UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has made his first public appearance since his party's devastating local election results - which saw more than 100 councillors swept away as voters shifted to the Conservatives.
During a visit to the Boston and Skegness constituency he will be contesting on 8 June, Mr Nuttall acknowledged the party was now facing a fight for survival, claiming the goal was now to "stay on the pitch".
"We knew that these local elections were going to be the most difficult we've ever fought. But of course Theresa May performed a massive U-turn, called a General Election and made them doubly difficult for us" he said.
The UKIP leader was warmly received by some residents of the sleepy Lincolnshire town of Burgh Le Marsh, including the local fishmonger who raised the issue of EU fishing regulations, and the town butcher, who while selling him sausages told Mr Nuttall he had voted Leave in the referendum.
But after losing all 14 of the UKIP councillors in Lincolnshire, Mr Nuttall acknowledged he was not the favourite in the battle for the parliamentary seat, despite being up against a Tory incumbent candidate who voted to remain in an area where more than 70% of voters chose to exit the EU.
Instead he claimed the goal for UKIP was now to cling on to some of its vote share so that it is positioned to claw back support once the "wheels come off" Brexit negotiations.
"UKIP just has to stay on the pitch, hold its ground and people will come back to us," he said.
"I think Theresa May will start to barter things away.
"I think fisheries will go, I think there will be some sort of movement on immigration and freedom of movement, I think she might buckle on that. And I think she will certainly buckle on the divorce bill..
"When people are angry, when people feel they have been let down, when people feel they aren't getting the Brexit they wanted and they voted for on June 23, where are they going to go? They are going to return to UKIP. The future of UKIP is very bright indeed."
Saturday, May 6, 2017
Man dies in latest London stabbing amid surge in knife attacks
A 23-year-old man has died in another stabbing in London, the latest victim in a surge of knife attacks in the capital.
The victim was found unconscious by police on Saturday at about 1am in Waterloo Road in Uxbridge.
The man, from Hayes, was taken to a west London hospital but died from his injuries a short time later.
The last fortnight has seen a surge of knife crime in the capital, with 10 other victims suffering fatal or serious stab wounds.
The death comes a day after a man in his 30s was stabbed to death after an incident in a barber shop in Harlesden, northwest London.
Police have launched a murder investigation into the latest stabbing, and have appealed for witnesses to come forward.
Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Packer, who is leading the investigation, said: "A young man has lost his life and I am appealing to the public to give us all the help they can.
"In particular I would ask anyone who was in the vicinity of Waterloo Road from midnight to early in the morning to call us.
"If you saw or heard anything please do not hesitate; your information could be vital."
Police believe they know the victim's identity but are waiting for a formal identification to be completed.
Anyone with information should contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, call police on 101 or tweet @MetCC.
The victim was found unconscious by police on Saturday at about 1am in Waterloo Road in Uxbridge.
The man, from Hayes, was taken to a west London hospital but died from his injuries a short time later.
The last fortnight has seen a surge of knife crime in the capital, with 10 other victims suffering fatal or serious stab wounds.
The death comes a day after a man in his 30s was stabbed to death after an incident in a barber shop in Harlesden, northwest London.
Police have launched a murder investigation into the latest stabbing, and have appealed for witnesses to come forward.
Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Packer, who is leading the investigation, said: "A young man has lost his life and I am appealing to the public to give us all the help they can.
"In particular I would ask anyone who was in the vicinity of Waterloo Road from midnight to early in the morning to call us.
"If you saw or heard anything please do not hesitate; your information could be vital."
Police believe they know the victim's identity but are waiting for a formal identification to be completed.
Anyone with information should contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, call police on 101 or tweet @MetCC.
Why is the most effective form of birth control—the IUD—also the one no one is using?
Up against bad PR and a lack of awareness, reproductive health groups are leading the charge to make the IUD a first line of defense against unplanned pregnancy. It won’t be easy.
Most women have been there: sitting in their gynecologist’s office, having yet another unsatisfying conversation about yet another unsatisfying form of birth control, wanting to try something new.
Take Marlice House. By the time she was 17, she’d already cycled, as many women do, through various versions of the Pill, but the hormones gave her headaches, or caused her to gain weight, or she would forget to take her pill and be plagued with anxiety. She switched to the NuvaRing, a flexible loop that’s inserted in the vagina, where it emits hormones that prevent fertilization, but she hated the way it felt inside her.
