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UK VISA APPLICATION
UK VISA APPLICATION FOR YOUR SPOUSE, FIANCE OR A VISITOR VISA FOR THAT SPECIAL SOMEONE.
Are you looking for a reliable and experienced law firm to help you with your UK visa application or appeal?
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Our team of legal experts are fully regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority in the UK for UK visa application and immigration matters, so you can trust us to provide you with a competent, legitimate, flexible, and consistent legal service.
The rules, regulations and evidential requirements change weekly for visa and Immigration matters and our experts keep up to date with what is required in order to optimize your application giving it the best possible chance of success. We also assist with drafting the Sponsorship letter and assist with uploading the documentary evidence for you.
With 15 years of experience and a 100% success rate in 2022 and 2023, why risk going to an unknown agent when you can trust our team of experts?
We offer a range of UK visa application services, including UK visitor visa, UK fiancé visa, and UK spouse visas, as well as visa refusal appeals.
At Isaan Lawyers, we offer a free, no-obligation conference with our experienced UK Immigration and Visa Director who is a UK Immigration Solicitor with vast experience and up to date knowledge of the Immigration system and its requirements. During this conference, we will assess your circumstances and provide you with advice on the best course of action for your UK visa application needs.
Our team of legal experts are specialists in visas, appeals, and applications, and we can guide you through the processes and provide you with the necessary support both in the UK and here in Thailand.
The sponsor has the services of UK lawyers and Solicitors here and in the UK to assist whilst the Thai applicant has the assistance of Thai lawyers to explain and help along the way some of which have been through the application process themselves and have lived in the UK.
Why risk going to an unknown agent when you can have a free consultation with our experienced UK Immigration and Visa Director.
Contact us today to schedule your free conference and let us help you with your UK visa needs.
Our other legal services also include corporate, property and commercial, conveyancing, family law, immigration services for Thailand and the UK, legal services such as Thai last and Living wills, accounting and notary services, together with criminal and civil litigation in Thailand.
Trust Isaan Lawyers to provide you with the best legal service for your UK visa and Thai legal needs.
Read more here UK Visa – Isaan Lawyers – Attorneys and Lawyers in Thailand
We have been assisting overseas nationals, Thai and Expats since 2006.
Email us
In Pattaya, you can also contact www.anglosiamlegal.com
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Former President Trump called out New York Attorney General Letitia James in a video on Truth Social, claiming the Democrat was depriving him of his rights.
“This case should never have been brought and should never have been allowed,” Trump said in the video. “I have no rights.”
Trump has complained he’s not eligible for a jury in the case and has said a gag order barring him from smearing court staff is unfair.
Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled Trump liable for fraud in the case. His company is accused of engaging in decades of fraud by inflating and deflating the value of its assets to pay less in taxes and receive better insurance coverage.
James brought the civil case last fall, suing the former president, his adult sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., along with former Trump Organization executives Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney and related business entities.
The trial began in New York on Oct. 2. Trump has voluntarily shown up in court several times and alleged the trial is a form of election interference.
“This trial is an election interference witch hunt and everybody knows it,” Trump said in the video. “All of the banks that I dealt with were very happy with us. They thought I was a great customer.”
In the video, Trump repeated the claim that James is “incompetent” and “a racist,” and he said the state of New York should “intercede and stop this total travesty of justice.”
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Israel's leaders have declared that Hamas will be wiped off the face of the Earth and Gaza will never go back to what it was.
"Every Hamas member is a dead man," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after fighters from the militant group killed 1,400 people in a brutal attack on Israel.
The goal of Operation Swords of Iron appears far more ambitious than anything the military has planned in Gaza before and could last months. But is its aim realistic, and how can its commanders possibly fulfil it?
A ground invasion of the Gaza Strip involves house-to-house urban fighting and carries immense risks to the civilian population. Air strikes have already claimed 3,000 lives, according to Gaza officials, and more than a million people have fled their homes.
Israel's military has the added task of rescuing at least 199 hostages, held in unknown locations across Gaza.
Herzi Halevi, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), has vowed to "dismantle" Hamas, and has singled out its political head in Gaza. But is there an ultimate vision for how Gaza will look after 16 years of Hamas's violent rule?
