By Luke Salkeld
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A heart surgeon lay on a supermarket floor so he could look up a woman shopper’s skirt, a court heard yesterday.
Ahmed Abdelgawad, 35, deliberately positioned himself on the ground in an aisle at Tesco so he could peer at her underwear.
It is alleged that he was touching his groin during the incident, which was caught on CCTV.
Heart surgeon: Dr Ahmed Abdelgawad admitted lying in the aisle of a busy Swansea branch of Tesco and looking up a woman's skirt
Witnesses called police and Abdelgawad was arrested as he sidled up to other unsuspecting women in the shop, the court was told.
Prosecutor Nicola Powell said: ‘It’s a fleeting incident.
‘Abdelgawad gets up afterwards and is in the store for some time afterwards and appears to be following several young females.
‘At one point, he is crouching next to a young girl in the fruit and vegetable aisle and appears to be about to do the same again.’
Magistrates heard Abdelgawad also had his hand in his trouser pocket and was touching himself during the incident on May 21.
Abdelgawad, who works at two hospitals in Swansea, South Wales, admitted outraging public decency but denies touching himself.
CCTV footage at Swansea Tesco caught Abdelgawad peering up a woman's skirt
In a statement read to the court on his behalf, he said: ‘It was a stupid, silly mistake.
‘I didn’t touch myself in any way. I am remorseful for the incident and put it down to my raised stress, anxiety or depression.’
Swansea magistrates were shown CCTV footage of the heart surgeon peering up the woman’s skirt at a branch of Tesco in the city.
The court will hold another hearing, at a date to be fixed, to decide whether Abdelgawad touched himself at the time of the offence.
Chairman of the bench Phil Llewelyn said: ‘We are of the opinion that the difference between the prosecution case and the basis of plea would make a substantial difference in sentencing.’
Abdelgawad was released on conditional bail.
After the case, the General Medical Council said that he is currently working with no restrictions on his licence.
His employers, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board, declined to comment.
Yesterday afternoon Abdelgawad answered the door at his ground floor flat in the Roath district of Cardiff, wearing dark blue pyjamas and holding a mug of tea.
‘I have no comment to make on the case,’ he said.
Last month a former traffic warden who filmed up the skirts of shoppers at a branch of Tesco in Swansea was handed a suspended prison sentence for committing a similar offence in a discount store.
Glen Elson, 49, used a Blackberry mobile phone in an adapted shopping bag which he held next to a woman wearing a short skirt in Poundland in Swansea city centre.
Elson, from the Mount Pleasant district of the city, pleaded guilty to outraging public decency and was given a three-month jail sentence suspended for 18 months.
He appeared at Swansea Crown Court just over a year after receiving a three-year community order for four offences of outraging public decency.
At that time the court heard that he filmed up the skirts of women in the Swansea Marina branch of Tesco. It is thought to be the same branch where Abdelgawad was spotted.
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
Jason hams it up with his Plato sandwich - The Sun
The two-time British touring car champ is an ace sarnie-maker at home.
And now his racing sponsors Tesco have created a special limited edition Jason Plato Sandwich consisting of thick malted bread filled with the driver’s favourite ingredients — smoked ham off the bone, crunchy coleslaw and hot jalapeno mayonnaise.
The £2 snack will become part of the store giant’s Deli Club range and is going on sale at Tesco’s 437 petrol stations across the UK.
Chuffed SunSport columnist Plato said: “I am incredibly excited and privileged to have a sandwich with my name on it.
“I am the ‘king of sandwiches’ in my house and regularly create weird and wonderful fillings. But this is my all time favourite.
“It’s amazing to know I can go into any Tesco filling station and find a sandwich that has been especially made for me. How cool is that?”
BTCC championship leader Plato, who is in action on the track at Oulton Park this weekend, has the chain’s Momentum 99 fuel and KX energy drink colours plastered over his MG6 racer.
And Tesco’s Peter Cattrell pointed out that as well as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the London Olympics and Euro 2012, this year marks the 250th anniversary of the sandwich!
He said: “What better way to commemorate it than to create a sandwich for Jason, who not only loves sandwiches but needs all the fuel he can get to lead our racing team.”
