Islamic State Executes Eight Dutch Jihadists

Activists claim the Dutch jihadis were executed in Raqqa (File pic)

Eight Dutch members of Islamic State have reportedly been executed in Syria by the jihadist group after being accused of trying to desert.

The jihadists were killed in Maadan, in Raqqa province, according to Abu Mohammad, an activist from the citizen group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS).

Three other Dutch jihadists were arrested by Iraqi IS members who accused them of attempting to flee, the RBSS added.

The group said one of the detainees was beaten to death while being interrogated.

The deaths come after a dispute in Raqqa over the past month between 75 Dutch jihadists and IS intelligence operatives from Iraq.

IS leaders in Raqqa sent a delegate to solve the dispute with the Dutch jihadist cell, but the delegate was murdered.

The group's leaders in Iraq then ordered the arrest of all members of the Dutch cell, and imprisoned them in Tabaqa and Maadan, before the executions were carried out.

Dutch officials say some 200 people from the Netherlands, including 50 women, have joined IS in Syria and Iraq.

Adele review: Pop's biggest star opens world tour in Belfast

Pop star Adele enjoyed a rapturous reception as she opened her world tour with an intimate arena show in Belfast.

The star played 18 songs over two hours, in what was her first UK concert in four-and-a-half years. 

Dedicated fans had travelled from Japan and South Africa to see her perform, but Adele also had a message for anyone attending under duress.

"I know some of you have been dragged along," she joked, "but I'm going to win you over."

"Although some of my songs get a bit depressing."

By the end of the night, however, even the steeliest of hearts would have been forced to concede she had brought the goods.

Perspiration

Even if they weren't moved by the songs - Set Fire To The Rain, Make You Feel My Love, Rolling In The Deep - there was always Adele's disarming and bawdy humour.

She first addressed the audience 15 minutes into the show, explaining: "They told me not to talk for three songs so my nerves could calm a little."

After that the floodgates opened. She discussed perspiration ("I need to wipe the puddle off me face"); Bob Dylan ("I couldn't understand what he was saying"); and being a working mum ("you should have seen me in the dressing room - I had to do an emergency shave on my legs").

The 27-year-old, who openly admits to suffering stage fright, also talked about her toilet habits for the day.

But for many fans, this no-frills honesty is what makes Adele so endearing - and sets her apart from contemporaries like Taylor Swift, Coldplay and Rihanna.

"She's just so down to earth. She's not a superstar, she's normal," said Rosemary Shield, who attended the show from Belfast. 

"She talked about her wee boy and she talked about going to the zoo. Just normal things that we all do."

'Dream come true'

"I love how she acts on and off stage," agreed Melissa Gordan, who had travelled from Johannesburg for the opening night.

"She's just human. I think she's a phenomenal person."

Hiroki Takahashi, who had flown 18 hours from Saitama, near Tokyo, to attend the concert, added: "She has a powerful energy and an amazing voice.

"My dream has come true."

The concert began simply enough, with a moody black and white projection of Adele's eyes on two gigantic silk screens, as the refrain from Hello echoed around the arena.

Then, to the audience's surprise, the star rose out of a satellite stage in the middle of the auditorium (she had been smuggled underneath it, inside a black box, 10 minutes earlier).

It was one of a small handful of production flourishes in what turned out to be a simple, stripped-back stage show.

'It's not Beyonce'

For the most part, Adele stood, or sat, at the front of Belfast's SSE Arena, belting out the hits with a large grin plastered across her face.

There were no pyrotechnics, no video interludes and no costume changes. She wore a black sequinned custom Burberry dress all night, exuding an old school glamour.

"It's not a Beyonce show," she noted, drily at one point.

