after case, the archbishop added.
"We are demanding a special investigation team to investigate every case of murder and arson," he said. "Similarly, there is also need for transferring the cases against politically powerful persons such as Pradhan to outside Kandhamal, preferably to Cuttack or Bhubaneswar."
Cheenath said victims have filed 3,232 complaints at Kandhamal police stations, but officers registered only 832 cases. As many as 341 cases were in the G. Udayagiri area alone, 98 in Tikabali and 90 in Raikia, he said.
"Even out of this small number [in G. Udayagiri], only 123 cases were transferred to the two Fast Track courts," he said. "So far, 71 cases have been tried in the two courts, and 63 cases have been disposed of. Of these, conviction occurred only in 25 cases, and even that is partial as most of the accused have not been arrested or brought to trial."
Only 89 persons have been convicted so far in Orissa state, while 251 have been acquitted, supposedly for lack of witnesses against them, he said.
"Among them is Manoj Pradhan," Cheenath said. "It is strange that in the case of 10 deaths by murder, nine cases have been closed without anybody being convicted, while there has been partial conviction in the case of one death. Who will bring justice in the case of the nine murder cases?"
The archbishop demanded that independent lawyers be allowed to assist overworked special public prosecutors.
Hindu Nationalist Protests
Protesting the delegation visit was the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and other Hindu nationalist organizations. VHP State General Secretary Gouri Prasad Brahma had lamented on Jan. 31 that the visit would trigger tension and demanded their immediate withdrawal.
"There is no business of the outsiders in the internal matter of the state," he said.
The delegation also faced the ire of the Hindu extremist Bajrang Dal on the day of its arrival in Bhubaneswar, capital of Orissa, on Tuesday (Feb. 2). Hundreds of its cadres met the delegation at the airport shouting loudly, "EU team, go back."
Five Bajrang Dal members were detained for creating trouble, Deputy Commissioner of Police H.K. Lal told media on Wednesday (Feb. 3).
After the delegation had left, the Orissa Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) heavily criticized the central and the state governments, with BJP state President, Jual Oram telling a press conference that the state had allowed the visit to "divide people on communal lines." He said that the delegation had not met any Hindu leader during their visit to Kandhamal, which "exposed their communal agenda."
Oram accused the delegation of violating protocol in trying to meet the judges of fast-track courts in Kandhamal, saying this "amounted to interference into internal affairs of a sovereign independent member state under the U.N."
At the same press conference, BJP MLA Karendra Majhi said that allowing the visit was an attempt by the chief minister to win back the confidence of minority Christians. He alleged that the delegation had held secret meetings in a Catholic church at Phulbani with church leaders and select NGOs to facilitate conversions to Christianity.
"I have every reason to believe that the promised assistance of 15 million euros to Kandhamal by the EU delegation will be utilized for conversion activities," Majhi said.
Posted in Christianity, Finland, Hinduism, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands/Holland, Poland, Roman Catholicism, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United Nations	| Tagged 2008, 2009, accusations, accused, accusing, acquitted, activists, activities, adequate, administration, affected, agenda, airport, All India Christian Council, alleged, allow, allowed, along, amounted, anti-Christian, Archbishop, area, arrival, arson, arsonists, assist, assistance, association, attack, attacks, attempt, attempting, authorities, away, back, bad, Bajrang Dal, barrage, believe, Bharatiya Janata Party, Bhubaneswar, BJP, Block, Bodimunda, born, bribed, brought, burned, burnt, business, cadres, cajoled, calamity, camp, camps, cancel, capital, cases, caused, central, Chief Minister, Christian, Christianity, Christians, Christophe