Amjad Sabri shot dead at 45

Amjad Sabri shot dead at 45, One of Pakistan’s best known Sufi musicians, Amjad Sabri, has been shot dead in the southern port city of Karachi, triggering an outpouring of grief over what police have described an “act of terror”.

Sabri, 45, was shot several times on Wednesday while driving in his car in the city’s Liaqatabad area, when a motorcycle pulled up alongside the vehicle and the attackers opened fire, Pakistan’s English language newspaper Dawn reported.

Sabri’s brother, who was also in the vehicle, was wounded.

“Two riders used 30-bore pistols to shoot Sabri five times. The bullet to the head took the qawwal’s life. The attackers took the Hassan Square route to escape,” Inspector General Mushtaq Mehar told Dawn.

“It was a targeted killing and an act of t*rror*sm,” Muqaddas Haider, a senior police officer told AFP news agency, without naming possible suspects.

His killing was met with shock and condemnation. Neighbours congregated outside the singer’s home to offer condolences to his relatives, while TV channels broadcast recordings of his music in tribute.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Fakhre Alam, the Chairman of the Sindh Board of Film Censors, claimed on Twitter that Sabri had earlier submitted an application for security, but the home department refused to follow up on it.

Amjad Sabri had submitted an application for protection as per his family but Home department did NOTHING…Shameful & disgusting
— Fakhr-e-Alam (@falamb3) June 22, 2016

Game Of Thrones Season 6 Episode 9

Game Of Thrones Season 6 Episode 9, Season 6, Episode 9, ‘Battle of the Bastards’
“You’re going to die tomorrow, Lord Bolton,” Sansa Stark told her husband early in “Game of Thrones” on Sunday. “Sleep well.”

And I’m going to enjoy watching it, she could have added. Or we could have added. Because I’m guessing most of us did.

Ramsay Bolton’s demise was arguably the most eagerly anticipated death ever on “Game of Thrones” and the show handled it with flair, dispatching him in a poetic, canine-fueled fashion that was no less satisfying for being telegraphed early on. I haven’t fed my hounds in seven days, Ramsay told Jon Snow and friends during the pre-battle trash-talking session, at which point I suspect most of us guessed who would ultimately end up in the dog dish.

Whether you actually sleep well Sunday night probably depends on your tolerance for blood, guts, dead giants and other hallmarks of grim medieval battle, as presented in the tense, grimy and at times oddly beautiful clash that preceded Ramsay’s end. (Though if you’re still watching “Game of Thrones,” your tolerance for such things is probably pretty high.)

As directed by Miguel Sapochnik, who also oversaw last season’s terrific “Hardhome” episode, the lengthy sequence was terrifying, gripping and exhilarating, sometimes all at once, a sweeping display of all the different ways one can die on the battlefield. There were slashings, shootings and spearings aplenty, of course, but also horse tramplings, neck-bitings and, in one nervy, claustrophobic sequence, a near suffocation by Jon Snow as his army found itself caught between a shield-lined pincer and a sturdy bank of dead soldiers. He emerged in time to see the Arryn cavalry arrive, beckoned by Sansa’s letter, presumably, to turn the tide of the clash.

Sansa watched them from horseback next to Littlefinger, and the ramifications of his aid – what it will cost, what she will be willing to give up – will have to be sorted out next week. But on Sunday the shot affirmed Sansa’s arrival, finally, as a major player in the story. She spent the episode alternately calculating, cleareyed – Rickon’s dead, she told Jon early on – and above all, forthright and confident, asserting her role as a leader in the effort and scolding Jon for ignoring her insights into Ramsay. By the end she was observing a victory she’d orchestrated and lingering for an extra look at the mauling of the man who brutalized her. Her small grin as she walked away from the Ramsay buffet signaled her delight at the end of both her former tormentor and her status as a woman who would be vulnerable to monsters like him. (Monsters like Littlefinger, however…)

We’ll have more on the Bastard Battle later but first let’s revisit the other big subplot, as Daenerys Stormborn had a few words for the slave masters who launched their attack last week. Those words included “surrender or die” and “thanks for the ships,” as we saw another thrilling action sequence that I believe reunited the dragon triplets for the first time since they were quite young.

1942-2016, Muhammad Ali Die at 74

1942-2016, Muhammad Ali Die at 74, The reverberations. Not the rumbles, the reverberations. The death of Muhammad Ali will undoubtedly move people’s minds to his epic boxing matches against Joe Frazier, George Foreman, or there will be retrospectives about his epic “rumbles” against racism and war. But it’s the reverberations that we have to understand in order to see Muhammad Ali as what he remains: the most important athlete to ever live. It’s the reverberations that are our best defense against real-time efforts to pull out his political teeth and turn him into a harmless icon suitable for mass consumption.

When Dr. Martin Luther King came out against the war in Vietnam in 1967, he was criticized by the mainstream press and his own advisors who told him to not focus on “foreign” policy. But Dr. King forged forward, and to justify his new stand, said publicly, “Like Muhammad Ali puts it, we are all-black and brown and poor-victims of the same system of oppression.”

When Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island, he said that Muhammad Ali made him feel like the walls were not there.

