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Total 100 articles, created at 2016-03-23 06:03 1 In pictures: Brussels blasts Images from Brussels after a series of explosions rocked the airport and a metro station, (5.01/6) leaving many people dead and injured. 2016-03-23 00:16 946Bytes www.bbc.co.uk
2 Brussels attack: Surveillance footage shows suspects ISIS claimed credit for explosions in Brussels, Belgium, that killed at least 30 people and (3.02/6) wounded about 230 others. Authorities are searching for a suspect. 2016-03-23 02:37 7KB rss.cnn.com 3 Brussels attacks: city mourns as manhunt continues – live updates
(2.00/6) Follow live updates on the aftermath of two explosions at Brussels airport and a blast near EU buildings 2016-03-23 00:11 948Bytes www.theguardian.com 4 WT20: NZ juggernaut rolls on into the semis after thrashing Pakistan
(2.00/6) New Zealand cruised into the semifinals of the ICC World Twenty20 with a comfortable 22-run win over Pakistan after opener Martin Guptill set the tone with a scintillating 48- ball 80, continuing their dream run in the mega event 2016-03-23 06:03 4KB www.mid- day.com 5 Commuters' tales: No room to sit - even in the toilet Bhasker Solanki photographed commuters on an early morning train from Surat to Mumbai. 2016-03-23 02:26 4KB www.bbc.co.uk (2.00/6)
6 Brussels witness: 'A huge, strong explosion' Witnesses described terrifying scenes that unfolded in Brussels as travelers and (2.00/6) commuters, EU officials and baggage handlers were swept up in terrorist attacks. 2016-03-23 02:52 8KB rss.cnn.com 7 CBS New York Yankees, Mets, Jets, Giants, Knicks, Nets, Devils, Rangers and more. 2016-03-23 01:25 4KB scoresandstats.newyork.cbslocal.com
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8 This Week in Pictures: Top Photos from Around the Globe Find this week's top photos from around the globe in ABC News' This Week in Pictures (2.00/6) slideshow. 2016-03-23 00:16 861Bytes abcnews.go.com
9 Airport was like calm sea struck by tsunami—OFW (UPDATED) “Parang tahimik na dagat na bigla na lang nagka-tsunami.” (It was like a calm sea struck by a tsunami.) This was how Belgium-based Filipino journalist Arlene Andres 2016-03-23 06:02 2KB globalnation.inquirer.net 10 1st ‘Radyo Inquirer Issues Forum’ successfully launched; to be aired today Radyo Inquirer 990, (DZIQ 990khz-AM) the broadcast arm of the Inquirer Group of Companies reached another milestone as it successfully hosted the first-ever "Radyo Inquirer Issues Forum" 2016-03-23 05:04 3KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 11 Lav Diaz’s ‘Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis’ ticket prices range from P150 to P500 Contrary to speculations that ticket prices for Lav Diaz's eight-hour film, "Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis (Lullaby to a Sorrowful Mystery)" would cost the equivalent of four 2016-03-23 04:26 2KB entertainment.inquirer.net
12 Candidates take swipe at each other in 2nd presidential debates Usap-usapan pa rin ngayon ang umaatikabong tapatan ng apat na kandidato sa presidential debate sa Cebu. Naging maanghang nga ang banat ng mga kandidato sa isa't isa, hanggang magkapikunan at personalan pa. 2016-03-22 18:15 956Bytes news.abs- cbn.com 13 A history of recent extremist attacks in Europe Dozens have been killed in Brussels bombings, less than six months after the deadly Paris attacks, in a sign of Europe's increasing instability 2016-03-23 00:16 13KB www.cbsnews.com 14 Trump holds double-digit lead in 2 national polls Contact WND (THE HILL) A pair of national polls released Monday find Donald Trump holding a double- digit lead over Republican presidential rivals John Kasich and Ted Cruz. Trump holds a 20-point lead in the CBS News/New York Times poll, with 46 percent support, followed by Cruz at 26 percent and Kasich at 20 percent. Trump is up […]... 2016-03-23 03:54 1KB www.wnd.com 15 Brussels and American narcissism: Europe faces a huge test — it’s one we already failed Of course our response to the latest tragedy was panic, hysteria and Trumpism. But this really isn't about us 2016-03-23 01:21 5KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 16 Why hashtags like #PrayforBrussels trend: It says “I won’t allow myself to be dehumanized by the silence” Salon talks to a liberal pastor about ethics, praying for enemies, and why vengeful politicians are so dangerous 2016-03-23 01:21 5KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 17 UPDATE: Terror in Belgium: Explosions rock Brussels airport and subway, 34 reported killed Belgian capital on lockdown in wake of latest attack, which comes just days after Paris perpetrator's arrest 2016-03-23 00:16 2KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 18 Most writers get screwed: We did the math, and it’s true — literary prizes exclude writers outside the campus gates As America's largest annual writers gathering begins next week, Lulu questions this lack of inclusivity 2016-03-23 01:21 8KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 19 Zika Virus: Full coverage Everything you need to know about the Zika virus outbreak in the Americas. 2016-03-23 01:25 3KB rssfeeds.usatoday.com 20 Life after “Making a Murderer”: Defense attorneys — and unlikely TV stars — push conversation on criminal justice Jerry Buting and Dean Strang are using their Netflix star power to talk about our broken justice system 2016-03-23 01:21 5KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 21 Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff calls impeachment a 'coup attempt' Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff equates impeachment proceedings against her to a coup attempt and says she will never resign. 2016-03-23 00:14 2KB www.bbc.co.uk
22 After Brussels, far-right Islamophobes are doing exactly what ISIS wants them to do: threatening the “gray zone” ISIS hopes to destroy the "gray zone" in which Muslims are accepted; anti-Muslim demagogues are helping them do it 2016-03-23 00:16 5KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 23 The global philosopher: Should borders be abolished? Countries have the right to restrict immigration, at least in theory. The question is whether they should have this right, and, if so, on what basis. 2016-03-23 02:37 5KB www.bbc.co.uk 24 Weed is winning: 4 signs the marijuana business is booming Even though marijuana use is still illegal federally, there are surprising signs it's going mainstream fast 2016-03-23 01:21 3KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 25 Conspiracy nut Alex Jones stands with Donald Trump: Backs GOP front-runner on Muslim ban, says Brussels attack “the ultimate false flag” Jones blamed immigration, "terror cells" for Tuesday's attacks in Brussels, lauded Trump's Muslim ban VIDEO 2016-03-23 02:38 1KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 26 Justin Lin: If we want more diversity in Hollywood, “the general public has to demand it” The "Fast & Furious" director's plan to support Asian American artists is one of several new diversity programs 2016-03-23 00:16 4KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 27 CNN’s “Race for the White House”: The campy history of cutthroat campaigns that 2016 deserves Narrator Kevin Spacey lends a "House of Cards" flair for drama to this crash course in American presidential races 2016-03-23 01:21 4KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 28 South Carolina’s new war on women: Why its impending 20-week abortion ban is completely unconscionable Gov. Nikki Haley is expected to sign a 20-week abortion ban into law, based on bogus science about fetal pain 2016-03-23 02:40 3KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 29 Interactive: Development / zoning proposals under consideration i Interactive: Development / zoning proposals under consideration in Gwinnett 2016-03-23 01:26 756Bytes www.ajc.com 30 Why vote for Donald Trump? KMorgan 1162 posts 2016-03-22 19:33 4KB www.thetribunepapers.com
31 Comelec reminds bets: No campaigning on Friday THE CAMPAIGN period for local government positions officially begins on March 25, but it being Good Friday, candidates have been advised to begin their campaigning a day later, on March 2016-03-23 03:37 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 32 Tintin’s racist history: Symbol of Brussels solidarity is uncomfortably divisive Hergé may've been more an opportunist than an outright bigot, but symbols like this carry weight 2016-03-23 00:16 2KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 33 Limbaugh: Leftists shocked terrorists struck at their 'nirvana' Contact WND Tuesday, when Brussels, Belgium, was hit by multiple terrorist bombs, was a day of tragedy and heartbreak for the city, the country, Europe and for the West. It was also a day of shock and confusion for leftists in Western nations. Just... 2016-03-23 03:34 6KB www.wnd.com
34 New Order’s next album is coming: Bernard Sumner talks “Complete Music,” Peter Hook and why it’s important to “glow for a very long time” Salon talks to the New Order frontman about writing, touring and why you shouldn't go into business with bandmates 2016-03-23 01:21 7KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 35 Of course the sugar tax is regressive. So is sugar Regression dressed up as “reform”: how rhetoric helped dismantle the welfare state The obesity crisis disproportionately affects the poor. 2016-03-23 00:14 11KB www.newstatesman.com 36 Parents, students fear cases vs K-12 will become moot A GROUP of parents, teachers, students and school workers has asked the Supreme Court to decide before the start of the next school year the cases they had filed in 2015 to stop the government’s new 2016-03-23 03:32 3KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 37 Iglesia wants suit junked LAWYERS of the Iglesia Ni Cristo have sought the dismissal of an amparo suit filed by expelled member Lowell Menorca II, who left for Vietnam on March 6. Justices of the Court of Appeals 2016-03-23 03:29 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 38 Faux-moderate John Kasich demands Obama return to United States to deal with terrorism in Belgium He urged the president to strike quickly against ISIS, even though evidence of its involvement is currently nill VIDEO 2016-03-22 19:23 2KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 39 Pinoy human trafficking victims in US tell their stories LOS ANGELES—Maria Rosario Dayan had signed up for a job as a special education teacher in Bertie County, North Carolina, but ended up mopping floors and cleaning bathrooms at a daycare center in 2016-03-23 03:28 4KB globalnation.inquirer.net 40 Anti-Zionism does not equal anti-Semitism: Someone please tell Hillary Clinton and the University of California U. C. is at it again, with its deceptive attempt to thwart criticism of Israel. Plus. Hillary is all- in with Israel 2016-03-22 19:23 4KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 41 World halfway to 2-degree threshold THE WORLD is halfway to the critical 2-degree threshold as record temperatures in 2015 meant the earth was warmer by one degree Celsius than at the start of the 20th century, according to the World 2016-03-23 03:25 2KB globalnation.inquirer.net 42 Aquino bids Army goodbye, cites changes under his watch PRESIDENT Aquino, who dreamed of becoming a soldier but became disillusioned because of martial law, Tuesday took pride in the transformation of the Philippine Army under his administration 2016-03-23 03:24 3KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 43 Fuel poverty: An anatomy of a cold home More than a million working families are in fuel poverty. Hayley and Dan describe the difficulties living in a cold home. 2016-03-23 01:22 7KB www.bbc.co.uk 44 SNP will not adopt UK Chancellor's 40p tax threshold change The SNP says it will not adopt UK government plans to raise the starting point at which workers in Scotland pay the 40p tax rate. 2016-03-23 01:22 5KB www.bbc.co.uk
45 “I believe I was singled out because I am transgender”: College student on why she was booted from Trump rally in Arizona Jaqueline Dowell believes she was removed from a Donald Trump rally in Tucson because she is transgender 2016-03-22 19:23 3KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 46 Can an inquiry into secrets ever be public? Will the inquiry into undercover policing disclose the facts - or will it be mired in a huge row over secrecy that kills it before it has begun? 2016-03-23 01:22 6KB www.bbc.co.uk 47 Wanted — employability skills: We’re not preparing kids for work, and none of the candidates are talking about it We're failing the next generation if we don't come up with a coherent national youth policy 2016-03-22 19:23 5KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 48 Ted Cruz isn’t about to let the Brussels terror attack go to waste — he will tweet America’s way to safety "Radical Islam is at war with us," he tweeted, but "that ends on January 20, 2017" 2016-03-22 19:23 1KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 49 China's challenges: A bumpy road ahead China's current economic problems are almost certainly on the top of its leaders minds as they gather in Boao this week - and there's a chill in the air. 2016-03-23 01:22 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 50 Tory MP Jake Berry calls for new criminal offence of breast ironing Breast ironing should be made a new specific criminal offence in the UK to protect young girls from the abuse, Conservative MP Jake Berry says. 2016-03-23 01:22 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 51 “I would do a lot more than waterboarding”: Watch all the despicable right-wing responses to Brussels attacks They questioned President Obama and America's safety VIDEO 2016-03-23 02:18 1KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 52 Unlike GOP counterparts, Hillary Clinton refuses to speculate about who is responsible for Brussels attacks, sympathizes with victims of them instead In the wake of comments by Trump and Cruz, Clinton reminds us what it's like when the adults talk about terror VIDEO 2016-03-22 19:23 1KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 53 “He is already a winner”: Why Paul Krugman’s attacks on Bernie Sanders miss the mark The NYT pundit can sound like critics of the original Progressive Movement, author Michael Wolraich tells Salon 2016-03-22 19:23 5KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 54 Michael Jackson's Career Earnings, 1979-2009 - In Photos: Michael Jackson’s Career Earnings, Year-By-Year Michael Jackson helped create a fundamental shift in the monetization of fame, and that’s the notion at the core of Michael Jackson, Inc, the first business-focused biography of the King of Pop. He earned an estimated $1.1 billion during his... 2016-03-22 19:22 1KB www.forbes.com
55 Donald Trump, sexist bully: Calling a female journalist “beautiful” at an interview isn’t a compliment A Washington Post deputy editor gets slimed by Trump after his meeting with the paper's editorial board 2016-03-23 02:09 3KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 56 FBI 'may be able to unlock San Bernardino iPhone' The FBI says it may have found a way to unlock the San Bernardino attacker's iPhone without Apple's assistance. 2016-03-23 01:24 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 57 Ford took Indiana role to work with Spielberg again Harrison Ford says he did not want to appear in a fifth Indiana Jones film unless Steven Spielberg was directing the film. 2016-03-23 01:24 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 58 Rate of carbon emissions put in context Humans are now putting carbon into the atmosphere at a rate unprecedented since at least the age of the dinosaurs, scientists say. 2016-03-23 01:45 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 59 Heroin Triangle The Triangle Investigation Episode 5: "If they're alive, there's hope. " Inside the Triangle Part 4 (revised... 2016-03-23 03:53 2KB rssfeeds.11alive.com 60 11 New Restaurants for You to Try Right Now Celebrate warming temperatures at these recently-opened spots. 2016-03-23 00:21 3KB www.dnainfo.com 61 West Yorkshire family fear Iraq suicide bomber was son A British family say they fear a suicide bomber, responsible for an attack in Iraq on Monday was that of their missing son. 2016-03-22 22:52 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 62 Cruzfools! Contact WND Ted Cruz, the Canadian globalist, is a FRAUD! He truly is a tea party plant for the New World Order. I hear Cruzfool after Cruzfool tell me he’s the “constitutionalist,” but he’s hiding behind that to bring forth the North American Union. It’s the... 2016-03-23 02:20 928Bytes www.wnd.com 63 The World Says Goodbye to One of its Greats – David Bowie The World Says Goodbye to One of its Greats – David Bowie - David Bowie passed away today at age 69. The legend has left behind his newest and last release “Blackstar”. Speculation has it, “Lazarus” is the story of... 2016-03-23 00:17 1KB worldnewsvine.com 64 Hours after Brussels, Obama jokes at Cuban ballgame Contact WND (BUSINESSINSIDER) — US President Barack Obama gave a somewhat surreal interview on ESPN Tuesday at an exhibition baseball game played between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national team. During the lengthy interview, Obama discussed the Brussels attacks earlier in the day, human rights in Cuba, and the stress of throwing out a first […]... 2016-03-23 02:19 1KB www.wnd.com 65 Banned From Amazon for Returning 37 Things "I could understand if there were evidence that I had somehow tried to abuse the system, but I haven't. " 2016-03-23 00:18 1KB rssfeeds.usatoday.com 66 Drowning in data? Start with shoe box prepping Contact WND The Mailbox This week’s mail maintains one of the themes from last week concerning the futility of prepping, to wit: “Millions will die from lack of water and food. The others who do survive will be murdered, raped and pillaged by their fellow Americans. It... 2016-03-23 02:10 9KB www.wnd.com 67 Cruz pushed to double immigrants in 2013 Contact WND (WASHINGTONEXAMINER) — Plans pushed by GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz under the immigration reform debate in 2013 would have jumped the number of immigrants, including those from Muslim nations, by doubling green card caps and boosting temporary worker visas five-fold. Under the Cruz plan, yearly legal immigration would have gone from 740,000 to 1,675,000. […]... 2016-03-23 02:09 1KB www.wnd.com 68 CBS Chicago Find the latest national and local sports updates at CBS Sports Chicago. 2016-03-23 00:22 2KB scoresandstats.chicago.cbslocal.com 69 SRSLY #36: Thirteen, Anomalisa, A Little Chaos Will Glastonbury decide the outcome of the EU referendum? On the pop culture podcast this week, we chat BBC Three drama Thirteen, stop-motion film Anomalisa, and the 2014 Alan Rickman film A Little Chaos. 2016-03-23 00:14 7KB www.newstatesman.com 70 Shuttle Endeavour lands at California air base - CNN.com Space shuttle Endeavour landed safely Sunday afternoon at California's Edwards Air Force Base after NASA waved off two opportunities for a Florida landing because of poor weather. 2016-03-22 18:29 3KB rss.cnn.com 71 Probing the cosmos: Is anybody out there? - CNN.com From a remote valley in Northern California, Jill Tarter is listening to the universe. 2016-03-22 18:29 6KB rss.cnn.com 72 Brussels explosions: UK Foreign Office warns against travel to Brussels The UK Foreign Office is warning against travel to Brussels after more than 30 people are believed to have been killed in attacks on the city. 2016-03-23 00:40 5KB www.bbc.co.uk 73 Homosexuality: A Christian View | CBN.com (beta) This week we'll be featuring a special series that examines the subject of homosexuality from a Christian perspective. We begin our series with the Word of God, where homosexuality is mentioned only a few times. Several experts offer a careful examination what the scriptures... 2016-03-23 03:53 914Bytes www1.cbn.com 74 Concealed carry gun looks like a smartphone Contact WND (CNN) A concealed carry gun is coming out this year that can be folded into a box resembling a smartphone … a feature that makes cops nervous. Ideal Conceal, a Minnesota startup, is developing a two-shot pistol that folds into a palm-sized square. It can be slipped into a back pocket or displayed openly in […]... 2016-03-23 01:34 1KB www.wnd.com 75 Donald Trump tells Fox & Friends America must be “vigilant” or become “disaster city” like Brussels "We have to be very careful who we allow in this country," Trump said 2016-03-23 00:13 1KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 76 Southern Half of Calais Refugee Camp is Razed French authorities have moved refugees into a container camp. 2016-03-23 00:16 720Bytes abcnews.go.com 77 The first Muslims in England Elizabethan England marked the first time that Muslims began openly living and working in England. 2016-03-23 00:16 7KB www.bbc.co.uk
78 Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko given 22-year sentence A Russian court sentences Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko to 22 years in jail in a case relating to the deaths of two Russian journalists. 2016-03-23 01:22 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 79 VIDEO: EU foreign policy chief Mogherini breaks down over Brussels attacks European Union's Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini cut short a news conference in Jordan after tears welled in her eyes, hours after attacks... 2016-03-23 01:06 1KB www.jpost.com 80 The Fab 40: The World's Most Valuable Sports Brands 2015 - In Photos: The Fab 40: The World's Most Valuable Sports Brands 2015 The Forbes Fab 40 comprises the 10 most valuable sports brands in the world in four distinct categories: businesses, events, athletes and teams. What does it mean to be one of the 40 most valuable sports brands in the world, exactly? It means that... 2016-03-23 00:16 1KB www.forbes.com 81 Tech unicorns have hundreds of job openings A new report looks at hiring trends of Silicon Valley's top privately-held companies. Many, like Uber, Dropbox and Zenefits, are still hiring. 2016-03-23 00:58 4KB rss.cnn.com 82 How the FBI might hack into an iPhone without Apple's help NEW YORK (AP) — For more than a month, federal investigators have insisted they have no alternative but to force Apple to help them open up a phone used by o... 2016-03-23 00:56 5KB www.dailymail.co.uk 83 Man shot in Englewood A man was shot Tuesday morning in the South Side Englewood neighborhood. 2016-03-23 00:53 674Bytes chicago.suntimes.com 84 Emanuel unveils park plan as Lucas museum battle drags on The dangerous free-for-all between cyclists and runners would end along two widened stretches of Chicago's lakefront bike path, under a park 2016-03-23 00:50 6KB chicago.suntimes.com 85 Prince Harry Enjoys Nepal The life and times of the British prince. 2016-03-22 23:41 630Bytes abcnews.go.com 86 Trial postponed in lawsuit against Duckworth Two employees of a southern Illinois veterans home allege workplace retaliation while U. S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth led Illinois' veterans agency. 2016-03-23 00:43 1KB chicago.suntimes.com 87 Texas Man Charged in Death of Infant Son Left in Hot Car A South Texas man has been charged in the death of his 4-month-old son whom he left in a hot car for at least 40 minutes last summer. Nueces (nyoo-AY'-sis) County jail records show 22-year-old Alex Rodriguez of Corpus Christi... 2016-03-23 00:38 1KB abcnews.go.com 88 Texas executes man who killed city inspector in 2005 By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas, March 22 (Reuters) - Texas on Tuesday executed a convicted killer who repeatedly shot a city code officer inspecting piles o... 2016-03-23 00:35 3KB www.dailymail.co.uk 89 US airstrike hits al-Qaida training camp in Yemen SANAA, Yemen (AP) — The U. S. military conducted an airstrike Tuesday against an al- Qaida training camp in Yemen, causing dozens of casualties, a Pentagon spo... 2016-03-23 00:31 2KB www.dailymail.co.uk
90 Mississippi senators seek to end personal campaign cash use JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi Senate committee Tuesday proposed to ban elected officials and candidates from spending campaign money on themselves, aft... 2016-03-23 00:31 4KB www.dailymail.co.uk 91 Mock Ice arrest at The Square Local activists acted out a dramatization of an immigration raid to educate the Charlotte community on the realities of families facing immigration raids on Monday at The Square. 2016-03-23 00:16 1KB www.charlotteobserver.com 92 Rob Ford, former mayor of Toronto, succumbs to cancer at 46 The controversial ex-mayor died on Tuesday morning after an 18-month struggle with cancer 2016-03-22 19:23 1KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 93 Irony? Syrian refugees save German far-right party candidate from car crash The far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) was forced to swap its anti- immigrant rhetoric for some kind words after two Syrian refugees rescued one of the party’s leading local candidates from car wreckage. 2016-03-23 00:15 1KB www.rt.com 94 Pope to Wash Feet of Refugees in 1st Application of New Law Pope Francis will wash the feet of young refugees during an Easter Week ritual in a gesture high in symbolism inside the Catholic Church and beyond. The Vatican didn't say Tuesday if non-Catholics would be among the 12 refugees participating in the Holy Thursday rite at an... 2016-03-23 00:14 3KB abcnews.go.com 95 Stoking fear and pushing bigotry: Ted Cruz’s Brussels reaction has again showed why he’s nearly as bad as Donald Trump Concerns about American democracy tend to center on Trump, but here's a reminder why Cruz may be just as terrible 2016-03-23 00:16 3KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 96 World capitals wrap landmarks in Belgian tricolor to mourn with Brussels (PHOTOS, VIDEO) As night fell on Tuesday, the lights of the world’s major landmarks began to blaze in the colors of the Belgian flag to show solidarity with Brussels and pay tribute to the victims of two terror attacks that left at least 30 people dead and 230 wounded there. 2016-03-23 00:10 3KB www.rt.com 97 England see off Italy threat to keep four Champions League places England will retain four Champions League places until at least the end of the 2017-18 season, European governing body UEFA has confirmed. The Premier League... 2016-03-23 00:08 1KB www.dailymail.co.uk 98 Newcastle 'considered me a liability' after cancer, Jonas Gutierrez tells panel Former Newcastle United star Jonas Gutierrez has claimed he was "frozen out" of the first team by the club's hierarchy - which, he believes, viewed him as a... 2016-03-23 00:08 5KB www.dailymail.co.uk
99 UW doctor: There isn't a one-size-fits-all cure to cancer Some scientists say the approach to 'cure cancer' is misguided. 2016-03-23 00:08 2KB mynorthwest.com 100 Ambulance crews saw ‘scene of war’ Saint-Luc Hospital on the outskirts of Brussels has a well-drilled plan for handling disasters but nothing could have prepared staff for what happened yesterday 2016-03-23 00:02 1KB www.thetimes.co.uk Articles
Total 100 articles, created at 2016-03-23 06:03
1 In pictures: Brussels blasts (5.01/6) Scores of people have been killed and wounded in attacks at Brussels international airport and a city metro station during the morning rush hour. There has been heightened security in the Belgian capital since it emerged that several of the men behind last November's Paris attacks had come from Brussels. Four days ago, a man suspected of involvement in the attacks, Salah Abdeslam, was arrested in Brussels after four months on the run. What we know so far about Tuesday's attacks Crisis information
Belgium terror attacks: What we know rss.cnn.com
Brussels travel advice rss.cnn.com
Brussels Terror Attacks rssfeeds.usatoday.com 2016-03-23 00:16 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
2 Brussels attack: Surveillance footage shows suspects (3.02/6) Brussels, Belgium (CNN) In grainy images from surveillance footage, a man wearing light-colored clothes and a hat pushes a baggage cart through the airport. It's one key piece of evidence authorities are looking at as they search for suspects after two explosions at the Brussels airport and another at a busy metro station in the Belgian capital Tuesday killed at least 30 people and wounded 230 others. ISIS claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks, but authorities said it's too soon to say for sure whether the terror group was behind the blasts. Two of the men, wearing black in surveillance images, are believed to be suicide bombers who died in the explosions in the airport's departure lounge. But investigators believe the one in light-colored clothing planted a bomb at the airport, then left. Authorities called him a wanted man and asked for the public's help tracking him down. "The third man left a bomb in the airport, but it didn't explode. ... And we are now looking for this guy," Jambon said. A photograph released by investigators shows the three suspects side-by-side. Federal Prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said the two men wearing black in the photograph were likely the suicide attackers. Video shows the men exiting a taxi and moving through the airport, according to two U. S. officials. The man dressed in white left the airport after accompanying the other two, they said -- a move the officials said appeared to be planned. Live blog on the Brussels attacks A break in the investigation may have come from a taxi driver who took the suspects to the airport. The driver contacted authorities after seeing surveillance footage and gave them the address where he picked the men up, according to two U. S. officials briefed on the investigation. That information prompted authorities to raid a residence after the attacks, the officials said. Investigators found a nail bomb, chemical products and an ISIS flag during a house search in the northeast Brussels neighborhood of Schaerbeek., Belgium's federal prosecutor said in a statement. Hours later, they were still combing through the building for evidence. Security was high. At one point, a helicopter hovered overhead, carrying a sniper with a weapon trained on the building. As masked, armed officers stood guard outside the building, the burst of camera flashes inside could be seen from the street below. Officers left the building carrying bags of evidence they loaded onto vehicles. A Belgian government representative told CNN that 10 people were killed and 100 wounded at Brussels' international airport. At least 20 people died and 130 were wounded at the Maelbeek metro station, officials said. The blasts sent wounded people fleeing into the streets, spurred evacuations of nuclear plants and transit hubs and led to raids in some areas as authorities searched for suspects and evidence. Authorities in Belgium have been trying to crack down on terror threats for months as they raided homes in the area in search of suspects. Tuesday's violence came just days after investigators closed in on Europe's most wanted man, Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, who was hiding out in a Brussels suburb. The "working assumption" is that the attackers came from the network behind November's massacres in Paris , which left 130 dead, Belgian security sources said, while cautioning it is very early in the latest investigation. ISIS also claimed responsibility for those attacks. As doctors treat the wounded and authorities search for suspects, a key question remains unanswered: Could the attacks have anything to do with Abdeslam's arrest? On Tuesday, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel deflected a question about whether there is any link between the attacks and the Belgium-born French citizen's capture, saying it is too early to tell. Michel said Tuesday he had "no information" about who was responsible for the attack, adding that authorities will find that out, but now their focus is on caring for the victims. Two senior U. S. officials told CNN they believe the Belgium attack is tied to the same network as Abdeslam. One of the two airport explosions happened outside security checkpoints for ticketed passengers and near the airline check-in counters, an airline official briefed on the situation said. The subway station blast happened about an hour later in the Brussels district of Maelbeek, near the European Quarter, where European Union institutions are based. "We were fearing terrorist attacks," Michel told reporters Tuesday. "And that has now happened. " Belgium is no stranger to terror. "The Belgians have been sitting on a ticking time bomb," a U. S. counterterrorism official said, given all those who have traveled from the small European nation to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS , then possibly come back home. But for survivors of Tuesday's blasts, the repeated warnings from officials in recent months didn't dull the shock of seeing the carnage. "You cannot believe it; you cannot believe it," said Jef Versele, who was in the airport's departure hall when bombs exploded there. "It was so insane. Not in my backyard. " Witnesses: 'People were on the floor' The second blast inside the airport blew out windows, created a lot of smoke and caused parts of the ceiling to fall, he added. "People were on the floor," Versele said, estimating he saw 50 to 60 who were thrown to the ground and didn't seem to be able to walk. Anthony Barrett saw the wounded carried out on stretchers and luggage carts as he watched from his hotel across from the terminal building. "I could see people fleeing," he said. After the attacks in Brussels, the home of NATO and the capital of the European Union, leaders inside Belgium and beyond vowed not to back down in their fight against terror. In Belgium, where officials declared three days of national mourning, Michel offered a resolute message to those who supported and cheered the attackers. "To those who have chosen to be barbarous enemies of freedom, democracy and fundamental values ... we remain united as one," Michel said. "We are determined to defend our freedoms and to protect our liberties. " In its message claiming responsibility, ISIS noted that Belgium is one of the nations "participating in the international coalition against the Islamic State. " A Twitter post widely circulated by prominent ISIS backers Tuesday featured the words, "What will be coming is worse. " World mourns with cartoons, open doors U. S. ramps up security CNN's Frederik Pleitgen reported from Brussels. CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet and Greg Botelho wrote the story in Atlanta. CNN's Nima Elbagir, Joshua Berlinger, Jason Hanna, Hamdi Alkhshali, Evan Perez, Pamela Brown, Tim Hume, Ryan Browne, Aurore Gayte, Shimon Prokupecz, Sheila Upadhya, Euan McKirdy, Margot Haddad, Mick Krever and journalist Laila Benallal contributed to this report.