Manet, churches, cite, civil, claims, clear, clearance, closed, coerced, cold, commissions, communal, compensated, compensation, complaints, concluded, confidence, consisted, construct, continue, conversions, convicted, conviction, corrupt, cosmetic, countries, Courts, creating, cries, crimes, critical, criticized, Cuttack, daily, damaged, damages, deaths, decided, decision, declaring, delegation, demands, denied, department, depositions, Deputy Commissioner of Police, despite, destitute, dignitaries, directed, discussions, displaced, displacement, distant, district, District Collector, disturbance, divide, Dr, drove, education, elderly, elimination, Embassy of Italy, engage, entire, established, EU, European, European Union, euros, evacuating, exercises, exposed, expressed, extremists, faced, facilitate, facing, fact-finding, facts, faith, false, falsely, families, far, fast-track, filed, financial, Finland, following, forced, forests, fractured, frank, front, fruitful, full, functioning, fundamentalist, G. Udayagiri, Gabriele Annis, generation, given, giving, go, good, Gouri Prasad Brahma, government, groups, H.K. Lal, happenings, harass, head, healthcare, heavily, helped, helping, high court, Hindu, Hinduism, Hindus, hip, hold, homes, houses, human rights, Hungary, immediate, incidents, income, independent, India, indulging, infants, informed, injustices, innocent, inspect, institutions, interact, interference, internal, investigate, involvement, ire, Ireland, Italy, John Dayal, Jual Oram, judges, justice, Kandhamal, Karendra Majhi, killed, killing, Krishna Kumar, lack, lamented, land, lawyers, leader, led, letters, lines, literally, live, living, local, long, loudly, makeover, makeshift, man, Manmohan Singh, Manoj Pradhan, marketplace, married, matter, media, meeting, Member of Legislative Assembly, members, minor, minorities, minority, MLA, mobs, moved, murder, murderers, narrated, national, nationalists, Naveen Patnaik, need, nervous, Netherlands, New Delhi, NGOs, night, Non-Governmental Organizations, normal, number, office, officers, officials, open, organizations, Orissa, outside, outsiders, overworked, package, partial, peace, people, permission, Persecution, persons, Phulbani, picture, plastic, playing, plight, Poland, police, police stations, Political Affairs of the European Commission, politically, powerful, practices, pre-condition, premises, presence, President, press conference, Press Trust of India, pressure, Prime Minister, prior, private, promised, prosecute, prosecutors, protest, protests, protocol, provide, public, Raikia, Raphael Cheenath, reason, received, refugees, registered, relatives, religious, remains, remnants, renounced, reside, residents, resulted, Rev, riot, road, roadsides, role, Roman Catholic, Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholics, Samant Nayak, scuffle, secondary, secret, senior, shanties, sheets, shelters, shock, shouting, site, situation, small, sovereign, Spain, special, state, state general secretary, statement, stirred, strange, supply, supposedly, supreme court, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, Sweden, swirl, telling, tension, tents, term, testified, thigh, threatened, threats, Tikabali, toen, top, transferring, travesty, trial, tried, trigger, triggers, trip, trouble, UN, understanding, United Kingdom, United Nations, unknown, untoward, utiulized, VHP, victims, villages, violating, violence, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, visit, visited, water, widows, win, withdrawal, witnesses, women | Leave a comment
SPAIN: CRUISE SHIP GANGWAY COLLAPSES
While passengers were disembarking from the Italian-owned MSC Fantasia in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, the gangway has collapsed into the sea. The collapse occurred after strong winds caused mooring ropes to break away from their mooring, allowing the ship to move away from the dock, which in turn caused the gangway to collapse into the ocean.
The gangway with four passengers fell some 15 metres into the sea and were rescued by the ship's crew. An eighty year-old passenger hit his head during the collapse and is now in hospital.
The MSC Fantasia is a 333 metre cruise ship owned by MSC Cruises and can accommodate 4 000 passengers, along with 1 325 crew.
Posted in Italy, news, Spain, tourism, travel	| Tagged accommodate, allowing, away, break, caused, collapses, crew, cruise, disembarking, dock, fell, gangway, head, hospital, Italian, Italian-owned, Italy, morring, MSC Cruises, MSC Fantasia, occured, ocean, Palma de Mallorca, passengers, rescued, ropes, sea, ship, Spain, strong, winds | Leave a comment


