Monday A quick visit to downtown Beverly Hills to shop for gifts I cannot afford, then off to Pavilions, an immense grocery supermarket in the heart of West Hollywood, maybe five minutes from where I live. As I waited in line at the fresh fish counter, a large man in a wheel chair asked me if he could have two dollars to buy groceries. “You can’t buy much right now for two dollars,” I said, “and anyway I don’t have any ones so here,” I added and handed him a 20. He thanked me happily and disappeared down the nearest aisle. I grabbed my super-good fresh Skuna Bay salmon fillet and headed to the cashiers. I greeted everyone anywhere near me with a hearty “Merry Christmas!” No one else does, and where I grew up in Maryland in the 1950s, everyone did. Plus, why shouldn’t a Jew say, “Merry Christmas?” What religion do you think Jesus was? Lutheran? Usually no one responds at all except with a mumbled “Happy Holidays.” But today, everyone nearby greeted me with “Merry Christmas!” The Christmas spirit had hit the checkout counters at Pavilions! I paid for my salmon and my pal Jeff loaded it
PHONG NHA, Vietnam: Vast rock formations the size of multi-storey buildings loom above Ho Minh Phuc, as he picks a path through the gloom inside the world's largest cave.Phuc, who once earned a living through illegal logging, is a porter for the small tour groups that explore Vietnam's Son Doong -- a cave so large it has its own ecosystem and weather patterns.Home to flying foxes and a 70-metre rock formation resembling a dog's paw, the cave is an otherworldly wonder that has reshaped the lives of the surrounding community since it opened for boutique tourism in 2013.Trapped in poverty, young men like Phuc once had little choice but to forage in the depths of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park -- the World Heritage site where Son Doong lies.There they searched for precious agarwood, a hugely sought-after material known as "the wood of the gods" and widely used for incense.Others eked out a living from hunting endangered civets and porcupines in the forest."We had to do all we could to avoid the forest rangers," 35-year-old Phuc told AFP. "We did nothing good for nature."Son Doong in central Quang Binh province was first discovered by local forager Ho Khanh in 1991,
DUBAI: Iran will expel United Nations nuclear watchdog inspectors, unless US sanctions are lifted by a Feb 21 deadline set by the hardline-dominated parliament, a lawmaker said on Saturday.Parliament passed a law in November that obliges the government to halt inspections of its nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency and step up uranium enrichment beyond the limit set under Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal if sanctions are not eased.Iran's Guardian Council watchdog body approved the law on Dec. 2 and the government has said it will implement it."According to the law, if the Americans do not lift financial, banking and oil sanctions by Feb. 21, we will definitely expel the IAEA inspectors from the country and will definitely end the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol," said parliamentarian Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani.The comments, referring to texts governing the IAEA's mission and activities, were carried by several Iranian media outlets.In a statement, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Iran had an obligation to allow the inspectors access."Once again the Iranian regime is using its nuclear program to extort the international community and threaten regional security," Pompeo said.Iran said on Monday it had resumed 20% uranium enrichment at an underground nuclear