House’s gynecologist referred her to the CHOICE Project at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis. CHOICE is an ongoing study of 10,000 women’s contraceptive use that also offers family-planning counseling. There, for the first time, House was told about the intrauterine device (IUD). Among its selling points were the fact that the IUD is hassle-free, lasting three to 12 years without maintenance or replacement, depending on the brand. It’s also practically fool-proof, on par with female sterilization or vasectomy at preventing pregnancy.
“I thought, ‘That’s it,’” says House, who is now 25 and a social worker in Missouri. She was sold.
Getty Images (1); Corbis (1); Photo Illustration by Mia Tramz for TIME
Yet American women—and the doctors who counsel them on family planning—have been slow to adopt it. Today, just 9% of American women of child-bearing age use an IUD, the lowest rate of any developed country. And more than half of U.S. women surveyed have never even heard of the thing.
But there’s a growing push for women to consider one. Because as successful as health groups have been at reducing accidental pregnancies, particularly among teenagers, half of U.S. pregnancies are still unplanned.
“If you can eliminate a lot of them by taking out the human ability to screw up, you’ve done fabulous stuff,” says Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, a clinical professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive services at Yale School of Medicine.
Some early signs are promising. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that many women try at least five different kinds of birth control and are unhappy with all of them—suggesting it may be a ripe time for alternatives. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood reports a 75% increase in IUD use among its patients since 2008. But the dual challenges of terrible PR and a lack of awareness among the doctors who issue family-planning advice means that the shift away from the pill-a-day or condom approaches—and toward long-term contraception—won’t be easy.
Meet the IUD
The IUD is a very small T-shaped rod inserted by a doctor into the uterus, where it emits either the hormone progestin or copper, both of which are hostile to sperm. There are three FDA-approved IUDs available in the U.S.—Mirena and Skyla, which are hormonal, and ParaGard, which is wrapped in copper coils—and they are all extremely effective, with a failure rate of less than one pregnancy per 100 women—compared with 9 per 100 women on the Pill.
“Leading medical organizations now recommend them as a first-line choice,” says Megan Kavanaugh, a senior research associate at Guttmacher Institute, the reproductive rights nonprofit, who points out that while IUDs were historically recommended for women who had already had a first child, that’s no longer the case. In 2012, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, considered the authority on reproductive health, hammered home that message, concluding that IUDs are safe and appropriate for adolescents.
So why the slow rate of adoption in the U.S.? It’s largely due to the fact that the IUD is still the subject of widespread misconceptions. The device is plagued by a troubled history dating back to the ’70s, when an earlier version of the device called the Dalkon Shield was yanked from the market after being linked to infertility and infections. Current versions are smaller and far safer, with almost none of the risks, but the stigma is hard to erase—both among women and also among the physicians who prescribe birth control.
Until recently, the IUD could also be expensive—up to $900 upfront for the uninsured. But a provision in the Affordable Care Act requires coverage for all FDA-approved contraceptives, with the exception of women whose health plans are sponsored by religious employers. (The Supreme Court recently ruled that for-profit corporations whose owners say they run their business on religious principles do not need to cover emergency contraceptives. The IUD can act as emergency contraception if inserted after unprotected sex since it prevents fertilized-egg implantation in the uterus).
Another obstacle is a lack of awareness. The IUD is still virtually unknown to more than half of American women, according to numbers crunched by the Guttmacher Institute. Yet according to the CHOICE Project’s early findings, once women learn about the IUD, more than half will opt for it.
“We thought cost and accessibility were the only barrier,” says Gina Secura, an epidemiologist and CHOICE’s project director, who formerly worked at the CDC. “But when we asked the first participant, ‘What method would you like?’ she asked, ‘What are my options? The Pill?’ We realized we had a lot of educating to do.”
.
A Troubled Past
Trepidation about the IUDs of yesteryear is not unwarranted. IUDs started emerging on the U.S. market in the 1950s, and by the early ’70s, one particular brand, the Dalkon Shield, hit sales of 2.8 million, according to the CDC.
