Daily Archives: April 21, 2017

National Post

Husband of Regina woman accused of human smuggling arrested along with another Canadian National Post Last Friday evening, as Mounties arrested a Saskatchewan woman as part of a human smuggling investigation, U.S. border patrol agents moved in on the woman's husband, a Nigerian citizen and another Canadian on the North Dakota side of the border. So far ... Canadians, Nigerian Arrested For Human Smuggling At Canada-U.S. BorderHuffington Post Canada Human smuggling charges laid against Regina womanRegina Leader-Post Canadian couple arrested as part of human smuggling investigationCBC.ca South China Morning Post -Cape Breton Post -BBC News -Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada all 80 news articles »

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Husband of Regina woman accused of human smuggling arrested along with another Canadian - National Post

By Bruce Schreiner,TheAssociated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. Kentuckys attorney general is urging people to pay attention to more than horses and parties during the springtime celebrations leading up to the Kentucky Derby.

Warning of the unsavory side of Derby season, authorities are asking for the publics help in cracking down on sex traffickers trying to cash in on the crowds expected for the worlds most famous horse race.

This is our Derby, which is supposed to be a celebration, Attorney General Andy Beshear said Thursday. And we should not allow criminals to mar it, especially through a crime that so victimizes our children and other vulnerable individuals. So be our eyes and ears.

More than 160,000 fans are expected to pack into Churchill Downs for the May 6 race, capping two weeks of festivities across Louisville that kick off Saturday night with a huge fireworks show.

Last Derby season, Beshears office worked with local law enforcement in trying to root out trafficking operations. He said that effort led to multiple arrests and the rescue of a 14-year-old girl.

Authorities can point to other successes in their efforts.

A Kalamazoo, Michigan, man ensnared in a prostitution sting operation during a prior Derby season was sentenced recently to nearly 20 years in prison. David Q. Givhan was convicted of one count of sex trafficking and three counts of interstate transportation for prostitution.

Givhan twice brought a woman to Louisville to perform commercial sex acts in the days leading up to the 2015 Derby because they had made a lot of money, court documents said.

Last year, Louisville metro police reported making 233 arrests for prostitution-related offenses, with 65 of them or more than a fourth occurring from April through Derby weekend. Forty-four of the arrests occurred in the first week of May.

Federal, state and local law enforcement agents plan another round of intensified efforts this Derby season to combat sex trafficking, U.S. Attorney John E. Kuhn Jr. said

Forcible sex trafficking is effectively a form of modern day slavery, and those responsible will face lengthy prison sentences if they operate here, he said in a statement.

Louisville Metro Police Lt. Chuck Mann said the strategy to combat trafficking includes undercover operations.

Most of our proactive efforts are focused around events such as the Kentucky Derby, which bring many visitors from outside the Louisville metro area, he said in a statement.

Amy Nace-DeGonda, a Catholic Charities case manager in Louisville who works with human trafficking victims, said she worries that for every arrest, many other traffickers go undetected.

What I always say is anytime you see any stats, you should probably just multiple it several times because its happening more than were even aware, she said after Beshears event.

Asked for the reasons behind the surge in sex trafficking during Derby season, she said: More people, less inhibition, more money coming in.

Beshears office was hosting a three-day training session this week for law enforcement, prosecutors and others to combat human trafficking.

He offered some common clues that can give away trafficking victims: signs of malnourishment or injuries, a lack of identification, inability to identify what state or community a person is in, avoidance of eye contact and scripted responses in social interactions.

Read more:
Kentucky Derby season draws warnings of human trafficking - The Denver Post

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You leave your car in a vast, crowded parking lot, and when you return, you have no idea where it is. The ensuing search is frustrating, time-consuming and a little embarrassing.

That experience occurs more frequently as we get older, because the functions of the part of the brain that encodes spatial and episodic memories the hippocampus decline with age.

But now neuroscientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown that in mice an infusion of plasma taken from human umbilical cords improves the hippocampus's functioning, resulting in significant gains in memory and cognition needed for tasks such as finding a car in a full parking lot. They also isolated the protein, known as TIMP2, that they say is responsible for the improvements.

The research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, could one day hold implications for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and other conditions that erode memory and cognition.

[Giving young blood to older animals raises tantalizing prospects for people]

That TIMP2 protein might have some translational promise, some therapeutic promise, in humans, said Joe Castellano, a postdoctoral researcher who identified the protein among scores of others in the blood.