text:
Q: How do i play a network video in flutter I am trying to put a network video from a different site in Flutter.
I have used the video_player package. I have used a future builder in which, the CircularProgressIndicator will keep running until the video is loaded. When i run the app, in the start the CircularProgressIndicator keep on running and after a few seconds it stops as if the video is loaded but it show complete blankness on the emulator. In other words the video is not loading.
After i start the app

After Loading

This is the code
class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
_MyHomePageState createState() => _MyHomePageState();
}

class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
  VideoPlayerController _controller;
  Future<void> _initializeVideoPlayerFuture;

  @override
  void initState() {
    _controller = VideoPlayerController.network(
        'https://ok.ru/videoembed/1616636152346');
    _initializeVideoPlayerFuture = _controller.initialize();
    _controller.setLooping(true);
    _controller.setVolume(1.0);
    super.initState();
  }

  @override
  void dispose() {
    _controller.dispose();
    super.dispose();
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(
        backgroundColor: Colors.blue,
      ),
      body: FutureBuilder(
        future: _initializeVideoPlayerFuture,
        builder: (context, snapshot){
          if(snapshot.connectionState == ConnectionState.done){
            return AspectRatio(
              aspectRatio: _controller.value.aspectRatio,
              child: VideoPlayer(_controller),
            );
          } else {
            return Center(
              child: CircularProgressIndicator(backgroundColor: Colors.blue,
              ),
            );
          }
        }
      ),
      floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton(
        onPressed: (){
          setState(() {
            if(_controller.value.isPlaying){
              _controller.pause();
            }else{
              _controller.play();
            }
          });
        },
        child: Icon(_controller.value.isPlaying ? Icons.pause : Icons.play_arrow,
      ),
    ),
    );
  }
}

A: Your link for video is not a valid video link , it is a embed Url.
To Play a video from network URL use direct video URL like https://file-examples-com.github.io/uploads/2017/04/file_example_MP4_480_1_5MG.mp4.
Put this link in your videoController , it will working fine.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Disciplinary Processes - Nasdaq Iceland
European Surveillance .
Disciplinary Processes .
Stockholm .
Copenhagen .
Helsinki .
Iceland .
The Surveillance department of Nasdaq Iceland is responsible for supervising issuers and members, with regards to compliance with exchange regulation. The relevant sets of rules that issuers and members are obliged to comply with are published on the Nasdaq Nordic website.
An investigation will be initiated if the Surveillance department finds that an issuer or a member may have violated one or several provisions of the relevant rules. If the investigation leads to the conclusion that no violation of the rules has taken place or that a breach has been insignificant, the matter can be finalized without further measures.
If the conclusion is that a breach of rule has taken place but that it is of minor importance, a non-public reprimand can be issued.
If, however, the party to preceedings has not been able to provide an acceptable explanation for its actions and the violation is not considered minor, proceeding may be initiated in the Nasdaq Iceland Disciplinary Committee ("the Committee"). This document describes how such disciplinary proceedings are performed.
A Disciplinary Proceeding
If a decision is made to institute proceedings in the Disciplinary Committee the first step will be for the head of Legal, or a person authorized by him, to prepare and present the matters to be handled by the Committee as well as institute the proceedings. The party to preceedings will receive a copy of all relevant documents which have been sent to the Committee. Such documents include an outline of the course of events, as relevant for the matter and according to the understanding of the Exchange, with referrals to the relevant rules and a statement explaining why the preliminary assessment of the Exchange is that the party has violated the rules.
The party to preceedings shall be provided with the possibility to express its views regarding all material issues which come up in connection with the handling of the matter which the Party is related to. Such views shall be sent within a specific deadline. If such a deadline is perceived as unreasonable for some reason the party could contact Nasdaq Iceland to discuss alternatives.
Taking into account the written evidence available, the Disciplinary Committee can decide conclude a matter without taking action or to decide upon such sanctions that are set forth in the rules applicable for issuers, members and certified advisers. Such sanctions include non-public reprimands, public reprimands, monetary fines, removals from trading, termination of membership or trader authorization and termination of certified adviser status.
When the Disciplinary Committee has reached a decision, it will be sent to Nasdaq Iceland in written form. Nasdaq Iceland will without undue delay forward it to the party to preceedings and will also inform the party of the timing of an announcement, if relevant. This normally means that the issuer or member will be informed of the decision one day before its publication. Announcements of decisions taken by the Disciplinary Committee are handled by the Exchange and takes place by dissemination of a market notice.
The Disciplinary Committee
The Disciplinary Committee is an independent body from the Exchange. It shall always ensure that the issuer or member is heard before concluding a matter. It's decisions cannot be appealed.
The Exchange's Board of Directors shall appoint no less than three and no more than five individuals to be members of the Disciplinary Committee, at least two of whom must have a good command of the securities markets. The Chairman and the Vice-Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee shall be appointed by the Exchange's Board of Directors and both shall preferably have a Master degree in Law.
Eyvindur G. Gunnarsson, professor in the Faculty of Law of the University of Iceland (chairman)
Katrín Ólafsdóttir, PhD in economics and assistant professor at Reykjavík University
Arnaldur Hjartarson, specialist of the Law Institute of the University of Iceland
Disciplinary Decisions
Overview of public disciplinary decisions since 2008
Jimmy Kvarnström, Head of European Surveillance
Iceland Erlendur Hjartarson , Surveillance
Guðrún Özurardóttir, Surveillance
Nasdaq Nordic Foundation
Nasdaq Nordic Foundation was founded in 2005 to enable Nasdaq to support the financial markets via scientific research.
More information about the foundation
European Rules & Regulations
Commodities Legal Framework
Commodities Market Surveillance
Announcement from listed companies
Board & Management Training
List at Nasdaq Nordic
Listing Forms
List of Certified Advisers
Guide to become a Certified Adviser