But the Dalkon had flaws. Unlike T-shaped IUDs, the Dalkon was shaped more like an insect with several legs sticking out on either side of it. That made it difficult to insert, resulting in it being placed incorrectly, and also resulting in IUD failure and pregnancy. Doctors and manufacturers also didn’t know that the IUD needed to be taken out if a woman got pregnant—but if it wasn’t, it could lead to serious infections. According to various reports, upwards of 15 women who became pregnant with a Dalkon IUD inside them died of infections after they miscarried.
The Dalkon Shield was besieged with lawsuits, and in 1974, the manufacturer, A.H. Robins Co., voluntarily pulled the product from the market. A few years later, A.H. Robins filed for bankruptcy, and by 1986, virtually all brands of IUDs had disappeared from U.S. shelves.
The Dalkon Shield was also linked to pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), a painful condition in which the lining of the uterus, fallopian tubes, or ovaries can become inflamed and can lead to infertility.
But Yale’s Minkin, who was called in as a medical expert in one of the suits against the Dalkon Shield, says the downfall of the IUD was much more complicated than a single product. Minkin says that many cases of PID might have been due to STDs like gonorrhea and chlamydia during the ’60s and ’70s. “So you have a sexual revolution, burgeoning chlamydia, women not using condoms or birth control pills, and bingo! You have a problem,” says Minkin. “It was terrible because women lost a good method. People got hysterical.”
After the Dalkon Shield, “concerns were the same around the world, but no one had the same reaction as the U.S., where IUDs virtually disappeared,” says Dr. Carolyn Westhoff, the senior medical advisor for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. By the late 1980s, there was interest among some health groups to bring back the IUD, particularly outside the U.S. “The Mirena IUD got pioneered in Europe in the early ’90s and caught on like wildfire,” says Minkin. Today, 23% of French women using contraception have an IUD; 27% of Norwegians; and 41% of women in China. In the U.S., the percentage of women with an IUD still hovers around 9.
The IUDs on the U.S. market today are much safer than the IUDs of earlier generations, but not everyone is convinced. “These misperceptions are leftovers from 30 years ago,” says Dr. Laura MacIsaac, director of the family planning division at Mount Sinai Health System in New York. “They have no relevance to the devices of today. These myths persist mostly from physicians’ fears that today’s IUDs still have the same flaws as the old ones. That’s just not true.”
That’s not to say modern IUDs are without side effects, though for the overwhelming majority of women, they are mild. The copper IUD, for instance, can cause heavy periods and cramping in some women for the first few cycles after insertion. Some women with hormonal IUDs report cramping and abnormal bleeding. And in extremely rare cases, the IUD can migrate from the uterus or puncture the uterine wall—which is the subject of several lawsuits against Mirena. Mirena manufacturer Bayer says the company “has adequately disclosed all known risks associated with Mirena since the FDA first approved it in 2000.”
When asked about the risks, MacIsaac says: “Our data shows IUD users have the fewest amount of problems and complications and the highest continuation rate of any other category of birth control. … The women who are happy with their IUDs and have no problems are not the ones who get in the press.”
A Big Leap Forward
Reproductive health experts believe the time is right to re-educate doctors—and women—about the new generation of IUDs. According to the CDC, 30% of women will try at least five different kinds of birth control, and for women not happy with the Pill, who want a non-hormonal contraceptive, or who are concerned about its side effects, the IUD is an effective way to avoid pregnancy.
Launched in 2013, New York City’s IUD Taskforce is one of the first initiatives of its kind. It’s made up of about 50 people from major reproductive health organizations like the Guttmacher Institute, the nonprofit Public Health Solutions, and the New York City Department of Health. The taskforce trains physicians how to insert them, provides women with facts about IUDs, as well as information about where women can get them.
“IUDs help women work on other parts of their life before they’re ready to have kids,” says Louise Cohen, vice president of Public Health Solutions. “We want to increase the degree to which women learn about them—whether through a physician or social media—and we will have them readily available when they want them.”
Another initiative is the New York City Department of Health’s new smartphone app “Teens in NYC Protection,” which uses GPS to show teens where they can get IUDs and other forms of contraception, like condoms. “When we make teens aware, it creates a network, and that’s very powerful,” says Deborah Kaplan, assistant commissioner of the New York City health department.
One of the more viral campaigns comes from the irreverent website Bedsider.org. Bedsider is an online birth control support network operated by the not-for-profit National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. The campaign has an edgy social media presence on Twitter and Instagram with the hopes that tongue-in-cheek messaging will appeal to young adults.