"I don't think Israel can dismantle every Hamas member, because it's an idea of extremist Islam," says military analyst Amir Bar Shalom of Israel's Army Radio. "But you can weaken it as much as you can so it has no operational capabilities."
That might be a more realistic objective. Israel has already fought four wars with Hamas, and every attempt to halt its rocket attacks has failed.
Michael Milstein, head of the Palestinian studies forum of Tel Aviv University, says destroying or weakening Hamas would be highly complicated. Quite apart from the 25,000-plus strength of Hamas's military wing, the militant group has another 80-90,000 more members who are part of its social welfare infrastructure, or Dawa, he says.
IDF spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said by the end of this war Hamas should no longer have the military capacity to "threaten or kill Israeli civilians".
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Republican Jim Jordan has lost the first vote in his bid to become US House of Representatives Speaker after stiffer-than-expected opposition from members of his own party.
Despite intense lobbying, 20 Republicans refused to vote for the right-wing Ohio congressman.
The Trump ally abandoned plans for another vote until Wednesday morning.
Congress's lower chamber has had no Speaker since Kevin McCarthy was ousted two weeks ago in a right-wing revolt.
Without a leader, the House is unable to pass any bills or approve White House requests for emergency aid. That includes potential help for Israel amid its war with Hamas.
Mr Jordan earned 200 votes in the first ballot on Tuesday, but he needs 217 to secure the Speaker's gavel.
Even the Democratic nominee, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, earned more votes - 212 - than Mr Jordan, but Democrats are the minority party in the House, so it was not enough.
Mr Jordan vowed to "keep working" and expressed confidence he would ultimately emerge victorious.
"We're making progress. I feel good about it," he told reporters. "We're gonna keep going."
The House Judiciary Committee chairman initially said a second vote was planned for Tuesday, but later said it would instead take place at 11:00 (15:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
Republicans who refused to pick Mr Jordan voted instead for Kevin McCarthy, the former Speaker who was ousted on 3 October, or picked other candidates.
Three even voted for Lee Zeldin, a New York congressman who retired from the House in January this year.
A bloc of New York Republicans who voted against Mr Jordan cited his opposition to benefits for survivors of the 9/11 attacks, among other political issues.
But another New York Republican, Elise Stefanik, called Mr Jordan "a patriot, an America First warrior who wins the toughest of fights"
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Ukraine has used US-supplied long-range missiles for the first time, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
His comments follow reports the weapons, known as ATACMS, destroyed nine helicopters at Russian bases in the east of the country. Ukraine has not confirmed the missiles were used.
Ukraine said an air defence system and other equipment were among the targets hit in Berdyansk and Luhansk.
Dozens of Russian troops were killed or injured in the operation, it added.
"They have performed very accurately. ATACMS have proven themselves," Mr Zelensky said in an evening address posted on social media, without giving details of when or where they were used.
Russia's military has not commented.
The Biden administration had previously refused to provide ATACMS to Ukraine, but had decided "in recent weeks" to send them quietly, US media outlet CNN reported, quoting two US officials.
It said that Washington wanted to take Moscow by surprise, in case Russia moved equipment and weapons out of reach before the projectiles could be used.
Because of concerns about tensions with Russia, the missiles provided to Ukraine have a lower range than the maximum the system is capable of, according to the Associated Press.
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Summary
- Hundreds of Palestinians are feared dead after a huge blast at a hospital in Gaza City, blamed by the Hamas group on an Israeli air strike
- Israel says the blast was caused by rockets misfired by another group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and both sides deny blame
- US President Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday but a planned summit in Jordan with Arab leaders has been cancelled
- At least 600,000 Palestinians have fled the northern Gaza Strip for the south since Israeli military warnings
- Israel has blocked essential supplies to Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas attack on 7 October that left 1,300 Israelis dead
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Russia has intensified its offensive in northeastern Ukraine to break through its heavily fortified defence and recapture the Kupiansk-Lyman area.
The Russian Army is preparing for “serious offensive actions” and sending more staff in Kupiansk-Lyman, commander of the Ukrainian ground forces Oleksandr Syrskyi said.
The fighting had "significantly escalated", he said, adding, "The main goal is to break through our troops’ defences and recapture our territory".
But Ukraine’s eastern forces said president Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces were putting up a tough fight from well-entrenched troops, forcing Russian soldiers to retreat.
