BUDAPEST,  (Reuters) – Thousands of Hungarians thronged the streets of Budapest yesterday in the fourth and largest protest in a week against what they see as the increasingly authoritarian rule of right-wing nationalist Viktor Orban.

Braving sub-zero temperatures, setting off flares and waving Hungarian and European Union flags, about 10,000 demonstrators walked from historic Heroes’ Square towards parliament and then state TV in a march dubbed “Merry Xmas Mr. Prime Minister.” The march was largely peaceful until police fired tear gas at protesters jostling outside the TV station late at night. Footage showed people crouching and blinded by the gas.

The demonstration was organised by opposition parties, students, and trade unions to demand a free media, withdrawal of a labour law increasing overtime, and an independent judiciary. “All I want for Xmas is democracy,” read one banner. Hundreds of police in riot gear shepherded what was one of the biggest demonstrations Orban has faced since he rose to power in 2010 and began wielding his large parliamentary majority to pressure courts, media and non-government groups.(Reuters)…[+]

Five-year-old Joshua Ru­fus is lit­er­al­ly get­ting a help­ing hand from a Point Lisas-based en­gi­neer­ing com­pa­ny. Joshua lost part of his right hand three years ago when he in­no­cent­ly placed a scratch bomb in­to a light­ed deya dur­ing Di­vali cel­e­bra­tions at his par­ent’s Debe Trace, Debe home. The ex­plo­sion scarred him for life.

Two weeks ago, Guardian Me­dia high­light­ed Joshua’s sto­ry and it touched Deo N Lall, the founder of Qualitech Ma­chin­ing Ser­vices Ltd, who is of­fer­ing to as­sist the child with a 3D-print­ed pros­thet­ic hand. Joshua has learned to adapt to his dis­abil­i­ty, learn­ing to write with his left hand. He is able to dress him­self and do most ba­sic tasks that any child his age can do.

Lall said his com­pa­ny had been ex­per­i­ment­ing with a 3D print­er to make ar­ti­fi­cial limbs. “We be­lieve we may be in a po­si­tion to as­sist Joshua in a very small, but ben­e­fi­cial way, by fit­ting him with such a limb to as­sist him in his every­day tasks. It will, of course, be done at no cost to him,” Lall stat­ed.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

A month of gilets jaunes, or yellow vests, protests have taken a further toll on the popularity of President Emmanuel Macron, a new poll showed on Sunday, with analysts saying he will be forced to change his style of governing. Around 66,000 protesters turned out again on Saturday on the fifth round of anti-government demonstrations, which sprung up over diesel taxes last month.

The figure was about half the number of the previous weekend, suggesting momentum was waning and the most acute political crisis of Macron’s 19-month presidency was coming to an end. Around 69,000 security forces were mobilised across France on Saturday, down from 89,000 the weekend before when 2,000 people were detained.

“It is calming down, but what remains of it all is a strong feeling of hatred towards Macron,” said veteran sociologist Herve Le Bras from the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS).(theguardian)…[+]

KATOWICE – Nearly 200 countries overcame political divisions late yesterday to agree on rules for implementing a landmark global climate deal, but critics say it is not ambitious enough to prevent the dangerous effects of global warming.

After two weeks of talks in the Polish city of Katowice, nations finally reached consensus on a more detailed framework for the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to limit a rise in average world temperatures to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

“It is not easy to find agreement on a deal so specific and technical. Through this package you have made a thousand little steps forward together. You can feel proud,” Polish president of the talks Michal Kurtyka told delegates. After he struck the gavel to signal agreement had been reached, ministers joined him on the stage, hugging and laughing in signs of relief after the marathon talks. Before the talks started, many expected the deal would not be as robust as needed. The unity which underpinned the Paris talks has fragmented, and U.S. President Donald Trump intends to pull his country – one of the world’s biggest emitters – out of the pact.(Reuters)…[+]

A St Elizabeth woman is asking the Government to help her get her son back from her husband of 11 years who, she said, sold their assets, moved back to his native India, and has alienated her from her nine-year-old son after she asked for a divorce.

Sheffanesse Brown, 32, from Maggotty, said she finally found the courage to part ways with her husband after visiting his family in Mumbai, India and seeing first-hand how abusive her father-in-law was towards her mother-in-law. “All I could think about was, that was going to be me when I get older,” Brown told the Jamaica Observer.

Brown, who does not want her current address to be disclosed, said she is at her wits’ end because her husband has prevented her from contacting or seeing her son, who she last saw in April 2017. According to Brown, she has been trying to get back her son ever since, but several Jamaican lawyers have told her that they are unable to help because Jamaica has no jurisdiction in India.(Jamaica Observer)…[+]

A Facebook bug let app developers see photos users had uploaded but never posted, the social network has disclosed. For two weeks in September, an error in the way Facebook shares photos with third parties meant that apps could see not only photos users had posted on their newsfeed, but also pictures in other parts of the site – on Facebook Stories or Facebook’s Marketplace, for instance.