The IUD is also gaining popularity among the group it was originally targeting: moms. When the Mirena, one of the two hormonal IUDs, was first introduced in the U.S. in 2000, moms were their main target group. “The thought was that moms were so busy, and when they finally found a few minutes of free time to have sex, the last thing they had to worry about was contraception,” says Minkin.
Among younger women, word of mouth is key to growing awareness, say experts. House, who wasn’t born when the original IUDs were pulled from the market, says none of her friends knew about IUDs before she got hers inserted at 17. “Now I’ve recommended it to so many of them. I think about three of them actually got it,” she says.
Even though data shows American women’s use of IUDs is the lowest in the developed world, the small but significant growth herald a sea of change. “I recommend the IUD for pretty much anyone walking into my practice wanting contraception,” says Sinai’s MacIsaac. “Most of us who have a lot of clinical experience with the IUD are hoping use in the U.S. will start to look like use in Europe. My goal is to help women plan their families, education and professional life. And IUDs help them do just that.”
Most women have been there: sitting in their gynecologist’s office, having yet another unsatisfying conversation about yet another unsatisfying form of birth control, wanting to try something new.
Take Marlice House. By the time she was 17, she’d already cycled, as many women do, through various versions of the Pill, but the hormones gave her headaches, or caused her to gain weight, or she would forget to take her pill and be plagued with anxiety. She switched to the NuvaRing, a flexible loop that’s inserted in the vagina, where it emits hormones that prevent fertilization, but she hated the way it felt inside her.
House’s gynecologist referred her to the CHOICE Project at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis. CHOICE is an ongoing study of 10,000 women’s contraceptive use that also offers family-planning counseling. There, for the first time, House was told about the intrauterine device (IUD). Among its selling points were the fact that the IUD is hassle-free, lasting three to 12 years without maintenance or replacement, depending on the brand. It’s also practically fool-proof, on par with female sterilization or vasectomy at preventing pregnancy.
“I thought, ‘That’s it,’” says House, who is now 25 and a social worker in Missouri. She was sold.
Getty Images (1); Corbis (1); Photo Illustration by Mia Tramz for TIMEYet American women—and the doctors who counsel them on family planning—have been slow to adopt it. Today, just 9% of American women of child-bearing age use an IUD, the lowest rate of any developed country. And more than half of U.S. women surveyed have never even heard of the thing.
But there’s a growing push for women to consider one. Because as successful as health groups have been at reducing accidental pregnancies, particularly among teenagers, half of U.S. pregnancies are still unplanned.
“If you can eliminate a lot of them by taking out the human ability to screw up, you’ve done fabulous stuff,” says Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, a clinical professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive services at Yale School of Medicine.
Some early signs are promising. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that many women try at least five different kinds of birth control and are unhappy with all of them—suggesting it may be a ripe time for alternatives. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood reports a 75% increase in IUD use among its patients since 2008. But the dual challenges of terrible PR and a lack of awareness among the doctors who issue family-planning advice means that the shift away from the pill-a-day or condom approaches—and toward long-term contraception—won’t be easy.
Meet the IUD
The IUD is a very small T-shaped rod inserted by a doctor into the uterus, where it emits either the hormone progestin or copper, both of which are hostile to sperm. There are three FDA-approved IUDs available in the U.S.—Mirena and Skyla, which are hormonal, and ParaGard, which is wrapped in copper coils—and they are all extremely effective, with a failure rate of less than one pregnancy per 100 women—compared with 9 per 100 women on the Pill.
“Leading medical organizations now recommend them as a first-line choice,” says Megan Kavanaugh, a senior research associate at Guttmacher Institute, the reproductive rights nonprofit, who points out that while IUDs were historically recommended for women who had already had a first child, that’s no longer the case. In 2012, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, considered the authority on reproductive health, hammered home that message, concluding that IUDs are safe and appropriate for adolescents.
So why the slow rate of adoption in the U.S.? It’s largely due to the fact that the IUD is still the subject of widespread misconceptions. The device is plagued by a troubled history dating back to the ’70s, when an earlier version of the device called the Dalkon Shield was yanked from the market after being linked to infertility and infections. Current versions are smaller and far safer, with almost none of the risks, but the stigma is hard to erase—both among women and also among the physicians who prescribe birth control.