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Posted inFuture, Health, Vaccines, Whooping Cough
CDC to announce preliminary findings on California whooping cough epidemic
by Joanne Faryon March 27, 2011 August 11, 2020 Why you can trust inewsource
This story has been updated. See change below.
by Joanne Faryon | KPBS and Kevin Crowe | inewsource
Listen to the story on KPBS.
San Diego health officials may be closer to knowing what led to last year's whooping cough outbreak – the worst in more than 60 years.
Scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will present their preliminary findings from an investigation into California's whooping cough outbreak at a national vaccine conference in Washington, D.C. this week.
KPBS and inewsource at SDSU spent months investigating the epidemic and found many of the people getting sick had been immunized.
More than 9,000 people tested positive for whooping cough, or pertussis, last year in California. San Diego had the second highest number in the state with more than 1,100 positive cases in 2010.
"It does look like the peak of pertussis outbreak was in mid-2010, but we're still having continued cases," said Dr. Eric McDonald, San Diego County deputy public health director.
Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a highly contagious upper respiratory illness that in adults and older children can mimic a bad cold. In infants the disease can be fatal. Last year, 10 California babies, two from San Diego, died from the disease.
Infants under 2 months old are too young to be immunized and children under 6 require five doses to be considered protected.
An analysis of the most current state data by KPBS and inewsource shows a little more than half of all the people diagnosed with pertussis in California last year had been immunized.
The data also show more than half of all cases in the state were in children 10 and under, with infants less than a year old accounting for 17 percent of cases.
Of the 7- to 10- year-olds diagnosed with pertussis, slightly more than half were up-to-date with their immunizations.
CDC investigators were in San Diego County late last year to gather data on positive cases, McDonald said.
"The CDC has done a specific investigation looking at vaccine effectiveness. They came here to San Diego to investigate some of our cases from 2010," McDonald said.
Investigators said county doctors were especially diligent about diagnosing positive cases and that could have contributed to the fact San Diego County had a relatively high number of cases per capita.
McDonald also noted the percentage of kindergarten children entering San Diego schools whose parents have chosen not to have them immunized increased from 2.6 to 3.1 percent in 2010.
This week, the CDC will present some of what it learned from last year's outbreak in a presentation entitled: "What's an epidemic like this doing in a highly-vaccinated community?"
A previous version of the story quoted Dr. Eric McDonald as saying the personal belief exemption rate for San Diego County was 2.3 percent in 2009. The statistic he provided was 2.6 percent.
Whooping Cough in California by County
Click on a county to view the number of cases of pertussis reported and rate of incidence for 2010.
The California Department of Public Health included pertussis cases with onset from January 1 through December 31, 2010 as reported to the department by local health jurisdictions.
Darker colors on the map indicate higher rates per capita.
Tagged: CDC, vaccines, whooping cough
Joanne Faryon
jayfaryon@gmail.com
Joanne Faryon is a freelance reporter and former inewsource and KPBS reporter.	More by Joanne Faryon


If (like me) you are keeping up to speed with Microsoft's ASP.NET Web API framework you might have noticed the recent release of the ASP.NET and Web Tools 2012.2 Update. What was exciting for me in this release was the addition of an automatically generated help page which can be configured to use comments in your code for the documentation. What better way to maintain the documentation for a web service than in the code itself?
Although the display of the default help page is pretty comprehensive from the start, I wanted to change the way it grouped items to better suit my implementation of a REST service.
During the creation of my Web API project I had considered using a separate Controller for each unique request with the 4 standard HTTP methods available (GET, POST, PUT & DELETE). In practice however it seemed neater to consider a Controller as a business entity (e.g. Customer) and to allow for several Actions types within it. This cuts down on the number of separate .cs files needed in the project and provides a logical grouping for developers trying to navigate your API e.g.
And that's all there is to it, a self-documenting REST style Web API service which can be maintained by developers, for developers - pretty neat!
Nevermind again, I got it to finally work. Thanks.


