Latest news with #Softie
Straits Times
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Tanzania releases Ugandan activist at border, Kenyan colleague alleges torture
FILE PHOTO: Kenyan social-political activist Boniface Mwangi speaks during a Reuters interview before the screening of the Kenyan documentary 'Softie' at the Prestige Cinema in Nairobi, Kenya October 16, 2020. Picture taken October 16, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo KAMPALA - Tanzania has released the second of two foreign activists who had come to support an opposition leader charged with treason, her organisation said on Friday, after a Kenyan fellow activist said they had both been badly tortured. Ugandan lawyer and activist Agather Atuhaire, who had been in custody since Monday, was abandoned at the border between Tanzania and Uganda, Agora Centre for Research, the Uganda-based rights group that she leads, posted on X. "We are relieved to inform the public that (Agather) has been found," it said. On Thursday, Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi, who was also detained after arriving in Dar es Salaam to attend the first court appearance of Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu, had been dumped on the Kenyan border. In a post on X, he said the last time he had been held together with Atuhaire was on Tuesday, when he had heard her groaning in pain after being tortured. Reuters could not reach Atuhaire directly. "Our (torturers) were acting on orders from a 'state security' employee who came to Immigration offices and followed us to Central Police Station and ordered we should be taken to a secret location to be given a 'Tanzanian treatment'," Mwangi said. Tanzanian officials had not commented on Atuhaire and Mwangi's detentions specifically, but President Samia Suluhu Hassan warned foreign activists in public comments on Monday against "invading and interfering in our affairs". Lissu, who came second in Tanzania's last presidential poll, was arrested last month and charged with treason over what prosecutors said was a speech calling on the public to rebel and disrupt elections due in October. The case has highlighted a growing crackdown on opponents of Hassan, whose party has nominated her to stand again. She won plaudits after coming to power in 2021 for easing the political repression that had proliferated under her predecessor, but has faced mounting criticism over a series of arrests and unexplained abductions and killings of political opponents. Hassan has said the government is committed to respecting human rights, and ordered an investigation into reported abductions last year. Spokespeople for Tanzania's government, police force and immigration service did not respond to repeated requests for comment about Mwangi's allegations of torture. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Star
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Tanzania releases Ugandan activist at border, Kenyan colleague alleges torture
FILE PHOTO: Kenyan social-political activist Boniface Mwangi speaks during a Reuters interview before the screening of the Kenyan documentary 'Softie' at the Prestige Cinema in Nairobi, Kenya October 16, 2020. Picture taken October 16, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo KAMPALA (Reuters) -Tanzania has released the second of two foreign activists who had come to support an opposition leader charged with treason, her organisation said on Friday, after a Kenyan fellow activist said they had both been badly tortured. Ugandan lawyer and activist Agather Atuhaire, who had been in custody since Monday, was abandoned at the border between Tanzania and Uganda, Agora Centre for Research, the Uganda-based rights group that she leads, posted on X. "We are relieved to inform the public that (Agather) has been found," it said. On Thursday, Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi, who was also detained after arriving in Dar es Salaam to attend the first court appearance of Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu, had been dumped on the Kenyan border. In a post on X, he said the last time he had been held together with Atuhaire was on Tuesday, when he had heard her groaning in pain after being tortured. Reuters could not reach Atuhaire directly. "Our (torturers) were acting on orders from a 'state security' employee who came to Immigration offices and followed us to Central Police Station and ordered we should be taken to a secret location to be given a 'Tanzanian treatment'," Mwangi said. Tanzanian officials had not commented on Atuhaire and Mwangi's detentions specifically, but President Samia Suluhu Hassan warned foreign activists in public comments on Monday against "invading and interfering in our affairs". Lissu, who came second in Tanzania's last presidential poll, was arrested last month and charged with treason over what prosecutors said was a speech calling on the public to rebel and disrupt elections due in October. The case has highlighted a growing crackdown on opponents of Hassan, whose party has nominated her to stand again. She won plaudits after coming to power in 2021 for easing the political repression that had proliferated under her predecessor, but has faced mounting criticism over a series of arrests and unexplained abductions and killings of political opponents. Hassan has said the government is committed to respecting human rights, and ordered an investigation into reported abductions last year. Spokespeople for Tanzania's government, police force and immigration service did not respond to repeated requests for comment about Mwangi's allegations of torture. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Aaron Ross, Hereward Holland and Kevin Liffey)