Until recently, the IUD could also be expensive—up to $900 upfront for the uninsured. But a provision in the Affordable Care Act requires coverage for all FDA-approved contraceptives, with the exception of women whose health plans are sponsored by religious employers. (The Supreme Court recently ruled that for-profit corporations whose owners say they run their business on religious principles do not need to cover emergency contraceptives. The IUD can act as emergency contraception if inserted after unprotected sex since it prevents fertilized-egg implantation in the uterus).
Another obstacle is a lack of awareness. The IUD is still virtually unknown to more than half of American women, according to numbers crunched by the Guttmacher Institute. Yet according to the CHOICE Project’s early findings, once women learn about the IUD, more than half will opt for it.
“We thought cost and accessibility were the only barrier,” says Gina Secura, an epidemiologist and CHOICE’s project director, who formerly worked at the CDC. “But when we asked the first participant, ‘What method would you like?’ she asked, ‘What are my options? The Pill?’ We realized we had a lot of educating to do.”
.A Troubled Past
Trepidation about the IUDs of yesteryear is not unwarranted. IUDs started emerging on the U.S. market in the 1950s, and by the early ’70s, one particular brand, the Dalkon Shield, hit sales of 2.8 million, according to the CDC.
But the Dalkon had flaws. Unlike T-shaped IUDs, the Dalkon was shaped more like an insect with several legs sticking out on either side of it. That made it difficult to insert, resulting in it being placed incorrectly, and also resulting in IUD failure and pregnancy. Doctors and manufacturers also didn’t know that the IUD needed to be taken out if a woman got pregnant—but if it wasn’t, it could lead to serious infections. According to various reports, upwards of 15 women who became pregnant with a Dalkon IUD inside them died of infections after they miscarried.
The Dalkon Shield was besieged with lawsuits, and in 1974, the manufacturer, A.H. Robins Co., voluntarily pulled the product from the market. A few years later, A.H. Robins filed for bankruptcy, and by 1986, virtually all brands of IUDs had disappeared from U.S. shelves.
The Dalkon Shield was also linked to pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), a painful condition in which the lining of the uterus, fallopian tubes, or ovaries can become inflamed and can lead to infertility.
But Yale’s Minkin, who was called in as a medical expert in one of the suits against the Dalkon Shield, says the downfall of the IUD was much more complicated than a single product. Minkin says that many cases of PID might have been due to STDs like gonorrhea and chlamydia during the ’60s and ’70s. “So you have a sexual revolution, burgeoning chlamydia, women not using condoms or birth control pills, and bingo! You have a problem,” says Minkin. “It was terrible because women lost a good method. People got hysterical.”
After the Dalkon Shield, “concerns were the same around the world, but no one had the same reaction as the U.S., where IUDs virtually disappeared,” says Dr. Carolyn Westhoff, the senior medical advisor for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. By the late 1980s, there was interest among some health groups to bring back the IUD, particularly outside the U.S. “The Mirena IUD got pioneered in Europe in the early ’90s and caught on like wildfire,” says Minkin. Today, 23% of French women using contraception have an IUD; 27% of Norwegians; and 41% of women in China. In the U.S., the percentage of women with an IUD still hovers around 9.
The IUDs on the U.S. market today are much safer than the IUDs of earlier generations, but not everyone is convinced. “These misperceptions are leftovers from 30 years ago,” says Dr. Laura MacIsaac, director of the family planning division at Mount Sinai Health System in New York. “They have no relevance to the devices of today. These myths persist mostly from physicians’ fears that today’s IUDs still have the same flaws as the old ones. That’s just not true.”
That’s not to say modern IUDs are without side effects, though for the overwhelming majority of women, they are mild. The copper IUD, for instance, can cause heavy periods and cramping in some women for the first few cycles after insertion. Some women with hormonal IUDs report cramping and abnormal bleeding. And in extremely rare cases, the IUD can migrate from the uterus or puncture the uterine wall—which is the subject of several lawsuits against Mirena. Mirena manufacturer Bayer says the company “has adequately disclosed all known risks associated with Mirena since the FDA first approved it in 2000.”
When asked about the risks, MacIsaac says: “Our data shows IUD users have the fewest amount of problems and complications and the highest continuation rate of any other category of birth control. … The women who are happy with their IUDs and have no problems are not the ones who get in the press.”