SETLIST

• Hello
• Hometown Glory
• One And Only
• Rumour Has It
• Water Under The Bridge
• I Miss You 
• Skyfall
• Million Years Ago
• Don't You Remember?
• Send My Love (To Your New Lover) 
• Make You Feel My Love
• Sweetest Devotion
• Chasing Pavements
• Someone Like You
• Set Fire To The Rain
• All I Ask
• When We Were Young
• Rolling In The Deep                                                                                                               Despite a few jitters at the Grammy Awards two weeks ago, her voice was flawless throughout.
  It's no secret that Adele possesses a powerful set of lungs (a high note on When We Were Young made some people around me gasp) but she refrains from the showboating that ruins many divas' performances, instead aiming directly for the emotional core of her songs.
  The show also highlighted the subtlety of her phrasing, particularly when she dipped into her low register on Million Years Ago - although that may have been helped by the fact she "woke up sounding like Arnold Schwarzenegger" after leaving the air conditioning on in her hotel room. 
  Further highlights included her Oscar-winning Bond theme, Skyfall, during which searchlights dramatically swept over the arena; and a warm-hearted audience singalong to Someone Like You.
  Musically, the songs stayed true to the recordings - except for a playful acoustic take on Send My Love (To Your New Lover) - aided by a 21-piece backing band that included an eight-strong string section.
  In the tour programme, Adele said the production was guided by two big questions: "How do I make an arena show feel intimate?" and "how do I put my stamp on a big industrial room?"
  The answer turned out to be deceptively simple: Play the hits and have a chinwag.
  No doubt the show will develop over the coming months - there are more than 100 dates pencilled into Adele's diary before November - but the pacing, flow and sound design have already been meticulously and thoughtfully honed.
  "This was the best way to kick off our world tour," Adele declared as she left the stage.
  "I could get used to this."
  
  

Is 'Dangerous' Donald's Campaign Unstoppable?

Republicans voting in 11 Super Tuesday states are in absolutely no doubt about who the front runner is.

Donald Trump is so far ahead in most of the polls he appears unstoppable.

Here in Alabama he drew record crowds to a rally in Madison.

His speech was unchanged from the familiar themes; making America great again, bringing jobs back from China, building a wall on the Mexican border.

But the crowd was rapt, listening closely, nodding.

They told me they had a lingering sense that they had been left out, and that finally, here was someone who gave them a voice in the national conversation.

Remarkably, Trump's done it by spending very little compared to his rivals on advertising and field organisation.

His is a campaign of showmanship and social media.

It's upended the nomination race and challenged almost all of the Republican party's conventional wisdom.

His nearest rivals are scrambling to keep up.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz must win his adopted home state or face disaster.

And establishment favourite Marco Rubio needs to keep up until his home state of Florida votes later this month.

He has accused Trump of being racist after he refused to disavow the Ku Klux Klan, but hasn't done any real damage so far.

And while rivals are trying to find a way of denting "The Donald", Trump's broad appeal is morphing in to something more powerful, more permanent.

Now he is starting to bring in big endorsements; New Jersey governor Chris Christie, and the hugely popular Alabama senator Jeff Sessions.

A political editor at a US news network described the Christie move as representative of the Republican party's final stage of grief - acceptance.

Most of the party elders are desperate to do something to stop Trump, but they appear to still be reeling from the businessman's hostile takeover.

Now a twice-divorced New York billionaire has been forgiven his sins by some of America's most conservative voters, and those who view him as a morally untethered danger to the establishment are running out of time to stop him.

Melania Trump on Her Husband: ‘He Knows the Consequences’

In a new interview, Melania Trump said that she does not try to change her husband, even though she often disagrees with him.

“He’s an adult, he knows the consequences,” Trump told CNN’s Anderson Cooper of her husband Donald Trump’s controversial statements. “I give him my opinions many, many times. I don’t agree with everything what he says, but that is normal. I’m my own person.”

When Cooper pressed Trump on what specifically she has disagreed with, she said, “Some language, of course.” She then cited the time her husband repeated a vulgar word at a New Hampshire rally in early February.

“I’m thinking in my head, don’t repeat it. Just don’t repeat it,” she said.

Ten Areas Earmarked To Become 'Healthy Towns'

Ten areas in England will be developed into "healthy towns" in a bid to combat the nation's obesity crisis.

NHS England says the new communities will be focussed on "healthy living" and will provide more than 76,000 homes across England.

The developments will be used to test ideas for reducing obesity, including having fast food-free zones near schools and green spaces, while also helping sufferers of dementia.