When John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their fists on the medal stand in Mexico City, one of their demands was to “Restore Muhammad Ali’s title.” They called Ali “the warrior-saint of the Black Athlete’s Revolt.”

When Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) volunteers in Lowndes County, Alabama launched an independent political party in 1965, their new group was the first to use the symbol of a black panther. Beneath the jungle cat’s black silhouette was a slogan straight from the champ: “WE Are the Greatest.”

When Billie Jean King was aiming to win equal rights for women in sports, Muhammad Ali would say to her, “Billie Jean King! YOU ARE TS-EX- QUEEN!” She said that this made her feel brave in her own skin.

The question is why? Why was he able to create this kind of radical ripple throughout the culture and across the world?

What Muhammad Ali did-in a culture that worships sports and violence as well as a culture that idolizes black athletes while criminalizing black skin-was redefine what it meant to be tough and collectivize the very idea of courage. Through the Champ’s words on the streets and deeds in the ring, bravery was not only standing up to Sonny Liston. It was speaking truth to power, no matter the cost. He was a boxer whose very presence taught a simple and dangerous lesson fifty years ago: “real men” fight for peace and “real women” raise their voices and join the fray. Or as Bryant Gumbel said years ago, “Muhammad Ali refused to be afraid. And being that way, he gave other people courage.”

My favorite Ali line is not him saying, “I hospitalized a rock. I beat up a brick. I’m so bad I make medicine sick” or anything of the sort. It was when he was suspended from boxing for refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam War. He was attending a rally for fair housing in Louisville when he said,

Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality…. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg praying mantis

Ruth Bader Ginsburg praying mantis, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, at age 83, has a new life accomplishment: namesake of a praying mantis species.

Researchers at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History on Wednesday said they were deeming a new species as the llomantis ginsburgae, named after Ginsburg because of her “relentless fight for gender equality” and out of “appreciation” of her jabots, the neck accessories that she frequently dons.
The insects’ neck plates are similar to them, the authors said.

Ginsburg was the second ever women nominated to the court, and she is one of three serving today.
The new species was identified primarily by comparing distinctive qualities of female genitalia, which is largely uncommon, Sydney Brannoch, one of the researchers, said in a video explaining the discovery.

60-Year-Old Bikini Model

60-Year-Old Bikini Model, It’s hard to stand out in the modeling industry. When you consider the vast majority of fashion shows, most of the models are tall, thin teenagers and twenty-somethings. It’s in no way reflective of the real U.S. population, especially given that the average woman lives to be 84 years old.

This is what makes Yazemeenah Rossi so exceptional: She’s a 60-year-old woman with a successful modeling career, and she can rock a swimsuit campaign just as well as (if not better than) Kendall Jenner.

After successful campaigns with the fashion label The Dreslyn and the lingerie brand Land of Women, the France native has been making headlines left and right. Upon meeting Rossi myself, I quickly understood why she’s become so popular: She is just as magnetic in person as she is in her photos.

Rossi is tall and ethereal with striking white hair. “I kept my hair natural because I found it very beautiful, and I couldn’t stand the idea of putting chemicals on my head,” she explains. “I’ve always found it ridiculous to hide the truth, to ‘fake’ it.”

If you’re wondering how difficult the look is to maintain, Rossi says it’s as easy as leaving your hair alone. “I never blow dry [my hair] and use very simple, natural products,” she says. (She doesn’t even go to a hairdresser – she simply trims her hair herself.)

Rossi’s modeling career began in Paris at the age of 28, when she was hired to replace a model who canceled an appearance at the last minute. Since that initial gig, Rossi’s 30-year career has taken her all over the world – a perfect match considering her other occupation is photography. That’s right: She makes part of her living doing fine art photography, snapping portraits of people as well as landscapes.

But back to modeling: One thing many people find refreshing about Rossi is that she actually lookslike herself in photos, which are frequently posted to her popular Instagram account. “I use the natural light in specific ways to avoid retouching my photos,” she says. In most cases, she says clients only minimally retouch her pictures (such as in her campaigns for The Dreslyn and Land of Women).

Unfortunately; however, Rossi admits she has experienced companies that took the retouching a little too far. “Sometimes I barely recognize myself – my hair color is changed, my teeth are enlarged, I have zero wrinkles…it’s quite a weird feeling.”

As for keeping her complexion looking gorgeous, she’s got a few great (and inexpensive!) tricks up her sleeve. “I never buy skincare products,” she confesses, instead opting to scrub her skin with olive oil and sugar or salt. She also says she applies organic natural oils or essential oils.

Overall, Rossi says she likes to focus on things other than how old she is. “We have no power over aging and, ultimately, on death, so it is better to embrace every single day,” she says. To do so, she says she maintains a healthy number of hobbies, including ceramics, cooking, designing clothes, and doing yoga, the last of which she’s done for more than 30 years.

While Rossi prefers not to give advice, per se (“I never give advice, just information about my own experiences”), she does have some words of wisdom for us. “I regard aging in the same way as my hair – I never think, ‘I am having a bad hair day’; in hard times, I never forget that I am alive,” she says, adding, “I never forget that the sun is always shining above the clouds.”

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