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Businesses that make use of products to be able to clear contamination in water and also soil have to make sure they will have the proper products to utilize. Whenever they're handling chlorinated solvents, they'll want to make sure they will purchase premium quality goods such as potassium permanganate in order to get the job done right. It's critical to ensure the substance utilized is as pure as is possible to stay away from virtually any troubles and in order to ensure it's going to work effectively. This implies they are going to need to make certain they will choose the best supplier in order to obtain the items from.
The chemicals used need to be high quality and also should be free of any kind of contaminants in order to supply the greatest results. that must purchase something like this for their own company can desire to make certain they choose a supplier that has solely the highest quality goods. is a good idea to try to find a supplier who has had their own chemical substances tested via an independent research laboratory. The test results for this will not be partial, thus it makes it easy to see exactly what the true quality is for the product and also permits the business proprietor to make certain they'll know just what they may be acquiring. The business owner might use the laboratory reports to be able to check what exactly is inside the chemical as well as ensure it really is the proper strength for their particular needs.
In case you'll need to have products to be able to help cope with contaminants, make certain you will take a little time in order to uncover a supplier that will offer the best goods for you. Take a look at a supplier of sodium permanganate on the web today in order to learn more with regards to their items, the screening utilized in order to determine purity and also quality, and to ensure they will have precisely what you happen to be trying to find. They'll ensure you acquire just what you will have to have in order to help receive the results you're seeking.


Essential viewing on money and the banking system. Money As Debt is a fast-paced and highly entertaining animated feature by artist and videographer Paul Grignon. It explains today's magically perverse DEBT-MONEY SYSTEM in terms that are easy to understand.


Open House. Open House on Sunday, January 13, 2019 1:00PM - 3:00PM .
Please visit our Open House at 41785 YARROW CENTRAL RD in Yarrow.
Open House on Sunday, January 13, 2019 1:00PM - 3:00PM .
Welcome to "Yarrow Life"! Located on the quite side of Yarrow Central is a cozy home that has recently undergone a major addition. Transforming it into a fantastic family home with over 2000 sqft of living space, 5 beds 3 full baths & a den. The finishings throughout the house give this place a rustic yet modern feel with some pipe decor & wood trim. The renovated kitchen boasts concrete counter tops, an undermount sink, gas range and decorative shelving. This beautiful home sits on a gorgeous .43 acre lot with a huge private backyard backing onto a creek & farmland. There's lots of parking here with the large driveway, oversized garage/shop, and separate parking for an RV & boat, so bring all your toys!