TIMP2 appears to improve the transmission of information across gaps known as synapses between cells in the hippocampus, Castellano said. The quantity of the substance in the blood declines as people age.

There seems to be something in young human blood that is not in old human blood that can reactivate and rejuvenate these old brains and make mice smarter again, said Tony Wyss-Coray, a professor of neurology at Stanford who led the research team.

The researchers, however, voiced caution because most therapeutic approaches to disease that work in mice or other lab animals do not succeed in humans. And before it could be tried in humans, any substance would face years of safety testing.

But because the current study was conducted with human cord plasma, it is a big step forward, they said. Its not some random molecule that we found somewhere, Wyss-Coray said. Its actually produced in humans.

[Staying fit at 102]

That raises the possibility of using TIMP2 to slow the aging of other tissue in the body, he said. Scientists don't actually know whether different organs age at the same rate and are not sure where the protein is produced. Where does TIMP2 come from? Which organs produce it? Wyss-Coray said. And if its multiple organs, does it change with aging at the same speed, and can we interfere with that?

The researchers had previously shown that they could improve learning and memory in older mice by injecting them with plasma taken from young mice.

In this study, the team injected the plasma the liquid that remains when blood cells are removed into older mice whose immune systems were weakened so that their natural defenses would not attack the proteins.

They could not send the rodents scurrying after tiny vehicles in a miniature parking lot. Instead, they tested them in a maze to determine how long it took the mice to find their way to a dark and confined space they consider secure, Castellano said. The older mice treated with human cord plasma regained about half their speed at finding the correct location, according to Wyss-Coray.

A second test that required the mice to recognize contextual cues to perform a task confirmed the gains, Castellano said.

Excerpt from:
A protein from human umbilical cords revitalizes memory at least in mice - Washington Post

An Egyptian American charity worker who was imprisoned in Cairo for three years and became the global face of Egypts brutal crackdown on civil society returned home to the United States late Thursday after the Trump administration quietly negotiated her release.

President Trump and his aides worked for several weeks with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi to secure the freedom of Aya Hijazi, 30, a U.S. citizen, as well as her husband, Mohamed Hassanein, who is Egyptian, and four other humanitarian workers. Trump dispatched a U.S. government aircraft to Cairo to bring Hijazi and her family to Washington.

Hijazi, who grew up in Falls Church, Va., and graduated from George Mason University, was working in Cairo with the Belady Foundation, which she and her husband established as a haven and rehabilitation center for street children in Cairo.

The couple and their co-workers had been incarcerated since May1, 2014, on child abuse and trafficking charges that were widely dismissed by human rights workers and U.S. officials as false. Virtually no evidence was ever presented against them, and for nearly three years they were held as hearings were inexplicably postponed and trial dates canceled. Human rights groups alleged that they were abused in detention.

The Obama administration unsuccessfully pressed Sissis government for their release. It was not until Trump moved to reset U.S. relations with Egypt by embracing Sissi at the White House on April3 he publicly hailed the autocrats leadership as fantastic and offered the U.S. governments strong backing that Egypts posture changed. Last Sunday, a court in Cairo dropped all charges against Hijazi and the others.

What the White House plans to celebrate as vindication of its early diplomacy comes at the end of a week in which the administration has combated charges of foreign policy confusion. Although the president received wide praise for his decision to punish Syria for its presumed chemical weapons attack with a barrage of cruise missiles, the administration has been criticized for contradictions over policy toward Syria and Turkey, and misstatements on the U.S. response to North Koreas weapons activity.

A senior administration official said that no quid pro quo had been offered for Hijazis release but that there had been assurance from the highest levels [of Sissis government] that whatever the verdict was, Egypt would use presidential authority to send her home. The official said the U.S. side interpreted that to mean that a guilty verdict and sentencing would be followed by a pardon from Sissi, but they were pleasantly surprised.

The dropping of charges set in motion the release of Hijazi and Hassanein from custody and their journey to the United States, which was personally overseen by Trump and detailed Thursday by the senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the national security sensitivities of the case.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and deputy national security adviser Dina Powell, who were already planning to visitEgypt this week, met with Sissi on a range of topics. Meanwhile, Trump also sent his military aide, Air Force Maj. Wes Spurlock, to escort Hijazi and her family on the plane home to Washington.

Hijazi and Hassanein reunited with the Hijazi family in Cairo this week, and as Mattis traveled on to Israel, Powell, who was born in Egypt and has helped smooth relations between the two countries, stayed behind to accompany the group, the senior administration official said.