Plato’s tummy top-up has been produced by Bradgate Bakery, which makes more than TWO MILLION sarnies a week for Tesco at its HQ in Beaumont Leys, Leics.
It is not known what Plato’s arch-rival on the track, Matt Neal, thinks about his sandwich creation.
But he does often give Jason a mouthful...
Source: www.thesun.co.uk
Tesco turns to IPC stable to promote Everyday Value range - Media Week Online
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Tesco is promoting its Everyday Value range with a cross-media deal spanning seven IPC Media brands: Woman, Chat, Pick Me Up, Essentials, Woman & Home, What's On TV and Goodtoknow.co.uk. Planned and bought by Initiative, the campaign targets mums who are ...Source: mediaweek.co.uk
Essex County votes to sell Horace Nye Nursing Home - Lake Placid News
ELIZABETHTOWN - With 12 town supervisors in favor and six opposed, Essex County's decision has been made: It will sell its nursing home to a company based in the Bronx for $4.05 million.
Following the recommendation of a task force it had assembled, the county Board voted Tuesday to sell the Horace Nye Nursing Home in Elizabethtown to the Centers for Specialty Care, which runs about 15 to 20 other nursing and rehabilitation facilities in New York and New Jersey.
The final weighted vote was 2,683-1,233. The vote required a two-thirds majority, so the weighted vote had to exceed 2,611.
The sale comes with a set of conditions that supervisors approved last year. They require the buyer to let current residents stay at the facility and offer jobs to current unionized workers.
The vote came on the heels of a weekend rally in Elizabethtown that called on the county to continue operating the facility.
The decision could put to rest a debate that's dominated political discourse in Essex County for the last several years.
The board's chairman, Democrat Randy Douglas of Jay, said it was a decision no one wanted to make, but it was necessary because the nursing home operates at an annual loss of between $2 million and $4 million. It also owes the county's general fund more than $21 million.
"A majority of our residents are screaming for property tax relief, and unfortunately the only way to provide this is to remove non-mandated items such as ownership of the nursing home," Douglas said. "We did a thorough job in selecting a private company that will provide quality health care for our residents needing nursing home services."
Douglas said the Centers for Specialty Care is a reputable company, and he thinks the quality of care at Horace Nye "will not diminish."
Calls to company officials had not been returned as of press time.
Moriah town Supervisor Tom Scozzafava, who has consistently and adamantly opposed selling the facility, said he wasn't surprised by the outcome of the vote.
"It is what it is," he said.
But Scozzafava said the process leading up to the vote was flawed, lacking in both transparency and input from the public. He said under open government laws, Tuesday's resolution should have been posted to the county's website before the meeting.
"It's just terrible the way it went through," he said.
County Manager Dan Palmer, however, said the vote was proper and should stand, although he added that a taxpayer could challenge it.
"That's anybody's prerogative," he said. "If someone wants to sue us, they will. But we were pretty careful about making sure the process we used was what we needed to do."
Scozzafava noted that he can't challenge the decision because he's a member of the board that passed it. He said supporters of selling the home, like North Elba town Supervisor Roby Politi, acted in the best interest of their constituents.
"Mr. Politi was for it," Scozzafava said. "It doesn't impact him on his end of the county. If we want to start dividing what's important on which end of the county, then we will."
Scozzafava said he will now push supervisors to look at other non-mandated services like the fairgrounds and the fish hatchery, and he even floated the idea of a possible merger of North Country Community College, which the county sponsors, with Clinton Community College.
"I'm all for saving money," he said. "There's a lot of programs I'm going to propose we start looking at."
All five supervisors from the northwest part of the county - St. Armand's Joyce Morency, Wilmington's Randy Preston, Keene's Bill Ferebee, Douglas and Politi - voted for the sale. Politi told the Enterprise he thinks it's time for the board to move on.
"In our opinion, this was a good deal for Essex County," Politi said.
Politi said the subcommittee, charged with reviewing the sale before making a recommendation to the board, was comprised of people who didn't have an agenda.
"Most of them were still on the fence," he said. "They all came back with glowing reports, to the point that they said they would put their loved ones in this facility. For most of us, this was the final information we needed."