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Review: The most exciting person on TV – Taraji P. Henson as Cookie – returns to claim her 'Empire'
Taraji P. Henson is fabulous as ever as Cookie Lyon in the Season 2 premiere of "Empire."
(Chuck Hodes / Fox)
By Robert LloydTelevision Critic
Los Angeles Times Television Critic
"Empire," last year's chart-topping, paradigm-shifting, prime-time, hip-hop soap opera success, returns for its second season Wednesday on Fox.
If it earned only one major Emmy nomination — the one it most deserved, for Taraji P. Henson's portrayal of Cookie Lyon, the formerly incarcerated wife of presently incarcerated music mogul Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) — it occupied the public conversation and media interest in the way that broadcast-network dramas rarely do now. It was the No. 1 broadcast series, with a hit soundtrack album for related good measure, and demonstrated that a series in which nearly every major character is a person of color can cut across demographics and kill in the ratings.
The beauty of "Empire," built-in from the beginning, and what makes it so widely appealing, is that it is total pulp in a really nice binding: "Dynasty" played as "King Lear." It's aggressively melodramatic, but in a way that doesn't insult the intelligence — it is outlandish, but not ridiculous, and not the sort of series you would need to qualify as a guilty pleasure. It's solidly made to be exactly what it is.
FULL COVERAGE: All things 'Empire'
"Lear" was specifically on Danny Strong's mind when he pitched "Empire" to co-creator Lee Daniels. (And the series still borrows titles from the text of Shakespeare plays.) But Cookie and Lucious are less Shakespearean figures than they are Olympian — a wrangling Zeus and Hera who share children and jockey for power and whose arguments manifest as fires and floods and earthquakes in the precincts below.
The current season picks up three months after the last, with Lucious in jail without bail, charged with the murder of a troublesome old associate, retainer and friend. (Well, he did it, after all.) Jail, of course, is a place where, being who he is, he has some power — a power that will be tested with the arrival of an old rival (Chris Rock) on the cellblock. (The diagnosis of rapidly advancing ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, that began the series and started Lucious thinking about his legacy and sons has been conveniently revised to the less grave myasthenia gravis — the show can go on.)
Cookie, meanwhile, with the support of rapping son Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray) and business-school son Andre (Trai Byers), is also trying to gain control of the label with an infusion of outside cash. (Marisa Tomei guest stars as the outside infuser.) Singing son Jamal (Jussie Smollett), whose homosexuality drove a wedge between them in Season 1, is currently aligned with his father.
If you can't keep track of who's siding with whom at any moment, who's in, who's out, who's up, who's down, it hardly matters because it's going to change by the end of the hour, anyway.
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But for all the switchback plotting, the sudden revelations that bring some earlier plot or plotline to naught, the show never feels too obviously manipulative or out of control. This is in part because of the restrained way it's shot and acted; things get crazy for the space of a musical number, or a nervous breakdown, but mostly it purrs, even when violence is near.
There is good work up and down the cast (the smaller roles do much to set the tone, and to relieve the tension), but it remains Henson's show in the end, both on the page and in the performing. In the battle for control of the corporate kingdom, Cookie remains the underdog, the one who has to live by her wits.
She is never not thinking — nor is Henson. It's the sort of role that would have gone to Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck in Hollywood's golden age, when Henson would have had her choice only of the sort of roles that would have gone to Butterfly McQueen or Hattie McDaniel.
For all her fabulousness, there is no camp in what she does, in a role that could very easily go over the top and stay there. Whatever else happens around her, however much the action wanders over to Lucious or to her now-competitive, now-cooperative sons, everything is most interesting as it relates to Cookie, because Henson makes her so vivid, so funny, so formidable, and so touching, and it's a delight to watch her work.
There's nothing on television more exciting.
'Empire'
Where: Fox
Rating: TV-14-L (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14, with an advisory for coarse language)
Jimmy Fallon spoofs 'Empire' on 'The Tonight Show' with 'Jimpire'
'Empire's' Gabourey Sidibe talks up Becky, 'the smartest person in the room'
10 things we want in Season 2 of 'Empire'
TelevisionOpinion
Robert Lloyd
Robert Lloyd has been a Los Angeles Times television critic since 2003.
What's on TV Wednesday: 'Jane the Virgin' on the CW
What's on TV Wed., July 17, 2019
Emmy nominee Jared Harris on the timeliness of 'Chernobyl' — and why he's OK with those British accents
Jared Harris talks about his Emmy-nominated role as a Soviet scientist in HBO's surprise hit, "Chernobyl."
Mike Fleiss, the creator of "The Bachelor" franchise, was ordered to stay away from his pregnant wife by a judge. Could the franchise be in trouble?
Latest Television
'Schitt's Creek' stars Dan Levy, Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara hit pay dirt with 2019 Emmy nominations
After five seasons, "Schitt's Creek" received its first-ever Emmy nominations.
Commentary: Fantasy collides with reality as Emmy voters reward 'Thrones,' rebuke Trump
Emmy standouts "When They See Us" and "Game of Thrones" reflect our cultural moment's profound ambivalence.
The complete list of 2019 Emmy nominations
Brian Sieman close to finalizing deal to be next Clippers TV broadcaster
Brian Sieman is close to finalizing a deal to become the new television voice of the Clippers, succeeding the soon-to-be Hall of Famer Ralph Lawler in the play-by-play role, the Los Angeles Times has learned.
'The Act's' Joey King hopes her Emmy nom brings justice to Gypsy Rose Blanchard
The first-time Emmy nominee said she wants the Hulu series to change perceptions about Blanchard, who is serving jail time for the death of her mother.


After Halong Bay Tour, Sapa Tours, ... if you have free time in Hanoi you can take a walking tour to explore the real life of Hanoi old quarter people and try some traditional local food or enjoy your time with Hanoi Cooking Class Tour.
You will be picked up in the morning/ after noon and transfered to the Cooking Class center restaurant restaurant, here you will enjoy Vietnamese welcome drink. A brief introduction to Vietnamese cuisine will be given, highlighting the contents of a traditional Vietnamese meal. Then take a short walk to Dong Xuan market, where you will be shown around by the Chef who will highlight the interesting goods on sale. Upon arriving back at the restaurant, the cooking class in Hanoi will begin and you will be able to sample some local goods, as well as getting all of the recipes printed for you to take home. On completion of the cooking class, enjoy the meal you have prepared. This gives you a chance to chat to the chef in the comfort of restaurant the dining area and enjoy a drink whilst you relax. After the lesson receive certificates in cooking class in Hanoi and you can also purchase some of the Vietnamese spices, tools and books that you have used during the day.
Notice: Start from 9.00 - 13.00 " for Lunch" or 16.00 to 20.00 " for Dinner".