“Our fortifications there are quite reliable. We have a powerful, dug-in position,” Ilia Yevlash, spokesperson for Ukraine’s forces in the east, told Ukrainian television. “So the enemy got it right in the teeth and retreated in order to regroup.”
Russia captured the northeastern towns near Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv when the invasion began but Ukrainian forces recaptured the areas last year, evicting invading forces from some parts of the country’s Donbas industrial heartland.
Its recapturing marked a significant step in the Ukrainian offensive to defend its territories.
The Russian defence ministry acknowledged that it launched an “intense military activity” in the area and repelled 10 Ukrainian attacks in the Kupiansk area and two more in adjacent Lyman.
In June, Ukraine initiated a counteroffensive with the primary objective of reclaiming territory in the eastern region, notably in the vicinity of Bakhmut, which had fallen under Russian control in May. Their strategy also involved advancing southward toward the Sea of Azov.
The Ukrainian military primarily achieved gradual progress, disregarding criticism from certain Western observers who contended that the offensive was proceeding too slowly.
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US President Joe Biden is expected to visit Israel on Wednesday to show solidarity with the nation while calling on its military leaders to avoid killing civilians ahead of an expected offensive into Gaza.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said over the weekend that the tens of thousands of heavily-armed soldiers surrounding the border with Gaza were “ready” for war.
But for the past four days, since the first evacuation order was handed down to Palestinians to head southward towards Egypt, a major offensive has not materalised.
Following another late night meeting in Tel Aviv, the US secretary of state said that Mr Biden would visit on Wednesday to “hear from Israel what it needs to defend its people as we continue to work with Congress to meet those needs”.
Biden will also travel to Jordan to meet with Arab leaders amid fears that the fighting could expand into a broader regional conflict.
It comes as devastating airstrikes continue to kill civilians in Gaza despite calls from western leaders for Israel to exercise “restraint”.
At least 49 Palestinians were killed in an overnight strike that hit homes in Khan Younis and Rafah, Gaza’s interior ministry said on Tuesday.
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India's top court has rejected a landmark petition seeking the recognition of same-sex marriage in the country, a blow for the queer community that denies tens of millions of LGBT+ couples the right to marry their partners.
In a lengthy judgement, the Supreme Court of India urged the government to create legal recognition for same-sex couples so that they do not face descrimination, but stopped short of including such couples within the existing legal framework of marriage.
The case involved 21 separate petitions from members of the LGBT+ community who argued that not being able to marry violated their constitutional rights, making them “second-class citizens”.
The government contested the petitions, which came just five years after India decriminalised gay sex, arguing that marriage is exclusively an institution between a man and a woman and that those seeking marriage equality represented an “urban elitist view for the purpose of social acceptance”.
The case was overseen by the country’s most senior judge, chief justice DY Chandrachud, as well as four other Supreme Court justices. It held hearings up until 11 May this year and had been deliberating its verdict for more than five months since then.
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PFAS – also known as forever chemicals – accumulate in nature and in our bodies where they can damage the endocrine, immune and reproductive systems.
Exclusive: Plan to outlaw all but the most vital of harmful chemicals is not included in leaked policy proposals
The EU has abandoned a promise to ban all but the most vital of toxic chemicals used in everyday consumer products, leaked documents show.
Other legislation to be dropped includes a ban on the export of outlawed chemicals from Europe to the rest of the world, a ban on caged farming and a sustainable food systems framework that the European Commission once described as “a flagship” of its farm to fork strategy.
These proposals are all absent from a copy of the commission’s 2024 work programme seen by the Guardian and due to be announced on Tuesday.
The blueprint maps out which proposals the commission will bring forward in the last months before European parliament elections in June, which will be followed by the formation of a new commission team.
A wind power package will still be launched next year, as will a process to establish a 2040 climate target, and a climate adaptation package. But there was no hiding the disappointment of environmentalists.
Tatiana Santos, the head of chemicals policy at the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), a network of environmental citizens’ organisations, said that by shelving the promised review of the EU’s Reach regulation that governs chemicals, “the European Commission has betrayed European citizens, turning a blind eye to chemical pollution and favoured toxic industry’s short-term interests over those of its citizens. It is now clear that the profits of the chemical industry are more important to this commission than the health of Europeans. The European Green Deal will be remembered as the European Toxic Deal.