Live blog: Latest on Brussels attacks rss.cnn.com
Brussels Terror Attacks rssfeeds.usatoday.com
Brussels attacks: Tributes and solidarity cbsnews.com Brussels terror attacks slam travel sector rss.cnn.com 2016-03-23 02:37 Catherine E rss.cnn.com
3 Brussels attacks: city mourns as manhunt continues – live updates (2.00/6) Belgium has asked EU ministers to meet to discuss the attacks, the Dutch justice minister has said on Twitter. It is possible the meeting will take place on Thursday morning, Ard van der Steur said. The Netherlands, which currently holds the rotating European Union presidency, will organise the event.
Live blog: Latest on Brussels attacks rss.cnn.com 2016-03-23 00:11 Matthew Weaver www.theguardian.com
4 WT20: NZ juggernaut rolls on into the semis after thrashing Pakistan (2.00/6) Mohali: Pakistan showed no signs of bouncing back emphatically after their recent defeat to India as they went down in convincing fashion to New Zealand - by 22 runs - in their crucial World T20 tie at the PCA Stadium here yesterday. New Zealand players celebrate the wicket of Pakistani opener Sharjeel Khan during their ICC World T20 match in Mohali on Tuesday. Pic/PTI With a power-packed opening stand, Pakistan looked well on course to chase down 181-run target, but a shoddy batting display by the middle order has made the task of qualifying for the semi-final a very difficult one. However, in the process, New Zealand clinched their Last Four spot with their third consecutive win. Martin Guptill was awarded the Man of the Match honour for his 48-ball 80. Sharjeel Khan lived up to the high hopes Shahid Afridi had of him ever since the southpaw impressed the Pakistan skipper in the Pakistan Super League. The 26-year-old provided just the kind of start his team would have wanted in chasing New Zealand's 180-5. The crowd got a first-hand experience of Sharjeel's brute power when he slammed spinner Mitchell Santner for three fours in the opening over of the innings. He was particularly brutal against Mitchell McClenaghan in his first over itself, scoring 18 runs off it. Every time the Kiwi pacer pitched in short, Sharjeel took position quickly and hit the ball swiftly like we do in Stick Cricket. Pakistan scored 66 runs in the Powerplay overs – their best ever in T20 Internationals. However, with Sharjeel's dismissal, three runs short of his half-century, it seemed as if the fire which was about to turn into a blaze was suddenly doused. Pakistan's run rate took a severe beating as they added only 30 runs in the next six overs after the Powerplay. Afridi revived hopes with a 9-ball 19 cameo that included two boundaries and a six. But NZ spinners Santner (2-29) and Ish Sodhi (1-25) complemented each other well to tie down the Pakistani batsmen. Expensive Amir Earlier, New Zealand's innings revolved around Guptill's blasts all-round the park. After seeing off Mohammad Amir's first over where he conceded only one run, Guptill took him to the cleaners in his second over, scoring 13 off it, forcing skipper Afridi to remove him from the attack. Amir went on to concede 27 runs in his next two overs. Guptill finding his lost touch again was crucial for New Zealand's World T20 campaign as the opener did not let the pressure of losing Kane Williamson (17) and Colin Munro (7), who departed in successive overs, get to him. Guptill's lofty shots and delightful cuts were a treat to watch. He looked set to reach the three- figure mark, but was bowled by Mohd Sami, the pick of the Pakistan bowlers with 2-23, trying to dab it to third man. Amir was brought back into the attack in the 17th over, but this time Ross Taylor (36 not out off 23 balls) did not spare him as the Kiwi star scored 11 runs in the over. In the final over, Amir conceded 16 runs – the most expensive over of the innings – to post a total which at one point looked doubtful. Brief scores: New Zealand: 180/5 in 20 overs (Martin Guptill 80, Ross Taylor 36 not out; Mohammad Sami 2/23, Shahid Afridi 2/40). Pakistan: 158/5 in 20 overs (Sharjeel Khan 47, Ahmed Shehzad 30; Adam Milne 2/26, Mitchell Santner 2/29). New Zealand seal semi-final spot with Pakistan triumph dailymail.co.uk 2016-03-23 06:03 By Harit www.mid-day.com
5 Commuters' tales: No room to sit - even in the toilet (2.00/6) The daily commute to work, squashed into an overcrowded train, is an experience shared by people across the world. India's railways carry 23 million passengers every day - many of them to and from work. Bhasker Solanki photographed commuters on an early morning train from Surat in Gujarat to Mumbai. Jayanti Gandhi has been commuting on the same route for 35 years - his 300km (185-mile) journey between Surat and Mumbai takes five hours each way. "It costs too much to stay overnight in Mumbai," he says. "I work in the photographic business and have to go to Mumbai three times a week. This whole train could be filled with just the season ticket holders. "Before, a lot of the same guys used to travel on this route but now they are all new people. When it was a normal train, this train arrived in Mumbai at 10am, then it became a fast train and then a superfast train but it still gets in at 10am. " When the train sets off it's easy to find a place to sit. But once the rush starts, it's almost impossible to move and passengers are lucky if they can grab something to hold. The doors close and the next station is 40 minutes away. Every space is used - including the toilet where these men stand for their two-hour journey. Rahul, sitting on the left, wakes up at 04:00 every morning - he has a 25-minute walk to Navsari station where he catches a train to Vapi, 65km (40 miles) away. Then there's a 28km (17-mile) shared rickshaw ride and another 15-minute walk before he arrives at the college where he lectures at 08:30 - four-and-a-half hours after he got up. His classes finish at 14:30, leaving him time to get back to the station for the 16:30 train home. When he gets in, he usually cooks and gets ready for the next day. Although his journey is far from quick or luxurious, it's better than the alternative - in the past he used to catch the bus which meant waking up at 02:30. In first class, Ashok Rao (bottom left) manages to perch on a ledge. "We haven't got escalators at the railway stations and they won't improve the conditions on the trains but somebody has a bright idea of starting a bullet train costing billions of rupees on the same route which already has a lot of trains," he says. A common feature on Indian trains is the ladies' coach, where women can travel without fear of attracting unwelcome male attention and being harassed. Mansi works in Mumbai and goes back to her family at weekends. "In the ladies only compartment there are barely 60 or 70 seats but more than 150 of us have to squash in," she says. "We help each other and we don't have to worry about who is around us. We only meet on the train but we have made friends and some of the older women have even found brides for their relatives. " Pallavi (in green) designs jewellery. "I sit with somebody in front of me for a couple of hours, which is not good for my back as I get to the office and spend another eight hours behind the desk before starting the journey back home," she says. "It's my birthday today and I have brought some dhoklas [savoury snacks] to share on the train. " As we reach the outskirts of Mumbai, I can see people hanging on to the outside of the local trains. At the final stop, fellow passengers remind me to watch out for the gap - they've heard people have fallen on to the tracks and been killed. Photographs by Bhasker Solanki More from the Magazine On the Delhi metro, on the coach reserved for women, the ladies unabashedly share their experiences with their friends - and occasionally with strangers. Here are some snapshots of conversations overheard by Shalu Yadav. Illustrated by cartoonist Priya Kuriyan. Overheard on the ladies' coach Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.
Your evening commute in Seattle is the second worst in the country mynorthwest.com 2016-03-23 02:26 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
6 Brussels witness: 'A huge, strong explosion' (2.00/6) (CNN) Witnesses to the carnage Tuesday in Brussels endured scenes of panic, smoke and horrific injuries. Travelers, commuters, European Union officials and baggage handlers alike were caught up in the deadly terrorist attacks . Two explosions, including at least one suicide bomb, rocked Brussels Airport about 8 a.m. local time. An hour later, another blast hit a subway station in the heart of the Belgian capital. At least 30 people were killed in the attacks and 230 were wounded, a Belgian government representative told CNN. ISIS claimed responsibility. Pavel Ohal was standing with his wife and 2-year-old son at the Delta Air Lines check-in counter, on the way to a family vacation in Denver, when the world around him exploded. Right after the blast, he worried most about finding their passports -- which, in retrospect, was odd. He and his family were lucky to be alive. Debris from the blast had landed on them. His son needed stitches to the head. Their ears were burning from the sound. And he was looking for the passports. "I was holding them in my hand, and they just flew away," he told CNN. "Strange thing to be occupied with, I guess. But I couldn't think straight. " Alphonse Lyoura, a baggage handler at the airport, described the moment of the attack to CNN affiliate BFMTV. "I heard one shot," Lyoura said. "After the shot, I heard someone speaking in Arabic. And as soon as he finished speaking in Arabic, I heard the explosion," he said. "A huge, strong explosion. " What he saw afterward was almost beyond description. "There was a woman who couldn't talk," he said. "There was a man who had lost his two legs. There was a police officer with a mangled leg. "It's horrible; Belgium doesn't deserve this. " Brussels attacks: Live updates Mary-Odile Lognard was checking in for a flight to Abu Dhabi when she heard the explosion about 20 yards away, she told BFMTV. "Immediately, there was a lot of smoke and a movement of panic, people started running toward the exit. " About 20 seconds later, there was a second blast -- this time, closer. "The ceiling over our head started to collapse, to fall," she said. "Some people were wounded, and it was complete panic. Everyone ran out. " Jef Versele, from the Belgian city of Ghent, was making his way to check in for a flight to Rome when he heard the explosion from the departure hall several floors below him. The blast left 50 or 60 people injured and strewn across the floor. It blew out windows and collapsed ceiling panels. Versele felt lucky to be alive. "I think I have a guardian angel somewhere," he said Perhaps 10 minutes later, emergency services and security forces arrived and began tending to the casualties and evacuating people to the parking lot, where he was able to reach his car and leave the area. "We cannot believe it, it was so insane," he said. "You think, not in my backyard. " Former NBA superstar Dikembe Mutombo was napping in a lounge when people started screaming. He awoke to the sight of panicked passengers fleeing the room. A woman was yelling, "We have to go! We have to go! A lot of people are bleeding downstairs. " Mutombo ran with the crowd. It was upsetting, he said, to see women trying to push their children to safety. "They were struggling," he told CNN. "It was very crazy. " Brussels attacks: Travel advice At the Sheraton Brussels Airport Hotel, directly opposite the terminal, Anthony Barrett had been attending a conference and was due to fly home to Britain. About 8 a.m., he heard a loud noise that sounded like somebody moving furniture in the room above his. "When I opened the curtains and looked out, I could see people fleeing the terminal building," Barrett said. He saw dozens of injured people carted out to ambulances on stretchers or luggage trolleys. Medics and security personnel swarmed over the scene. "I can see a man carrying somebody who looks very injured," Barrett told CNN as he watched the events unfold. An hour later, another blast struck the subway station of Maelbeek, in central Brussels, near the European quarter, where much of the European Union is based. Sander Verniers was on the subway, between stations, when he felt the blast. "I think I was in the subway right behind the one that carried the bomb," he told CNN. "We all kind of felt a strong wind coming through the carriage, through the subway, and then we heard some noises that shouldn't be there. " The train braked, passengers opened the emergency exit and security forces evacuated them through smoke-filled subway tunnels. Evan Lamos also was on the subway. He described on Twitter how he felt a blast of air and his ears popped immediately before the carriage stopped between stations. He heard thudding in the distance before being evacuated from the carriage and walking with other passengers along the tracks to the station. This was the scene a short while ago, between the Arts-Lois and Maelbeek metro stations in Brussels. pic.twitter.com/aTZjqsF7Gt A spokesman for the fire department said the site of the blast was the worst carnage he had seen in almost 45 years as an emergency responder. "It looked like war," Pierre Meys told CNN. "It's unbelievable. It's really hard. It was the first time I see something so terrible. " Many of the wounded were taken to the Thon Hotel EU, where medical teams set up a triage area in the lobby. Hotel manager Hans Van der Biesen said employees were busy helping guests check out when they heard the rumble from the station, about 25 meters (27 yards) away. Van der Biesen said the victims came flooding out of the station but, perhaps because they were in shock, they seemed "calm and disciplined. " The hotel's emergency response team gathered first-aid kits, towels and water and treated the wounded until medics showed up. Emergency crews brought about 40 victims into the lobby to treat their injuries, Van der Biesen said. Serge Massart, a policy officer for the European Commission, was in a commission building when he, too, heard the blast. "We all felt the building was shaking, a vibration," he said. People wounded outside #maelbeek #metro #brussels @cnnireport pic.twitter.com/0ZWE76WFlo Gavin Sheridan tweeted that there were emotional scenes around the Maelbeek station after the blast. "A young lady walked past me in tears," he tweeted. "One clearly distressed and angry commuter shouted at the hacks," he said, referring to journalists, "'You have no idea what's down there. Bodies...' before storming off. " Belgium: Europe's front line in the war on terror Richard Medic told CNN he arrived at Maelbeek station shortly after the attack to find it cordoned off, with emergency services at the scene. "I think after the Paris attacks, we had been expecting that something like this would happen," he said. Medic said he had not changed his routine, although he had noticed a greater vigilance and increased security, given the heightened threat. "I walk past the European Commission every day to take my daughter to day care," he said. "We walk past soldiers with guns and heightened security and people checking badges a lot more than they used to -- but I think most people go about their daily routine. " After Salah Abdeslam's arrest in Brussels, 6 critical questions CNN's Don Melvin, Euan McKirdy and Paul Armstrong contributed to this report.
03/22/16: At Least 34 Killed in Explosions Across Brussels abcnews.go.com 2016-03-23 02:52 Tim Hume rss.cnn.com
7 CBS New York (2.00/6) NEW YORK -- Brandon Manning's first NHL goal Monday night moved the Philadelphia Flyers another step closer to making the last game of the regular season a meaningful one. Manning's goal with 6:59 left in the second period snapped a tie and went down as the game-winner as the Flyers continued to tighten the Eastern Conference wild card race with a 4-1 win over the New York Islanders at Barclays Center. "It's been a long time coming," Manning said of his milestone goal, which came in his 66th NHL game. The same could be said for the Flyers' surge into the playoff race. Nick Cousins scored earlier in the second period while Sam Gagner and Claude Giroux scored in the third as Philadelphia (35-24-12) moved within one point of the idle Detroit Red Wings for the second and final wild-card spot in the East and within three points of the Islanders for the first wild card. The Flyers have gone 11-3-2 since Feb. 16, when they began play nine points behind the Red Wings and eight points behind the Islanders. "Our team has played well over the last 30 games," Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said. "We've known all the way along that we've got a tough battle to get above the line in the playoffs. Guys are having fun, they're working hard. There's a goal in mind. "Four of the Flyers' final five games are against the Penguins, Red Wings or Islanders -- including the very last game on the NHL regular-season calendar on April 10, when Philadelphia visits the Islanders in the makeup of a game postponed by a blizzard on Jan. 23. "They're all big hockey games for us right now," Manning said. "I think the biggest thing is we control our own destiny. "That's the same message Islanders head coach Jack Capuano is delivering to his skidding team. New York (38-24-9) has lost four straight (0-3-1) and six of seven (1-4-2) to fall out of second place in the Metropolitan Division. With Monday's loss, the Islanders fell five points behind the second-place New York Rangers and remained three points behind the third-place Penguins. The Islanders have two games in hand on the Rangers and one on the Penguins. "If you're a player on this club right now and you look at the standings, you have a chance," Capuano said. "And that's what you want in the last 10, dozen games that you have left. Some teams don't have a chance. You put yourself in that position to have a chance. "To capitalize on their chance, the Islanders will have to snap out of an offensive funk. Kyle Okposo scored the lone goal Monday for New York, which has scored three goals or fewer in eight straight games and 13 of the last 16 games. "You just hope that some of the guys that are struggling now can find their way here in the last few games that we have," Capuano said. After a scoreless first period, Cousins and Okposo traded goals during a 90-second span early in the second period. Manning's goal came at the end of a coast-to-coast rush and bounced off the top post and past Thomas Greiss. "Huge goal," Gagner said. "That changes the tide of things and allows us to settle into our game. "Gagner, stationed to the right of the net, put back a rebound of a shot by Sean Couturier 4:22 into the third. Giroux iced the game by scoring an empty netter with 26.1 seconds remaining,Flyers goalie Steve Mason made 23 saves, including six in the first 3:20 of the game. Greiss also had 23 saves for the Islanders. NOTES: The Islanders scratched C Mikhail Grabovski (undisclosed), G Jaroslav Halak (lower body) and D Marek Zidlicky (upper body) as well as RW Steve Bernier, LW Eric Boulton and D Ryan Pulock. ... Islanders C John Tavares played in his 500th career game. He is the 27th player to play at least 500 games for the Islanders and the third to reach the milestone this season, after RW Josh Bailey and RW Kyle Okposo. ... The Flyers scratched G Michal Neuvirth (left knee) as well as D Evgeny Medvedev, C R. J. Umberger and C Jordan Weal. C Chris VandeVelde served the final game of a two-game suspension for elbowing Chicago Blackhawks C Jonathan Toews in the head last Wednesday. ... The Flyers signed D Reece Willcox to an entry-level contract Monday. Willcox was selected by the Flyers in the fifth round of the 2012 draft and recently concluded his senior season at Cornell.