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Artwork by Canadian Louis-Philippe Demers, which shows an artificial skull with robotic eyes which follows the motion of a visitor, during a press preview for the Robots exhibition held at the Science Museum in London, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017. The exhibition which shows 500 years of mechanical and robotic advances is open to the public form Feb. 8 through to Sept. 3. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) (AP)
Will the AI jobs revolution bring about human revolt, too?
The increasing capabilities of artificial intelligence may soon put even white-collar professionals out of work
Check out this article! https://www.salon.com/2017/10/29/will-the-ai-jobs-revolution-bring-about-human-revolt-too_partner/
October 29, 2017 12:29PM (UTC)
This piece originally appeared on The Conversation.
The rise of artificial intelligence threatens to eliminate jobs once considered impossible to automate. One series of papers by Oxford researchers ranks jobs by their estimated susceptibility to automation. Among those most rated likely to vanish — because they involve work that AI can increasingly accomplish less expensively — are real estate brokers, insurance claims adjusters and sports referees. Could anything good come of mass unemployment?
History tells us that when technology squeezes people out of jobs, they revolt. Industrialization in 19th-century England, for example, gave rise to Luddite activism. Unfortunately, history also suggests that protests of the marginalized don't solve the underlying problem. The British Army suppressed the Luddites; the government passed laws to protect factory equipment and industrialization marched on. As Marx went on to theorize, in a capitalist society, the government is co-opted by the wealthy classes.
What happens, though, when that skilled upper class is itself put out of a job? That's the question that mass AI-based unemployment would pose. What would happen when well-educated lawyers, journalists, bureaucrats, corporate managers and other creative-class knowledge workers can't find work? Could the rise of AI lead to a white-collar rebellion?
Extremely capable AI
When I was a Ph.D. student in the mid-1990s working in a subfield of AI known as computer vision — the automated processing of imagery — I used to think that the grand challenge of the field was to develop software that could take an arbitrary image and output a text description of it. At the time, computers couldn't tell if a photo contained a human face or a bowl of macaroni and cheese. It was a problem I didn't think I would live to see solved.
Just two decades later, a combination of advances in hardware, big data, parallel processing and neural networks have made impressive headway. Not only are AI systems increasingly able to describe image content, they are gaining significant footholds in translating between languages, grading essays and composing music. Modern AI systems are already conducting financial analysis, writing news articles and identifying legal precedents.
Old ideas that computers can't do certain human things — be creative, express emotion, empathize — are being tossed out one by one. A visceral way to feel AI's looming approach to human intelligence is to view the output from Google's DeepDream, in which a trained neural network run in reverse produces eerie, dream-like images that seem genuinely creative and uncomfortably human.
It's hard to overstate what this and related advances portend. Even technologists who made fortunes paving the way for the AI future have begun to sound an alarm. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, whose self-driving car technology includes plenty of AI, has called AI humanity's "biggest existential threat." Bill Gates seems to think the crisis is self-evident, saying he doesn't "understand why some people are not concerned." And if futurist Ray Kurzweil is right, by 2045, computer intelligence will match or exceed human abilities in every way — what he calls the "singularity."
Professionals plotting revolution
But the job apocalypse might have a silver lining. The Luddites of the 1800s were unsuccessful for a number of reasons: They were politically marginal. They were not well-organized. They misdiagnosed the problem as being either about the technology or their employers. And, at least in some tellings, they had little public support.
In contrast, those involved in a white-collar movement would have strong ties to influential people. They would organize effectively. They would understand the larger problem as an imperfect economic system whose pathologies technology merely amplifies. And, they would have the rhetorical skills to draw the sympathy of the public — who are likely to be themselves jobless, too.
Unlike other worker revolts, a white-collar rebellion could move the levers of power so as to uproot the underlying problem: a politico-economic system that concentrates wealth, increases inequality, protects corporations from public accountability and fails to separate wealth and state.
I expect the AI job takeover to pose a problem primarily because its benefits will go to the few who own the technology, while all the harm will fall on the rest of us. It is a political problem, not a technological one.
In my view, technology amplifies the inequities of capitalism. What AI will do is to turn nearly everyone into displaced workers, even some who were previously among the elite.
Kentaro Toyama, Associate Professor, Technology and Global Development, University of Michigan
Kentaro Toyama is W.K. Kellogg Associate Professor at the University of Michigan's School of Information and a fellow of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
MORE FROM Kentaro Toyama
A.i. Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence The Conversation
Product equality for female astronauts
Linking sustainability & global strife
Hard to remove mentally ill presidents
Netanyahu's gutless opposition


