Obama Unveils New Gun Control Measures

Flanked by family members of people killed by gun violence, Mr Obama said constant excuses for inaction "no longer suffice".

The President, who has made strengthening gun laws a central focus heading into his final year in office, accused the gun lobby of taking Congress hostage, but said "they cannot hold America hostage."

"We can find ways to reduce gun violence consistent with the Second Amendment," Mr Obama said in reference to Americans' constitutional right to bear arms.

The President announced four initiatives on Tuesday that he said will help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

Among them are requirements for more gun sellers to obtain licenses and more gun buyers to undergo background checks.

"We've created a system in which dangerous people are allowed to play by a different set of rules," Mr Obama said in an address in the White House East Room.

"A violent felon can buy the exact same weapon over the internet with no background check, no questions asked."

Mr Obama's expansion on background checks will require anyone selling a gun, whether at a gun show or over the internet, to conduct checks on potential buyers.

The President also outlined a plan to ask Congress for $500m to expand access to treatment for mental illness across the country.

He also announced expansions on government research into gun safety measures, particularly "smart gun technology".

"If we can make it possible to unlock a phone with a fingerprint, why can't we do it with guns?" he said.

New ISIS Executioner Named as British Convert to Islam

A British Indian who converted to Islam has been named in British media as the masked man who appeared to kill five Syrian hostages in an ISIS video released this week.

Siddhartha Dhar, 32, also known as Abu Rumaysah, fled the U.K. with his wife and children after skipping bail in Sept. 2014, the BBC reports. He was under investigation for encouraging terrorism and supporting the a banned group.

The former inflatable castle salesman and father-of-four was a well-known figure among radical Islamists in London. Dhar, who used to be a Sikh, had spoken openly about radicalisation to both the BBC and CBS News prior to fleeing the U.K.

Dhar announced his arrival to an ISIS-held area in Syria in Nov. 2014 by posting an image of him holding his newborn son while brandishing a rife on Twitter. By May 2015, reports the Daily Mail, he published an online brochure for ISIS-held areas, likening it to a “plush holiday resort” as he describes its transportation, food, education, people and technology.

On hearing the audio of ISIS’s latest video, his sister Konika Dhar told the BBC that she feared the masked murderer would be her brother. Although, on watching the clip she is not “entirely convinced” that it is him.

“I was in a state of shock,” she toldBBC. “I believed the audio to resemble, from what I remember, the voice of my brother but having viewed the short clip in detail, I wasn’t entirely convinced which put me at ease.”

te long propaganda video released on Sunday, five men are seen ‘confessing’ to spying for the U.K. The video then cuts to them lined up in orange jumpsuits in the desert, where they are shot in the head by masked men.

Before the shooting a masked man with a British accent mocks U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron for challenging the group. He goes on to say: “We will continue to wage jihad, break borders and one day invade your land where we will rule by the Sharia.”

At the end of the clip a young boy in camouflage clothing is seen pointing into the distance and talking about “unbelievers” in a British accent. The toddler is believed to be Isa Dare, reports the Times of London, and the son of Grace “Khadijah” Dare who left for Syria in 2012 after converting to Islam.

His grandfather, Henry Dare, told The Sun that ISIS was using the small boy as a propaganda tool.

“That is my grandson, I’d know him anywhere. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the pictures. I felt sick” Dare told the Sun. “They are pure evil for doing this to that child — pure evil. I burst into tears when I saw it was him. He doesn’t like it there.”

Due to an ongoing investigation on the video, a spokesman for the U.K. Foreign Office would not confirm or deny the identity of the masked executioner.

What Sainsbury's Sees In Home Retail Group

Private equity buyers have been linked with either a bid for the entire company or some of its constituent parts - and more recently Wal-Mart, the owner of Asda, has also been touted as a potential buyer.

What no one expected was an approach from Sainsbury's, even though the pair have been partnering in an experiment for the last year, with 10 Sainsbury's stores playing host to digital in-store Argos concessions.

Many will regard this as a defensive move on the part of Sainsbury's in the face of growing competition in the grocery sector.

However, in its stock exchange announcement confirming the approach, Sainsbury's claims the deal will also provide a platform for growth.

It argues there is a strong rationale behind a tie-up, noting that it would bring together two respected and well-known businesses, capable of offering customers fast and reliable delivery across a range of platforms.

Argos has been investing heavily recently in a same-day delivery service aimed at seeing off the competitive threat from Amazon and, coupling this with Sainsbury's store network, this could quite easily form the UK's biggest "click and collect" proposition.

An artist's impression of one of the Argos concessions found in Sainsbury's

Interestingly, Sainsbury's also argues that a combination of the pair could also create a financial services proposition, offering a wider range of services than those available from its existing banking business.

But make no mistake - this would also be a deal in which cost-cutting would also loom large.

The combined store estates of these businesses would overlap considerably and, as Sainsbury's notes in its statement, there would be potential for rationalisation.

Britain's commercial landlords will be watching on nervously.

Others already burned by the news include the hedge funds: Home Retail Group is one of the most popular stocks in the market for "shorting" - selling shares that you do not own in a company in the hope of making a profit by buying them back later more cheaply - and several of them, including the likes of Odey and Marshall Wace, will have been hit by the sudden rally in Home Retail Group shares sparked by this announcement.

Not least the most intriguing aspect of any marriage, should it be consummated, is that it would bring Homebase back into the Sainsbury's stable.

The UK's second-largest do-it-yourself business was once owned by Sainsbury's but was sold to the old Great Universal Stores group, which later de-merged Home Retail Group, back in 2000 for £969m.