New York’s only seeing a pause in fantasy-sports gaming nypost.com 2016-03-23 01:25 The Sports scoresandstats.newyork.cbslocal.com
8 This Week in Pictures: Top Photos from Around the Globe (2.00/6) Former Rosies, Clara Doutly, left, and Pat Duncan, strike the Rosie the Riverter pose on the Capitol grounds, Tuesday, March 22, 2016 in Washington. Seven decades after their?we can do it? attitude proved invaluable to the Allied victory in World War II, about 30? Rosie the Riveters? were honored with a visit to Washington. In pictures: Award-winning images from around the world bbc.co.uk 2016-03-23 00:16 ABC News abcnews.go.com
9 Airport was like calm sea struck by tsunami—OFW (UPDATED) “Parang tahimik na dagat na bigla na lang nagka-tsunami.” (It was like a calm sea struck by a tsunami.) This was how Belgium-based Filipino journalist Arlene Andres described the Zaventum airport before the blasts that members of the Islamist State group claimed to have set up. It what appeared a well-coordinated attack, there was also a bombing at Maalbeek, a metro station near the European Union buildings. Andres, sister of Radyo Inquirer “Balitang OCW” host Susan Andres, is also correspondent of Radyo Inquirer. READ: Islamic State claims it set off deadly bombings in Brussels “It’s Easter Week and we could have been celebrating the holidays,” ” she said on Tuesday late afternoon, in an interview with Radyo Inquirer’s anchor Den Macaranas. “The bombings happened during morning rush hours. It’s 10 minutes to 8 a.m. here so many are just going to their offices,” she said. She added there are Filipinos working at the airport and many may have just clocked in at their respective workplaces. She said the airport is full of police, security personnel and armored car “but very open.” As of posting, she said there were no reported OFWs injured or had perished in the bombing. “All Filipinos are safe in Brussels, so far, ” she assured. The Philippine embassy in Brussels, however, advised OFWs to exercise extreme caution as the country is in Alert Level 4. READ: Pinoys in Belgium told: Avoid public, crowded areas for now As of Tuesday night, the terror attack has claimed 34 lives and injured 170. TVJ RELATED STORIES Brussels terror attacks trigger security alert in PH 34 killed in 3 terror attacks in Brussels (Originally posted at 8 pm, March 22)
2016-03-23 06:02 Totel V globalnation.inquirer.net
10 10 1st ‘Radyo Inquirer Issues Forum’ successfully launched; to be aired today Radyo Inquirer 990, (DZIQ 990khz-AM) the broadcast arm of the Inquirer Group of Companies reached another milestone as it successfully hosted the first-ever “Radyo Inquirer Issues Forum” in the City of Olongapo City, Tuesday with thousands in attendance. In cooperation with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inquirer.net’s Next Video, Mega Mobile, Blank Pages Productions and the Olongapo City local government headed by Mayor Rolen Paulino, the event was launched at the Rizal Triangle at the center of the city. Present in the “Radyo Inquirer Issues Forum” were Senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr., who is running for the vice presidency, Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo and lawyers Lorna Kapunan and Harry Roque. Romulo, Roque and Kapunan are running for the Senate. READ: Better infrastructure, business climate needed for jobs—Marcos, Senate bets In the latest Pulse Asia survey, Senator Marcos has already surpassed Senator Chiz Escudero in the number one spot, gaining 25 percent compared to Escudero’s 24 percent. The survey was conducted last March 8-13. The forum was created to provide voters more information on the different views of candidates on different issues and how they would address these issues, if elected. It’s a project initiated by no less than the President of Trans-Radio Broadcasting Corporation, Paolo R. Prieto. Asked on how he would address the issues hounding the country’s labor sector, Marcos explained that if elected, he would ask the next president to appoint him as secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment. Once, appointed, he would then be able to focus on creating policies which will harness and further improve the cooperation between the government and the private sector to make sure that the rights of workers are protected. Roque meanwhile, reiterated his plan of utilizing P500 billion of the government’s more than P3- trillion national budget to provide more opportunities for the Filipino workforce. Kapunan meanwhile promised to end ‘contractualization’ in the workplace. Rep. Romulo’s reply centered on increasing more foreign investments which will serve as key to providing more jobs in the country. The event was hosted and moderated by Radyo Inquirer’s News Director Arlyn Dela Cruz, Station Manager Jake Maderazo and program anchor Ira Panganiban as panelists. The first-ever ‘Radyo Inquirer Issues Forum’ will air on DZIQ-990khz on Wednesday (today), March 23, at 9:30 a.m. with a replay at 7 p.m.. TVJ
2016-03-23 05:04 Jay Dones newsinfo.inquirer.net
11 Lav Diaz’s ‘Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis’ ticket prices range from P150 to P500 Contrary to speculations that ticket prices for Lav Diaz’s eight-hour film, “Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis (Lullaby to a Sorrowful Mystery)” would cost the equivalent of four feature-length films or about P800, it turned out to be affordable even for students. It was announced via Cinema Bravo on Tuesday that tickets would be sold from P150 to P500, depending upon the venue. The length of “Hele” covers four regular shows of a two-hour feature film. To cover the cost, some sectors earlier thought cinemas would charge a prohibitive fee, from P800 to P1,000. In Metro Manila, a regular rate ranges from P150 to P250. Of late, “Hele” has earned the label “eight-hour challenge” among regular film patrons. For the record, it is Diaz’s longest film to be shown in commercial cinemas. In August last year, his five- hour long “Norte: Hangganan ng Kasaysayan” was shown for a week in mainstream cinemas. Now being distributed by a major film outfit, Star Cinema, the latest opus of the iconic and probably the only authentic indie Filipino filmmaker will surely be an endurance test for its new audience, the fans who usually troop to a Piolo Pascual or John Lloyd Cruz-topbilled films. The two heartthrobs star in “Hele”, which many consider a first in the history of local cinema. Living rock legend Ely Buendia also plays a cameo. Even popular TV host Boy Abunda in his late-night talk show said he will take the “eight-hour challenge.” “Hele” combines history, folklore and social commentary in the classic Lav Diaz’ zen meditation- like cinematic style, for whatever that means, which gathered a cult following among cineastes and critics all over the world. It will be shown starting March 26, Black Saturday, in select cinemas nationwide. There’s a 30- minute break every three hours, as Diaz had earlier recommended to the producers and film distributors. Cinema Bravo’s list follows. TVJ
2016-03-23 04:26 Totel V entertainment.inquirer.net
12 Candidates take swipe at each other in 2nd presidential debates Usap-usapan pa rin ngayon ang umaatikabong tapatan ng apat na kandidato sa presidential debate sa Cebu. Naging maanghang nga ang banat ng mga kandidato sa isa't isa, hanggang magkapikunan at personalan pa. Bandila, March 21, 2016, Lunes
2016-03-22 18:15 ABS-CBN news.abs-cbn.com
13 A history of recent extremist attacks in Europe Apparently coordinated explosions at the Brussels airport and a metro station killed dozens on Tuesday. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which happened just days after the top suspect in the recent Paris attacks had been arrested in his hometown of Brussels, after which he told officials he had been planning other attacks from there. The attack in Brussels was just the latest in a string of extremist attacks in Europe since the 2004 Madrid train bombings. On Nov. 13, 2015, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria-linked extremists attacked the Bataclan concert hall and other sites across Paris , killing 130 people. A key suspect in the attack, 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam , was arrested in Brussels on March 18, 2016. Officials discovered him close to his boyhood home in the Molenbeek neighborhood , which is now notorious for fostering European- born extremists. Prosecutors believe that Abdeslam wasn't just in hiding, but planning further attacks. In the middle of the hunt, another Belgian suspect was named, Najim Laachraoui , who may have been the bombmaker. A wave of six terrorist attacks in Paris left at least 130 people dead across the city in the deadliest violence to strike France in decades, Nov... The attacks took place across several hours at several sites around the French capital. It is believed that all but one of the nine or so attackers in the Paris attacks died the day of the assault. European security agencies -- particularly in France and Belgium -- missed a series of red-flags which could have led to greater scrutiny of the suspects in the attacks. Several of the nine suspects had been flagged to French agencies by Turkey or other nations, and the man believed to have planned the attacks, Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud, bragged earlier this year about being able to move freely between Syria and Europe. After the attacks, Judge Marc Trevidic , who spent 10 years leading counterterrorism investigations for the French national courts, said: "Of course there are security flaws. If there weren't, an organized terrorist attack of that level wouldn't have occurred. " "They are simply overloaded... we've got security services who have been hiding the fact that they could no longer cope," Trevidic told France Inter , part of France's public radio network. He said attacks and planned attacks that have been thwarted -- dozens this year alone, according to officials -- have been stopped "by pure luck. " On Feb. 14, 2015, a gunman killed Danish filmmaker Finn Noergaard and wounded three police officers in Copenhagen. A short time later the gunman, Omar El-Hussein , attacked a synagogue , killing a Jewish guard and wounding two police officers before being shot dead. El-Hussein was 22 years old and had a background in criminal gangs. An image released by Danish police shows Omar Abdel HamidEl-Hussein on a subway train in connection to a stabbing in Copenhangen onNovember 22, 2013, and received by Reuters on February 16, 2015. REUTERS/Danish Police handout An image released by Danish police shows Omar Abdel HamidEl-Hussein on a subway train in connection to a stabbing in Copenhangen onNovember 22, 2013, and received by Reuters on February 16, 2015. Officials said it was possible he was imitating the assaults from a month earlier in which Islamic radicals carried out a massacre at the Charlie Hebdo newsroom in Paris followed by an attack on Jews at a kosher grocery store. The first shooting happened on a Saturday afternoon when the gunman used an automatic weapon to shoot through the windows of the Krudttoenden cultural center during a panel discussion on freedom of expression featuring a Swedish artist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad. The artist, Lars Vilks, was whisked away unharmed by his bodyguards, but Noergaard was killed and three police officers were wounded. The attack at the synagogue occurred hours later, shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday. About four hours later, the shooter was confronted by police as he returned to an address that they were keeping under surveillance. On Jan. 7, 2015, a gun assault on the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo killed 12 people. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claims responsibility for the attack, saying it was in revenge for Charlie Hebdo's depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. A gunman also attacked a Jewish supermarket in Paris, killing four people, and claimed to be inspired by ISIS. A terrorist attack on satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, has left at least 12 dead The attack began when masked gunmen stormed the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper. According to witnesses, the armed and masked men walked into the headquarters of the Charlie Hebdo magazine and opened fire in the entrance hallway, killing people as they saw them. The gunmen reportedly sought out members of the newspaper's staff by name during the rampage through the 2nd floor office, which lasted between five and 10 minutes. The staff was in an editorial meeting and the gunmen headed straight for the paper's editor, Stephane Charbonnier - widely known by his pen name Charb - killing him and his police bodyguard first, said Christophe Crepin, a police union spokesman. Minutes later, two men strolled out to a black car waiting below, calmly firing on a police officer, with one gunman shooting him in the head as he writhed on the ground, according to video and a man who watched in fear from his home across the street. Brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi were named as the perpetrators. They died in a shootout with police. In the attack at a Jewish supermarket at Porte de Vincennes, a close friend of the Kouachi brothers, Amedy Coulibaly , shot and took hostages. He said he coordinated his assault with the Charlie Hebdo attackers, but pledged his allegiance to ISIS. He died during the rescuing of his hostages. On May 24, 2014, in a one-minute rampage that deeply shook Europe's Jewish community , four people were killed at the Jewish Museum in Brussels by an intruder with a Kalashnikov. The accused is a former French fighter linked to ISIS in Syria. Mehdi Nemmouche was named as the top suspect. The 29-year-old French national had been extradited to Belgium just six months before the attack. He was arrested a few months after the attack by French officials who said they swooped in "minutes" after he set foot on French soil. Nemmouche is believed to have converted to radical Islam during a stint in a French prison. He was found in possession of firearms, ammunition and a video claiming responsibility for the May 24 attack. On May 22, 2013, two al Qaeda-inspired extremists ran down British soldier Lee Rigby with their car in a London street, then almost beheaded him with crude knives in a gruesome assault witnessed by numerous bystanders . Images of Michael Adebolajo , 29, holding a butcher knife and cleaver with bloodied hands in the moments after the killing shocked people around the world and sparked fears of Islamist terrorism in Britain. The self-described "soldier of Allah" was given a life sentence for the murder, along with his accomplice, 22-year-old Michael Adebowale, who received a minimum 45-year sentence. The pair was convicted in in late 2013 of murdering Rigby, a 25-year-old fusilier. Adebowale attacked his torso, while Adebolajo attempted to cut off the soldier's head with a cleaver. In March of 2012, a gunman claiming links to al Qaeda killed three Jewish schoolchildren , a rabbi and three paratroopers in separate incidents in southern France both in and near Toulouse. The gunman, Mohammed Merah , had filmed all three killings, and claimed to have posted them online. Merah was later killed while jumping out of an apartment window during a shootout with police. The killings began on March 12, when Merah shot a paratrooper. Three days later, using a motorbike, he committed a drive-by shooting on French soldiers waiting by a bank machine. Finally, on March 19, a rabbi and his two young sons were killed by Merah as they waited for a bus. The extremist then chased down a 7-year-old girl, shooting her dead at point-blank range. French prosecutors said Merah had been to Afghanistan twice and had trained in the militant stronghold of Waziristan in Pakistan. His brother had been implicated in a network sending fighters to Iraq. Merah told police he belonged to al Qaeda and wanted to take revenge for Palestinian children killed in the Middle East. He had been under surveillance for years for having "fundamentalist" views. On July 22, 2011, anti-Muslim extremist Anders Behring Breivik planted a bomb in Oslo, then launched a shooting massacre on a youth camp on Norway's Utoya island , killing 77 people, many of them teenagers. A nation grieves in the aftermath of bomb and gun violence that claimed scores of lives Breivik, now 37, left a long, rambling manifesto about the murders, and during his trial made many eccentric pronouncements about his motivations. Despite all that, he was deemed sane during his trial for the killings, to which he confessed. He was sentenced to life in prison. Maintaining he acted out of "goodness, not evil" to prevent a wider civil war, Breivik vowed, "I would have done it again. " During the sentencing phase of his trail, Breivik said he wanted to issue an apology, but it wasn't for the victims, most of the teenagers gunned down in one of the worst peacetime shooting massacres in modern history. "I wish to apologize to all militant nationalists that I wasn't able to execute more," Breivik said. On March 2, 2011, Islamic extremist Arid Uka shot dead two U. S. airmen and injured two others at Frankfurt airport after apparently being inspired by a fake Internet video purporting to show American atrocities in Afghanistan. It was the first-ever terrorist attack in Germany by an Islamic extremist. The night before the crime, Uka said in court that he followed a link to a video posted on Facebook that purported to show American soldiers raping a teenage Muslim girl. It turned out to be a scene from the 2007 anti-war Brian De Palma film "Redacted," taken out of context. He said he then decided he should do anything possible to prevent more American soldiers from going to Afghanistan. Six months later, he said he now does not understand why he went through with the killings. "If you ask me why I did this I can only say ... I don't understand anymore how I went that far. " Uka went to the airport armed with a pistol, extra ammunition and two knives. Inside Terminal 2, he spotted two U. S. servicemen who had just arrived and followed them to their U. S. Air Force bus. After several servicemen boarded the bus, he approached some near the rear, asked for a cigarette, boarded the bus, and then started shooting. On July 7, 2005, 52 commuters were killed in London when four al Qaeda-inspired suicide bombers blew themselves up on three subway trains and a bus during rush hour. Coordinated bombings by Islamic extremists on Britain's biggest transport network leave 52 people dead Four British men were ultimately blamed for the attack. Police claim they just barely foiled a second similar attack mere weeks later. At least two of the suicide bombers spent time at an al Qaeda camp in Pakistan to prepare themselves for the attack. The coordinated assault was the first suicide attack in Western Europe as well as the deadliest attack in London since World War II. News that the four young attackers were all born or raised in Britain stunned many and strained ties between the country's large Muslim community and the wider population. On March 11, 2004, bombs on four Madrid commuter trains in the morning rush hour killed 191 people and wounded another 1,400. The main suspect, who was arrested in Italy, was identified as Rabei Osman Ahmed , a 33-year- old Egyptian. Many of those arrested for the attack were picked up in Belgium or Italy. Osman Ahmed was identified by people living near a decrepit rural cottage where the bombs used in the attack were assembled. Fingerprints of several key suspects were found in the cottage. The attack was determined to have been carried out with a string of 10 backpack bombs that struck morning rush-hour commuter trains. The militants who took credit for the bombings said they were acting on behalf of al Qaeda to avenge the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Spanish investigators said, however, that the cell did not receive orders or financing from Osama bin Laden's terrorist group, but was inspired by it. Twenty-nine people were put on trial in Madrid over the attacks. Shortly after the bombings, Spain withdrew its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan .
2016-03-23 00:16 CBS/AP www.cbsnews.com
14 Trump holds double-digit lead in 2 national polls Contact WND (THE HILL) A pair of national polls released Monday find Donald Trump holding a double-digit lead over Republican presidential rivals John Kasich and Ted Cruz. Trump holds a 20-point lead in the CBS News/New York Times poll, with 46 percent support, followed by Cruz at 26 percent and Kasich at 20 percent. Trump is up 16 points over Cruz in the CNN/ORC International poll, holding at 47 percent followed by Cruz at 31 percent and Kasich at 17 percent.
2016-03-23 03:54 www.wnd.com
15 15 Brussels and American narcissism: Europe faces a huge test — it’s one we already failed Topics: Brussels , Brussels attacks , brussels attack , Brussels terror attack , Terrorism , islamic terrorism , Islam , Islamic Extremism , Islamic State , isis , Donald Trump , Ted Cruz , News , Politics News I went to an afternoon screening of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” on Tuesday, and walked out into a world that resembled Zack Snyder’s overwrought DC Comics universe much too strongly. Anderson Cooper was on TV talking soberly about terrorism, just as he does in the film; the Times Square subway station was ringed by cops in body armor, carrying automatic weapons; an outdoor press conference was being prepared outside a police station, looking exactly like the ones hosted by beefy actors with deliberately bad haircuts in every superhero movie. I’ll review “Batman v Superman” on Wednesday; what I can tell you now is that it features a suicide bombing in a prominent American location, images of devastation in Belgium and a panicky, hysterical and narcissistic reaction to the threat of terrorism. I’m not suggesting that Snyder or the film’s writers have uncanny abilities and foresaw Tuesday’s attacks in Brussels. Those fears and realities are now permanent features of the cultural landscape. (Well, except for the Belgian part, which in the film is a reference to World War I.) There are any number of reasons why the American fear of terrorism, and our exaggerated reactions to it, are worse than the actual mayhem inflicted by murderous zealots in Brussels and Paris and Mali and San Bernardino and elsewhere. Among other things, it serves notice of how well such attacks are working: The central point of terrorism, after all, is to spread terror. Bloodshed in Western cities is no doubt desirable, from the ISIS point of view, but it’s more or less a byproduct. Another big reason, one we witnessed yet again in the immediate aftermath of Tuesday’s bombing attacks at the Brussels airport and a central rail station, is that these events expose our profound ignorance of history and our near-total inability to understand context. People around the world tend to describe America as a childish or juvenile nation not out of snobbery or bigotry (although those currents exist) but because it fits. We are the exceptional nation or the “indispensable nation,” to use the formulation currently favored by the Washington policy elite; we are the center of the world and the pole star of liberty, and everything that happens is about us. Someone on Fox News apparently suggested on Wednesday morning that since Brussels is considered the capital city of the European Union, by analogy this could be considered a proxy attack on Washington. It’s no surprise that Fox commentators would make wild, jingoistic claims unsupported by evidence; my point is that the same narcissistic self-absorption, and the same free-associative disregard for facts or ordinary logic or well-understood history, are widespread in our country. When I was covering the New Hampshire campaign and heard Donald Trump tell audiences that ISIS was the most brutal and barbaric phenomenon since the Middle Ages, I had the same sitcom double-take reaction as every other reasonably informed person: How does he get away with saying this shit? At the risk of tumbling into the cliché about Trump’s “poorly educated” followers, the Trumpian demographic neither knows nor cares whether the outrageous claims he makes are true, and could not successfully identify any century in the Middle Ages with 20 guesses. He has channeled their unfocused rage and resentment with a series of belligerent fantasies — the Mexican border wall, paid for by Mexico; the ban on all Muslims — that bear roughly the same relationship to actual politics or history as the superhero throwdown in Snyder’s film. (Indeed, “Batman v Superman” probably offers a more sober, adult perspective on the nature of power than the Trump campaign, which is aimed more at an infantile consciousness than a juvenile one.) Desperate to outflank Trump in his last-ditch campaign to become the standard-bearer for a Republican establishment that hates his guts, Ted Cruz has suggested that we must “empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.” Given that law enforcement agencies are specifically empowered to interrupt criminal conspiracies, and have many tools available to accomplish that goal, it’s not quite clear what the junior senator from Texas thinks he means. To paraphrase something the late Molly Ivins said in a different context, I suspect his remarks made more sense when they involved the word “Kristallnacht.”
2016-03-23 01:21 Andrew O salon.com.feedsportal.com
16 Why hashtags like #PrayforBrussels trend: It says “I won’t allow myself to be dehumanized by the silence” Topics: Terrorism , Christianity , isis , Middle East , Religion , Social Media , Twitter , Life News , News The terrorist attacks in Brussels have devastated people in Belgium and left many others – secular and religious alike — struggling to make sense of what happened. Even if we expect evil in the world, these events are shocking and disorienting, and the grief mixed with angry shouting makes them difficult to interpret. What is the personally effective and ethically responsible way to respond? How do we reconcile this kind of violence in our individual lives, in our community, and in social media? Is praying just an evasion, a useless symbol? We spoke to Daniel Schultz, who leads St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Malone, Wisconsin. Schultz — who is active on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @PastorDan — also writes for the site Religion Dispatches. The conversation has been lightly edited for clarity. How does a pastor like you see what took place in Brussels? Is it evil? It’s clearly a tragedy. How do you make sense of it? At least from my perspective, it’s less a religious phenomenon than a political phenomenon. Joshua Hersh had a Twitter thread this morning about how these guys are actually not very religious. Oh, I don’t mean that they’re religious. I mean how do you, as someone who believes in a benevolent God, look at this? How do you reconcile that with this kind of tragedy. Is it difficult? My personal belief, and what I teach my people, is that things happen. Evil things happen in the world – that’s just life. You can tie yourself into knots trying to reconcile that with God. You know, “God caused that, God didn’t cause that.” The point is that God is there with you, through all of these things. And God intends to bring the world back together – to reconcile these divisions, to restore those relationships and restore them to what they should be. So our job is not to spend too much time spinning our wheels about why this happened. But to ask what part we can play in that process of reconciliation and restoration. There’s a lot of talk, I imagine, in churches and synagogues and mosques all over the country about “praying for peace.” You see it on Twitter as well. Is that useful? Some of my colleagues have said that if you are praying for peace – or praying for anything — you keep it to yourself. You don’t need to advertise it on Twitter. The first thing I’d say to that is, “Don’t tell me how to tweet.” There’s no right way to use Twitter; I’ll say whatever I damn well please. Don’t like it, unfollow! But, I think what you have to understand, from that kind of secular perspective, is that to offer prayers is an act of piety. It refers things back to God in a fundamental sense. This is not about just shit happening – it’s about our life with God. It’s also an expression of empathy. A lot of times people will say after somebody’s died and their survivors are grieving, “I don’t know what to say.” Well, say, “I’m sorry to hear of your loss.” On one level, that doesn’t mean very much: Why should you apologize for somebody’s loss? But on an emotive level, it expresses that kind of solidarity with them. In the same way, to offer up prayers in a time of tragedy like this is to express solidarity with the victims. And if people are brave enough to express at least compassion for the people who have done wrong, to say on a very basic level, “I won’t be separated from these people. I won’t allow myself to be separated from the victims, from the perpetrators… I won’t allow myself to be dehumanized by the silence.” You’re talking about a statement of common humanity. Yes — in some really deep ways. And the challenge that comes out of that, at least in my mind, is when you’re talking more about say, gun violence in the U. S. – as opposed to a terrorist attack overseas, which we can’t really do very much about – is the challenge is really to the politicians. “Okay, you’ve expressed your solidarity, but what kind of action does that really lead to?” The question is whether the praying, the empathy, the rituals, are just evasions of action. And I want to be clear: That expression of solidarity and empathy is in itself an action. And it’s not nothing in a world in which people want to divide us up into good guys and bad guys. That’s important!
2016-03-23 01:21 Scott Timberg salon.com.feedsportal.com
17 17 UPDATE: Terror in Belgium: Explosions rock Brussels airport and subway, 34 reported killed Topics: Belgium , Brussels , Paris , Salah Abdeslam , News , Politics News Following the Friday capture of Salah Abdeslam, sole surviving Paris attacks perpetrator, ISIS has claimed responsibility for a series of terror attacks in Brussels, Belgium, Tuesday morning that killed 34. Three separate explosions were reported — two at the Brussels Airport and a third at a metro station in the Maelbeek neighborhood in downtown Brussels. The station is underground, beneath the headquarters of the European Union, of which Brussels is the de facto capital. The subway explosion claimed the lives of 20, with the airport explosions claiming an additional 14. As many as 230 injuries have been reported. The Airport and subways have suspended operations in fear of more attacks. The Associated Press reported that a senior Iraqi security official confirmed, “Daesh (IS) was behind this operation and it was planned in Raqqa two months ago and there are three suicide attackers who will carry out another attack.” Belgian media have circulated a security camera still (below) of three alleged suspects in the airport bombings. The man in the hat to the far right is of particular interest to police because he is believed to be still at-large, while the other two “very likely committed a suicide attack,” according to Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw: At the Airport, police found and subsequently detonated a third bomb that hadn’t gone off, according to ABC News editor Jon Williams: “We were fearing terrorist attacks, and that has now happened,” said Belgium Prime Minister Charles Michel.