Clinicians, designers and tech experts are to "re-imagine" how health care can be delivered across the country.

Speaking to The King's Fund later today, NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens will say: "The much-needed push to kick-start affordable housing across England creates a golden opportunity for the NHS to help promote health and keep people independent.

"As these new neighbourhoods and towns are built, we'll kick ourselves if in ten years time we look back having missed the opportunity to 'design out' the obesogenic environment, and 'design in' health and wellbeing."

The areas chosen to be part of the project include Whitehill and Bordon in Hampshire, Cranbrook in Devon, a new development in Darlington, and Barking Riverside in London.

Halton Lee in Runcorn, Cheshire, Whyndyke Farm in Fylde, Lancashire, and a new community in Bicester, Oxfordshire, will also take part.

Professor Kevin Fenton, National Director for Health and Wellbeing at Public Health England, said: "Some of the UK's most pressing health challenges - such as obesity, mental health issues, physical inactivity and the needs of an ageing population - can all be influenced by the quality of our built and natural environment.

"The considerate design of spaces and places is critical to promote good health. This innovative programme will inform our thinking and planning of everyday environments to improve health for generations to come."

Oscars 2016: Host Chris Rock rapped over Asian-American 'joke'

US comedian Chris Rock has been criticised for a joke he made while hosting the Oscars ceremony, at the expense of Asian-Americans.

Activists accused him of perpetuating racial stereotypes when he introduced a group of accountants, who turned out to be three Asian children in suits. 

Chris Rock has been generally praised for the way he dealt with the absence of black artists among Oscar nominees. 

The ceremony had been boycotted by some Hollywood figures. 

All 20 nominees in the best acting or supporting acting categories were white.

Chris Rock had addressed the controversy during his hosting of Sunday night's Academy Awards show, commenting that he had "counted at least 15 black people" in the montage that opened the ceremony, before welcoming people to the "white People's Choice awards".

The skit involving the three children was an apparent reference to Asians being good at maths. One of the children was also given a Jewish surname.

Rock then said: "If anybody is upset about that joke, just tweet about it on your phone, which was also made by these kids."

Critics say the punch line was another stereotype, about child labour in Asia. 

Actress Constance Wu tweeted: "To parade little kids on stage w/no speaking lines merely to be the butt of a racist joke is reductive & gross. Antithesis of progress."

Mee Moua, who heads the group Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said in a statement that the show was a setback for diversity.

"Last night's ceremony, and particularly the 'joke' involving Asian children, which played off more than one damaging stereotype of Asians and Asian Americans, exposed one of the failings of how we talk about race in America: race relations are not a black-white binary," she said. 

"It is to all of our detriment to look at race narrowly. We need to work together to dismantle the systems that devalue the experiences of minority groups so we can see the tales of the diversity that have shaped our nation reflected accurately."

Rock's publicist Leslie Sloane said on Monday that the star was unavailable for comment. 

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences also did not respond to a request for comment.

Smiler Rollercoaster To Re-Open At Alton Towers

Alton Towers has confirmed that its controversial Smiler ride which has been dogged by safety and technical problems since 2013, will re-open on 19 March.

The Staffordshire theme park confirmed in a series of tweets that the rollercoaster would be open to visitors in time for the 2016 season.

It comes after the Health and Safety Executive revealed the park's owner Merlin Entertainments is to be prosecuted over last year's crash that seriously injured five people.

That news was revealed hours after Merlin Entertainments declared their profits had remained flat after visitor numbers collapsed in the wake of the crash on 2 June.

The park was shut for four days and some rides suspended at other attractions following the incident which culminated in a restructuring at the park, potentially resulting in 190 job losses.

Two guests each lost a leg in the aftermath of the accident in 2015 when a carriage containing riders collided with an empty one on The Smiler.

The crash was the subject of an immediate HSE investigation and was blamed by Merlin on human error.

"This was a serious incident with life-changing consequences for five people," the HSE said.

The company, which also owns attractions such as Legoland, Madame Tussauds and the London Eye.is due to appear at North Staffordshire Justice Centre on 22 April.