A Big Leap Forward
Reproductive health experts believe the time is right to re-educate doctors—and women—about the new generation of IUDs. According to the CDC, 30% of women will try at least five different kinds of birth control, and for women not happy with the Pill, who want a non-hormonal contraceptive, or who are concerned about its side effects, the IUD is an effective way to avoid pregnancy.
Launched in 2013, New York City’s IUD Taskforce is one of the first initiatives of its kind. It’s made up of about 50 people from major reproductive health organizations like the Guttmacher Institute, the nonprofit Public Health Solutions, and the New York City Department of Health. The taskforce trains physicians how to insert them, provides women with facts about IUDs, as well as information about where women can get them.
“IUDs help women work on other parts of their life before they’re ready to have kids,” says Louise Cohen, vice president of Public Health Solutions. “We want to increase the degree to which women learn about them—whether through a physician or social media—and we will have them readily available when they want them.”
Another initiative is the New York City Department of Health’s new smartphone app “Teens in NYC Protection,” which uses GPS to show teens where they can get IUDs and other forms of contraception, like condoms. “When we make teens aware, it creates a network, and that’s very powerful,” says Deborah Kaplan, assistant commissioner of the New York City health department.
One of the more viral campaigns comes from the irreverent website Bedsider.org. Bedsider is an online birth control support network operated by the not-for-profit National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. The campaign has an edgy social media presence on Twitter and Instagram with the hopes that tongue-in-cheek messaging will appeal to young adults.
The IUD is also gaining popularity among the group it was originally targeting: moms. When the Mirena, one of the two hormonal IUDs, was first introduced in the U.S. in 2000, moms were their main target group. “The thought was that moms were so busy, and when they finally found a few minutes of free time to have sex, the last thing they had to worry about was contraception,” says Minkin.
Among younger women, word of mouth is key to growing awareness, say experts. House, who wasn’t born when the original IUDs were pulled from the market, says none of her friends knew about IUDs before she got hers inserted at 17. “Now I’ve recommended it to so many of them. I think about three of them actually got it,” she says.
Even though data shows American women’s use of IUDs is the lowest in the developed world, the small but significant growth herald a sea of change. “I recommend the IUD for pretty much anyone walking into my practice wanting contraception,” says Sinai’s MacIsaac. “Most of us who have a lot of clinical experience with the IUD are hoping use in the U.S. will start to look like use in Europe. My goal is to help women plan their families, education and professional life. And IUDs help them do just that.”
Indonesia: Most inmates recaptured after prison break
The male-only prison has a capacity of 300 people but was holding 1,870 inmates, with only five guards and a porter on duty [EPA]Indonesian security forces have rounded up most of the inmates who escaped during a mass breakout from an overcrowded prison on Sumatra island, police said.
About 200 inmates broke out of the jail in Pekanbaru city, on Sumatra island, after they were let out of their cells to pray on Friday.
Almost 80 were quickly recaptured after the incident, and on Saturday the majority had been rounded up, officials said.
"So far 171 inmates have been recaptured or surrendered willingly, we are still unable to determine the exact number of the inmates who escaped," local police spokesman Guntur Aryo Tejo told AFP news agency.
Most prisoners were recaptured while still near Pekanbaru city [EPA]
Amateur footage broadcast on local TV stations showed scores of men, some wearing sarongs, scurrying through the gates of the Sialang Bungkuk prison on Friday, with no sign of officials in pursuit.
Most prisoners were recaptured while still near Pekanbaru.
Dozens of the escaped inmates headed directly to another prison where they handed themselves in.
Tejo said the inmates told the police they decided to escape due to inhumane conditions in the prison.
The male-only prison has a capacity of 300 people but was holding 1,870 inmates, with only five guards and a porter on duty at any one time, said director general of prisons, I Wayan Dusak.
"They also complained about unfair treatment by the prison guards," Tejo said.
READ MORE: Indonesia: Manhunt under way after mass jailbreak
More than a thousand inmates who did not escape the prison were refusing to return to their cells unless the head guard was replaced.
Jailbreaks are common in Indonesia, where inmates are held in often unsanitary conditions at overcrowded prisons.
There was a spate of breakouts in 2013, including one where about 150 prisoners - including terror convicts - escaped from a jail on western Sumatra island.