2016-03-23 00:16 Brendan Gauthier salon.com.feedsportal.com
18 Most writers get screwed: We did the math, and it’s true — literary prizes exclude writers outside the campus gates Topics: Writing , Publishing , Literary fiction , Poetry , Memoir , Literary Prizes , AWP , MFA , The Lulu Fund , Entertainment News It is widely held and discussed in our literary community that we are not inclusive and remain biased in favor of the white male. The ongoing conversation about lack of access, lack of diversity of voice, and underrepresented writers led us to look critically at the system in place to discern what was working and what was not. What does it mean to be successful in the literary world? Who gets the prizes? Who has access to mentors and networks? Who is attending residencies that foster community, collaboration, and offer more time to write? In answering these questions, we kept getting pulled back to the same place: Academia. If literature has a gatekeeper, that gatekeeper is academia. We, the founding board of a new organization, The Lulu Fund, are a group of writers and activists who identify along the many varied identities that comprise diversity of voice. We have formed to collaborate with a broad base of supporters and partner organizations, including academic institutions, to enact programing that supports an inclusive community of writers and aims to create support networks for under-served writers and eliminate the practices of exclusionary gatekeeping. We deeply respect and stand in solidarity with the long-standing work of organizations like Cave Canem , Kundiman, Native American Literature Symposium , Canto Mundo , VONA/Voices , Asian American Writer’s Workshop , ,and many others. Our primary goal is to support sustainable writing careers for an inclusive group of people. We begin this month with the presentation of our first annual literary awards , a cash prize called The Lulu, and a release of data we have compiled . VIDA – which annually counts gender of those publishing in a small number of periodicals — has said, “We encourage anyone with a calculator and a library card to pursue their own version of the VIDA Count. By no means have we set up a monopoly on provocative pie charts.” The Lulu Fund collected data to offer more insight into who is winning literary prizes. Almost exclusively, we looked at prizes given to non-genre writers in fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry. This count, the flip side of our offering our own modest awards, shows that 75 percent of the top 23 prizes in literature go to those in academia. We offer this as evidence of academic predominance in literature. The Lulu Fund cares deeply about academia and honors the work of the academy. If we didn’t care so much, we would not be dedicating our time and energy to encouraging it to become more inclusive and therefore, by definition, better. 75 percent of our founding board have MFAs or teach. We are not suggesting we do away with the academy. We are not suggesting academics are the problem; we don’t think they are. We are not suggesting that it is wrong for writers to teach. We understand that remuneration for writers is a staggering problem. In fact we are glad that so many of our writing colleagues are able to find sustainability for their writing through academic jobs. We are not suggesting that academics should not get prizes. We are not even suggesting that more prizes go to non-academics. What we are saying is: let us honestly talk about the inclusiveness issues in academia; let us look at the data on prizes and the intersection of prizes and academia; let us discuss, all of us, what we need to do to rectify the problems, take ownership, and effect change. Let us commit to upholding inclusiveness as a shared value and then keep one another accountable. Academia – full and part time faculty and students in American higher education — remains deeply exclusionary regarding race/ethnicity, class, dis/ability, and other traditionally underrepresented groups. These exclusions are well documented, even by academia itself. Full- time and part-time faculty are, respectively, 59/50 percent male, 81/77 percent white and have a household income of $114/ $92K. Of students, 60 percent are white, 15 percent are black, 15 percent are Hispanic, 6 percent are Asian/Pacific Islander, and 1 percent are American Indian/Alaska Native. While women largely have parity with men in student admissions and faculty, this gender parity breaks down when we look more closely at who is publishing, what they are publishing and where. As the VIDA count tells us every year, women — especially women of color — are not being published comparably to men within the most prestigious publications, including academic publications. This shapes the eventual pipeline of literary prize award winners. Further, women of all races and ethnicities are disproportionately affected by the class inequities within academia, such as struggling to pay for childcare on an adjunct’s salary. SEIU, a labor union that represents faculty, tells us it that on average an adjunct would have to teach 3 courses just to pay for full-time child care. We are cognizant of the long-standing structural influences that contribute to the inequities in higher education and believe those need to be aggressively redressed. We understand that exclusion exists far beyond the academy and have no desire to use the academic realm as a stand-in for the exclusions that happen throughout our society. However, academia serves as a gatekeeper for literature, and a responsible gatekeeper must meter opportunities in such a way that reflects the population and allows necessary stories to be told. Instead, exclusivity allows academia and, in turn, publishing to largely remain a white, able- bodied, economically privileged system that favors men. Academia influences who moves on to work at publishing houses, most of which require a college degree for employment. (This is compounded when factoring in the ability to complete an unpaid internship, which many publishers continue to utilize.) Academia also influences who teaches the canon to the next generation. The only way to promote a diversity of voices is to have a diverse demographic. Tenure track positions have decreased over 45 percent over the past 40 years according to SEIU data. This creates an underclass of workers with unreliable employment from multiple employers, a lack of healthcare, and a funneling of the ever-rising tuition to a new and unnecessary class of academic administrators. All of this retains the status quo of a predominately white and wealthy faculty and student body. As Junot Diaz penned in his unflinching New Yorker essay, “MFA vs. POC, ” “I can’t tell you how often students of color seek me out during my visits or approach me after readings in order to share with me the racist nonsense they’re facing in their programs, from both their peers and their professors. In the last 17 years I must have had at least three hundred of these conversations, minimum.” At The Lulu Fund, our foundation is built upon inclusivity—our mission states that Lulu: In the past few years we have seen a proliferation of think pieces and critical essays written on the realities of the university system and its impact on the literary world; we think this framing is a crucial precursor to direct action. We believe that the issues illuminated in part by much of the data collected are systemic. Simply pointing them out has brought about little change to the numbers from year to year — and in many cases no change at all. We believe direct action is needed to build a literary community where everyone has a seat at the table.
2016-03-23 01:21 Anna March salon.com.feedsportal.com
19 Zika Virus: Full coverage KJWP NewsBreak: 2 Delawareans test positive for Zika virus Funding for Zika hasn't materialized, WHO says Two more Delawareans test positive for Zika Fort Collins CDC branch left waiting for Zika funding Zika confirmed in New Mexico Zika virus warning accompanies Obama to Cuba NM health officials confirm first case of Zika virus Other Voices: Congress should fund Zika virus fight Curt Clawson seeks $500 million to buy land in Glades Number of pregnant women with Zika infections increases Congress must act on Zika Second case of Zika virus confirmed in Brevard New York launches plan to fight Zika NY launches plan to fight Zika USM researcher will hunt for mosquito that carries Zika Two additional Zika viruses confirmed in Alabama Clues in race for Zika virus vaccine Zika linked to microcephaly in 2013-2014 outbreak in French Polynesia Casi 200 casos de zika en EU; autoridades piden fondos How much do we really know about Zika? Not much, survey finds Public health 'monster spray' won't stop Zika: Column First Zika case reported in Kentucky Health officials call on Congress to approve Zika funds Public Health lab to study mosquitoes Study links Zika virus to brain inflammation First sexually transmitted Florida Zika case reported U. S. athletes say they're aware of Zika but not overly concerned KJWP NewsBreak: 2nd fatal shooting in Wilmington NewsBreak: TR woman causes a 3 car accident; CDC to lay out Zika plan Mosquito-eating fish used to fight Zika virus in Latin America 'Only a matter of time' before Zika threatens Louisiana WHO: Sexual transmission of Zika more common than thought Iowa classrooms take closer look at Zika virus Armour: U. S. Olympic hopefuls watching, awaiting information about Zika Collegiate spring breakers shrug off the Zika virus State: Missouri has first known case of Zika virus USOC forms infectious disease panel to address Zika concerns The Table: Bishop Coyne talks about Zika virus and contraception Study provides 'strongest evidence yet' linking Zika, birth defects Zika targets fetus' developing brain cells, study shows CDC to hold Zika summit next month Zika Virus Public Forum Travel: What New Jerseyans need to know about Zika FSU, Johns Hopkins researchers make major discovery about Zika virus District health officer to discuss Zika virus Google gives $1M grant, engineers to fight Zika virus More questions and answers about Zika virus Questions and answers about Zika virus Public asked to help city in mosquito-control efforts West Nile infections prompt tire collections 2 confirmed cases of Zika in Colorado Zika case reported in Utah Zika virus identified in Philadelphia resident Battling outbreak, Hawaii faces small staff, pesticide fears VIDEO: Salinas Underground on CCS Soccer - Zika Virus © 2016 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC.
2016-03-23 01:25 Liz Szabo rssfeeds.usatoday.com
20 Life after “Making a Murderer”: Defense attorneys — and unlikely TV stars — push conversation on criminal justice Topics: making a murderer , Netflix , True crime , TV , jerry buting , Dean Strang , steven avery , Entertainment News The two defense lawyers who represented Steven Avery, and gained overnight stardom from the Netflix docu-series “Making a Murderer,” kicked off a North American road show last week that will take them to 33 cities by the end of summer. That’s a long way from the dusty county courthouse in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Appearing Friday before a hometown crowd in Milwaukee, Jerry Buting and Dean Strang were greeted with whoops and hollers as they took the stage for a 90-minute “unfiltered discussion” about the criminal justice system and the case that made them folk heroes to some, scoundrels to others, and unlikely sex symbols to still others. The Netflix crowd, if there is such a demographic — bearded men and bespectacled women in normcore, equal parts law students, armchair detectives and aging professionals — were fans all the way. Sitting beneath the gilded ceiling of the historic Riverside Theater, they could have been at a Sufjan Stevens or Jackson Browne concert, singing along with every song. They knew the film’s back story, its players, its every twist and turn. Yet they wanted more: a second encore, a third. Of course, that’s been the appeal of the series from the start. Despite the guilty verdicts, the convictions and life sentences of Steven Avery and his nephew-accomplice Brendan Dassey, the story has no ending. Avery and Dassey both are appealing their convictions. Filmmakers Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi reportedly are considering a sequel. And the show goes on. With the release of all 10 episodes on Dec. 18, “Making a Murderer” leaped into the public consciousness. Dripping with drama, supercharged with controversy, and populated by true-life characters — many of them unlikable yet oddly charismatic — it went beyond water-cooler fodder. It became a national obsession. Reaction to the series has become a virtual true-crime parlor game, with viewers taking sides and duking it out on social media: Avery, one side claims, was rightfully convicted for murdering 25-year old Teresa Halbach, then burning her body outside his mobile home near Manitowoc. Not so, counter the skeptics. He was framed by police whose calculated disregard for justice had put him behind bars before, for a crime he did not commit. Meanwhile, cast through the filmmakers’ subjective lens as noble pursuers of truth and justice, Avery’s defense lawyers became accidental celebrities, their on-screen personae deconstructed by infatuated magazine writers and fawning fans: Buting as the combative one, a forensic wizard, attack dog when necessary, and full-on Twitter freak; Strang, the compassionate one, a former federal public defender, unpracticed in social media yet an online heartthrob, whose Tumblr image of him lounging barefoot on a couch inexplicably gave certain followers fits. On Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and websites worldwide, every angle imaginable was explored, every conspiracy theory dissected. Rotten Tomatoes gave the doc a 97-percent rating, while celebs like Ricky Gervais and Mandy Moore and Alec Baldwin weighed in on social media. And in no time at all, up sprang a cottage industry hawking anything tangentially related to the docuseries. “Free Steven Avery” bumper stickers flooded online markets and souvenir shops, while T-shirts extolled the sex appeal of the defense team: “Jerry Buting in the streets, Dean Strang in the sheets” and “ Dean Strang is BAE .” Podcasts popped up on Radiolab, Reddit and iHeart Radio. A software company in Palo Alto offered the StevenAvery.org Web domain for a cool $1,000. Downloads of trial transcripts – some 13,300 pages — were free for the taking, financed through a crowdsourcing campaign. Faster than you can say “I object,” at least a dozen books showed up on Amazon, most of them e-books and nearly all of them panned. One promises multiple sequels: “ Fool’s Paradise: The State vs. Steven Avery (The Halbach Murder Mystery Series Book 1 ).” In the Creepy Yet Creative genre, “The Steven Avery ‘Making a Murderer’ Coloring Book” invites adults and kids alike to colorize the line drawings of courtroom caricatures and crime scenes, and then post the artwork on Instagram. And then there’s “ Kill the Rich ,” a paperback mystery listing Steven Avery as the author and displaying his photo on the cover. The 315-page novel cries out “hoax” and “scam.” “I wrote this book from my prison cell,” reads the dubious bio of the author. “It was the only way I could think of raising the money for my next appeals challenge. Please be kind in your Amazon reviews. I had to write this book without access to Google or the Internet. Just me, an old manual typewriter, and some yellow note pads. Plus, it’s hard to write a book while murderers and rapists are shouting and fighting all the time.” *** I came to the “Making a Murderer” phenomenon late. As a reporter, I had worked on a magazine article in late 2005, chasing the back roads of Manitowoc County, visiting the Avery auto salvage company, interviewing friends and family members of the victim and of the accused – looking for an explanation for the disappearance of Teresa Halbach.
2016-03-23 01:21 Kurt Chandler salon.com.feedsportal.com
21 Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff calls impeachment a 'coup attempt' Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has said impeachment proceedings launched against her in Congress amount to a coup attempt. In a speech to pro-government lawyers, Ms Rousseff said Brazilian democracy was under attack. "I have committed no irregularity. I will never resign," she said. Opposition lawmakers are seeking to remove her over allegations that she manipulated government accounts to hide a growing deficit. Ms Rousseff, a former political prisoner during Brazil's military government, began her second term in office 14 months ago. But her popularity has plummeted amid corruption allegations surrounding senior members of the governing Workers' Party. The speaker of the lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha, agreed in December to open impeachment proceedings against her. "There is just one name for that - a coup," said Ms Rousseff. "I want tolerance, dialogue and peace. And that will only be possible if democracy is preserved," she said. Brazilian democracy was restored in 1985, 21 years after the military coup that deposed the left- wing government of Joao Goulart. The Workers' Party has been in power since Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sworn in for his first term in 2003. Government supporters say the opposition did not accept the results of the 2014 election, in which Ms Rousseff was re-elected for another four-year term, and are trying to remove her by undemocratic means. Last week, Ms Rousseff suffered another blow when a move to appoint Lula as her chief of staff was blocked by a federal judge. The government appealed against the decision, but it was later confirmed by a Supreme Court judge. The court is expected to issue a final ruling by the end of the month. Ms Rousseff had been accused by opposition figures of appointing Lula to shield him from charges of money-laundering which he denies. The leftist former leader is being investigated for alleged involvement in major corruption at state-owned oil company Petrobras. Under Brazilian law, cabinet members can be investigated only by the Supreme Court. During a pro-government demonstration on Saturday, Lula said he was joining the government to help the country and said Brazil, which is in its worst recession in decades, needed to resume growth. "There will not be a coup against Ms Rousseff," he told cheering supporters. "Democracy is the only way to allow people to participate in government's decisions," added the former leader. Lula says he will run for president again in 2018.
2016-03-23 00:14 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
22 After Brussels, far-right Islamophobes are doing exactly what ISIS wants them to do: threatening the “gray zone” Topics: Brussels attacks , isis , Islamic Extremism , Terrorism , brussels attack , News , Politics News ISIS took credit for a horrific series of bombings in Brussels, Beligum on Monday which killed at least 30 people. Even before the extremist group claimed responsibility, anti-Muslim sentiment exploded. The hashtag #StopIslam was trending globally on Twitter. Far-right politicians peddled Islamophobic rancor and tapped into xenophobic bigotry, exploiting the tragedy as a political opportunity. Republican frontrunner Donald Trump reaffirmed his support for torture and called for closing up the U. S.’s borders. Fellow GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz likewise maintained that police should even more aggressively “patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods.” As has become painfully customary, the double standards in the discussion of the attacks were immediately apparent. When white right-wing extremists massacre people at a women’s health clinic, bomb a federal government building in Oklahoma City or fly a plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas, white right-wingers are not immediately blamed. But when Islamic extremists kill people, not only are the world’s 1.7 billion Muslims collectively blamed, their 1,500-year-old religion is too. What is even more insidious — and dangerous — about this predictable anti-Muslim, racist, xenophobic response, however, is not just how hateful and destructive it is. The fact of the matter is that Islamophobes are directly playing into ISIS’ hands. ISIS has explicitly stated that its goal is to eliminate what it calls the “gray zone,” the space within which Muslims are accepted in the West. The so-called Islamic State wants all of the world’s Muslims to accept its violent, extremist distortion of religion, and purposefully inflames anti- Muslim, racist and xenophobic sentiment in the West in hopes of pressuring them to do so. In the February 2015 edition of its online magazine Dabiq, ISIS published a 13-page article titled “The Extinction of the Grayzone.” “The grayzone is critically endangered, rather on the brink of extinction,” the extremist group wrote in the feature. “Its endangerment began with the blessed operations of September 11th, as these operations manifested two camps before the world for mankind to choose between, a camp of Islam — without the body of Khilāfah to represent it at the time — and a camp of kufr — the crusader coalition.” ISIS rejoiced at the fact that, after the 9/11 attacks, the West had divided the world into a Manichean fight between the good and the bad. In its article, ISIS quoted Osama bin Laden, who said “The world today is divided into two camps. Bush spoke the truth when he said, ‘Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.’ Meaning, either you are with the crusade or you are with Islam.” This passage demonstrates exactly how Islamophobes serve ISIS’ propaganda. Osama bin Laden himself, the founder of al-Qaeda, favorably quoted former President George W. Bush’s bifurcation of the world into us and them. In the article on the gray zone, ISIS went on to accuse Muslims who backed Bush’s so-called War on Terror as having “rushed to serve the crusaders led by Bush in the war against Islam.” Moreover, ISIS admitted that the Western-backed militarism in the Middle East following Sept. 11, 2001 that went hand-in-hand with this surge in Islamophobia is directly responsible for further “withering” of the gray zone. The extremist group boasted that the expansion of the Islamic State of Iraq into the Levant (“al- Sham,” the second S in ISIS, refers in Arabic to the Levant, not just to Syria) brought “the grayzone to the brink of permanent extinction.” The disastrous U. S. war in Iraq decimated Iraqi society, leading to the deaths of more than 1 million people and fueling the rise of extremism. When ISIS moved into the catastrophic war in Syria, it began to radicalize fighters there. In its article, ISIS wrote that the different factions of extremist Islamist groups fighting in Syria “began to split into two camps” — ISIS and the extremist Islamist groups “backed by the crusaders, apostate regimes, and deviant movements,” namely groups like Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra, which have been supported by Western allies Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. “Those who tried to preserve the gray zone for different partisan interests found the grayzone withering rapidly before them, as their sincere soldiers abandoned them to join the Islamic State,” ISIS said. “This division found its way quickly into different lands, as sincere mujāhidīn saw their former leaders fearful of losing power and influence rushing to futilely resuscitate the grayzone, even if it necessitated supporting the interests of the secularist, nationalist, and heretical parties waging war against the Islamic State on behalf of the crusaders and Arab apostate regimes,” the extremist group continued.
2016-03-23 00:16 Ben Norton salon.com.feedsportal.com
23 The global philosopher: Should borders be abolished? There are tens of millions of people in the world who have fled their homeland because of war or persecution. But there are millions more who cross borders to be with family, to retire to a warm climate, or to earn more money. Countries have the right to restrict immigration, at least in theory. The question is whether they should have this right. This week the BBC begins a new experiment in philosophy, The Global Philosopher, presented by Michael Sandel. The programme uses a state- of-the-art studio at the Harvard Business School in Boston, which allows people around the world to come together for a global discussion. Here producer David Edmonds sets out some philosophical puzzles connected with borders and immigration. According to international law, everyone has a right to seek asylum from persecution or war. There is no automatic right to move elsewhere for economic reasons. But the distinction between refugees and immigrants cannot always be so neatly drawn. Compare the wealthy banker who wants to transfer to another financial centre, where the bonuses are higher, with the farmer who wants to emigrate because there's been a drought and the crops have failed. The latter seems closer to the political refugee. Is there any morally relevant difference between people dying from bombs and others dying from extreme poverty? Two sorts of justifications are usually given for restricting immigration - the first to do with wealth, the second with identity. Immigration, it's often said, would adversely affect the lives of existing citizens. Foreigners might take jobs that would otherwise have gone to locals, or they might drive down wages, or stretch public services, such as health and education. Of course, whether these fears are really warranted is much contested. That argument aside, the second rationale for border controls is cohesion. To a philosopher, this is more intriguing. Countries function best, it's sometimes said, when citizens have a powerful sense of identity - an identity shaped by a shared history, religion, culture. Foreigners threaten that solidarity, and so undermine the fabric of society. If we view many of our compatriots as "them" rather than "us", perhaps we'll be less willing to support (through our taxes or labour) the services that glue a nation together. For some countries, that sense of interconnection is fragile. The former Yugoslavia rapidly unravelled in the 1990s when Slobodan Milosevic began to push a Serbian nationalist agenda. But if we acknowledge that social cohesion provides a compelling basis for border controls, then we're forced to conclusions that some would find uncomfortable. For, surely, some immigrants are more likely to threaten our sense of unity than others. That logic points to a system which privileges entry to immigrants who most resemble us - racially, religiously or culturally. Are countries stronger when they are ethnically and culturally homogenous? It's widely assumed that we have special obligations to our compatriots that we do not have to foreigners. Victims of a hurricane or flood in our own country have more of a claim on us than victims on the far side of the world. But this is a bit puzzling. Take UK citizens living in Dover: why do they owe more to the inhabitants of Middlesbrough, in North England, 260 miles away, than to refugees in a Calais camp just 26 miles away? Or take an indigenous people divided by the border between the US and Mexico: should they have a greater sense of obligation to their distant compatriots than to their tribal members living close, but abroad? Many of the world's national borders are the result of contingent historical factors - drawn with little regard to sentiment. Most people believe that it's wrong to prevent citizens from leaving their country - it's regarded as an infringement of human rights to seal borders. In 1987, former US President Ronald Reagan delivered a famous speech in Berlin, calling on the then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall". The power of his appeal lay in the intuition that imprisoning an entire population behind brick, barbed-wire and guard-towers was an abomination. Those who'd attempted to cross the Berlin Wall had been shot, and more than 100 killed. But there's a conundrum here. For if it's wrong to prevent a person leaving, why is it not equally wrong to prevent that same person from arriving? It's all very well to have the right to emigrate, but it must feel like a pretty empty freedom if there is nowhere to go. Watch the full video of The Global Philosopher now, or listen at 09:00 on Tuesday 29 March on BBC Radio 4. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.
2016-03-23 02:37 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
24 Weed is winning: 4 signs the marijuana business is booming Topics: AlterNet , marijuana , legal marijuana , Business News Marijuana is going mainstream fast, and so is the marijuana industry. In a time of sluggish growth, the pot business is bursting with energy. It’s a weird mix of righteous exhilaration at the victory of the weed over the dark forces of repression (at least in some places) and people walking around with dollar signs in their eyes. But like it or not, pot is hot. Here are some signs of the times: 1. Weed Outsold Booze in Aspen for a Couple of Months Last Year. There’s nothing better than a nice cognac while relaxing before the blazing fire at the ski lodge after a hard day of running the trails (or so I hear). Or is there? Well, as the Aspen Times reported, marijuana sales exceeded alcohol sales in the months of March and April 2015. March, which just happens to include spring break, also saw the year’s highest marijuana sales total, at $998,000. Pot sales plummeted nearly by half the next month, as the snow melted and the resort went into its in-between season doldrums, but they still exceeded booze sales in April, too. In all, the city’s seven pot shops sold $8.3 million worth of medical and just-plain marijuana in 2015, with the city collecting a nifty $200,000 in taxes and fees. 2. The Industry Is Attracting a New Kind of Celebrity. Popular figures such as Snoop Dogg, Tommy Chong, and Willie Nelson have been eagerly embraced by the marijuana industry as weed-friendly celebrities, but now the industry is seeking out celebrities of a different sort— people who have made a name for themselves not in part as famous stoners but for being accomplished in their fields. The Marijuana Business Daily profiled one, Mindy Segal, owner of Mindy’s Hot Chocolate in Chicago. She’s a big name in the pastry world. She’s the author of the award-winning cookbook “Cookie Love” and won the James Beard Foundation award for Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2012. And now, she’s hooking up with Cresco Labs, which has three Illinois medical marijuana cultivation licenses, to create a line of marijuana-infused sweets, including chocolate brittle bars, granola bites, hot chocolate, and ready-made cake and cookie mixes. Cresco will provide the extracted THC and other ingredients, while Segal will put her baking skills to work creating the final product, which will carry her brand. “I feel like this is an industry that is going to grow at rapid rates. I feel like I’m getting in at a time where the future is now,” Segal said. “I think I’m the first sort of well-known chef who has somewhat of a credible reputation to come forward and say, you know what, I’m entering this market.” According to the Daily, the collaborative effort between Segal and Cresco is also “part of a larger trend in which cannabis companies are hooking up with celebrities and mainstream professionals who bring a new air of legitimacy to the business.”