The travelers touched down at Joint Base Andrews about 10 p.m. Thursday. Hijazi and her brother, Basel, are scheduled to visit the White House on Friday to meet with Trump and his daughter, Ivanka, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who had followed Hijazis plight, the senior administration official said.

Its been a roller coaster of emotions the past couple of days, Basel Hijazi said in a telephone interview Thursday from aboard the plane. Were crying with relief to have them out.

He added: Were very grateful that President Trump personally engaged with the issue. Working closely with the Trump administration was very important for my family at this critical time. It let us be reunited as a family. Were so grateful.

Since Sissi came to power in a 2013 coup, his authoritarian government has presided over a lurching economy, with massive debt, high unemployment and allegations of corruption. A $12billion loan last year from the International Monetary Fund and strict austerity measures have led to slow improvements, but Egypt still needs major outside investment and favorable financing.

During his U.S. visit, Sissi met with the heads of the IMF and the World Bank, along with the chief executives of Lockheed Martin and General Electric. Sissi has sought billions of dollars in financing from the U.S. Export- Import Bank for massive infrastructure investments.

During his campaign, Trump suggested that the United States could do well without the Ex-Im Bank. But last week, he reversed himself by nominating former Republican lawmakers Scott Garrett and Spencer Bachus to vacant positions on the banks board.

The senior Trump administration official said the agreement for Hijazis release was the product of Trumps discreet diplomacy meaning the presidents efforts to cultivate warm relations with strongmen such as Sissi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, in part by avoiding public pronouncements on human rights that might alienate the foreign governments.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who said he recently advocated for Hijazis release in his own talks with Sissi and was briefed on the latest negotiations, said Trump handled it the way things like this should be handled.

The United States can sometimes lead with things, and do it publicly, [in ways] that are offensive to people and likely not get the kind of result that wed like, whereas working it quietly and making it a priority, but doing so in a way that is not a public embarrassment to the other party, thats the way they worked this, Corker said in an interview Thursday.

Former Obama administration officials, who were at times criticized for not making a more public case out of Hijazis imprisonment, expressed skepticism that Sissi got nothing from Trump in exchange for Hijazis freedom.

The robust praise and support the president has given to Sissi, which stands in some contrast to what we did, had to have some price, and maybe this is it, said Antony J. Blinken, who worked on the Hijazi case as deputy secretary of state. At least its a positive development in which everyone can take some satisfaction.

At the same time, Blinken warned, such support could have the opposite effect of simply reinforcing [Sissis] crackdown at home, in a way I think someday is going to rebound against him, and probably rebound against us. ... You can try to repress your problems away, but at some point, they will explode.

During Sissis visit to Washington, Trump made no public mention of Hijazis imprisonment. Nor did he appear to pressure the Egyptian leader on his record of human rights abuses.

But the senior administration official said Trump had been following Hijazis case.

I want her to come home, Trump told his top aides and deputized them to work directly with the Egyptian government to secure her release, according to the senior administration official. Officials at the State Department and at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo helped facilitate Hijazis departure from Egypt, while attorney Wade McMullen and other leaders from Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, a nonprofit advocacy organization, also worked to free her.

Kerry Kennedy, the groups president, said in a statement that her team had worked with the administration, and we are deeply grateful to President Trump for his personal engagement in resolving Ayas case.

Sissi, a former army chief who led the coup that overthrew Egypts elected president, had been barred from the White House by the Obama administration for human rights abuses. Sissis post-coup crackdown has been particularly severe against civil society groups, especially those receiving money from abroad. They are frequently denounced by the government and pro-government media as trying to destabilize the country. Thousands of people remain imprisoned.

While President Barack Obama was uneasy with the elected government of Mohamed Morsi, whose political organization was tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, his administration rejected Sissis charges of terrorism ties. After the coup, Obama withheld aid from Egypt for decades, the second- largest recipient of U.S. military assistance, after Israel, at more than $1billion a year.

During his presidential campaign, Trump expressed admiration for authoritarian leaders he felt were tough on terrorism and derided what he called Obamas weak leadership.

This month, as Sissi smiled beside him in the Oval Office, Trump said warmly: We agree on so many things. I just want to let everybody know, in case there was any doubt, that we are very much behind President al-Sissi.

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Freed Egyptian American prisoner returns home following Trump intervention - Washington Post