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Donald Trump has said that a dossier alleging that he engaged in “perverted sexual behaviour” and paid bribes to Russian officials to further his business interests is “false” and “phoney”, and is seeking to sue for damages in London.
The former US president indicated that he was willing to give evidence at the high court in his case alleging breach of data protection rights by Orbis Business Intelligence over the 2016 “Steele dossier”. The dossier, investigating Russian efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential campaign, was compiled by the Orbis co-founder Christopher Steele, who previously ran MI6’s Russia desk.
Trump was not present for the high court hearing, which will determine whether the case can go to trial. However, in a written witness statement, he said: “The only way that I can fully demonstrate the total inaccuracies of the personal data in the dossier is to bring these proceedings and to prove, by evidence at trial, that the data are false.
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Defence minister says Chinese jet came within five meters of Canadian surveillance plane on UN operation over international waters
Canada’s defence minister has accused China fighter jets of carrying out a “dangerous and reckless” interception of a Canadian military plane over international waters.
Bill Blair spoke after Canada’s Global News said a Chinese jet had come within five meters (16ft) of a Canadian surveillance plane taking part in a UN operation to enforce sanctions against North Korea.
The incident took place in international waters off the coast of China, said Global, which had a crew on the plane. Blair said that while the Chinese air force regularly interacted with planes on UN missions, the incident on Monday had put the Canadian aircraft at significant risk.
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Vendors in the Chinese border city of Heihe complain of a shortage of business
President Vladimir Putin is making a key trip to Russia's most important ally, China, that will seek to shore up an alliance against the West and celebrate China-Russia ties.
The small city of Heihe sits along China's border with Russia. Local tourists come here to peek into neighbouring Blagoveshchensk, just across the river, but there are not many of them.
A tour boat sits idle on the water, pumping out happy-sounding Chinese songs in an attempt to attract customers, but with nobody buying tickets it doesn't look like it's going to move all day.
Across the water, a Russian coastguard ship is parked, and officers pass the time doing exercises on deck in the autumn sun.
When Vladimir Putin visited Beijing for the opening of the Winter Olympics at the beginning of last year, he and Xi Jinping announced a new "no limits" partnership between their countries.
Now, with Russia's leader back in the Chinese capital, China's state media has been hailing the fruits of this relationship.
In one way, it has been beneficial for both governments. They can reassure one another when they are frozen out on the world stage, and images of their handshakes are useful to try to show their own people that all is normal, with such powerful friends standing together. However, business activity in their border zones does not appear to live up to the political rhetoric.
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Two Swedish nationals have been shot dead and a third person injured in Brussels, in an attack which prosecutors are treating as terrorism.
The Belgium-Sweden Euro 2024 qualifier football match being played in the city was abandoned.
Brussels is on its highest terror alert as the gunman, who appeared to have an assault rifle, remains at large.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who was on a visit to Albania, said: "Europe has been shaken."
A spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor, Eric van Duyse, urged the public to "go home and stay at home as long as the threat has not been eradicated".
He said a man claiming to be the attacker had said in a video on social media he had been inspired by the Islamic State group.
A video shows an Arabic-speaking man saying he carried out the attack in the name of God and that he killed three people.
The video and others uploaded during the attack are being verified by police, the BBC has been told.
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I think there is a Sukhumvit in just aboiut every major town, care to be a bit more specific ?
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Cricket, lacrosse, flag football, softball-baseball and squash receive approval for 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles; cricket set to return to the event for the first time since 1900 Games in Paris; squash and flag football poised for Olympic debuts
Five sports, including cricket and flag football, will be included at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics after receiving the approval of the International Olympic Committee.
Lacrosse, squash and baseball-softball also received the green light at an official IOC meeting in Mumbai on Monday with only two delegates voting against the five new events.
Each host city, under IOC rules, can request the inclusion of several sports for their edition of the Games.
Cricket has only appeared once at the Olympics, at the Paris Games in 1900 when Great Britain beat France by 158 runs a one-off final, but IOC president Thomas Bach said last week that the game's "growing popularity" made it an attractive proposition.
Bach said: "We are ready to welcome the world's best players of cricket to perform in the United States in 2028, while showcasing iconic American sports to the world.
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President Biden in a new interview dismissed the idea that the United States could not simultaneously support Israel in its war against Hamas and Ukraine in its war against Russia.