2016-03-23 01:21 Phillip Smith salon.com.feedsportal.com
25 Conspiracy nut Alex Jones stands with Donald Trump: Backs GOP front-runner on Muslim ban, says Brussels attack “the ultimate false flag” Topics: Alex Jones , Brussels , Belgium , isis , Immigration , Donald Trump , Muslim ban , Social News , Media News , News , Politics News Right-wing conspiracy theorist and vocal Donald Trump-supporter Alex Jones on his online news show Tuesday called the ISIS attacks on an airport and metro station in Brussels, Belgium, “the ultimate false flag.” “It’s a real Islamic attack,” Jones clarified. “But when you bring [Muslim immigrants] in, and you know they’re gonna attack, and you know a bunch of ’em are terror cells, then you are aiding and abetting.” Jones then lauded Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim immigrants, calling it “default common sense.” “Donald Trump has shown his geopolitical foxiness,” Jones added, “in that he told AIPAC yesterday, just hours before this happened, that NATO has been basically backing ISIS, and is no friend of Israel.” Watch the full clip below: (h/t MediaMatters )
2016-03-23 02:38 Brendan Gauthier salon.com.feedsportal.com
26 26 Justin Lin: If we want more diversity in Hollywood, “the general public has to demand it” Topics: justin lin , Ava DuVernay , diversity , #oscarssowhite , asian american representation , j.j. abrams , Entertainment News In 2016, the fact that Hollywood made a sequel to #OscarsSoWhite has energized longstanding conversations regarding systemic racism and sexism in the entertainment industry. In its wake: a rash of new initiatives aimed at diversifying television, film, and theater. As the squeaky wheels of progress turn inside the Hollywood machine, a few film directors are doing their part to pull it into the 21st century. Director Ava DuVernay (“Selma”) founded the film distribution collective , Array, and hired women and people of color for the currently-filming production of the OWN network television series “Queen Sugar.” “Star Trek: A New Hope” director J. J. Abrams’s production company, Bad Robot, will henceforth require that women and people of color be submitted for writing, directing and acting jobs in proportion to their representation in the U. S. population. A new non- profit, We Do It Together , aims to finance and produce films, documentaries, TV and other forms of media that will challenge stereotypes regarding women, and its advisory board includes directors Catherine Hardwicke, Hany Abu-Assad, Amma Asante, Marielle Heller, Katia Lund, Małgorzata Szumowska, and Haifaa Al Mansour, among others. In 2010, YouoffendmeYouoffendmyFamily ( YOMYOMF ), the Asian-centric blog and entertainment website founded by director Justin Lin (“Fast and Furious” series, currently filming “Star Trek Beyond”) initiated a competition, “Interpretations,” which asked aspiring Asian- American filmmakers to develop and shoot a 3-minute short around a four-line script. A resounding success, it is being run again this year , with a script written by Tony-award winning playwright David Henry Hwang. The four lines are: (Confused? Here is a funny example of how it works.) The winners get the opportunity to craft a project for the initiative’s lead sponsors, Comcast and NBC Universal (NBCU). In a recent interview, Lin told me the more the public gets behind these works and artists—both in front of and behind the camera—the more we’ll see things start to change. “After I made ‘Better Luck Tomorrow’ and started taking meetings in Hollywood, I quickly learned that Asian Americans weren’t even in the conversation as a minority, since there wasn’t even a significant enough audience, and especially an audience for Asian American content,” he said. “I think it’s changing now with shows like ‘Dr. Ken,’ ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ and ‘Master of None,’ but obviously when we look at the film side, there’s still a lot to be done.” “Interpretations” is the first initiative for the nonprofit YOMYOMF Foundation, which supports Asian American talent, and more programs are on the way. Lin says he started the foundation because he knows talented artists are out there, they just need opportunity and mentorship. “I’m the child of immigrants. My Taiwanese parents came to America with no money and supported my brothers and me as small business owners in Orange County, which is close to L. A. but about as far away from Hollywood as you can be. I didn’t know anyone in the industry, but had a great deal of people help me along in my path,” said Lin. “I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but feel incredibly lucky to be in the position I am now and to be able to play a small part in trying to support talented, aspiring young filmmakers out there through a program like ‘Interpretations’ who, like me, had the desire and passion, but no connections to the industry.” Lin also says if we want to see more diversity in film, “the general public has to demand it.” “It’s about supporting the many talented artists and filmmakers out there trying to create work from that marginalized point of view,” he said. “Go out and buy tickets to their movies and plays, support their crowd sourcing campaigns, show the industry that there is a viable audience for this work.”
2016-03-23 00:16 Paula Young salon.com.feedsportal.com
27 CNN’s “Race for the White House”: The campy history of cutthroat campaigns that 2016 deserves Topics: TV , CNN , race for the white house , kevin spacey , 2016 Elections , Entertainment News At least in part, the pleasures of CNN’s “Race for the White House,” a six-part series tracking some of the most acrimonious presidential match-ups in history, come from just how hilariously low-budget it is. It might not actually be low- budget, but it certainly feels that way. The miniseries’ heart and soul is in its sit-down interviews with academics, biographers, political advisers and, in some cases, the real-life candidates themselves. Political history buffs aren’t going to learn anything new from this miniseries. But for anyone wanting a beginner’s crash course of the unsightly ways elections have been won in American history, the CNN docuseries offers a good overview. But in an understandable effort to keep things interesting, “Race for the White House” is punctuated with historical reenactment, from actors portraying Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in the 1860 presidential race to a stand-in for a younger George H. W. Bush in the 1988 election. In this era of very high-quality historical reenactment on television, it’s easy to spot how limited those scenes are, from the at-times jarring physical dissimilarities between actor and candidate to the slightly too on-the-nose reconstruction of theorized events. And yet the reenactments are all so earnest, in their aims at education, that it is hard to not feel a kind of affection for them, too. In the first episode, “Nixon vs. JFK,” a morose Vice President Richard Nixon (Ralph Edward Macleod) roams the halls of the West Wing, peeking in a door to find a secretary watching John F. Kennedy on the television, apparently rapt. In the third, “Bush vs. Dukakis,” there’s legendary Republican strategist Lee Atwater (Rob Cardno), watching the first Willie Horton attack ad with something like a revelation crossing his face. And in the second, Abraham Lincoln (Mark Etlinger) takes stage after stage to make his case against slavery, embodying none of the rhetorical passion that the man must have had, but certainly making the case for trying anyway. Just to seal the slightly campy deal, however, “Race for the White House” is narrated by executive producer Kevin Spacey, in his very best “House of Cards” voice; a sardonic Southern twang sneaks into his voice, from time to time, as he does his best to infuse the twists and turns of each campaign with the drama. It’s more necessary for some junctures than others. The events of the 1860 Republican National Convention, for example, hardly need any embellishment whatsoever, as a handful of talking heads—including CNN anchor Jake Tapper and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich—relate the multiple rounds of conniving that ended with Lincoln’s nomination. But the following months, as Lincoln civilly discussed himself into the Oval Office, need all of Spacey’s insinuating vowels to make it seem slimy. Spacey’s Frank Underwood-ing—and the promos for the miniseries —are invested in the idea that all politics is dirty, and though this is a cynical argument, it’s also a bit more complex than Spacey’s narration makes it out to be. With “Nixon vs. JFK,” the documentary advances the idea that Nixon was so devastated by Kennedy’s superior politicking and charisma that when he did become president, his scruples had seriously eroded; pundit Paul Begala and President Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe make the point, in “Lincoln vs. Douglas,” that all the chicanery in the world was worth electing the president who would free the slaves. Former Gov. Michael Dukakis, who is a commentator on his own episode, is depicted as losing the 1988 election precisely because he couldn’t bring himself to play the game of politics. That gave Atwater, and the rest of Bush’s campaign team, leeway to utterly crush him. Dukakis’ former campaign manager, Susan Estrich, comes across as a woman transformed by impotent fury, torn between knowing how to win the game and wanting to believe in a candidate who tried to be something better.
2016-03-23 01:21 Sonia Saraiya salon.com.feedsportal.com
28 South Carolina’s new war on women: Why its impending 20- week abortion ban is completely unconscionable Topics: South Carolina , Reproductive Rights , reproductive justice , Abortion , Nikki Haley , News , Politics News One of the many anti-choice laws that make it really, really difficult to have a safe, legal and constitutionally protected abortion is the all-too- common 20-week ban. The ban, along with other anti-choice measures employed by right-wing legislatures — such as draconian transvaginal ultrasound mandates and other TRAP laws (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) — are all but explicitly intended to paint women into corners and, in many cases, serve to intimidate women to the point of choosing to forego the procedure. And, shocker, most of these anti-choice laws are based on fiction. Especially the 20-week ban. We’ll circle back to this point. In South Carolina this week, Governor Nikki Haley has indicated that she’ll likely sign HB 3114, “The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” into law. The bill, which was recently passed by the South Carolina State Senate, bans nearly all abortions after the 20-week pregnancy milestone. Said Gov. Haley : “I can’t imagine any scenario in which I wouldn’t sign it.” Here are at least a few reasons why Haley shouldn’t sign the law, especially given that she’s both a woman and an elected official tasked with upholding the Constitution. There aren’t any exceptions for rape or incest. In fact, the only exception included in the law would allow pregnant women whose lives are in danger to have an abortion, and allow the termination of pregnancies when there are “fetal anomalies.” However, the definition of “fetal anomaly” in the law would still ban abortions in cases of a significant number of serious fetal abnormalities. The law also carries with it punitive sanctions against doctors who violate the statute, including three-year prison sentences. (Eight Democrats voted with the Republican majority to pass the bill.) South Carolina wouldn’t be the first state to successfully ban all abortions after 20 weeks. Sixteen states and counting have already passed similar laws. Most of the laws so far don’t contain reasonable exceptions for the lives of pregnant women, except for the 20-week ban in Mississippi. And, in Arkansas, a recent law bans all abortions after just 12 weeks. Why 20 weeks? Republicans, who have been known to be sketchy when it comes to science, falsely believe that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks, thus the ban. (A Montana law based on the 20-week marker proposed that fetuses be administered pain killers before abortions.) Of course, actual doctors and scientists indicate that fetuses can’t feel pain until roughly the onset of the third trimester — 27 weeks, give or take — not 20 weeks. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) : FactCheck.org elaborated on JAMA’s findings:
2016-03-23 02:40 Bob Cesca salon.com.feedsportal.com
29 Interactive: Development / zoning proposals under consideration i Just One More Thing... We have sent you a verification email. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your profile. If you do not receive the verification message within a few minutes of signing up, please check your Spam or Junk folder.
2016-03-23 01:26 www.ajc.com
30 Why vote for Donald Trump? By I. M. Justice- I have to admit from the beginning it has been a gut thing really. Other candidates have a strong platform….look good on stage….say the right things….and there you have it, Donald Trump does not say any of the right things. He opens his mouth and the media and establishment stand there horrified, ready and waiting to proceed over his exit out of public life. Instead they look up to see another large crowd full of flag waving Americans cheering. For decades the Left and the Media have been holding the American Citizen hostage at the point of a Politically Correct Gun. They use several triggers, all of which shut down the conversation and minimize and demonize the person talking. For this reason average Americans cannot get near politics or the media or even get political or media attention because if they tell their story with the wrong words or don’t have a sophisticated message, the media and the left stigmatize them with one phrase or one word. No one under these conditions can be free to speak their mind or tell the truth. And frankly it works, because no one in the public eye can afford even to be associated with anyone that might be a target of the PC Police. Our politicians have learned this game very well. Their speech is slick, rehearsed, read off a teleprompter, and been reviewed by a staff of well trained ‘political science’ graduates. How nice. In the meantime, average Americans are drowning in the costs of a huge, overbearing government. No one will fight back because on each issue comes an accusation from the left that they are mean, greedy, insensitive, racist, or stupid. But these problems are real. We want to secure our border to protect the safety of our country. We do not value an environmental impact statement that protects rodents over our own sons and daughters opportunity to get a job. We don’t want to give bureaucrats the power to ignore our freedoms, our rights to due process, or the power to decide the value of our livelihoods. We do not want the media to devalue our concerns or categorize our opinions as ‘hate speech’. The reality is what the Left wants is nothing like what most Americans value: A government in check, free from barbarism and totalitarianism, an economy full of opportunity to make any persons individual goal a reality, a country respectful of individual opinions and rights. In our current political climate we Americans cannot defend these values, because according to the Left normal simple Americans don’t hold correct views. Donald Trump defies all of this. He doesn’t sound ‘right’; he doesn’t act ‘right’; he doesn’t have the right ‘background’; but he honestly tells us what he thinks. Even more when he is attacked for it from the Left, and the media and the GOP, and the ‘pundit right’, he continues to fight for it. What we know in our gut when he opens his mouth, unfiltered, is that he is speaking for us, taking the hit, and moving forward unashamed. Is he Conservative? On some issues he is very conservative. Is he Libertarian? On some issues he is very libertarian. Is he a Liberal? On some issues he is a liberal. But he is definitely not a Leftist. What does it matter if we get our perfect platform in a candidate if that candidate cannot operate without being shut up and shut down. In fact it should bother us more when the other Republican Candidates past and present use the same minimizing, demonizing characterizations of the Left to shame us from supporting him. Donald Trump said last week in both an interview and on the debate stage that we have to face issues, we cannot solve a problem until we see it realistically, and we cannot do that until we are willing to tell the truth. If they shut him down they have shut us all down. And for this reason we must vote for him, and he must win.
2016-03-22 19:33 By I www.thetribunepapers.com
31 Comelec reminds bets: No campaigning on Friday THE CAMPAIGN period for local government positions officially begins on March 25, but it being Good Friday, candidates have been advised to begin their campaigning a day later, on March 26. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) reminded candidates Tuesday that the Omnibus Election Code bans campaigning on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the day before election day. The code gives candidates for local posts 45 days to campaign. For the May 9 elections, this would run from March 25 to May 7. The official election campaign period is “a mathematical formula,” said Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez. “If you count the days, it will fall on March 25. It is part of the intention of the law that does not factor in when that date will fall, even if it is during Lent,” he added. He also reminded local candidates to remove all campaign materials put up outside authorized common poster areas 72 hours or three days before March 25. “Whatever prohibited campaign materials they have now, they should have them removed or they may be charged with an election offense,” he said. Election rules mandate candidates to post their banners only in common poster areas or public places designated by the Comelec such as plazas, markets, barangay centers and other places approved by election officials. Under the rules, local candidates and registered political parties are entitled to not more than a total of 60 minutes of TV ads on a per station basis and 90 minutes of radio commercials, also on a per station basis whether by purchase or donation. During the campaign period, candidates are prohibited from giving gifts in cash or in kind. The appointment or use of special policemen and confidential agents is prohibited. Violation of campaign rules carries a penalty of one to six years’ imprisonment, disqualification from public office and removal of the right to vote.
2016-03-23 03:37 Jocelyn R newsinfo.inquirer.net
32 Tintin’s racist history: Symbol of Brussels solidarity is uncomfortably divisive Topics: Brussels attacks , Fascism , Books , Terrorism , tintin , cartoons , Entertainment News If we threw out all the novels, poetry, music, and other kinds of art made by people with whom we disagreed politically, there wouldn’t be much left. Similarly, if we got rid of all the culture produced by right-wing extremists, on one hand, or sympathizers of nasty left-wing regimes on the other, we start to seriously limit a lot of great work, especially from the early and mid-20 th century. I want to be able to read Louis- Ferdinand Céline (a racist and anti-semite by most measures) and Pablo Neruda (who admired Stalin, at least early in his career) despite their politics. But it’s still a little uncomfortable that Tintin has become one of the key symbols of the Brussels attacks. Here’s the lead to a story in Vox: The images of a weeping Tintin are moving on one hand: Who can be unmoved by the sight of a crying child? And the Tintin comics, mostly created in the ’30s and ’40s, are beautifully drawn and well told. But since Tintin’s creator was often associated with a reactionary and racist tradition, and the Brussels attacks seem to be bringing out their share of reactionary and racist responses, it may be time to pick another symbol. The connections between Tintin’s creator, Hergé, and various kinds of unpleasantness are pretty well established by now. The children’s newspaper supplement, Le Petit Vingtième , in which Tintin appeared early on, was pro-fascist, like a lot of Belgian culture at the time. Charges have clung to Hergé over the years, and not gone away. Many of the early Tintin comics often portray Africans as childish, lazy simpletons, which was often the justification for colonial conquest. The fact that Belgium led a violent empire in Congo makes it all a bit too close for comfort.
2016-03-23 00:16 Scott Timberg salon.com.feedsportal.com
33 Limbaugh: Leftists shocked terrorists struck at their 'nirvana' Contact WND Tuesday, when Brussels, Belgium, was hit by multiple terrorist bombs, was a day of tragedy and heartbreak for the city, the country, Europe and for the West. It was also a day of shock and confusion for leftists in Western nations. Just hours after a coordinated terror attack killed more than 30 people and wounded about 230 more in Brussels’ airport and subway station, a headline in Politico’s Europe Edition moaned, “Why do they hate us so much?” During his Tuesday show, talk-radio titan Rush Limbaugh noted that headline, as well as the sub-headline: “How the Brussels attacks strike at the heart of Europe and shake its political foundations.” He said he knows why European leftists were especially upset at this particular attack. Visit the WND Superstore to ride away with “Rush Revere” and another books by talk-radio king Rush Limbaugh “I’ll tell you why they’re upset, folks,” Limbaugh said. “It’s more than being upset at just the fact that there was a terrorist event with, what is it, 34 people dead so far and climbing⦠The reason this attack has shaken them to the core is that Europe is utopia. Western European socialist democracies are utopia, in their mind and in their belief systems.” And Brussels, being the capital of the European Union and the seat of world power, is the heart of utopia. Limbaugh also described Europe as “nirvana” to the American left and the model to which the U. S. should aspire. Related stories (story continues below): Trump calls for surveillance of radical Islam Leftists shocked terrorists struck at their ‘nirvana’ Terror expert: ISIS is sending ‘message to White House’ Brussels ad laughed off Islamic terror 2 months ago Brussels attacked: Scores dead in series of terror attacks U. S. ‘reassessing’ in face of Brussels attacks ‘Terrorist cancer’: ISIS claims responsibility for Brussels Trump: ‘I would close up our borders’ after Brussels “That’s what we should be attempting to become: the equality, the fairness, sophistication, the eruditeness, the cleverness,” Limbaugh said, mocking the left. “Europe is the new utopia! And how can these guys attack our utopia and not see it for what it is?â Limbaugh continued to mimic the left struggling to understand why terrorists would want to attack such a free and pluralistic society: âHow in the hell do these guys not get it? This is utopia! This is where we all live together equally and free. Why do they not see the goodness in us? Why do they hate us so much? We understand ’em hating Trump. We understand ’em hating Cruz. We understand ’em hating American talk radio. But why do they hate us?â What do YOU think?  What should be the U. S. response to ISIS’ latest attacks? Sound off in today’s WND poll! Limbaugh speculated the left probably expects a little more gratitude from Muslims given that leftists constantly tiptoe around the issue of Islamic terror, always careful to avoid offending Muslims. “They think by not calling it terrorism â and I’m talking about the media, I’m talking about Obama, his State Department, anybody on the left â by not calling it terrorism, by not criticizing Islam, by going after people who do, by reclassifying acts of terror in this country as workplace violence, by bending over backwards to not condemn, to not criticize Islam and Islamic terrorism, they believe that sends the signal, ‘Hey, you don’t have a problem with us. You don’t need to attack us. We’re not the bad guys. We’re not gonna criticize you. We’re not gonna condemn you.’ “And yet they hit us anyway.” Limbaugh thinks the liberal attitude toward Islam actually makes things worse, not better. “In fact, folks, it is this pansy attitude of not calling them what they are, not describing their acts of terror as acts of terror, by refusing to admit openly who they are and what they are, by refusing to seriously try to stop them, they see nothing but weakness,” he said. Limbaugh thinks the terrorists see weakness in Hillary Clinton, who said the U. S. response to the Brussels attack must be consistent with American values, which in her mind includes not waterboarding terror suspects. The talk radio giant unloaded on Clinton. “Who are we? A bunch of wusses, in your world, asking, ‘Why do they hate us so much?’ Asking, ‘What did we do to make them mad?’ And then not having the guts and the honesty to answer that correctly? They hate us so much because we are not of the same religion as they are, pure and simple. It’s no more complicated than that.” Limbaugh also played a clip from Barack Obamaâs brief remarks on the Brussels attack, in which the president said, “And this is yet another reminder that the world must unite. We must be together regardless of nationality or race or faith in fighting against the scourge of terrorism.” Limbaugh eviscerated Obama for that comment. “I’m sorry, folks, but that’s a crock,” he scoffed. “The problem is not lack of unity. What, we’re supposed to find a way to unify with ISIS? We’re supposed to unite with criminals and terrorists? How does that work? It’s yet another reminder the world must unite? You talk about a worthless, pointless reaction to this. That’s not what the world has to do to stop this. The world has to get serious and wipe these people out.” Visit the WND Superstore to ride away with “Rush Revere” and another books by talk-radio king Rush Limbaugh Limbaugh seized on Obama’s inference that there are people other than him who are reluctant to fight terrorism. “The only person I know of that doesn’t want to fight terrorism, Mr. President, is you!” Limbaugh exclaimed. “What do you mean, come together to fight terrorism? Show a little leadership on it. You won’t even call it what it is. You will not even use the words ‘radical Islam.’ You will not say ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ You will not say ‘militant Islamic terror.’ You won’t even use the words.”