No bubbly, no banners as Tories play down local election results
The local elections have comprehensively proven that all politics, is, well, not local.
Major constitutional convulsions in Scotland and with Europe have been the inescapable backdrop to a set of local results that have more to do with Barnier than bin collection.
It is stunning to see an incumbent Government putting on seats and entire councils.
It is frankly extraordinary that the Conservatives mayoral candidate Andy Street won in the Labour stronghold of the West Midlands, but we had begun to expect it.
It is pushing political absurdity for Labour to lose the Tees Valley to a Tory who promised to use mayoral funds to buy the local airport.
And yet the job at hand all day for the men and women in blue, has been to play down the results. No banners and no bubbly.
A practically funereal PM toured a Brentford factory to try to argue that the results meant nothing as regards the General Election.
But it does, it really does. Most importantly because it clearly reveals the fundamental axis of the upcoming General Election.
The absolute collapse of the UKIP vote in the aftermath of Article 50 is one thing. The fact that the bulk of it is going to the Conservatives is something that seemed apparent from the polls.
:: The results in full
Today, it became very real. It is now highly realistic to suggest the Conservatives are on course to gain between two and three million votes from UKIP 2015 voters.
In Labour council seats in Warwickshire, Cumbria, and especially Derbyshire, the UKIP vote halved or more, and the Conservatives hoovered them up.
Derbyshire, despite having no UKIP seats before or after the election, saw the collapse in the UKIP vote contribute to an incredible 19-seat swing from Labour to the Conservatives.
Major constitutional convulsions in Scotland and with Europe have been the inescapable backdrop to a set of local results that have more to do with Barnier than bin collection.
It is stunning to see an incumbent Government putting on seats and entire councils.
It is frankly extraordinary that the Conservatives mayoral candidate Andy Street won in the Labour stronghold of the West Midlands, but we had begun to expect it.
It is pushing political absurdity for Labour to lose the Tees Valley to a Tory who promised to use mayoral funds to buy the local airport.
And yet the job at hand all day for the men and women in blue, has been to play down the results. No banners and no bubbly.
A practically funereal PM toured a Brentford factory to try to argue that the results meant nothing as regards the General Election.
But it does, it really does. Most importantly because it clearly reveals the fundamental axis of the upcoming General Election.
The absolute collapse of the UKIP vote in the aftermath of Article 50 is one thing. The fact that the bulk of it is going to the Conservatives is something that seemed apparent from the polls.
:: The results in full
Today, it became very real. It is now highly realistic to suggest the Conservatives are on course to gain between two and three million votes from UKIP 2015 voters.
In Labour council seats in Warwickshire, Cumbria, and especially Derbyshire, the UKIP vote halved or more, and the Conservatives hoovered them up.
Derbyshire, despite having no UKIP seats before or after the election, saw the collapse in the UKIP vote contribute to an incredible 19-seat swing from Labour to the Conservatives.
Friday, May 5, 2017
Boost for Donald Trump as US jobs growth rebounds
US jobs growth rebounded in April in a boost for Donald Trump after a sluggish start to the year for the world's biggest economy.
America's closely watched nonfarm payrolls figures showed a higher than expected increase of 211,000 in employment numbers, a big upturn after a gain of 79,000 in March.
They appeared to back the argument that weak economic growth in the first quarter was a blip.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate slipped by a percentage point to 4.4%, its lowest level since May 2007, according to the data from the US Labor Department.
The figures could seal the case for another interest rate rise by the US Federal Reserve next month, despite wage growth remaining moderate.
They appeared to back the Fed's contention that disappointing GDP growth in the first quarter - at an annual pace of 0.7% - was likely to have been "transitory".
The US central bank earlier this week kept its benchmark interest rate on hold and said it expected labour market conditions would "strengthen somewhat further".
It had raised the rate by a quarter of percentage point in March and pencilled in two more increases for this year.
Economists have expressed optimism that the US is strengthening in the current April-June quarter, fuelled by job growth, higher consumer confidence and stock-market records on promises of tax cuts and investment from President Trump.
James Knightley, senior economist at ING Bank, said: "Healthy jobs growth has returned and unemployment has fallen again, offering support to the Federal Reserve's policy of gradually raising rates."
America's closely watched nonfarm payrolls figures showed a higher than expected increase of 211,000 in employment numbers, a big upturn after a gain of 79,000 in March.