Politi said the sale saves tax dollars and keeps the facility open. He said there was a real possibility the county would have been forced to close the facility altogether if it continued operating it.
"This is an opportunity to get it both ways - for people on both sides of the fence to be happy," Politi said. "These are tough decisions. We're trying to make decisions that benefit everybody, not just a few people. It's over. We move on."
Scozzafava said the Lake Placid area will be impacted by the sale of the nursing home because Adirondack Health announced on Monday it will cut 60 nursing home beds from its 120-bed Uihlein Living Center in Lake Placid over the next one to two years.
"Now here's Lake Placid losing half of its beds because (Adirondack Health) couldn't afford to do it," he said. "Where does that put us in terms of care for people who need it?"
Politi said he didn't think Adirondack Health's decision would have an impact.
"I don't believe they were filled to capacity; that's one of the reasons they considered cutting," he said. "In my opinion, it had no bearing on anyone's minds."
Adirondack Health's Chandler Ralph said Monday that the nursing home is full, and there's a strong demand for it. She said the decision was made based on financial losses it sustained due to a shortfall in Medicaid reimbursements.
Ferebee said he based his decision on the report from the subcommittee.
"I feel confident from the report we got from the search group," he said. "I feel the treatment or the welfare of the patients there will be as good as it is today. That's been my concern the whole time: Is the care going to be as good? I feel it will."
Ferebee said he thinks Centers for Specialty Care can afford to make needed upgrades to the nursing home. He said current employees "are going to have a job if they are reputable and reliable."
The county will need to get a "certificate of need" approved by the state Department of Health before the sale becomes official. Palmer said that process can take between six months and one year to complete. He said all nursing homes in the state operate under such certificates.
Palmer said supervisors will likely budget for about six months of operations at Horace Nye because the sale may not become official before the budget is adopted.
Tuesday's full board meeting was the last one to use the old weighted vote formula. A new formula, based on population changes, will be put into effect at the first full board meeting in July.
Marcus & Millichap, a real estate investment firm based in Chicago, will receive a 3.25 percent commission for the sale, or about $131,000.
Source: lakeplacidnews.com
Essex County CrimeStoppers offering rewards for tips on attacks in Irvington, Maplewood - NJ.com
NEWARK — The Essex County Sheriff's Office is offering $5,000 for information on a pair of brutal unsolved attacks in Irvington and Maplewood.
The county's anonymous CrimeStoppers program is offering the rewards for tips that lead to arrests in the brutal attack of a secretary at St. Joseph's Church earlier this year, or the 2006 slaying of a teenager in Irvington, according to Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura.
On March 4, an unknown man entered the rectory at St. Joseph's asking for food, according to Maplewood Police. The man was being escorted to the second floor of the building by a female secretary when he threw the woman to the ground and stomped on her several times.
The suspect stole several items from the woman's purse and fled the church. The woman suffered several fractures, and now suffers from vision and mental disabilities, Fontoura said.
Fontoura described the attacker as a black male with a medium build, standing at roughly 5 feet and 8 inches. He was wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt with a zipper, dark pants and tan hiking boots on the day of the attack, according to Fontoura, who said the suspect also has close cropped hair, protruding teeth and a thin moustache.
Authorities are also seeking information on the May 26, 2006 killing of 19-year-old Shafe Boyd-Cruz, who was gunned down on 22nd Street in Irvington. Fontoura said the attack was a drive-by shooting.
Anyone with information in either attack is asked to contact the Essex County Prosecutor’s Major Crimes Task Force at (973) 621-4586 or the Prosecutor’s tip line at (800) 847-7432. All calls are confidential, Fontoura said, and the reward for tips in either crime could be as high as $5,000.
Related coverage:
• Anti-violence marchers embark on a 17-mile walk through Essex, Union counties
Source: www.nj.com
Essex girls aren’t thick - The Sun
Instead, this no-nonsense pair are happy and confident in themselves — as long as their hair is looking reem — and refuse to play up to men.
And Billi adds: “The difference between me and Cara compared to the rest of the cast is that we are REAL friends.
“We share everything — clothes, make-up, even knickers.”
The girls met when they were at secondary school and have been the best of friends ever since.