Brussels ad laughed off Islamic terror 2 months ago Contact WND wnd.com
'Shocking' unpreparedness by Belgians Contact WND wnd.com 2016-03-23 03:34 Paul Bremmer www.wnd.com
34 New Order’s next album is coming: Bernard Sumner talks “Complete Music,” Peter Hook and why it’s important to “glow for a very long time” Topics: New Order , bernard sumner , Peter Hook , Music , Entertainment News There’s been a dark cloud over New Order ever since Peter Hook left in 2007, and a lawsuit looms in the distance, but on the phone from a tour stop in Los Angeles, frontman Bernard Sumner is serene. For one thing, he’s got something out of his system: his memoir, “Chapter and Verse,” published last November in the U. S., offers what he has called his “final word” on his spectacular falling out with Hook, after the two of them traded barbs in the press for years. For another, the band’s new album, “Music Complete,” hit No. 2 in their native U. K. in September and has won over critics as well. As Sumner reveals, there’s a companion piece on its way, called—what else—“Complete Music.” This new release, he says, will “radically” rework “Music Complete,” whose songs continue to inspire New Order. “It’s very unusual for bands to stay successful—and then this deep into your career, make an album that doesn’t sound tired.” While Hooky’s melodic, chorus-laden bass lines are irreplaceable, the hooks themselves, the heady counterpoint, and the euphoric wistfulness remain, and New Order enlist both fans (Brandon Flowers, La Roux) and a longtime hero (Iggy Pop) to help fill out their most synth-heavy sound in decades. As for Sumner, once something of an enigma, he comes across in “Chapter and Verse” as determined, defiant – his former band, Joy Division, was an escape from being “parked in one of life’s culs-de-sac, thwarted by society” – and able to laugh at himself, spinning out cautionary tales of the hedonistic ‘80s. Now, at the end of a whistlestop U. S. tour, he’s charming and somewhat sheepish (“We had the night off last night and drank a little too much”), telling Salon about his creative process, his distrust of fame, his fears about the world, “Complete Music” … and yes, his erstwhile bandmate. The last time you toured North America, you were exclusively playing older material. How different is it to be out on the road with Music Complete? It feels really fresh, and “Music Complete” does really lend itself to be played live. It’s very easy to sit down and write slow, introspective songs; it’s more difficult to write something that’s got a lot of energy, so the house rule was that we write all the up-tempo, upbeat stuff first. We never did write the slower ones [laughs]. So we could play virtually any track off the album. It’s your danciest album since “Republic” [from 1993]. Did you have in mind the popularity of electronic music now, and the way this record would fit in with it? No, just a coincidence. We never pay much attention to what’s going on in the musical world. The music you make is a combination of the music you’ve listened to throughout your life. I write from within, not from without. You just catch snippets of little things that you like and retain them in some sort of memory bank, and then they become influences, on a subconscious level. There was one nice little instrumental piece that I wrote that didn’t make it on the album; the inspiration came from a German TV series I saw as a child when I was about 9 years old. The references go that far back. The opener, “Restless,” seems topical, with lyrics about the “fiscal climate” and the lines “Get out of town / the streets are running rivers full of blood,” which I’m guessing is a reference to Enoch Powell’s anti-immigration “ Rivers of Blood ” speech? Especially as you’ve been travelling through America, with the rise of Donald Trump and his similar rhetoric about immigration, is that particular track resonating right now? That track is a little diary of a day, and what’s going on in the world around me. Part of it is about how materialistic we’ve become. I’m as guilty as anyone. Can buying the new iPhone make you any happier by the end of the day? It’s just a diversion, and the question is, what is it a diversion from? Why do we want to be diverted? … The streets with “rivers full of blood” is a comment on violence throughout the world. It’s the clash of cultures and ideologies, and what are we going to do about it? It is worrying, and Donald Trump’s worrying. The other night, in Chicago, we drove past the Trump Tower and made a few derogatory comments about Trump in the cab. When I was paying the driver, he said, “Actually I like Trump, because he will ignite Islam,” which sent a cold shiver down my spine. This guy, who was obviously radical, an Islamist, was into Trump because he would create a rift between the West and Islam. I said, “Surely we want peace?” And he shrugged and drove off. It’s a bit scary. … Also we played in Paris the week before the attacks—not at the Bataclan, but we played there the previous time we played Paris. Events like that bring it close to home. It worries me, what sort of world my kids are going to end up with. It’s like there’s some unseen, dark hand at work somewhere. In your book, you write about the violence that crept into the acid house scene in Manchester, and into The Haçienda [the legendary, now-shuttered club that New Order co-owned in the ‘80s and ‘90s], with gangs holding meetings there. Often your music has an uplifting feel but your lyrics are ambivalent or sardonic, and I wonder if that comes from your having encountered that side of life … [From the book] I presume it sounds a bit like I grew up in a violent hellhole [in working-class Lower Broughton, outside of Manchester]; there were occasional events of extreme violence, but for the most part, it was a pretty safe, fun place to live. I told the story about a guy coming in the club with a machine gun, trying to shoot a bouncer—well, it didn’t happen every day. There would just be these eruptions. So you’re right about the music being quite uplifting and my vocals being sometimes a bit melancholic. I do that because it forms a contrast: I like to temper or twist the mood of the music with perhaps a more plaintive vocal, so it takes you on a winding journey. It doesn’t deliver it all on a happy plane. I think I did write one uplifting song once. “ World in Motion ”? [Laughs] I guess part of it is the way I write, which is to sit there on my own, late at night—I start at about 6 p.m. and work until about 2:00 in the morning, and I always work in the winter. I sit in the dark and dream with a bottle of wine … Quite simply I don’t want it all to get too sugary sweet, because I don’t like music like that. It’s like chocolate—it’s great because it tastes bitter and sweet at the same time. If you get chocolate that just tastes of sugar, what’s the point? At the end of the book, you write, “Shit does happen in life, but you can get over it. Don’t let it defeat you.” Do you want to be an inspiration for people just as the Sex Pistols were for you when you saw them in Manchester ?
2016-03-23 01:21 Mike Doherty salon.com.feedsportal.com
35 Of course the sugar tax is regressive. So is sugar Regression dressed up as “reform”: how rhetoric helped dismantle the welfare state There are already as many arguments against the sugar tax as there are sugary drinks that will fall under its ambit. In yesterday’s Budget, George Osborne announced two new levies: one on drinks with a sugar content above 5g per 100ml, and another higher levy for drinks with more than 8g sugar per 100ml. The levies will work out as either an 18p or 24p surcharge – which the Office for Budgetary Responsibility (OBR) expect to be passed on entirely to the consumer. Though Jeremy Corbyn signalled his support for the measure in his response to the Chancellor in the Commons yesterday, there is an emergent left-wing critique: that the sugar levy is regressive, and therefore unjustifiable. The charge of regressiveness is undeniably correct: as with other consumption taxes, the levy will represent a disproportionately large share of poorer people’s incomes. Well of course it’s regressive. So is sugar and so are its effects. The country’s obesity crisis – and it really is a crisis when almost two-thirds of adults are either overweight or obese along with a quarter of young children - disproportionately affects the poorest. Findings drawn at the end of last year from the Millenium Cohort Study, which tracks nearly 20,000 British families, found a stark link between relative poverty and childhood obesity. By the age of just five, poor children were almost doubly likely to be obese than their better off peers. Of course sugar consumption does not explain all, or even most, of that relationship. Still, high sugar intakes are a cause of obesity, and obesity is a cause of type 2 diabetes, which has risen by 70% in a decade. If obesity and its effects disproportionately hit the poor, why should it be any surprise that a measure to tackle obesity disproportionately affects the poor? That’s the whole point. A tax with the intention of changing behaviour is obviously going to affect the people who behave in that way. But surely the nub of the issue is this. The OBR anticipates a reduction in demand for sugary drinks of between 0.8% and 1% for each 1% price rise resulting from the levy. A diminution of demand for sugary drinks will help decrease their risks of obesity, diabetes and other health problems. If you accept that the government has a responsibility to ameliorate public health then you should accept this levy. If you are an instrumentalist about these things, less illness means a reduced burden on the NHS. Spending on diabetes and diabetes-related illnesses accounts for 10 % of the budget of the NHS in England and Wales. That’s not to say the levy is a silver bullet. There are background socioeconomic factors which mean that the most poor too often consume unhealthy diets. Further benefit cuts are hardly going to help in that regard. And there are various other strategies that have been shown to depress consumption of sugary drinks, such as different marketing strategies in supermarkets. It’s also peculiar that milky drinks and fruit juices are to be exempted from the levy - not because they are only consumed by the middle classes, but precisely because they are consumed across society by people who do not have healthy diets. But none of those caveats should obscure this fundamental fact. Yes, the sugar tax is regressive. So is sugar consumption and so is obesity. This is a regressive attack on a regressive malaise and it should be applauded. The idea of “reform” has a long, honourable tradition in Britain: individuals and social movements committed to extending the franchise throughout the 19th century, campaigns to mitigate the cruelties of early industrialism: the abridgement of hours of labour, protection for women and children, improved sanitation and housing. Later reformers and radicals introduced a system of “welfare” to defend people, not only against the vagaries of the economic cycle, but also against the known vicissitudes of life – sickness, ageing and bereavement. The word “reform” was revived with great fanfare by the coalition government in 2010; but this no longer referred to the damage inflicted by an economic and social system. It now claimed to deal with the baleful effects of the welfare state, paradoxically, the result of earlier “reforms” the government is eager to dismantle. Such a project was possible, because while only the ghost of industrial manufacture remained in Britain, the structures of welfare, designed to humanise it, were still in place. It is this tottering relic which, like the factories long fallen into rubble and splintered glass, is now ripe for development by the realtors of modernity. The rhetoric of government is a mocking echo of the passion of those who fought chronic want and insecurity in the first industrial era. People are now to be “set free”, “liberated”, “released”, not from slum conditions and rapacious employers, but from a grim dependency on welfare, a fatalistic acceptance of “benefits” due to long-term – even inter-generational – unemployment, what was called, in a less squeamish time, “hereditary pauperism”. Young people are to be saved from “sitting at home and falling into depression and despair”, emancipated from a “culture” of mendicancy upon the public purse, and led into the perpetual sunshine of free markets. In this enterprise, David Cameron, George Osborne and Iain Duncan Smith presented themselves as liberators of the people. The “evils” they addressed are the belief that “it pays not to work”, the “something for nothing culture” conviction that “the world owes us a living”, and the “culture of entitlement” created by the welfare state. Their changes to the benefit system would help people “escape the poverty trap and get on in life”. The proud, self-reliant British are to be released from the bondage of benefits. The heroic tone of the government’s proposals suggests a usurpation of the epic project which Labour once conceived of redressing the imbalance of power between capital and labour; but the new objective is freedom from oppressive welfare dependency, an evil confronted by today’s fearless warriors for liberty. George Osborne reiterated the theme in his Budget speech of July 2015. He spoke of “transforming the lives of those trapped in welfare”; he made it sound, insultingly, like the situation of miners caught by a rockfall in some industrial catastrophe, while he, no doubt in a conspicuous hi-vis vest, leads the rescue party. The next sequence in this enfranchisement of the people is a concession that, however benign the intent of earlier legislation to free them from fear and want, it has led to a situation “which cannot be cured by money”, or “state hand-outs” as they are now known. This is audacious, coming as it does from those whose ownership, indeed worship, of wealth is remarkable. Their vocabulary of “wealth creationism” has distinctly religious undertones; and for them, the “generation” of wealth is the aetiological myth of capitalism; a profane Book of Genesis. Cameron elaborated it in June 2012. He said ‘The truth is we can’t throw money at the problems and paper over the cracks. You can give a drug addict more money in benefits, but that is unlikely to help them out of poverty, indeed it could perpetuate their addiction. You can pump more cash into chaotic homes, but if the parents are still neglectful, the kids are still playing truant, they’re going to stay poor in the most important senses of the word. So this government is challenging the old narrow view that the key to beating poverty is simply more redistribution.’ No clearer enunciation is possible of the doctrine that the relief of poverty lies in withdrawal of State bounty from those who have no need of “safety nets” (a persistent image that – perhaps correctly – attributes advanced circus skills to the poor). The credo could not be more explicit: while the rich must be encouraged in their mystical quest to create wealth by heaping more treasures upon them, the poor must be set free by the withdrawal of the meagre resources at their command. Thus, claimed Cameron, the causes of poverty will be treated at source – “debt, family breakdown, educational failure, addiction”. It cannot be said that the government does not spin a good yarn: consummate storytellers, they extol the heroics of capitalism and the threat to it from its ill-wishers and enemies, whether in the form of organised labour or “do-gooders”; a pejorative term that suggests that the hour of the doers of evil has once more sounded. If the government really believes the symptoms it identifies are “causes” of poverty, this shows the shallowness of its understanding of society, the very existence of which, in any case, Margaret Thatcher had long ago thrown into doubt. But the triumphant conclusion lay in what comes next: “The only thing that really beats poverty, long-term, is work.” Work, no matter how futile or degrading, is the panacea: in this they revert to the Elizabethan Poor Law, which insisted all able-bodied paupers be “set on work”; but they lack even the humanity of that archaic legislation. Their true antecedents are the Poor Law Commission and the coercive policies embodied in the Act of 1834. Armed with these ideological revelations, the project was, according to the government in 2015, far from complete. It would require another “term” (a language borrowed from school) to “finish the job” (a lexicon of workmanlike efficiency). The people of Britain, persuaded of the nobility of the cause, granted them this extension. It is, perhaps, fitting, that Duncan Smith should himself have fallen victim to the “reforms” of which he has been such a strong proponent; particularly in the light of the power of his own (until now somnolent) social conscience to “reform” his view of welfare claimants with disability. Whether this change of heart is a consequence of personal animus against the Chancellor, a desire to devote himself to the lofty cause of Brexit, or an alibi for escaping the consequences of universal credit – unwieldy, expensive and possibly unmanageable – we shall probably never know. Jeremy Seabrook is the author of Cut Out: Living Without Welfare , published in June by Pluto Press
The NS Podcast #140: Budget Special Regression dressed up as “reform”: how rhetoric helped dismantle the welfare state newstatesman.com
Jeremy Corbyn responds to the resignation of Iain Duncan Smith Regression dressed up as “reform”: how rhetoric helped dismantle the welfare state newstatesman.com My family are addicted to screens – and we’re all the closer for it Regression dressed up as “reform”: how rhetoric helped dismantle the welfare state newstatesman.com
Academies offer a Tory lesson in power, a right royal snitch – and my vegetable love Regression dressed up as “reform”: how rhetoric helped dismantle the welfare state newstatesman.com
Let’s stop with the frozen food snobbery Regression dressed up as “reform”: how rhetoric helped dismantle the welfare state newstatesman.com
When WHSmith started selling porn next to the Kinder Eggs, I set out on a clean-up mission Regression dressed up as “reform”: how rhetoric helped dismantle the welfare state newstatesman.com In full: Iain Duncan Smith's resignation letter from the Cabinet Regression dressed up as “reform”: how rhetoric helped dismantle the welfare state newstatesman.com
Why Britain should end the special relationship with the US Regression dressed up as “reform”: how rhetoric helped dismantle the welfare state newstatesman.com 2016-03-23 00:14 Shiraz Maher www.newstatesman.com
36 Parents, students fear cases vs K-12 will become moot A GROUP of parents, teachers, students and school workers has asked the Supreme Court to decide before the start of the next school year the cases they had filed in 2015 to stop the government’s new K-12 basic education program. In a seven-page “most extremely urgent motion to expedite proceedings” filed on Monday, the petitioners, through their lawyer Severo Brillantes, said high school graduates under the old curriculum did not know if they had to enroll for one more year of senior high school or enroll in college. The uncertainty is affecting not only students but also college teachers and workers who are unsure if they will be displaced in the next school year because there may be no incoming college freshmen. Severo said the parties had submitted their comments in November last year but the court only decided early this month, or more than a year after, not to issue a temporary restraining order. The lawyer said the petitioners would surely suffer damage when K-12 starts in three months and the court has not issued a final decision. Petition of dismissal “[I]f it fails to render a decision before the next school year opens, it virtually would have rendered a decision amounting to the dismissal of their instant petitions, as the Grade 10 students will inevitably be forced to go through the two additional years of senior high school,” the lawyer said. He said Grade 10 students graduating this month might be forced to drop out either because there will no longer be a senior public high school for them to go to, or they will not able to afford the cost of enrolling in a private school. This would be in violation of the duty of the state to make education, particularly free public education, accessible to all, he said. On the other hand, the teachers’ right to security of tenure and the duty of the state to afford full protection to labor will be violated if college teachers are “massively displaced” from their jobs by layoff or reassignment, he added. Brillantes urged the high court to direct the government’s education agencies and tertiary school authorities to allow the Grade 10 students to take entrance tests so that they can be admitted to college for the coming school year. The K-12 program, embodied in Republic Act No. 10533 or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, provides for Kindergarten and 12 years of basic education, comprised of six years of primary education, four years of junior high school and two years of senior high school. Jerome Aning
2016-03-23 03:32 Philippine Daily newsinfo.inquirer.net
37 Iglesia wants suit junked LAWYERS of the Iglesia Ni Cristo have sought the dismissal of an amparo suit filed by expelled member Lowell Menorca II, who left for Vietnam on March 6. Justices of the Court of Appeals Seventh Division had ordered the INC legal panel led by lawyer Patricia Ann Prodigalidad and Menorca’s counsels Beatrix Rose Angeles and Ahmedy Paglinawan to file their position papers on the matter within two days. Angeles said she did not know if or when Menorca would return to the country. He had said he fled because of death threats to his family. The INC’s lawyers moved that the case be rendered moot and academic considering Menorca’s continued nonappearance and “apparent lack of interest.” Prodigalidad also asked the court to strike out Menorca’s testimony from the records. “It’s becoming clear that Mr. Menorca is hiding from the court and is running out of excuses for doing so. How else can you explain his successive nonappearance?” she told reporters. The case stemmed from Menorca’s claim that he had been abducted and tortured on orders of top INC leaders. He said he and his family were detained for three months in the INC central temple complex in Quezon City before being rescued by National Bureau of Investigation agents. He said INC leaders wanted to eliminate him because he was suspected of being the mysterious blogger who had been exposing alleged corruption and other anomalies in the church. It was Menorca’s brother and sister-in-law who filed a petition for the issuance of writs of habeas corpus and amparo in the Supreme Court. Jerome Aning
2016-03-23 03:29 Philippine Daily newsinfo.inquirer.net
38 Faux-moderate John Kasich demands Obama return to United States to deal with terrorism in Belgium Topics: John Kasich , 2016 GOP primary , Elections 2016 , Radical Islam , MSNBC , Video , Brian Williams , Terrorism , Brussels , Belgium , Elections News , News , Politics News Republican presidential hopeful and Ohio Governor John Kasich spoke to MSNBC’s Brian Williams on Tuesday about how President Barack Obama should respond to the terror attacks in Belgium today — and not surprisingly, Gov. Kasich was very disappointed in the president. “I would hope what the President would do is return home,” Kasich said. “He ought to work with the heads of state around the world to assemble teams, and they need to examine these vulnerabilities we have, because without effective human intelligence, without coordination and cooperation among all the civilized nations — we get these gaps and these gaps get exploited by these people who are intent on killing civilized people.” He urged the president to “act quickly against ISIS both [in] the air and on the ground,” even though there is no credible evidence at the moment that ISIS was involved. Kasich did, at least, acknowledge that it would be best to do so “with a coalition of not only people from the West, but our Arab friends in the Middle East.” Not that that prevented the governor from speculating: “With this migrant crisis and the ability of people to pour across the border,” he said, before qualifying that “we don’t know exactly, at this point, who these folks are or where they came from, but the radicalization of people in the Islamic community is obviously the greatest threat we have today.”
2016-03-22 19:23 Scott Eric salon.com.feedsportal.com
39 Pinoy human trafficking victims in US tell their stories LOS ANGELES—Maria Rosario Dayan had signed up for a job as a special education teacher in Bertie County, North Carolina, but ended up mopping floors and cleaning bathrooms at a daycare center in Washington. Dayan, who paid her Filipino recruiter more than $17,000 in fees, found herself sleeping on the floor in a crowded rat-infested apartment with no furniture. When she complained, the recruiter threatened to harm her family in the Philippines. Dayan, 50, was one of five labor trafficking victims who gave their testimonies before human rights commissioners at a human trafficking forum at the Philippine Embassy in Washington last Saturday (Sunday in Manila). “My life is OK now, but I’m telling my story to help stop illegal recruitment and human trafficking back home,” Dayan told the Inquirer in a phone interview. The forum was part of the new partnership between the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Washington-based Migrant Heritage Commission (MHC) in the fight against human trafficking. The MHC has helped put perpetrators behind bars and obtained special visas for hundreds of trafficking victims so they could stay in the United States. It has partnered with the CHR to help the Philippine government combat human trafficking. “Our partnership involves learning from the experience of victims and making policy recommendations to the Philippine government,” MHC executive director Arnedo Valera said. CHR Commissioner Leah Tanodra-Armamento said one of their recommendations is to create a government task force in the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to verify the legitimacy of job offers for teachers. The task force will coordinate with the US Embassy in Manila in processing work visas for teachers who receive job offers from the US school system. The CHR will also monitor the prosecution of trafficking cases and push for the extradition of Dayan’s recruiter, identified as Isidro Rodriguez, who escaped from detention in the Philippines and is at large. A total of 21 illegal recruitment cases have been filed against Rodriguez and 41 recruitment violation cases have been filed against his company. Maria Filipina Ecleo, another victim of Rodriguez, told the Inquirer she testified at the forum so that what she experienced “won’t happen to other Filipinos seeking a better life here in the United States.” “Be informed, educate yourself and do your own research. This is what I will advise my kababayan,” she said. The CHR and MHC will work together to promote awareness of human trafficking and share lessons from the experiences of Dayan, Ecleo and the other teachers victimized by Rodriguez. The forum was held a few days after Ambassador to the US Jose Cuisia Jr. and acting Justice Secretary Emmanuel Caparas met with top US Department of State officials to discuss the Philippine government’s efforts at combating trafficking. The state department is preparing to issue its 2016 annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. “The state department’s TIP reports have been helpful in our efforts to prevent trafficking, protect its victims and prosecute the perpetrators,” Cuisia told Susan Coppedge, senior adviser to the US secretary of state in a March 16 meeting. The Philippines remains in Tier 2 in the TIP report, which means it has not fully complied with the minimum standards to eliminate trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The Philippines should step up efforts to crack down on government officials involved in human trafficking, and provide more resources to help victims of modern-day slavery, the 2015 TIP report had said.
2016-03-23 03:28 Nimfa U globalnation.inquirer.net
40 Anti-Zionism does not equal anti-Semitism: Someone please tell Hillary Clinton and the University of California Topics: bds , AIPAC , Hillary Clinton , Anti-Semitism , Israel , News Last summer there was a flurry of activity in the University of California system as U. C. regents were pressured to suppress criticism of Israel on U. C. campuses. One regent in favor of such silencing played a trump card: He threatened to bring his particularly well-connected partner in to add muscle. The regent was wealthy developer Richard Blum, his wife is Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Here is what Blum said in September: So now a U. S. senator says she’ll use the power of her office to suspend undergraduates for speaking out against Israeli state policies? Interesting read of her mandate. Blum was particularly incensed because just a few months before, free speech and pro- Palestinian activists had won a victory. As I wrote back then: Since the autumn there has been speculation as to what, exactly, the regents would vote on; how would “tolerance” be defined? Well, now we know, and the document under discussion still shows the two main perspectives of the prior discussions. We see efforts to produce a broad and positive statement for tolerance, and also the fingerprints of those who wish to smuggle in a false and destructive equation of anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism, thereby making the University of California a place where any criticism of a certain state’s illegal policies is intolerable. The manner in which this is done in the current draft is deceptive and underhanded. In the main body of the text, the rightful condemnation of anti-Semitism is clear and unadorned: “In a community of learners, teachers, and knowledge-seekers, the University is best served when its leaders challenge speech and action reflecting bias, stereotypes, and/or intolerance. Anti- Semitism and other forms of discrimination have no place in the University. The Regents call on University leaders actively to challenge anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination when and wherever they emerge within the University community.” Fair and good. But in the introduction to the document we find the proposal for tolerance when it comes to anti-Semitism presented this way: “ Anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and other forms of discrimination have no place at the University of California.” This portion of the document, separated from the section where the proposals appear, is couched as a “contextual statement.” Thus a casual reader could endorse the proposal itself while being unaware that the entire framing of the discussion of anti-Semitism is being used as a cover for silencing voices protesting state policies that might include, among other things, the continued demolition of Palestinian homes and the building of illegal settlements, which have been publicly condemned by the U. S. State Department and which are part of a Zionist project. What this means is that if the U. C. proposal passes, the U. S. State Department can protest illegal settlements and the Occupation as a whole, but students and teachers in the U. C. system cannot. This sleight of hand has been called out by both activist groups and mainstream news sources such as the Los Angeles Times. California Scholars for Academic Freedom (disclosure—I am a member) states: “For the record, we wish to underscore that criticisms of Zionism are co- extensive with the history of Zionism and have from the start included Jewish voices from a variety of political and religious orientations. The inclusion of such a broad category as either intolerant or bigoted represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the political viewpoints critical of Zionism. Many political positions, including those that favor Palestinian rights, statehood, and political self-determination, can be considered anti-Zionist although they comply with internationally accepted norms of human rights and principles of democratic self- governance.”
2016-03-22 19:23 David Palumbo salon.com.feedsportal.com
41 World halfway to 2-degree threshold THE WORLD is halfway to the critical 2-degree threshold as record temperatures in 2015 meant the earth was warmer by one degree Celsius than at the start of the 20th century, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Last December, representatives of 195 nations that gathered in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference agreed to keep the increase in global temperature at below 2 degrees Celsius—considered the threshold that separates humanity from the most destructive and dangerous effects of global warming. The Paris Agreement pegged global efforts toward limiting the increase in temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. In a statement on the Status of the Climate in 2015 released Tuesday, the UN agency WMO said that last year saw temperature records shattered by a wide margin—attended by intense heat waves, exceptional rainfall, devastating drought and unusual tropical cyclone activity. In 2015, the strong El Niño as well as human-caused global warming pushed the global average surface temperature to 0.76 degree Celsius above the average observed in 1961-1990. In the Philippines, the Department of Agriculture put the loss in food crops attributed to the current El Niño at P3.4 billion in 2015—excluding farm damage caused by strong typhoons which also reached billions of pesos. “Our planet is sending a powerful message to world leaders to sign and implement the Paris Agreement on climate change and cut greenhouse gases now before we pass the point of no return,” WMO secretary general Petteri Taalas said in a press statement. Taalas said the worst-case scenarios could be averted by taking urgent and far-reaching measures to cut carbon dioxide emissions. He said that in addition to mitigation, governments must strengthen climate change adaptation by investing in disaster early warning systems, as well as climate services like drought, flood and heat-health management tools. According to the WMO report, droughts must be addressed more proactively through integrated drought management, which involves guidance on effective policies and land management strategies as well as best practices for coping with drought.