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Pet Therapy in a Beverly Hills Dental Office
In 2013, not long after Dr. Mojdeh Shayestehfar (known by patients as 'Dr. Shay') had set up her Linden Dental Care practice in Beverly Hills, she brought her labradoodle Softie to the office, because she was potty training her. 'I was working on a patient that was extremely anxious, and I had given her oral sedation,' Dr. Shay recalls. 'And even with Xanax, she was still very nervous. Her mom was in the office, and she asked me, 'Do you mind if she holds the puppy?' So I put Softie on her on her lap, and she almost deflated. She became relaxed.' The moment was an epiphany for Dr. Shay: 'I used to see therapy dogs at UCLA all the time, for their children's unit and for the burn unit,' says the UCLA undergrad and UCLA School of Dentistry graduate. 'I'm like, 'You know what? Why not a therapy dog at a dental office?'' As a child in Iran, Dr. Shay had also experienced trauma from dentistry. 'My dentist was impatient,' she says. 'He was always in a rush. He had no patience for me because I was nervous.' When she came to the U.S. at age 17, she couldn't immediately go to college because she wasn't a resident. 'There was an opening for hands-on job training, so I joined an ROP (Regional Occupation Program), and I ended up getting trained as a dental assistant on a marine base in El Toro.' Encouraged by the dentists there and propelled by her personal experience, she moved from Irvine to L.A. to attend UCLA. Her dental school class was the first comprised of an equal number of men and women. 'But I used to hear from our professors, 'This is the first year that it's 50/50. When I went to school, we only had one female.'' After dental school, she did a year of hospital dentistry and three more at UCLA's Prosthodontics program — then she taught at UCLA for several years as an adjunct professor before opening her own practice at the Beverly Hills Medical Triangle Plaza in 2012. 'When I started in Beverly Hills, I had no patients,' she recalls. 'My marketing tool was that whenever I would get a patient, I would bake them chocolate chip cookies and send them and balloons to their place of work, because it was something that people would share. I got most of my clients at the beginning from Facebook and Google. Little by little, we grew, and it was a year into my practice that I got Softie.' Dr. Shay's found that many people are afraid of dentistry. 'People think that one of the reasons they don't seek dentistry is because of the finances, but [I've discovered] it's actually from the pure fear,' she says. Patients undergoing dental work can't use their voice. 'And you're in somebody's personal space," she adds. "Which other professional do you go to and allow them to be so close to you?' She thus designed her office to feel 'homey,' and it's decorated as stylishly as a home, with colorful artwork, plush velvet chairs, brass adornments, a stocked bar and most notably, her furry friends. When she first introduced a therapy dog into her practice, people thought she was crazy. 'They said, 'People are going to report me. It's got to be against OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration),'' she recalls. 'So I called everybody, from my malpractice insurance to OSHA to the dental board, and nobody had any answers. So I just decided, 'I'm going to do it,' and it was a positive experience for my patients. Because having a dog in the office when you walk in and a setting that is more homey is a different feel than coming to an office that is sterile and too clinical. It puts people at ease.' The affectionate dogs (who are indeed quite soft) can hop up on the chair and lay with patients who are having a procedure. 'They cuddle with the patients throughout,' says Dr. Shay, who upon getting Softie, began asking patients who entered whether they'd like to cuddle with her. For those uninterested, she'd remain in the reception area or lounge on the sidelines. 'So it just changed my clientele,' Dr. Shay says, 'and I ended up seeing a lot more phobic patients just because of them.' Softie, who's now 12, is skilled at discerning a patient's discomfort. 'Softie, by nature, was born to be a therapy dog, and Softie is so smart, and she reads the feeling a lot more,' Dr. Shay says. 'I have realized that when a patient would come and they were nervous and they wouldn't even voice that, she kept coming and checking on them. And I read her cue, and that was one of the signs that I used to ask the patient, 'Are you nervous about dentistry?' And they would open up and say, 'Actually, yes.' … So we became a good team.' Six years after she introduced Softie, Dr. Shay got Parker, now 6. 'Because we have two rooms, and sometimes for a long procedure, [Softie] would get tired. So now we switch off,' she says. When Parker came, Softie showed him the ropes. 'Softie trained herself. The only thing I did with Softie was talk to her and she would understand. But with Parker, he needed a little bit more — and Softie trained her. I can't take any credit. She took on the role of a mom and showed him everything, and it was important for him to be raised at the office, because there are a lot of dental noises. They have to be used to the suction and the air blowing, different people coming into the office and leaving, and being comfortable to cuddle with strangers on command. So it was crucial for them to be trained in a practice.' In addition to offering general dentistry, as a trained prosthodontist, Dr. Shay focuses on complex cases. 