Such have been Home Retail Group's fortunes since that the combined business, even after a 30% jump in the share price sparked by the news of Sainsbury's interest, is now only valued at £990m.

It is perfectly possible that, should it succeed in buying Home Retail Group, Sainsbury's might well choose to offload Homebase to a private equity buyer.

Investors have never really been sold on the synergy benefits, in the jargon, of keeping it and Argos under one roof.

The real prize for Sainsbury's here will be the vast high street store estate Argos has - many of which could be converted into its convenience formats.

At the same time, it is easy to see how the larger out-of-town stores owned by Sainsbury's could be used to fuel Argos's click-and-collect proposition while benefiting from the increased numbers of customers visiting its stores that would create.

This approach also sends out another intriguing signal, namely the growing self-belief of Sainsbury's under its chief executive, Mike Coupe.

The retailer has, for some time, been outperforming the other members of the big four - Tesco, Asda and Morrisons - and this approach suggests Mr Coupe is confident of both continuing that and that his management team is capable of executing a big combination like this.

UK Backpacker Murders: Police Websites Hacked

The international hacking group Anonymous said on its Facebook page 14 Thai police websites had been targeted.

Of those it listed, nine could not be accessed on Tuesday.

The words "Failed Law", "We Want Justice", and a hashtag #BoycottThailand were displayed on some of the hacked sites, along with the name of the Myanmar-based "Blink Hacker Group".

Thai police have confirmed the attacks but insist no confidential data has been taken.

Protesters hold up pictures of migrant workers Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun

"They're not good enough to hack into our system and steal any of our data," police spokesman Dechnarong Suthicharnbancha said.

Last month a Thai court found Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun guilty of killing Britons Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, whose bodies were found on a beach on the holiday island of Koh Tao in 2014.

Officers investigating the murders were accused of gross incompetence, mishandling evidence and torturing the suspects.

However, a judge dismissed the torture allegations, saying there was no evidence it took place.

The guilty verdicts sparked angry protests in Myanmar where hundreds have joined ongoing demonstrations outside the Thai Embassy in Yangon.

They say Lin and Htun, both 22, are both innocent scapegoats and are demanding they be released. Both have been sentenced to death.

The latest hacking attacks were carried out after a 37-minute video was posted on Anonymous' Facebook page on Sunday.

In it a masked person questioned the competency of the Thai police force and its handling of the murder investigation and other cases.

Ireland Wants Star Wars Fans to Visit Location Used in New Movie

Tourism Ireland has released a video it hopes will attract Star Wars fans to Skellig Michael, an island off the coast of Kerry used as a location in the box office blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The video shows film director J.J. Abrams and other crew members discussing why the team chose the UNESCO World Heritage Site as a film location.

“I remember when we all flew in, it was special and we knew it,” executive producer Tommy Harper said in the video.

TheJournal.ie reports the video will be shared around the world. The campaign comes despite concerns last year that filming at Skellig Michael would damage the island’s ecology, although government officials said there was no substantial damage.

Tourism Minister Paschal Donohoe said Skellig Michael’s appearance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens exposed the island’s beauty to “potentially hundreds of millions of people.”

“By the end of November 2015, we had surpassed our best ever year on record for the number of overseas visitors,” Donohoe said. “We are determined to build on that.”

Skellig Michael will also feature in the next film of the series, which will be released in 2017.

Number Of People With Diabetes Hits Four Million

Data from GPs analysed by the charity Diabetes UK shows there are now 4.05 million people living with the condition.

This includes 3.5 million adults who have been officially diagnosed, an increase of 119,965 on the previous year's figure and an increase of 65% over the last decade.

Around 549,000 people are also believed to have Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to unhealthy lifestyles, but have not been diagnosed.

If this trend continues, an estimated five million people will have the condition by 2025.

Chris Askew, chief executive of Diabetes UK, said: "With four million people in the UK now living with diabetes, the need to tackle this serious health condition has never been so stark or so urgent."

He said there was a need for a "concerted effort" spearheaded by the Government to address the fact that almost two in every three people in the UK are overweight or obese and therefore have an increased risk of getting Type 2 diabetes.

Mr Askew added: "Basic measures such as making healthy food cheaper and more accessible, introducing clearer food labelling and making it easier for people to build physical activity into their daily lives would have a profound influence."

According to the charity, more than 24,000 people with diabetes die prematurely every year because of failures in accessing the best care.

This includes receiving eight annual checks in areas such as foot care and eyesight.

The checks - which only 60% of diabetes sufferers currently receive - are designed to prevent complications which can lead to limb amputation, blindness, kidney failure and even death.

Diabetes UK also warned that people are missing out on education courses designed to help them manage their diabetes, with more than a third of English regions still not running them.

The charity also claimed hospital care for people with the condition is consistently poor and puts some lives at risk.

Some 80% of the £10bn spent on diabetes every year by the NHS goes on treating preventable complications.

Dr Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at Public Health England, said: "Sadly, too many people suffer from Type 2 diabetes and its serious health consequences.

"We must help prevent those at high risk of developing it from doing so."

Inside Out Without the Inside Part Is Short and Sad

Almost everyone who saw Pixar’s Inside Out teared up watching an 11-year-old girl grapple with change and complex feelings. Jordan Hanzon, a film student at the University of Utah, figured out a way to make Inside Out even sadder, though.

Hanzon edited out all of the “inside” scenes and left only Riley’s slow journey to tweendom. The result is surprisingly dark. Turns out that without the “inside” scenes, the film ends up looking like an animated version of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood.Without the levity provided by Riley’s internal emotions — the humorous interactions between Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust — it makes you realize that the film is unexpectedly bleak. Turns out that it wasn’t just Bing Bong (sob!) who caused all the waterworks during the film.