Billi says: “The beauty of mine and Cara’s relationship is that our loyalties rest in each other.
“We haven’t got a care in the world about what everyone else thinks.”
Their attitudes might be different but with their dark tans, Bambi eyes and gleaming white smiles, the pair, both 24, still look like stereotypical Essex girls.
Cara says: “We love the Essex look — being glam makes you feel good about yourself.
“I’ve always been into my image, even when I was a little girl I was covered in diamante.
“I had a Louis Vuitton school bag for goodness sake.”
Billi laughs: “She’s not joking — we both had hair extensions aged 14 too. We were the naughty girls at school, always getting into trouble for rolling our skirts up too short.”
But these girls are no bimbos. Each of them had a successful career long before TOWIE bosses asked them to join the Bafta-winning ITV2 show in its fourth series.
Billi has had a strong work ethic since the day she left school.
She shares joint ownership of successful salon Belles & Beaus in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, with her sister Giorgie and is a qualified yoga instructor.
Billi says: “Belles & Beaus was an investment bought by my parents for me and Giorgie.
“My mum is a hairdresser so the beauty industry has always been in my family.
“I’m a trained nail and spray-tan technician and have worked in the salon for five years.”
But since appearing on TOWIE, Billi’s schedule is so full that the salon is now run full-time by Giorgie and their mum Paula.
Billi says: “It’s tough trying to juggle everything. I want to focus more on my Bikram yoga but I’m struggling to find time.
“People think I’m an airhead but I’m actually really spiritual and into meditation.”
Cara also has a shining CV.
Having passed her GCSEs with flying colours (including three A-star grades), she landed an apprenticeship in the City dealing stocks and shares aged just 17.
She says: “Despite what people may think, we were both pretty bright at school. There’s a common misconception that Essex girls are stupid — that’s not the case at all.
“We both went to good schools and got a good education.”
The best friends have just got back from Marbella, where they filmed the final episode of the current series, which will be shown next Wednesday.
Billi says: “We love Marbs, it’s like home-from-home for us. We spent a lot of our childhood holidaying there with our families.”
TOWIE cast members’ catchcry of “No carbs before Marbs” has entered the language — but Cara and Billi are giving up nothing just to look good in bikinis.
Cara says: “Dieting is so boring — we always get hungry and fail. It’s so hard to stick to a diet and exercise regime when you’re filming. There’s always crisps and junk food to nibble on.”
Billi adds: “We’re pretty OK about our body image. No matter how much we diet we will never be as slim as some of the other girls and we’re OK with that.
“It’s just unfortunate that now the whole of the UK has to see our cellulite on telly as opposed to us just seeing each other’s.
“Once we’ve had a strawberry daiquiri we’ll be all right — we won’t care if we look fat then.”
Despite their cheerful attitude about their images, both girls have had breast enlargements and Cara has recently had liposuction. Billi explains: “If we can’t fix it by diet and exercise we’ll look at other options. We’re realists. I had my boobs done when I was 19 because I wanted an uplift after losing weight.”
And Cara says: “I had no boobs — just a nipple on a tiny bit of fat. I was desperate to have proper boobs so I looked in proportion. I just didn’t look right with no boobs.”
The girls are both single and are excited to embrace the summer without the need for a love interest.
Billi insists: “Girls come first — if you’re our friend, we will stick by you. Life is much simpler that way.
“We never argue and we don’t need boyfriends to have a good time.”
Fellow TOWIE girls, who often bicker over boys, often covet the duo’s attitude — especially Lucy Mecklenburgh and Lauren Goodger.
Cara says: “Lucy and Lauren always say that they wish they were a bit more like us. We never cry over boys — we have such a good time. Boys are actually scared of us, we’re probably a bit intimidating.”
However they both admit that they are keen to meet their Mr Rights one day — and say they will have to be from Essex.
But Cara says: “We don’t like men who straighten their hair or wear fake tan.”
Billi warns: “But we don’t like a man with a chest rug like Austin Powers either.”
When asked what the future holds, the girls both grin.
Billi laughs: “We will still be the same as we are now when we’re old ladies.
“We’ll be on rocking chairs with rollers in our hair, covered in fake tan and STILL be single.”
