President Desi Bouterse will have to decide the fate of Remy Pollack, district commissioner of Commewijne, who exceeded his jurisdiction when he promised lots to people who had to make a payment. However, the lots were not available,” said Regional Development (RO) Minister Edgar Dikan. Environmental Planning, Land and Forest Management Minister (RGB), Steven Relyveld, has already made it clear that Pollack was conducting unlawful activities via a foundation. Minister Dikan also said the same. The case was once again discussed in Parliament on Tuesday.  DC Pollack had to defend his actions in a letter which has already been sent to the president.  “After it became public knowledge we summoned the DC in question and the colleague from RGB,” said Minister Dikan. “We made it clear that the activities had to stop and we also asked him to defend his actions.” …[+]

USA – A 93-year-old second world war veteran from the United States has been reunited with his wartime girlfriend in Australia after more than 70 years apart.

Norwood Thomas and 88-year-old Joyce Morris laughed on Wednesday as they wrapped their arms around each other after Thomas flew from Virginia to the southern Australian city of Adelaide to reconnect with his long-lost love. “This is about the most wonderful thing that could have happened to me,” Thomas said, in a reunion broadcast on television. “Good,” Morris replied with a laugh. “We’re going to have a wonderful fortnight.” Morris was a 17-year-old British girl and Thomas was a 21-year-old paratrooper when they first met in London shortly before D-day. After the war, he returned to the US.(THE GUARDIAN)...[+]

ENGLAND – Harrowing details of Milly Dowler’s final hours as she was raped and murdered by Levi Bellfield have emerged in a statement from her family. They said they hoped her soul could “finally rest in peace”.

Last month, Surrey Police said serial killer Bellfield had admitted the schoolgirl’s abduction, rape and killing for the first time. The family said they were issuing the statement because they believed what had been revealed so far did not reflect Bellfield’s “true heinousness” to the general public. “We believe that they should know what Bellfield did to our beautiful daughter and sister Milly,” the Dowlers said. They said 47-year-old Bellfield abducted Milly and assaulted her near Walton station. He then drove her to his mother’s house and raped her. After this the killer took Milly to another location where her rape and torture continued, until he strangled her the following day.(BBC)…[+]

MACEDONIA – Macedonia has begun building a new razor-wire fence parallel to an existing one on its border with Greece to make it harder for migrants to enter the Balkan country. Since November only refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq have been allowed to cross the border on their journey to western Europe, but migrants from other countries have still tried to get across. ‘The idea is to send a message to migrants that there is a double fence so give up crossing illegally,’ a senior army official said. Recently Macedonia has intermittently closed the border to refugees and it is now allowing across only those wishing to go to Germany or Austria, following similar decisions further along the migrant trail.

Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki said in January that his government had no intention to fully close the border, but would coordinate with the European Union and ‘do whatever necessary’ to help solve the crisis. The new fence will be at a distance of five meter from the one erected in November on both sides of the border crossing for refugees at Gevgelija, the army official said. He refused to say how long the new fence would be, but local media reported that it would stretch for more than 30 kilometres (19 miles) along the frontier. (DAILY MAIL)…[+]

SYRIA – Homs may be the clearest evidence of the destruction that the Syrian civil war has wrought upon the country. The city, which is about 100 miles north of the capital, Damascus, was once the country’s third-largest, with a population of more than 600,000. However, after Homs became a rebel stronghold in 2011, it was hit by a military assault by government forces. The ensuing battle nearly destroyed Homs and left it a husk of a city.

Despite the destruction, ordinary life goes on — to an extent, at least. On 5 February, newlyweds Nada Merhi, 18, and Hassan Youssef, 27, took their wedding photos amid the ruins of the city. Joseph Eid, a photographer with Agence France-Presse, accompanied the couple and their wedding photographer, Jafar Meray, on the shoot — Eid said Meray told him he wanted “to show that life is stronger than death.”(INDEPENDENT UK)…[+]

NIGERIA – Barbie has had another makeover. This time as a hijab-wearing Muslim. It was only last month that Mattel gave Barbie a dramatic transformation with a variety of skin tones and different body types, including adding curves to her impossibly slender frame. Now the  Nigerian medical scientist Haneefa Adam has taken Instagram by storm since she began posting images of a hijab-wearing Barbie doll a few weeks ago.

Adam says she was inspired to create the Hijarbie account after coming across the Barbie Style Instagram page. She told CNN: “I thought I had not seen Barbie dressed in a hijab before so I decided to open an Instagram account and dressed Barbie up in the clothes that I made. I thought it was really important for a doll to be dressed like how I would be.” The 24-year-old, who recently completed a Masters in Pharmacology in the UK, describes Hijarbie as a “modest doll” — one that offers Muslim girls a relatable role model.(CNN)…[+]

USA – Divers recovered two bodies and wreckage of a plane off the coast of Los Angeles Sunday, the county sheriff’s department says. The bodies will be identified by the medical examiner’s office. Two small planes went down Friday, after what could have been an in-flight collision.

A total of three people may have been aboard the two aircraft. The search operation continues Monday. Authorities discovered a log book that helped them identify one of the planes and people on board — two men, ages 61 and 81. Another plane, believed to be piloted by a 72-year-old woman, was expected to arrive at Torrance airport Friday but never showed, the U.S. Coast Guard says.

One of the aircraft was a Beechcraft and the other was a Super Decathlon, a plane that’s often used for aerobatic stunts. The incident occurred near the community of San Pedro, south of downtown Los Angeles and just west of Long Beach. (CNN/photo: myfox8.com)…[+]

USA – Bill Clinton lashed out at ‘sexist’ and ‘profane’ attacks on Hillary Clinton and her supporters by proponents of Bernie Sanders, and accused them of harassing those who don’t back the Vermont senator’s campaign or disagree with his policies.

Speaking in New Hampshire on Sunday, Clinton delivered an extended rebuke of the Sanders supporters, whom he said subject people who back his wife to ‘vicious trolling.’ He described a progressive blogger who wrote a favorable column about the former secretary of state but was compelled to post it under a pseudonym out of fear of blowback from Sanders proponents. “She and other people who have gone online to defend Hillary and explain — just explain — why they supported her have been subject to vicious trolling and attacks that are literally too profane often — not to mention sexist — to repeat,” Clinton said.(CNN/photo: politico.com)…[+]

BURKINA FASO – An Australian woman kidnapped by militants in Burkina Faso last month has been released, but her husband is still missing, relatives said Sunday.

Jocelyn Elliott and her husband, Dr. Ken Elliott, were seized by al Qaeda-linked militants on January 15. The couple worked at a clinic in the northern town of Djibo, near the border with Mali. They provided surgical services in Burkina Faso for more than four decades, according to relatives. Authorities in Burkina Faso and neighboring Niger helped secure her freedom, her family said in a statement through Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs.

“The Elliott family are deeply grateful for the safe release of our mother, Jocelyn,” the statement said. “We wish to convey our great appreciation to authorities in Niger and Burkina Faso for their support and assistance.” The family said it hopes those holding Ken Elliott will let him go as well. (CNN/photo: telegraph.co.uk)…[+]

Some 300 pounds of ganja estimated to worth about J$1.5 million was seized by the police in Junction, St Elizabeth yesterday. According to the police’s Corporate Communications Unit, detectives attached to the Area 3 Narcotics Division were on operation in the area when they searched an abandoned premises and vegetable matter resembling ganja was found in a room. No arrest was made in connection with the seizure.(Jamaica-gleaner.com)…[+]