2016-03-23 03:25 Ronnel W globalnation.inquirer.net
42 Aquino bids Army goodbye, cites changes under his watch PRESIDENT Aquino, who dreamed of becoming a soldier but became disillusioned because of martial law, Tuesday took pride in the transformation of the Philippine Army under his administration as he bade the soldiers goodbye. The President graced the Army’s 119th founding anniversary, his last as Commander in Chief, during which the Army showcased its newest acquisitions like the armored personnel carriers (APCs) that rumbled at the oval. The event coincided with the first day of Mr. Aquino’s last 100 days as President and Commander in Chief. “This is the Army and the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) that I will be passing on as an outgoing Commander in Chief: an Army with very high morale and ready for any challenges; an Army that has the recognition and respect of the people; a professional and principled Army,” Mr. Aquino said in his speech. The President said that under the AFP modernization program, 68 big-ticket projects worth P58.43 billion were implemented. Of these, 26 projects worth P7.79 billion went to the Army to beef up its “capacity, knowledge, and readiness.” Aside from these, Mr. Aquino said the soldiers could expect more assets in the coming days. But he declined to elaborate because of national security concerns. In his lengthy speech, Mr. Aquino highlighted the intangible: That the Army had regained the trust and confidence of the people they are sworn to defend and protect. The President recalled that when he was very young, he dreamed of becoming a soldier but when martial law came, “my views about soldiers changed.” Mr. Aquino said the people’s trust in the Army was lost when it had “gone astray” as the executors of martial law, thinking they were being true to the Constitution in carrying out the orders of the dictator.” “There became a wide divide between the people and the Army, the result of which was the number of the NPA (New People’s Army) ballooned from 60 to 25,000 armed members at the end of martial law,” Mr. Aquino said. “Under our administration, we had more than 1.3 million operations against the enemies of the state and we finally freed 50 of 76 provinces affected by the NPA,” Mr. Aquino said. For his part, Army chief Lt. Gen. Eduardo Año credited Aquino, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Hernando Iriberri “for the continued upgrade of capabilities and quality of service of the Philippine Army.” Año listing down the army projects implemented so far, including the 56,840 new assault rifles to replace the “Vietnam war-era” rifles used by the soldiers; 124 new armored vehicles, and more than 2,000 new radios and other communication equipment. Also in the pipeline, Año said are 18 Infantry fighting and fire-equipped vehicles, six 155-mm Howitzers, 333 light utility vehicles, 44 60-mm mortars, 2,200 grenade launchers and 60 50-watt radios. But the “upgrade” that received applause was that Army officers, soldiers and personnel could withdraw from their ATMs the past three months’ differential under the increased provisional allowance granted in Mr. Aquino’s Executive Order No. 201. With a report by Jaymee T. Gamil
2016-03-23 03:24 Nikko Dizon newsinfo.inquirer.net
43 Fuel poverty: An anatomy of a cold home In the year 2000, Parliament agreed to end fuel poverty by 2016. But 16 years on, more than a million working families still cannot afford to heat their homes. One family - Hayley, her partner Dan, and two children - are struggling. It's 03:00. Hayley and Dan need to be up in a few hours for work but neither of them is asleep. They've both been woken up by the cold. It's a familiar battle. They live in a draughty two-storey, semi-detached house in Hastings that's hard to keep warm. It means that with even a slight dip in the temperature outside, their bedroom soon feels like an icebox. Hayley estimates they spend £15 to £20 on electricity and £15 on gas per week. They can't afford to keep the heating on during the night and so almost every night in winter is a fractured sleep. "It does feel like we're outside, especially with no insulation in the walls and the wind coming through the windows," says Dan. Hayley's also worried about the effect the cold nights are having on her 12-month-old son. "It's absolutely freezing. It's horrible being woken up with the cold because obviously if you're woken up as an adult then you worry about what your kids are going through. " Although he's bundled up in pyjamas and blankets, she brings the baby into bed with her and Dan in the early mornings when it's coldest, to keep him warm. Before he turned one, he was rushed to hospital with croup - a respiratory infection - and has had several doses of antibiotics By 05:00, they give up on sleep and Dan gets up to put the heating on. Their entire home is poorly insulated and so it takes a few hours for it to warm up. Until then the warmest place for everyone is Hayley and Dan's bed. Ava, Hayley's nine-year-old daughter, often joins them too. Toys are put out on the bed for the baby and everyone huddles together. It means the whole family is confined to the small double bed until they can start moving. "It's lovely to have family time and have everybody in the bed but it's also quite annoying because family time isn't meant to be spent on the bed for a good hour to get into the flow of life," says Hayley. "You're meant to get up and go downstairs and have breakfast and stuff and we just couldn't do it this morning. It was too cold. Way too cold. " Now it's off to work and school. Hayley and Dan are not alone. Officially there are more than one million working families in fuel poverty - it means they can't afford to heat their home. Ava's room is painted bright pink and covered in teddies. On the surface, it doesn't look any different to the thousands of little girls' bedrooms across the country. However, cold houses are often damp houses. Every room in the family's home has damp but Ava's room is the worst. Mould grows along her window. The little trinkets she lines her window sill with have to be frequently scrubbed to get rid of the black spots. Hayley says she's constantly disinfecting areas of Ava's room with bleach and has to throw out some of Ava's favourite toys because they've become too mouldy. "From literally the minute we come into the winter I have to be on it. I have to go round, check all the windows, wipe them all down, go round all the window sills, then go round all the walls and scrub them down. I've done that every year including when I was pregnant. " Even still, the mould upsets Ava. The only place where they can fit her bed is under a large patch of mould on the ceiling. She says it upsets her every night before she goes to sleep. "I keep thinking that every time when I go to bed the roof is going to fall down. And then I wish it wasn't there because then I wouldn't be thinking that. I really want it to go away. " The Panorama programme, Too Poor to Stay Warm is broadcast on BBC One on Monday 21 March at 20:30 GMT. Catch up on BBC iPlayer. The cold and damp mean Ava's bedding is often wet to the touch. She has two duvets on her bed so that her mum can swap them round when the one next to her skin gets damp. Going to sleep means putting on lots of layers so the cold doesn't wake her in the night - onesies, pyjamas, jumpers. But it doesn't always work. "When it's cold, it feels like the whole house has turned into a big block of ice. It feels like someone is rubbing ice on my nose," she says. Being cold at home and the broken sleep is starting to affect Ava's work at school. "It makes me really tired at school if I don't sleep well and then I can't concentrate," she says. "In winter, I get really poorly and I'm up all night coughing. I'd like to move to a house that doesn't have any mould in the bedrooms or anywhere. That would be better really. " Every morning there's the daily battle to use the bathroom before work and school. The elderly boiler also lives here. Hayley jokes that it's older than her but switching it on every day is a constant worry. "It sounds like it's going to take off. It's racketeering around and you have to smack it to make it work. " The boiler no longer works efficiently, even when it does come on. It can't heat the water and heat the house at the same time so every morning Hayley and Dan have to make the decision whether they and the kids have a hot shower or turn on the central heating. They're worried that it will pack up at any moment. The living room gets used the most. It's cheaper and easier to try and keep just one room warm and ultimately this means that in the evenings everyone piles into the living room. It's not a large space but it has to accommodate everyone's needs. For the baby this means learning to walk while Ava also has to do her homework there because her room is just too cold to work in. She says it's difficult to concentrate when the baby is crying which she says is all the time. Cramming everyone into one room at the end of the day just so they can keep warm makes it harder to unwind and sometimes tensions run high. They've had to learn through trial and error where to put their furniture to avoid the worst of the damp and mould. Hayley says that the first winter the sitting room was originally the other way round. "I had the sofa up against the wall over there and everything that was up against the wall… a buggy, laptop bag and a few other items, all had to be thrown in the bin due to white mould just being all over it. The back of the sofa, thankfully, was leather so I could wipe it off. " Cold houses aren't just uncomfortable to live in. Low temperatures in your home make you more prone to illnesses. It's a constant physical stress on everyone but there's also a hidden emotional drain. "The kids getting ill is one of my biggest worries. The situation has had me in tears several times," says Hayley. The emotional stress is also affecting Ava. "I worry that I'm going to wake up one day and my mum's not going to be here because she's really ill and she's going to be in hospital. That's why every time I go to bed I want her to go to bed after me so I know that she's in bed. " For people living in a cold home like this the impact can stay with you for years. "When you're a kid you sit there and you think, 'When I grow up I'm going to have this big house and it's going to be great,'" says Hayley. "Your home's your safe place, your warm place, your comfort. But I just don't want to be in this house. I just exist here, that's it really, no more than that. " Panorama - Too Poor to Stay Warm is broadcast on BBC One on Monday 21 March at 20:30 GMT. Catch up on BBC iPlayer Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. 2016-03-23 01:22 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
44 SNP will not adopt UK Chancellor's 40p tax threshold change The SNP said it would not adopt UK government plans to raise the starting point at which workers in Scotland pay the 40p tax rate. Leader Nicola Sturgeon, who is also the country's first minister, believed the move was wrong. However, she said that if her party won the 5 May election then "no taxpayer" would see their income tax bill rise. In April 2017, Holyrood will receive new powers to set bands and rates which apply to Scotland alone. That will allow the Scottish government not to follow Chancellor George Osborne's plans, announced in his Budget last week, to increase the threshold for 40p tax payers to £45,000 next year. Ms Sturgeon made clear that although she was rejecting the UK government's plan, the 40p threshold would still rise by the CPI inflation rate, taking it from £43,000 to £43,387. She said: "That increase will prevent higher rate taxpayers from receiving a real terms cut in their tax bills, but nor will they see their bills increase. " In addition, the SNP is not proposing to increase the additional rate - for those earning £150,000 or more - from its current 45p level. The party's plan also includes: Ms Sturgeon said she believed the approach "balanced the need to invest in and support our public services". She added: "By adopting a different path to the UK government we could generate more than £1bn of additional revenues, enabling us to protect the public services we all rely on. We believe that this proposal is reasonable, it is balanced and it is fair. " By BBC Scotland's business and economy editor Douglas Fraser One perhaps confusing element of these tax plans which might need explanation is the starting threshold for basic rate tax. George Osborne aims to put that up from £11,000 to £12,500 by 2020. Nicola Sturgeon says she wants to put it up to £12,750 by the following year. But it is a threshold controlled by Westminster. It's still "reserved". How can the SNP, Labour or anyone else claim to be able to set it at Holyrood? The answer seems to be a zero rate band. That is, if the Chancellor at Westminster has a starting level at £12,500, and the Holyrood administration wants a higher starting level, it could set the first, say, £250 of tax at a zero rate, and nothing is paid on it. Similarly, food, newspapers and children's clothes are brought within the VAT net, but they are zero rated for it. However, as such a move on income tax might appear to challenge the spirit, if not the letter, of the Scotland Act, it could be open to challenge. No doubt some MSPs, and lawyers, would quite like that. Read more from Douglas Scottish Labour - Leader Kezia Dugdale said: "Nicola Sturgeon had the chance to be bold, but instead what's clear is that the SNP will make no significant changes to income tax. A year ago, the SNP said they would support a 50p tax rate on people earning more than £150,000 a year - the top 1% of earners. Even on this change - which would see the most well off bear more of the burden - the SNP have bottled it. " ( Against the 40p threshold change.) Scottish Conservatives - Leader Ruth Davidson: "Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed today that she wants to make Scotland the highest taxed part of the UK. In the last five years alone, 140,000 Scots have been dragged into paying the higher rate of income tax, including public sector servants such as nurses, teachers and policemen and women. Nicola Sturgeon could have chosen to support them today but instead she has decided not to. That is bad for the Scottish economy and bad for Scottish jobs. " ( For the 40p threshold change.) Scottish Greens - Co-convenor Patrick Harvie said: "In the independence referendum, and in the Smith Commission, the Scottish Greens argued alongside Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney that Scotland needed the power to build a fairer, more equal society and an economy that protects our vital public services and invests in our young people's future. To finally win these powers and then not use them is extraordinary. " ( Against the 40p threshold change.) Scottish Lib Dems - Leader Willie Rennie said: "The SNP's proposals are pathetically timid. This plan raises no extra money, not a single pound more, for public services desperately in need of investment. This is a missed opportunity; the SNP are refusing to use the full set of new tax powers coming to us at Holyrood. The Liberal Democrats' penny on income tax for education would make a transformational investment in education. £475m a year for nurseries, schools and colleges. " ( Against the 40p threshold change. ) April 2016 April 2017 Read more here
2016-03-23 01:22 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
45 “I believe I was singled out because I am transgender”: College student on why she was booted from Trump rally in Arizona Topics: Election 2016 , Donald Trump , GOP 2016 , donald trump violence , transgender discrimination , lgbt discrimination , News , Politics News Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tucson, Arizona, Saturday evening was marred by violence , as tensions erupted between protesters and supporters. “It was pretty crazy,” says Jaqueline Dowell, a 23-year-old University of Arizona student who attended and was eventually removed from the event. “ A full-on fistfight was happening every 10 minutes or so.” During the rally, one Trump supporter was arrested and charged with assault after he kicked and punched a protester being escorted from the building: Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has drawn criticism for the video below, which shows him grabbing a protester by the collar at the rally. Lewandowski was previously accused of grabbing and bruising a female reporter for Breitbart. Dowell, a senior studying linguistics and philosophy, says she was removed from the rally by an individual she believes to be the man in the red and blue shirt standing next to Lewandowski in the video above. Dowell says that she was not protesting when she was removed from the rally, and believes she was escorted from the arena because she is transgender. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Dowell spoke with Salon on Monday about her experience at the rally: Why did you go to the rally? I was very interested in the rhetoric that was going on. I study discourse analysis, so I was very interested in the discourse that was going on. I was also interested in protesting eventually, but at the beginning of the day I just waited in line and didn’t really talk to any of the protesters. What was it like once you got inside? It was very violent. I was shocked. I was a punk rock kid, a metal kid, I’ve been to a lot of crazy events, but I’ve never scene a scenario where more fistfights broke out inside of a venue. From what I could tell, there were probably just as many protesters as there were Trump supporters, or even more protesters than supporters. As far as physical description, it was generally white men or entire families. I didn’t really get the chance to talk to too many people, unfortunately.
2016-03-22 19:23 Michael Garofalo salon.com.feedsportal.com
46 Can an inquiry into secrets ever be public? Whatever you may read elsewhere, don't believe for a moment that police and spooks freely give away secrets. If they did, by definition, they wouldn't be secret. That is the price an otherwise open society pays if it wants agencies involved in secret activity to protect the public. And that's also the great big problem on the desk this morning of Lord Justice Pitchford, the chair of the forthcoming public inquiry into undercover policing. Tuesday sees the start of two days of legal arguments over what M'Lud should disclose about the allegations that undercover police were involved in clandestine relationships, stealing the names of dead children and downright dodginess up to and including spying on Stephen Lawrence's family. He says he wants it to be as open as possible. But can his inquiry ever tell the public the full truth? And if not, how much secrecy is too much secrecy? The core participants to the inquiry, such as the women who unwittingly entered into relationships with undercover officers, say there must be transparency. Undercover officers and their operations going back 40 years must be examined. Names must be named. If the inquiry fails to do so, how can it discover the full extent of potential wrongdoing? Secrecy, they predict, will be used to hide the truth, avoid embarrassment and escape public accountability. Most of the UK's major news organisations, including the BBC, are also arguing for as much openness as possible. Undercover policing inquiry: Why it matters The Metropolitan Police thinks differently. The force wants the inquiry to hear most of the detail behind closed doors. Lord Justice Pitchford will see and hear the evidence - but the complainants and public would not. "In the overwhelming majority of instances the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) will be submitting that considerations of fairness and the public interest come down in favour of not disclosing the fact of or details of an undercover police deployment including, but not limited to, the identity of undercover police officer," it says in its published arguments . The force has already accepted the women in relationships suffered an abuse of police power which was "abusive, deceitful, manipulative and wrong". So how can it now be asking for the "overwhelming majority" of what it has to say about undercover work to be heard in secret? Police chiefs say that officers who go undercover don't expect their employer to later put their names in the public domain. They have a legal duty of care towards their officers. Exposing their true identities would also expose them to personal risk. But Peter Francis, the former SDS officer turned whistleblower, says that if the Met wants anonymity for his former colleagues, then it needs to provide evidence of the risks they face. He stresses in his submission that he was never promised "lifelong" confidentiality when he went undercover and does not seek it now. "He was unaware of the concept of NCND during the course of his employment," say his lawyers. What's NCND? That's Neither Confirm Nor Deny. And this very spooky acronym is the real game afoot. With apologies to scientists, NCND is to security operations what Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle is to physics. Both are about the inability to know for sure what exactly is going on. When you look at a page of censored text, you have no idea what's underneath the thick black stripes. You may guess, but you have no idea at all. Has MI5 infiltrated X or Y extremist cell? Not telling. Are undercover police hanging out with anarchists planning a violent demonstration Nope, still not telling. Has some undercover operative broken the law... maybe by inciting otherwise law-abiding environmental protesters to cut their way into a power station. Not telling... The Home Office, which ordered the inquiry, and the Cabinet Office argue the inquiry must protect NCND because its power lies not in denying the existence of operations - but consistently, absolutely consistently, refusing to give a hint one way or the other. That uncertainty is its strength. If government and its agencies can avoid commenting, it makes it jolly difficult to establish anything at all about secret operations - thereby keeping those that do exist secure. Critics of Neither Confirm Nor Deny say that it delivers neither truth nor justice - and there are precedents for eroding it. An important test case in the undercover affair, known as DIL, underlined existing law that there is a very strong public interest in protecting the anonymity of undercover officers. It added there are exceptions, including naming an officer so as to prevent a miscarriage of justice or where it's irrational to claim their identity has not been already established. The upshot was that the High Court confirmed the names of two SDS officers - Bob Lambert and Jim Sutton - but declined to name others. And, quite separately, the inquests into the 7/7 bombings opened up NCND in a different way when MI5 revealed some of what it knew about the bombers before they struck. Those disclosures were a very important acknowledgement by the state that transparency can trump NCND. But there are also examples where attempts to force facts into the open have failed. Five years ago, the government decided it would veto what could be published by a promised inquiry into allegations that British security agencies had got mixed up in rendition and torture following 9/11. A host of participants - complainants, campaign groups and lawyers - walked out. As legal rows grew and practical problems mounted, the inquiry looked as crippled as a racehorse that had fallen hard at the first fence. Eventually, the screens went up and the Detainee Inquiry was shot by the Whitehall vet. As Lord Justice Pitchford's inquiry enters the starting gate for the 10.30 at the Royal Courts of Justice, that is the fate he will wish to avoid.
2016-03-23 01:22 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
47 Wanted — employability skills: We’re not preparing kids for work, and none of the candidates are talking about it Topics: Work , Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act , WIOA , Elections 2016 , Innovation News , Elections News , Business News , Politics News It has long been understood that structural unemployment is a source of community decline. “A neighborhood in which people are poor but employed,” the American sociologist William Julius Wilson has written, “is different from a neighborhood in which people are poor and jobless.” Yet while the federal government has made substantial investments in communities, especially affluent ones, through infrastructure, tax and housing incentives, there is little consensus on what policy creates more jobs for young Americans seeking employment: one that provides them jobs or one that prepares them for jobs. By blaming U. S. trade policy as a culprit for America’s uneven economic recovery, it appears presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have tapped into a certain insecurity among voters. Both Sanders and Trump have been critical of free trade agreements and made similar promises that if elected president they will bring jobs back to America. But regardless of what you think about the North American Free Trade Agreement or the Trans- Pacific Partnership, neither accord is a strategy for increasing employability skills of youth – the next generation of America’s workforce. To be sure, economic inequality is the defining challenge of our time. The mismatch between skilled job opportunities and well-educated and prepared job applications has caught the attention of elected officials across the country. In 2014, President Obama signed the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) into law, the first major reform of the public workforce system in the past two decades, and last year the Obama administration launched Tech Hire , a multi-sector initiative that aspires to connect people who want opportunity to employers who need talent. Yet despite these efforts, other local initiatives and a declining unemployment rate, youth participation in the labor market is barely increasing. As a result, youth are missing out on certain skills and experiences that have emerged as indispensable for success in the workforce. Skills have become the global currency of 21 st century economies, but opportunities for youth to demonstrate what they can produce in classrooms are occurring less frequently. Indeed, for all the hand-wringing around increasing inequality, chronic disengagement at the secondary level poses significant challenges in improving economic outcomes for youth. Left alone to find value in classroom experiences diluted by constant testing from federal and state accountability provisions, high school students are especially at risk from becoming chronically disengaged. And if these students find school irrelevant, they can make short-term decisions without understanding the full scope of long-term opportunities they forgo. Today’s schooling experience is not set up to prepare young people for work. The jobs of tomorrow require different skills than the cookie-cutter proficiency labels our education system prescribes for young people. Rote memorization is less important than critical thinking in today’s economy. Creative problem solvers have rendered assembly-line workers obsolete. And the proliferation of start-ups and initial public offerings, and the ease of developing products in today’s economy, has only hardened the belief among young Americans that what you know matters less than what you can do. A report issued by Pew in 2014 found that only 46 percent of employed millennials believe their education was very useful in preparing them for a job or career. As a result of this type of disengagement, there are now 5.5 million opportunity youth in this country – young people who have become disconnected from education or career opportunities. But if Hillary Clinton, John Kasich and Ted Cruz have been running across the country articulating policies that would expose more youth to new working environments and skills that have real currency in today’s labor market, that message has failed to cut through the demagogic rhetoric consuming this election. Perhaps presidential candidates hesitate to promote investments in youth because those investments are likely to reap more long-term than immediate returns. Up until now, the most noteworthy mention of the need to expand vocational training came from former presidential contender Marco Rubio who courageously, if not correctly, spoke about the need for more welders and less philosophers in our economy. The remaining candidates miss an opportunity to influence job creators by not talking about how investments in youth would lead to eventual employer benefits such as decreased turnover costs, more diversity among staff, and increased employee engagement and motivation. Moreover, candidates also miss an opportunity to articulate that it’s not just youth who stand to lose from being out of work but also businesses who miss out on potential opportunities to increase productivity and gain competitive advantages.
2016-03-22 19:23 Jonathan Hasak salon.com.feedsportal.com
48 Ted Cruz isn’t about to let the Brussels terror attack go to waste — he will tweet America’s way to safety Topics: Ted Cruz , isis , Belgium , Brussels , Terrorism , Elections 2016 , 2016 GOP primary , Twitter , Elections News , News , Politics News Texas Senator and Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz reacted, at first, as most did upon learning about the coordinated terror attacks in Brussels this morning: Of course, if one follows the link to the Facebook post, it quickly becomes apparent that these terrorist attacks merely afford the candidate the opportunity to discuss his favorite subject — himself — which he also makes plain in his later tweets:
2016-03-22 19:23 Scott Eric salon.com.feedsportal.com
49 China's challenges: A bumpy road ahead "Slow growth equals stagnation," China's past leader Deng Xiaoping is quoted as saying. "If our economy stagnates or develops only slowly, the people will make comparisons and ask why. " That statement was remarkably prescient. China's current economic problems are almost certainly at the top of its leaders minds as they gather in Boao this week. It is an annual meeting of the who's who in China's political and economic circles, and most years it has been an opportunity to take in the balmy Hainan breeze, an escape from the end of the brutal Beijing winter. But this year there is a distinct chill in the air - if not in temperature, then certainly in the hallways of the hotel and the conference rooms. China's leaders are meeting against the backdrop of slower growth and the possibility of massive job losses. Beijing says it can manage this transition, and that it is all part of the plan - moving as it is from Old China, to New China - from manufacturing, to services. But just how much of a price will China's workers pay? I travelled to Southern China to find out and met one company that is the poster child of New China: Alpha Entertainment. It is China's biggest kids entertainment firm, with a market cap of almost $5bn. It creates cartoon characters that are now household names in the country, and wants to be Asia's Disney. It's not just cartoons that Alpha makes. The firm also has cafes, restaurants and is also planning to open a theme park. As he showed me around his character based café, Alpha's President Cai Xiadong told me that he is trying to cater to China's new middle classes. "We saw that America has Mickey Mouse, and that Japan has Ultraman," he said. " So I believe that China will also have its own brand ambassador for our people. To create that brand is our dream and that dream has pushed us forward to keep inventing and keep innovating. " Alpha's animation offices in Guangzhou are ultra high tech and a brand new Silicon Valley type complex is underway. But the firm had humble beginnings, on the factory floor. That's where the three brothers who run Alpha Entertainment first made their fortune, mirroring China's economic miracle over the last few decades. I travelled to Alpha's factory in Shantou, five hours outside of Guangzhou to see where it all started. Dozens of young men and women in bright red jackets - Alpha's trademark uniform - file in to the factory in neat lines, shuffling to their desks. For eight hours a day they sit assembling coloured plastic parts in toys that are sold in China and the rest of the world. This is how China got rich - selling stuff to the rest of the world. But this country is now going through a transition, from the factory floors to the offices. It is a painful transition but one the government says must take place in order for China to keep growing. Mr Cai says he realised that if he didn't keep moving with the way China's economy was changing, his business would be left behind: "Today in China, we are seeing a structural reform in business. "There are those who will see the opportunity to develop, but for those who can't adapt they'll have to shut down. " It's already happening - China's ailing state run firms are being pressured to close, which could lead to massive job losses. But it's a challenge Beijing says it can manage. At the recent party congress China's leaders said ten million new jobs would be created this year - despite slower economic growth. But some say this is far too optimistic a view. "It's not going to be easy," Rob Subbaraman, Chief Economist at Nomura told me. "Like any developing economy China has to move out of the low end inefficient industries and higher up the value chain. In the labour intensive manufacturing sector there will be a lot of restructuring. " That's a fancy term for job losses, something that's likely to weigh on the minds of many workers in factories across the country. Back on Alpha's factory floor, the young men and women finish their tasks, and start packing up. Another day, another shift ends. Factory life has given millions of workers a shot at the Chinese dream. As China makes this transition, some will adapt. But many more will struggle to find a place for themselves in the New China.