“We’re the United States of America for God’s sake, the most powerful nation in the history — not in the world, in the history of the world,” Biden said in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday. “We can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defense.”
Biden argued that the two conflicts “overwhelmingly” relate to the safety of the American people.
“In Ukraine one of my objectives was to prevent [Russian President Vladimir Putin], who has committed war crimes himself, who — from being able to occupy an independent country that borders NATO allies and is on the Russian border,” Biden said. “Imagine what happens now if he were able to succeed. Have you ever known a major war in Europe we didn’t get sucked into? We don’t want that to happen.”
“We want to make sure those democracies are sustained. And Ukraine is critical in making sure that happens,” Biden added.
Biden sat down with “60 Minutes” at the White House days after Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, launched terrorist attacks against Israel that left 1,000 Israelis dead. Thousands more Palestinians have been killed in ensuing fighting in Gaza.
More than two dozen Americans were killed in the attacks, and more than a dozen remain unaccounted for.
The Biden administration has moved military assets closer to Israel in support of the Jewish state and has sent munitions and interceptors for Israel’s Iron Dome defense system.
At the same time, Congress has provided billions of dollars in military and financial assistance to Ukraine in the roughly 20 months since Russia launched an unprovoked invasion in February 2022.
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President Biden said in a new interview that it would be a “big mistake” if Israel once again occupied Gaza as it fights the militant group Hamas following an attack and subsequent war that has left thousands dead.
“I think it’d be a big mistake,” Biden said when asked by CBS’s Scott Pelley on “60 Minutes” if he would support Israeli occupation of Gaza at this point of the war. Gaza has been under heavy bombardment by Israel, and Israel is expected to launch a ground offensive soon.
“Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that … it would be a mistake … for Israel to occupy … Gaza again,” Biden added. “But going in but taking out the extremists — the Hezbollah is up north but Hamas down south — is a necessary requirement.”
Israel formally withdrew its military presence as well as its settlements from inside Gaza in 2005. The enclave had been controlled by the Palestinian Authority before that following the Oslo accords.
The year after Israel withdrew from the territory, Hamas was elected to govern the area. No elections have been held in Gaza since.
Israeli armed forces have launched a counteroffensive against Hamas, which currently governs Gaza, after Hamas launches a deadly and brutal attack against Israel last weekend. Since then, the war has claimed more than 3,600 lives across Israel and Gaza.
Israel has called for 1 million people in Gaza to evacuate to its southern end. U.S. officials said Sunday they have been working to assist Americans looking to leave the Gaza Strip and the West Bank but that no Americans have been able get out that they know of.
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At least 29 people, including young children, have been killed in an attack on a camp for displaced people in Myanmar’s Kachin state, according to media reports and two local activists.
Dozens more people were injured in the attack, which happened at about 11.30pm on Monday night in Kachin, Myanmar’s northernmost state, it was reported. Unverified images on social media, showed men carrying victims, including a small child, from the rubble in the darkness.
The Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), a political group that has long sought greater autonomy for the Kachin ethnic minority, said 29 people had been killed and 57 injured. This included 11 children under the age of 16. It said the attack was from heavy artillery, not an airstrike as some had previously suggested.
Estimates of the death toll have varied. A Kachin activist based in Laiza, who spoke anonymously, earlier told the Guardian 33 people had been killed, including 13 children. A three-month-old baby was among the victims, she said.
She added that the death toll could rise further because the camp covered a large area and volunteers were still recovering bodies. Homes in the camps were built on mountains, she added, and so houses had become buried under the soil.
“Houses in the camp are very closed to each other, so the situation is totally messed up,” she said, adding that the attack was only the latest of the military’s “inhumane acts”.
“There are many cases like this. This is not the only case,” she said.
The attack took place at Mung Lai Hkyet IDP camp, a few kilometres from a military base run by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the military wing of the KIO and one of many groups fighting against Myanmar’s military junta, which seized power in 2021.
The area, near the border with China, has been the scene of frequent armed clashes over recent months. The UN has warned of limited humanitarian access in Kachin state and many other areas of the country, describing a dire level of need.
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Australia’s crypto crackdown is starting to take shape with the government revealing the next steps in its bid to regulate the digital currency.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, unveiled his proposal to make crypto exchanges and digital asset platforms subject to existing Australian financial services laws.