They appeared to back the argument that weak economic growth in the first quarter was a blip.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate slipped by a percentage point to 4.4%, its lowest level since May 2007, according to the data from the US Labor Department.
The figures could seal the case for another interest rate rise by the US Federal Reserve next month, despite wage growth remaining moderate.
They appeared to back the Fed's contention that disappointing GDP growth in the first quarter - at an annual pace of 0.7% - was likely to have been "transitory".
The US central bank earlier this week kept its benchmark interest rate on hold and said it expected labour market conditions would "strengthen somewhat further".
It had raised the rate by a quarter of percentage point in March and pencilled in two more increases for this year.
Economists have expressed optimism that the US is strengthening in the current April-June quarter, fuelled by job growth, higher consumer confidence and stock-market records on promises of tax cuts and investment from President Trump.
James Knightley, senior economist at ING Bank, said: "Healthy jobs growth has returned and unemployment has fallen again, offering support to the Federal Reserve's policy of gradually raising rates."
North Korea accuses CIA of 'vicious' plot to kill Kim Jong-Un
North Korea has accused the US and South Korea of plotting to assassinate Kim Jong-Un.
Pyongyang claims the CIA and Seoul's Intelligence Services had "hatched a vicious plot" to kill the secretive state's young leader as he attended ceremonial events.
The Ministry of State Security alleges the agencies "ideologically corrupted and bribed a North Korean citizen surnamed Kim" to orchestrate the attack - paying him tens of thousands of dollars.
It added that the CIA had chosen to use "biochemical substances" for the assassination and described the alleged plot as tantamount to "the declaration of a war".
The statement said: "We will ferret out and mercilessly destroy to the last one the terrorists of the US CIA and the puppet Intelligence Services of South Korea.
"This heinous crime, which was recently uncovered and smashed in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is a kind of terrorism against not only the DPRK but the justice and conscience of humankind."
No explanation was offered as to how the supposed plot was foiled, or what happened to the North Korean citizen who was allegedly involved.
But the statement, which described the suspect as "human scum", warned: "Criminals going hell-bent to realise such a pipe dream cannot survive on this land even a moment."
The allegations came after the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favour of imposing tighter sanctions on North Korea by targeting its shipping industry.
Those in favour of the legislation said it is designed to send a strong message to Pyongyang that the escalation of its nuclear programme will not be tolerated.
The Senate would need to approve the sanctions before they can be sent to the White House for Donald Trump to sign into law.
It is likely that any economic pressure will negatively affect China, which is North Korea's closest trading partner. This is because the American sanctions would penalise companies that trade with Pyongyang.
China's foreign ministry has asked for all sides to exercise restraint and to avoid taking measures which could make the tense situation on the Korean Peninsula worse.
Pyongyang claims the CIA and Seoul's Intelligence Services had "hatched a vicious plot" to kill the secretive state's young leader as he attended ceremonial events.
The Ministry of State Security alleges the agencies "ideologically corrupted and bribed a North Korean citizen surnamed Kim" to orchestrate the attack - paying him tens of thousands of dollars.
It added that the CIA had chosen to use "biochemical substances" for the assassination and described the alleged plot as tantamount to "the declaration of a war".
The statement said: "We will ferret out and mercilessly destroy to the last one the terrorists of the US CIA and the puppet Intelligence Services of South Korea.
"This heinous crime, which was recently uncovered and smashed in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is a kind of terrorism against not only the DPRK but the justice and conscience of humankind."
No explanation was offered as to how the supposed plot was foiled, or what happened to the North Korean citizen who was allegedly involved.
But the statement, which described the suspect as "human scum", warned: "Criminals going hell-bent to realise such a pipe dream cannot survive on this land even a moment."
The allegations came after the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favour of imposing tighter sanctions on North Korea by targeting its shipping industry.
Those in favour of the legislation said it is designed to send a strong message to Pyongyang that the escalation of its nuclear programme will not be tolerated.
The Senate would need to approve the sanctions before they can be sent to the White House for Donald Trump to sign into law.
It is likely that any economic pressure will negatively affect China, which is North Korea's closest trading partner. This is because the American sanctions would penalise companies that trade with Pyongyang.
China's foreign ministry has asked for all sides to exercise restraint and to avoid taking measures which could make the tense situation on the Korean Peninsula worse.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)