Source: www.thesun.co.uk
Sussex rocked in the rain - The Argus.co.uk
Sussex rocked in the rain
3:41pm Thursday 7th June 2012 in Sport By Steve Hollis
Sussex slumped from 81-2 to 90-6 in the six overs that were possible before it began to rain at Horsham today.
The county had begun the day in a strong position as they replied to Surrey's total of 124 but got off to the worst possible start when skipper Mike Yardy was out first ball to Stuart Meaker.
Joe Gatting followed 13 balls later when he was bowled by Meaker before play was held up by brief shower.
Luke Wright was caught behind off Murali Kartik five balls after the resumption and a miserable period was concluded when Ben Brown was trapped lbw by Meaker before the heavens opened and washed out the rest of the day.
Including Chris Nash's dismissal late yesterday it meant Sussex had lost five wickets for seven runs in the space of 28 balls.
Meaker's figures this morning were 3-3 from three overs.
Luke Wells remains unbeaten on 38 after watching the carnage this morning from the other end.
Comments(12)
Neville says...
3:52pm Thu 7 Jun 12
bruce beckett says...
3:59pm Thu 7 Jun 12
BobbyZamoraIsALegend says...
4:13pm Thu 7 Jun 12
Zamora25 says...
4:17pm Thu 7 Jun 12
The Real Ryfish says...
4:52pm Thu 7 Jun 12
BobbyZamoraIsALegend says...
4:59pm Thu 7 Jun 12
Zamora25 says...
5:24pm Thu 7 Jun 12
bruce beckett says...
5:25pm Thu 7 Jun 12
The Real Ryfish says...
6:15pm Thu 7 Jun 12
Anyway, how quickly SHOULD Wells be progressing? Very few young players come in and stay in the team, so surely he is progressing just fine? Goodwin is having a bloody awful season, granted, but it is unlikely he has become a bad player during the close season so there is no reason to think he is finished.
Gatting has yet to convince, and Brown/Hodd look to be fighting for a place in the 2nds, but you seem to love it when we play badly.
Why not make a few more positive comments when things are going well and disprove my opinion?
PS: I presume it was you pretending to be me on the live bog last week when someone spoofed your name and assumed (incorrectly) it was me?
bruce beckett says...
6:40pm Thu 7 Jun 12
bruce beckett says...
6:43pm Thu 7 Jun 12
Neville says...
6:49pm Thu 7 Jun 12
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Source: www.theargus.co.uk
Sussex officials debate state, federal fair-housing laws - Delaware Wave
GEORGETOWN -- Sussex County officials reacted with skepticism to a briefing on the lengths to which landlords must go to accommodate disabled tenants under state and federal fair-housing laws.
"We're not going to like hearing what you're saying. Just tell us all these things and maybe we can keep our mouths shut," Sussex County Councilman George Cole told representatives from the Delaware State Housing Authority and the Division of Human Relations. "It makes us all madder and madder that we're living under these terms."
Ines Hungria, a Division of Human Relations investigator, walked officials from the County Council, the zoning board and the Board of Adjustment through the strictures of fair housing laws this week.
Most of the questions dealt with animals. The law is clear: Landlords who don't want pets in their rental apartments must still allow people with service or companion animals to rent from them, Hungria said. And landlords can't say no to a companion animal like a pit bull merely because people feel threatened by it, she said, invoking a hypothetical pit bull, Zeke, a companion animal to a tenant suffering from depression, and a neighbor girl, Sarah. Unless Zeke were to bite Sarah, Hungria said, the dog can't be kicked out.
"So I can't prevent someone from renting with a pit bull if their spouse says they need a pit bull to combat depression?" Sussex County Councilman Vance Phillips said. That's correct, Hungria said, although she said it's usually a doctor's note that justifies the dog. "What if Sarah's doctor certified that the dog is causing her to be depressed?" Phillips retorted.
It was one of several times officials played devil's advocate to illustrate strange conclusions fair-housing laws could lead them to draw.
"Everybody should run to the doctor, and everybody in the whole place should have a dog," Councilman Sam Wilson suggested.
Others at the meeting wondered if the law meant their zoning laws couldn't limit where group homes for the disabled could be built.