'Anything restorative that a general dentist can't do, I do,' she says. 'So, I do a lot of full-mouth reconstructions, implants, dentures, partials. But the emphasis of my practice is aesthetic dentistry.' As aesthetics are of particular interest in Beverly Hills, she performs a lot of complex aesthetic procedures — 'people that are losing their teeth and they're transitioning to the full implant, or they want really high-end results from veneers, that look very natural,' says Dr. Shay, who also does teeth whitening and Invisalign. 'And not only do I do aesthetic dentistry, but I do neurotoxin and dermal fillers as well. They complemented each other. So I do fillers for the lips. I do Botox for crooked smiles or a frown line or the jaw, especially for TMJ.' In the future, she sees technology and AI making the field of restorative much more digital. 'I think 3D printing is going to become to be a big part of dentistry, and it's going to be more like software engineering — because you can scan somebody's mouth, put it on the screen and then 3D-print a model of what you want their smiles to be.' The veteran with 25 years under her belt considers her biggest strength to be her perfectionism and 'very good aesthetic eye.' 'Also, I'm very patient,' she says. 'I listen to the patient, and I get to know my patient a lot. My patients become my children, so I really do care for them, and I think it's more like entering into a family.' She adds, 'I think women are, in general, more patient than men. Women definitely have a special role in the field of medicine and dentistry.' And so, she's proven, do dogs. 462 N. Linden Drive, Suite 246, Beverly Hills,
Daily Record
25-04-2025
- Lifestyle
- Daily Record
Dunelm's £19 rug 'transforms' your room and is 'like luxury under your feet'
If you've done a bit of spring cleaning but still feel your favourite room is missing something, then why not freshen it up by buying a new rug? If that tickles your fancy, then we've found something just for you. Dunelm's Softie Rug has the ability to "transform" your home - and it won't break the bank. The rug, which "feels like luxury under your feet", starts at just £19 for a size of 60x110cm. That is the first of seven sizes, up to a whopping 240x340cm which will cost £239. And with the Softie Rug coming in 10 different colours - including peacock, pink, lilypad, honey, and stone - there really is something for everyone. READ MORE: Versatile' Ninja Multi-cooker that 'saves time in kitchen' drops to under £100 READ MORE: Luxurious' Dunelm Curtains that feel 'cozy and homely' drop to £32.50 after 50% price slash Not every colour is available in every size, since the rug is so popular that some of the options have sold out. So if you want to get your ideal Softie Rug , you'll have to be quick. With a velvety feel, the 100 percent polyester rug makes your room "luxurious and cosy", whether that's your lounge, office, or bedroom, Birmingham Live reports. Dunelm say the rug's plush pule means it is "ever so snuggly", has a "beautiful velvety feel", and is perfect for sinking your feet into. The rug is also "easy to clean", with a quick shake or vacuum getting rid of dirt and debris. Dunelm recommend blotting any accidental stains with a clean, damp cloth. If you're looking for something else, then Next have the Natural Woven Jute Rug for £60. Alternatively, you can pick up the Super Soft Mottled Tonal Brown & Beige Shaggy Area Rug for £44.06 from B&Q. But if it's the Softie Rug you're after, then you're not alone. As Dunelm customers have given it an incredible 4.8 rating, with over 1,000 giving perfect five-star reviews. One satisfied shopper said: "Great rug. Feels like luxury under your feet, like walking on air." Another added: "Great price and delivered carefully and promptly. Looks great in the bedroom and feels so comfy under foot. The cat and dog thoroughly approve too." A third wrote: "It is the perfect colour, so soft, the right size, hoovers great. Perfect." Someone else agreed, adding: "Lovely soft rug that's very easy to clean and comfortable to sit on." Another happy customer said: "I recently bought this large rug and it has completely transformed our sitting room. The rug is incredibly soft, adding both warmth and comfort to the space. "The quality is impressive for the price, with a plush, dense texture that feels great underfoot. The color and design are exactly as shown, matching perfectly with our decor. It's just the right size, covering enough area without overwhelming the room. "I couldn't be happier with this purchase – it's both practical and stylish. Highly recommend if you're looking to add a cozy, high-quality touch to any room!" However, one shopper said: "Lovely and soft but leaves footmarks and also tread marks when vacuuming." You can purchase the Softie Rug from Dunelm by clicking HERE . Also on Dunelm is the "luxurious" Cosy Shaggy Rug , which is currently half price in the clearance sale. The Cosy Shaggy Rug is available in a neutral 'pebble' grey and a 'bitter chocolate' brown and is just £12.50 - but when it's gone, it's gone. The retailer also has a "smart and vibrant" rug that promises to "transform" your room. The Hani Floral Washable Runner is just £35 and its on-trend yet classic "boho style" design means this is the perfect home addition for spring and summer - so don't hang about!