The bug also “impacted photos that people uploaded to Facebook but chose not to post”, a Facebook developer, Tomer Bar, said in a statement on Friday. Importantly, the only applications that had access to the hidden photos were those to which users had already granted access to all their public photos, through the company’s API (application programming interface), Bar said. “Currently, we believe this may have affected up to 6.8 million users and up to 1,500 apps built by 876 developers.”

Users affected are those who had given permission to third-party apps to access their photos through the Facebook login function. There is no evidence that the bug led to any large-scale extraction of photos from the site. “We’re sorry this happened,” Bar added. “Early next week we will be rolling out tools for app developers that will allow them to determine which people using their app might be impacted by this bug. We will be working with those developers to delete the photos from impacted users.”(theguardian)…[+]

GENEVA – The head of the U.N. agency for HIV and AIDS is stepping down in June, six months before his term ends, after an independent panel said that his “defective leadership” tolerated “a culture of harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying, and abuse of power”. Michel Sidibe announced the decision yesterday at the end of a three-day board meeting of UNAIDS that examined the panel’s report, the agency said in a statement.

The four-member panel, in a 70-page report issued last Friday, said that a “patriarchal culture of favouritism and cronyism” had allowed “impunity and retaliation”. Sidibe, a Malian national, has been executive director since 2009 of the Geneva-based agency which has some 670 staff worldwide. “He informed the UNAIDS Board that its meeting in June 2019 would be his last Board meeting and he would complete his duties at the end of June 2019,” said a UNAIDS statement on Thursday night. Sidibe was quoted as saying in the UNAID statement: “I look forward to an inclusive, transparent and open dialogue and collaboration with staff in shaping a new UNAIDS.”(Reuters)…[+]

A member of the Jamaica Defence Force is now in police custody after allegedly stabbing his wife to death. The deceased has been identified as Nordraka Williams-Burnett, an attorney-at-law at the law firm Townsend, Whyte and Porter.

One of the lead attorneys at the firm Christopher Townsend told The Gleaner that he was informed that the husband allegedly attacked his wife sometime this morning at their Kirkland Heights house in St Andrew. This afternoon, police personnel escorted the soldier into a Ministry of Health van outside their house to be taken for treatment.

Only moments earlier, undertakers removed Williams-Burnett’s body from the rented two-storey house she shared with her husband, their two children and their landlord.

The couple’s two daughters are now staying with relatives. “A nice Christian people, decent and go church every Sunday,” said a neighbour, who asked not to be identified.

The neighbour said he was shocked to learn of the murder. Another man, who identified himself as a cousin of the deceased, sat distraught in a car near the crime scene. Williams-Burnett headed the conveyance department at the law firm Townsend Whyte and Porter in downtown Kingston.(Jamaica Gleaner)…[+]

NEW YORK – President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison yesterday for crimes including orchestrating hush payments to women in violation of campaign laws before the 2016 election, and he promised to keep cooperating with the U.S. government against his former boss.

The sentence, which capped a stunning about-face by a lawyer who once vowed to “take a bullet” for Trump, was handed down by a judge in New York on the same day as news that the publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid had struck a deal with prosecutors to avoid charges over its role in one of two hush payments involving Trump.

The publisher admitted the payment was aimed at influencing the 2016 election, contradicting Trump’s statements. The twin developments highlighted the growing political and legal risks for Trump from a months-long investigation into the payments by federal prosecutors. Some legal experts said Trump could be charged after leaving office. Justice Department policy is not to indict a sitting president.

“These prosecutors have charged or reached agreement with everyone involved in this process save one notable exception,” said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University. “It seems likely that this effort is directed at building a larger case against Donald Trump.”(Reuters)…[+]

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) has made history as the first member of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS)  to decriminalize marijuana for medical purposes and scientific research.

According to a release yesterday from the OECS, speaking from SVG, Minister for Agriculture, Saboto Caesar said the passing of the Bill in Parliament on the 11th December signified the Caribbean island was now positioned to become a globally leading medicinal cannabis hub not only in terms of high quality production but research.

“The planning of this innovative industry has been carefully conducted over a long period of time in close consultation with the agricultural sector and many different stakeholders to reach the level of maturity we see today.  “There is broad recognition and buy-in of the economic benefits this tightly controlled and regulated industry is expected to bring in terms of direct employment, the creation of support industries and foreign investment.(stabroeknews)…[+]