"If you deny it, have very good reasons," was Hungria's advice.
Fair and affordable housing advocates in Delaware have complained that some Sussex municipalities have discouraged poor people from renting apartments. A 2002 report from the Sussex Housing Group complained about a "tightening of code enforcement on housing occupied by minority groups, especially Latinos," in Selbyville and Georgetown.
Today, Hungria said, she and her colleagues get 50-60 complaints of housing discrimination a year, and they have formal investigations opened on about 15 of them at any one time.
Robert Wheatley, chairman of the county's Planning & Zoning Commission, said the training was important to make sure government officials and landlords knew the ins and outs of the law. He said he asked questions about the rules to make sure "there is some safeguard against people who might try to game the system."
Source: www.delmarvanow.com
Essex County farms could qualify for emergency loans - Press Republican
PLATTSBURGH — Some Essex County farms could qualify for disaster funding, due to crops destroyed by frost after March 1.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued federal agriculture disaster declarations for several New York counties. The original proposal championed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand had included Clinton County as well, but it was not included in the disaster declaration made by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack on Wednesday.
“Farmers across New York who were still recovering from last year’s natural disasters risk losing an entire season worth of crops again,” Gillibrand said in a statement. “These disaster declarations are a good first step to open up access to federal resources so these farmers can get back to business and keep New York’s agricultural industry on the move.”
After a winter of record-high temperatures, many crops on New York farms blossomed earlier than usual. Many of these crops were then exposed to early spring freezing temperatures and were destroyed as a result.
Federal agriculture disaster recovery programs provide tools to assist farmers in overcoming the challenges they can face as they work to recover from production and physical losses on their farms and rebuild their business. Help includes financial assistance to compensate for farm losses, low-interest emergency loans and assistance in rehabilitating farmland.
The Farm Service Agency said disaster emergency loan assistance is available effective June 5 for those who lost at least 30 percent of their production. Farmers may be eligible for production loss loans of up to 100 percent of their actual loss, the operating loan amount needed to continue business or a maximum principal balance outstanding of $500,000, whichever is less.
Eligible farmers must be unable to obtain credit from private commercial lenders. The interest rate on the loans is 3.75 percent.
Applications will be accepted until Feb. 5, 2013.
The Farm Service Agency office is located at 2530 State Route 40, Greenwich, NY 12834. The phone number is 692-9940, Ext. 2.
Source: pressrepublican.com
Sussex Police ready to referee violent domestic rows - The Argus.co.uk
Sussex Police ready to referee violent domestic rows
4:25pm Thursday 7th June 2012 in News By Anna Roberts
Police will have dedicated domestic violence units to race to arrest thugs attacking their partners during the European Championships.
Traditionally, forces have seen a spike in attacks during football tournaments as offenders drink and take out their frustrations on their other halves.
Officers are expecting a similar rise when the tournament begins on Friday, in particular on days when England play.
Sussex Police is to send out domestic violence patrols on matchdays which will be able to quickly attend reports of attacks.
The force has issued body-worn cameras to officers to help them secure evidence against offenders from the moment they arrive at the scene, rather than having to rely on vulnerable victims to give evidence against their partners.
Senior officers are keen for victims to call 999 as soon as they are targeted rather than waiting to report crimes later.
Football violence
Police also hope to reduce violence in pubs and clubs across the county during the tournament by asking venues to only provide drinks in plastic or polycarbonate glasses.
And they will use their powers to order those who are drunk and causing trouble to disperse – arresting those who refuse.
Superintendent Grenville Wilson said: “Our main aim is to make this a safe and trouble-free tournament.
“Our approach will be friendly, fair but firm.
“The vast majority of supporters are law-abiding and peaceful, but there are a few who use events like the championships as an excuse to cause trouble. We don’t want it and we won’t put up with it.
“Sussex also has a large number of visitors and students from abroad, and indeed people from abroad who now live here, and whose teams may progress through the tournament and who want to enjoy the occasion.
“We will be affording them protection throughout the force area as well.”
Comments(2)
PorkBoat says...
4:43pm Thu 7 Jun 12
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10:40pm Thu 7 Jun 12
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Source: www.theargus.co.uk
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