The government is also proposing to make platform operators obtain an Australian financial services licence.
Platforms that hold over $1,500 of an individual’s assets or $5m in aggregate will be covered by the changes.
Minimum standards for digital assets such as tokens are also being reviewed.
About a quarter of Australians own some sort of crypto.
Online platforms hold billions of dollars in assets and expose Australians to significant risks, the proposal paper says.
“Collapses of digital asset platforms, both locally and globally, have seen Australians lose their assets or be forced to wait their turn amongst long lines of creditors,” it says.
“These reforms seek to reduce the risk of these collapses happening, by lifting the standard of their operations and increasing their oversight.”
Chalmers said the government was moving “decisively and methodically to ensure that consumers are adequately protected and innovation can flourish”.
Feedback on the proposal paper closes 1 December and consultation for draft legislation will continue next year.
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US actress Suzanne Somers has died at the age of 76 following a decades-long battle with cancer, her publicist has confirmed.
"Her family was gathered to celebrate her 77th birthday," reads a statement shared with media.
"Instead, they will celebrate her extraordinary life, and want to thank her millions of fans and followers who loved her dearly."
As well as an actress, Somers was an author and fitness guru.
She began her acting career in the late 1960s and early 1970s with small parts in TV shows including The Love Boat and One Day at a Time before landing the role of Chrissy Snow in Three's Company in 1977.
Somers starred in the show for five of its eight seasons before being fired following a dispute over pay.
Following a break from on-screen acting that included a stint as an entertainer in Las Vegas, she returned to on-screen acting in the early 1990s - taking up a lead role in Step by Step, which ran for seven seasons.
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A tide of humanity has washed into Khan Younis.
Hundreds of thousands fled here from the north on whatever could carry them - cars if there was fuel, horse and cart if one could be found, their own feet if there was no other option.
And what they found was a city on its knees, ill-prepared for its population to literally double overnight.
Every room, every alley, every street is packed with men, women and the young. And there is nowhere else to go.
Hamas say 400,000 of the 1.1 million people who call northern Gaza home headed south down the Salah al-Din Road in the last 48 hours, following Israel's order to leave.
I was among them, along with my wife and three children, and two days' worth of food.
For many, the threat of Israel's bombs and impending invasion - which comes after gunmen from Gaza killed 1,300 in Israel - cancels out Hamas's order to stay put.
But in this narrow strip of land, blockaded on all sides and cut off from the rest of the world, options for where one ends up are limited. Safety is never guaranteed.
And so a teeming mass of Gazans, many already bombed out of their homes, all lost, all afraid, all knowing nothing of what comes next, converged here.
This city, normally home to 400,000 people, has ballooned to more than a million overnight. As well as the north, they have come from the east, which suffered terribly in the 2014 war.
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Name removed as per forum rules
Sweden says undersea telecoms link to Estonia damaged
in World News
Posted
An undersea telecommunications cable between Sweden and Estonia has been damaged, the Swedish government has said, the second such incident to be reported in the region in a week.
Sweden’s civil defence minister, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, said the damage to the cable appeared to have happened at around the same time as an undersea gas pipeline and telecoms cable between Finland and Estonia were damaged on 8 October.
“We are currently unable to assess what has caused this damage. It is not a total cable break but it is a partial damage to the cable,” Bohlin said at a press conference in Gothenburg on Tuesday.
He added: “We can establish that this damage has occurred in time and space, close to the reported damage to the gas line.”
The government had received information from “partners and our authorities” about the damage in recent days, Bohlin said.
Last Friday the Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, warned of the vulnerability of “a spaghetti of cables, wires, infrastructure on the seabed” in a meeting of leaders of the UK-led joint expeditionary force in Gotland.
“It is absolutely fundamental for data traffic, so the vulnerabilities today are much, much greater,” he said.
Damage to a gas pipeline in the Gulf of Finland was discovered last week, which then led to the discovery of damage to a data cable. A preliminary investigation into sabotage is under way.
Helsinki has said it cannot exclude the possibility that a “state actor” was behind last week’s discovery amid what its national security intelligence service called “significantly deteriorated” relations with Russia.
Vladimir Putin has dismissed any suggestion that Russia was behind the damage as “rubbish”.
FULL STORY