Amazing Image Quality: Photographs and recordings caught with the D3400 are as lively and exact as the minutes they safeguard, with no optical low-pass channel required. Shooting into a great degree low light is no issue because of the CMOS sensor. Make representations with rich, characteristic skin tones and wonderfully obscured foundations. The photographs you offer will clearly astonish.
Catch Every Moment: Press and hold the D3400's shade catch and catch 5 FPS ceaselessly with full self-adjust execution. Change a snapshot of quick activity into an exciting photograph succession, at that point share it through SnapBridge for all to see.
Spotlight on the Details: Nikon cameras have a portion of the best self-adjust frameworks accessible. The D3400's AF framework rapidly procures your subject and gives exact center, notwithstanding amid fast shooting and low-light circumstances. The 18-55mm focal point enables you to get very close with stunning sharpness while the 70-300mm focal point gives you a chance to zoom to get shots you would never get with a cell phone.
Nikon's new AF-P DX NIKKOR focal points utilize a venturing engine for smooth and calm self-adjusting, so just the hints existing apart from everything else are recorded with D3400's inside mic. Make time-slip by recordings, ultra-smooth moderate movement successions, and the sky is the limit from there.
SnapBridge has changed the manner in which cameras and cell phones cooperate—and just Nikon has it. Take a photo with the D3400 and it's naturally exchanged for your good cell phone or tablet, prepared to share.
Photographs and recordings caught with the D3400 lenses and a magnificent NIKKOR focal point are as lively and similar to the minutes they safeguard. Shoot into a great degree low light without an issue. Stop quick activity in its tracks. Make pictures with rich, normal skin tones and wonderfully obscured foundations. The photographs you offer will astound everybody even yourself.
Bluetooth devours less power than Wi-Fi and this enables the camera to keep up a lasting association and exchange all photographs (or 2-megapixel duplicates) instead of basically exchanging on request. There's additionally a choice to proceed with exchanges while the camera is turned off. There's no remote control work, however.
With the D3300 you can take photos and movies at a high resolution. Thanks to the large image sensor, the smallest details are recorded with excellent sharpness. It has 24.2 megapixels and with the wireless mobile adapter, you can upload all your images via a smartphone or tablet.
With the ISO range of 100-12800, you can also take clear pictures in low light with your Nikon D3300 DSLR. You can also take action photos at five frames per second to capture moving images better. He also has thirteen different effects to edit your photos and videos. Because of its low price, it belongs to the cheap digital cameras.
Buyers are very satisfied with this product and therefore give a positive advice. The quality of the camera is top and this for a cheap price. He makes sharp photos and has many uses. He is not too heavy, but according to one user, he is too vulnerable. A nice digital camera offer!
The digital camera with the lowest price is this Nikon product. The high image quality ensures excellent and clear photos. The device has various effects and you can easily upload photos and videos via the adapter. Of course, you can also record videos with it.
Below are some of the reasons the Nikon D3300 bundle deals are worth it.
Video: this device also makes videos with a Full HD picture quality. The speed of the images can go up to 50p or 60p to ensure smooth images even with very fast movements.
Photo: the device has a resolution of 24.2 megapixels so you are assured of photos with excellent quality.
Adapter: with the wireless adapter you can easily transfer photos or videos to a smartphone or a tablet.
Inexpensive: because of the low price, especially for buyers with a limited budget will opt for this product.
Weight: for a few buyers, the camera is rather heavy so that it can take care of the arms or hands after prolonged use. Even the best Nikon D3300 lens won't help here, but you should just work on getting used to.
Buying a Sony A6000 refurbished can be a better option than buying a new one—if you know what things to look for. A "refurbished" item is one that has undergone thorough inspection and testing before finally being sold, making it as good as a brand new item.
However, buying a refurbished item also comes with some potential disadvantages. The key is to find a reputable seller who has garnered good reviews from previous buyers.
The following are the advantages of buying a Sony refurbished A6000, as well as the trade-offs you might encounter.
We all know that Sony is among the most popular and trusted camera makers in the world. That makes Sony cameras quite out of most people's budget range.
However, the A6000 refurbished easily sidesteps that disadvantage. It's not sold at its original price, but you can expect to enjoy the same quality.
Nowadays, you only have to type the right words and click the right buttons to get the best deals out of online sellers. Finding a quality sony refurbished camera has become a walk in the park and you no longer have to scour all online stores to find one.
As we have mentioned, the quality is almost guaranteed. Before a product gets sold, it will be examined and tested to make sure that it's in excellent condition. The necessary repairs, if there are any, will also be done.
The price is typically cheap, but you should be careful of those that cost too cheap to be true.
Some are sold as is,' meaning you can't return them after you've bought them, even if you find some flaws on the item.
The warranty for refurbished cameras is normally very much shorter than those of the new ones.
It's sometimes impossible to notice the flaws or impairments until you've used the camera for quite a while. By that time, the warranty has probably already expired.
For more info on the Sony A6000 Mirrorless camera go to sonya6000blog.com.