2016-03-23 01:22 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
50 Tory MP Jake Berry calls for new criminal offence of breast ironing The government has been urged to introduce a new criminal offence of breast ironing in the UK to protect young girls from the abuse. The practice involves using hot objects to pound and massage girls' breasts to try to stunt their growth in the belief it makes them less sexually attractive. MP Jake Berry said about 1,000 girls in the UK were thought to be affected by the "abhorrent practice". The government said police could charge culprits with a range of offences. Home Office minister Karen Bradley said the government was "absolutely committed" to putting a stop to the practice. But she admitted "certain professionals" still felt reticent about tackling such practices because of "cultural sensitivities" - and said they needed to be given the confidence to take action. Opening the debate in the Commons, Mr Berry said breast ironing was believed to have originated in Cameroon but cases had also been found in Nigeria, Benin, Chad "and Birmingham and London". He said it was "hard to prove its extent or prevalence in the UK" because, like female genital mutilation (FGM), the fact the practice "most often carried out by a family member" meant it was "hidden". According to a UN report, 58% of perpetrators were the victims' own mothers. The MP for Rossendale and Darwen said girls as young as 10 were subjected to "unimaginable pain and suffering" and exposed to potential health problems including cancer, infection and cysts. "Hot stones, hammers and spatulas are used twice a day for several weeks or months to stop or delay and in some cases permanently destroy the natural development of the breast," he said. Culture, tradition and religion were often used to justify the practice, Mr Berry said, adding: "But just as in the case of FGM these words are a thinly veiled excuse for a ritualised form of child abuse. " It had "no place in any society", he said. Mr Berry said 15% of UK police forces had no awareness of breast ironing and 23% of local children's services were not trained to deal with it, with 65% saying they would welcome more guidance. "If we fail to let them have the tools they require to identify and understand the victims of this crime, we will never be able to tackle it," he told the Commons. "My understanding is that there is currently no stand-alone crime of breast ironing in the UK, with police and prosecutors relying on the existing pool of criminal offences available to them. "Just like with FGM, this... is not an adequate protection for young women and girls in our country," the MP added. Home Office minister Karen Bradley said there was a range of offences available to the police to tackle the crime including common assault, child cruelty and grievous bodily harm. "What we're talking about is child abuse, it is illegal, it is a crime, it is not acceptable. "I want to assure the House that the government fully understands this and is absolutely committed to putting a stop to it," she said. Pressed over the role of schools in tackling such harmful practices, the minister said "there are certain professionals who may feel reticent about this". She added: "They may feel that somehow there are cultural sensitivities, there are political reasons why they shouldn't go there. "This is simply not the case and we need to give those professionals the confidence to know that this is something that they should be looking for, that they know what the signs are and that they take action because that is what we all need to do. "
2016-03-23 01:22 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
51 “I would do a lot more than waterboarding”: Watch all the despicable right-wing responses to Brussels attacks Topics: Elections 2016 , Brussels attacks , Barack Obama , original video , Innovation News , Elections News , Social News , Technology News , Media News , Business News , Life News , News , Politics News The right-wing response to the attacks in Brussels included a call to close the border and a general disgust for Obama’s leadership. Watch our video for more.
2016-03-23 02:18 Katie Levingston salon.com.feedsportal.com
52 Unlike GOP counterparts, Hillary Clinton refuses to speculate about who is responsible for Brussels attacks, sympathizes with victims of them instead Topics: Hillary Clinton , Brussels , Belgium , Elections 2016 , Video , NBC , today , Terrorism , Elections News , Media News , News , Politics News Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called into Today and spoke with Savannah Guthrie and Matt Lauer about the terror attacks in Brussels today. She acknowledged that the attacks appeared to be coordinated, but unlike her Republican counterparts, refused to speculate as the motivations of those who carried them out. In fact, she went so far as to say that while they are “deeply distressing,” it’s “unrealistic to say we’re going to completely shut down our borders to everyone — that would stop commerce, for example, and that’s not in anybody’s interest.” “We’ve got to stand in solidarity with our European allies, who have stood with us,” and reiterated the need to be able to track shipments of “powerful explosives” and other weapons that can be used in terrorist attacks.
2016-03-22 19:23 Scott Eric salon.com.feedsportal.com
53 “He is already a winner”: Why Paul Krugman’s attacks on Bernie Sanders miss the mark Topics: Paul Krugman , Bernie Sanders , Elections 2016 , Hillary Clinton , Michael Wolraich , Elections News , Media News , News , Politics News Now that the outcome of the primary seems considerably less up in the air than it did a month ago, the fight Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign inspired between the Democratic Party’s self-styled populists and its wonks — Paul Krugman chief among them — has lost much of its urgency. But that’s something of a mirage. Regardless of who wins this year’s primary (or the whole presidential campaign itself, for that matter) the fault lines within the Democratic coalition that were exposed during the back-and-forth are not going anywhere. And there’s little reason to suspect that when 2020 (or 2024) rolls around, the same disagreements over tactics and philosophy won’t rise up again. So enduring is the tension between incrementalist-elites and populist-revolutionaries, in fact, that one can see the reflection of the Clinton/Sanders split in U. S. politics as far back as the beginning of the 20th century. No one was feeling the Bern in the early 1900s, it’s true; but much like today, the reform-minded did not only argue about what to do but how to do it. And sometimes it was those latter arguments that proved most important. With that in mind, Salon decided recently to contact Michael Wolraich, the journalist and author whose celebrated 2014 book, “ Unreasonable Men: Theodore Roosevelt and the Republican Rebels Who Created Progressive Politics ,” offers those with a passion for history a new way to understand the intra-left squabbles of the here and now. This interview was conducted via email and has been edited. Assuming he ends up losing, which seems likely, has Sen. Sanders run the kind of losing campaign that is ultimately seen as victorious in a larger sense? Or is it too soon to tell? The media tends to measure “winners” and “losers” by election results, but to understand the significance of Sanders’ campaign, we need to shake this horserace mentality. When Sanders talks about a building a movement, he doesn’t mean boosting voter turnout the way Obama did in 2008. Election year turnout isn’t a movement; it’s a spasm. Real political movements develop over years, even decades. And when you build a movement, losing elections is part of the process. Did the first progressives go through a period of frequently losing before they started to win? The pioneers of the original progressive movement lost plenty of elections. After losing two back-to-back gubernatorial elections in the 1890s, “Fighting Bob” La Follette presciently declared, “Temporary defeat often results in a more decided and lasting victory than one which is too easily achieved.” He finally won his third election and turned Wisconsin into a model of progressive reform that inspired the nation. If Sanders loses this race, he may be too old to run for president again, but his campaign has inspired young voters and blazed a trail for future progressive candidates. In that sense, he is already a winner. Sanders gets criticized sometimes for not having much backing from the intellectual and policy elite. Was that true of populist politicians during the Progressive Era, too? It was far worse. Establishment politicians and journalists vilified and ridiculed progressive insurgents from both parties. In the early days of the progressive movement, even moderate reformers, like Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, derided the insurgents. Roosevelt called La Follette “a shifty self-seeker,” and Wilson threatened to “knock [William Jennings] Bryan into a cocked hat!” But a few years later, both Roosevelt and Wilson joined the movement, embracing the policies and tactics of the “radicals” they had previously denounced. When you read testimonies from passionate Sanders supporters — especially from young people — do they sound at all like the “awakening” people described going through during the progressive era? If not, why not? I don’t think the young need to be awakened. They were never asleep. The movement will be mature when cynical old centrists “wake up.” Consider Woodrow Wilson, one of the most effective progressive reformers in history. He was a stodgy conservative until he converted to progressivism in 1910. In his inaugural address, he reflected on the awakening that he and other Americans experienced in the early 20th century:
2016-03-22 19:23 Elias Isquith salon.com.feedsportal.com
54 Michael Jackson's Career Earnings, 1979-2009 - In Photos: Michael Jackson’s Career Earnings, Year-By-Year Michael Jackson helped create a fundamental shift in the monetization of fame, and that’s the notion at the core of Michael Jackson, Inc , the first business-focused biography of the King of Pop. He earned an estimated $1.1 billion during his adult solo career—nearly $2 billion when adjusting for inflation. Read on for the year-by- year breakdown, excerpted from the book.
2016-03-22 19:22 Zack O www.forbes.com
55 55 Donald Trump, sexist bully: Calling a female journalist “beautiful” at an interview isn’t a compliment
Topics: Donald Trump , Washington Post , 2016 Elections , Sexism , Elections News , Media News , Life News I know it’s hard to keep up with all the different manifestations of Donald Trump’s terribleness — especially in a week when he’s got a massive tragedy in Brussels to sputter incoherently about. But let’s take a moment anyway for an object lesson from a master in condescension and both casual and overt sexism in how not to talk to women. On Monday, Trump met with the the Washington Post’s editorial board for a conversation that was as pointless, rambling and flat out weird as one would expect. It should have been a clue that Trump’s mind was beginning to wander when he responded to publisher Fred Ryan’s remark, “This is about ISIS. You would not use a tactical nuclear weapon against ISIS?” with the totally normal and helpful answer, “I’ll tell you one thing, this is a very good looking group of people here. Could I just go around so I know who the hell I’m talking to?” Then, as deputy digital editor Karen Attiah revealed Monday evening, things were winding down when she tried to press Trump on matters of racial inclusion. Attiah is a Ghanaian-American journalist, a Fulbright Scholar with a master’s in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Trump, who claims to get along famously with “the blacks,” is a man who’s won the support of former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke. So Trump informed Attiah that “If you look at some polls that have come out, I’m doing very well with African Americans. I’m doing, actually if you look at the polls, a lot of the polls that came out, in the, um, what do they call it? Exit polls, like from Nevada and other places, I’m doing very well with Hispanics.” When Attiah challenged that “Some of the polls are saying you’re doing [in the] negatives,” Trump volleyed back, “We do, if it’s illegals.” He then added that “With the Muslim thing I think it’s a serious problem. I’ve had Muslims call and tell me you’re right with the Muslim thing.” Really, he just never stops with the charm. Then, Attiah says, as they were leaving, “I thanked Trump for taking my question. He turned to me and said, ‘I really hope I answered your question,’ and added casually with a smile, ‘Beautiful.’ I was stunned…. I stayed in the conference room for a few minutes as it sunk in that the potential GOP nominee for president thought it was okay to comment on my appearance. Did he just say that?”
2016-03-23 02:09 Mary Elizabeth salon.com.feedsportal.com
56 FBI 'may be able to unlock San Bernardino iPhone' The FBI says it may have found a way to unlock the San Bernardino attacker's iPhone without Apple's assistance. A court hearing with Apple scheduled for Tuesday has been postponed at the request of the US Justice Department (DOJ), Apple has confirmed. The DOJ had ordered Apple to help unlock the phone used by San Bernardino gunman Rizwan Farook. But Apple has continued to fight the order, saying it would set a "dangerous precedent". Rizwan Farook and his wife killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, last December before police fatally shot them. UN human rights chief backs Apple Apple boss hits back at FBI conduct McAfee offers to unlock iPhone for FBI Ever since this issue arose, security experts have been saying "surely the FBI can do this themselves? " Well, maybe now they can. An "outside party" - you'd assume a security company, but we don't know for sure - has approached the FBI and said it could unlock the phone. If they can do it, the court case is irrelevant. The FBI gets what they need. But if it doesn't work, we'll find ourselves back here to resume the trial. Apple's legal team told reporters it wasn't treating it as a legal victory. The issue still looms large over the company. If the FBI has found a way, who's to say it'll always work? Apple will, as any software maker would, frantically try and fix the flaw. After all - if the FBI can do it, so can any other hacker privy to the same information. If this method works, then what? With each new iteration of iOS, Apple could find itself back in court. The technology industry, led by Apple, has called for the matter to be debated in Congress. This case may be on the brink of going away, but the debate is just starting. Read more from Dave Prosecutors said "an outside party" had demonstrated a possible way of unlocking the iPhone without the need to seek Apple's help. "Testing is required to determine whether it is a viable method that will not compromise data on Farook's iPhone," a court filing said. "If the method is viable, it should eliminate the need for the assistance from Apple. " DOJ spokeswoman Melanie Newman said in a statement that the government was "cautiously optimistic" that the possible method to unlock the phone would work. The government said it would update the court on 5 April. Attorneys for Apple told reporters that the firm had no idea what method the FBI was exploring to try to unlock the phone. They said they hoped that the government would share with Apple any vulnerabilities of the iPhone that might come to light. The FBI says Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik were inspired by so-called Islamic State and that the encrypted iPhone may contain crucial evidence. It wants to access the data but the device can only be unlocked by entering the correct passcode. Guessing the code incorrectly too many times could permanently delete all data on the phone, so the FBI had asked Apple to develop a new version of its operating system that circumvents some of its security features. Last month the DOJ obtained a court order directing Apple to create that software, But Apple has fought back, stating that creating a compromised version of the operating system would have security implications for millions of iPhone users and would set a precedent. The company has received support from other tech giants including, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, as it resisted a court order to unlock the iPhone.
2016-03-23 01:24 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
57 Ford took Indiana role to work with Spielberg again Harrison Ford has said he did not want to star in a new Indiana Jones film without director Steven Spielberg. The actor is due to star in a fifth Indiana Jones film, which will be released in 2019. Ford told the BBC: "I've always thought there was an opportunity to do another. But I didn't want to do it without Steven [Spielberg]. "And I didn't want to do it without a really good script. And happily we're working on both. "Steven is developing a script now that I think we're going to be very happy with," he said of Spielberg, who is directing the film. Spielberg directed the four previous Indiana Jones films, which were all produced by Star Wars creator George Lucas. Ford first appeared as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, released in 1981. He then starred in three subsequent films, most recently in 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Ford was speaking to the BBC ahead of the DVD release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the film in which he reprised his role as Han Solo. When asked whether Han Solo, who is killed in the film, could return in some form to future movies in the franchise, Ford replied: "Anything is possible in space. "I wanted Han Solo to sacrifice himself for the good of the other characters to bring some gravitas to the story. " Speaking about his involvement in the film, Ford said: "I was very pleased to have the opportunity to work with the other characters, to work on a script that I had real confidence in, with actors that were a dream to work with, with a director that had a very sure and generous hand, and it was altogether a pleasure. " But Ford said he does not feel an emotional connection to the characters he plays. "I hope I bring an emotional understanding of the characters and something the audience will recognise," he said. "I want the audience to experience the character, not to feel that they know him but to be involved in seeing what happens to him. " Star Wars: The Force Awakens became the UK's biggest film of 2015 after just 16 days of release, with takings of £94.06m.
2016-03-23 01:24 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
58 Rate of carbon emissions put in context We are now putting carbon into the atmosphere at a rate unprecedented since at least the age of the dinosaurs, scientists say. The researchers have examined ocean sediments laid down during the so-called Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum - a dramatic warming event some 56 million years ago. They find the amount of CO2 going into the air at its onset was four billion tonnes a year at most. Today's figure is 10 times as big. The work is published in the journal Nature Geoscience . The PETM has been extensively studied by scientists because it is regarded as a possible "analogue" for what is happening on Earth now. But the team argues that the scale of human-produced carbon emissions means that the lessons we could learn from the ancient event may actually have limited relevance. "We have effectively entered an era of a no-analogue state, which represents a fundamental challenge to constraining future climate projections," they write in their paper. The PETM was an extraordinary occurrence in Earth history. Previous research has shown that ocean surface temperatures rose by about five degrees in a relatively short timescale, in the geological sense. This phase of global warming drove a rapid turnover in species, both in the sea and on land. CO2 concentration in the atmosphere very probably went above 1,000 parts per million by volume, compared with the 400ppm it stands at today. The big pulse in emissions has been attributed to a range of factors, including a comet impact and prodigious volcanism. Some scientists suspect buried methane stores on the ocean floor were also released, amplifying the warming. In their paper, Richard Zeebe and colleagues do not concern themselves with the cause; what they wanted to pin down was simply the rate of emissions. The team achieved this by studying the remains of tiny marine organisms from the PETM known as Foraminifera. The different types, or isotopes, of carbon and oxygen atoms in these fossils can be used to reconstruct likely CO2 levels and temperature 56 million years ago. Analysis of this chemistry, together with some modelling work, suggests that temperature during the PETM rose in lock-step with carbon emissions. Contrast this with the modern era where carbon emissions are rising so fast the "equilibrium temperature" lags behind. Zeebe and colleagues calculate that it took at least 4,000 years for the PETM warming to take hold, with carbon going into the atmosphere at a rate of between 0.6 to 1.1 billion tonnes of carbon per annum. At present, human emissions of CO2 are approaching 40 billion tonnes a year. "If you go back to the [impactor] that killed off the dinosaurs (66 million years ago) - that was obviously an incredibly quick climate change," observed co-author Andy Ridgwell from Bristol University, UK. "It wasn't driven by carbon emissions per se, but it was still an incredibly quick climate change. And so there has been a lot of searching around for what was the next most rapid event, and people have latched on to the PETM because it has all the characteristics of current warming and anthropogenic emissions - except it turns out the emissions in the PETM were actually an order of magnitude slower than they are today," he told BBC News. Just how fast the planet might warm over the next two centuries is a topic of live debate because this likely be a big factor in how well species are able to adapt to changing conditions. "The rate of change is as important as the magnitude of an event for determining particularly terrestrial ecosystem disruptions," Prof Ridgwell said. Jonathan. [email protected] and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos
2016-03-23 01:45 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
59 Heroin Triangle The Triangle Investigation Episode 5: "If they're alive, there's hope. " Inside the Triangle Part 4 (revised): Please Understand Inside the Triangle Part 3: "We all make mistakes. " Inside the Triangle Part 2 (revised): "What do you all put in the water? " Inside the Triangle Part 1: "We've uncovered something. " Updated 2:35 PM. GMT Producer of "The Triangle" appears on... Obama to speak about heroin in Atlanta Inside the Triangle 40th death identified 'Inside the... Watch | All 4 episodes of "Inside the... Inside the Triangle | Watch the... Bobbi Kristina's connection to The... Triangle 31 hour ago 7:58 p.m. The Triangle Investigation Episode 5: "If they're alive, there's hope. " Inside the Triangle Part 4 (revised): Please Understand Inside the Triangle Part 3: "We all make mistakes. " Inside the Triangle Part 2 (revised): "What do you all put in the water? " Inside the Triangle Part 1: "We've uncovered something. " The Triangle: All 5 episodes Local 430 hour ago 4:29 a.m. UPDATE: Man featured in 'The Triangle' investigation arrested News 540 hour ago 2:49 p.m. BLOG | How we ended up in the wealthy suburbs News 620 hour ago 7:06 a.m. Recovery & Prevention Guide News 632 hour ago 6:46 p.m. Fight the stigma, share your story News 582 hour ago 9:15 p.m. What is "the triangle"? News 445 hour ago 2:17 p.m. Producer of "The Triangle" appears on The Bert Show Inside "The Triangle" Q & A Sheriff talks about heroin problem outside the Triangle Downtown 6 hour ago 8:40 p.m. President Obama to speak about heroin abuse in Atlanta next week News 13 hour ago 2:02 p.m. Inside the Triangle | The Full Investigation Zack Elliott | 'There's nothing like losing a child' Local 432 hour ago 2:47 a.m. 40th death identified 'Inside the Triangle' News 513 hour ago 5:49 p.m. Watch | All 4 episodes of "Inside the Triangle"
2016-03-23 03:53 TEGNA rssfeeds.11alive.com
60 11 New Restaurants for You to Try Right Now Type of cuisine: Sushi Open since: March 15 The second location of Silver Rice , the popular Crown Heights-based sushi shop known for their deconstructed “sushi cups,” has opened on Flatbush Avenue in Crown Heights. The new shop is open for dinner most nights, usually from about 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. Check their Facebook page for updates. Type of cuisine: Sushi/Japanese Open since: March 1 This new sushi bar on Vernon Boulevard offering sashimi and hand rolls is earning rave reviews on Yelp , where customers have described it as “really as good as it gets” and “literally the best sushi in the neighborhood.” While not inexpensive, reviewers say the pricey bill is worth it: “It is expensive, but sitting at the bar is such a fantastic, transportive [sic] evening,” one diner wrote. Type of cuisine : Bakery and cafe Open since: February 23 Russ & Daughters, a Lower East Side staple, is now serving its popular kosher bialys, smoked fish, bagels and soups at the Jewish Museum. Diners can eat in or take food to go from the new cafe, which is on the museum’s lower level. Type of cuisine: Italian from the island of Capri Open since: March 19 With a star chef from Italy and a sommelier from the island of Capri, Capri Ristorante is about an authentic as it gets. The seafood-driven menu will offer a rotating catch of the day, delivered fresh every morning. Pasta dishes and veal and chicken parm are also on deck for non-seafood eaters. Type of cuisine: Chinese/Latin fusion Open since: Late February Try this new no-frills eatery that features a blend of Latin and Chinese cuisines with dishes like tostones with garlic vinaigrette, General Tso’s Chicken, broccoli and fried rice. Type of cuisine: Bakery, coffee and chocolates Open since: March 18 Cookies, biscotti fruit tarts and handmade pastries are just a few of the delicious, chocolate things Uptown residents Jemal Edwards and Brad Doles are serving up at their new bakery in Inwood. Type of cuisine: Japanese Open since: Mid-March With a chef who’s been described as a “third generation soba master,” Yama-Ichi serves an “expansive” menu that includes seafood-based appetizers, soba, udon, and a selection of sushi and sashimi, all washed down with sakes and whiskies. Type of cuisine: Soul food and Caribbean Open since: March 15 This new soul food spot features Southern favorites like crispy fried chicken and jerk chicken as well as vegetables like candied yams and collard greens. They’re also serving up classic desserts like peach cobbler and strawberries and cream. Type of cuisine: Gluten-free Healthy lunch options can be hard to come by in Midtown, so chow down on a salad “100% guiltin’ free” at this gluten free eatery . Type of cuisine: Thai Get your curry fix at the newest Thai spot on the Bed-Stuy and Clinton Hill border. Appetizers include shumai, chicken curry puffs, and mango chicken salad, and main courses serve up tilapia with oyster sauce, tofu, and more, with most dishes under $10. Type of cuisine: Gourmet coffee, pastries Open since: March 22 The specialty coffee shop, known for its own roasts of coffee beans, opened its latest city location at the base of the soaring Gehry Building.
2016-03-23 00:21 www.dnainfo.com
61 West Yorkshire family fear Iraq suicide bomber was son A British family fear a suicide bomber responsible for an attack in Iraq on Monday was their missing son. The attack on Iraqi forces was said to have been carried out by a militant named as "Abu Musa al- Britani". The Awan family, from Huddersfield, claim a photograph of al-Britani, released by the so- called Islamic State (IS) group, was Mohammed Rizwan Awan. IS claim that 30 people died in the attack, a figure denied by the Iraqi military. Awan, 27, is understood to have attacked the convoy after it had left Ain al-Assad military air base and was heading towards Kubaysah in the north-west of Anbar province. The Iraqi authorities said only the bomber was killed. According to BBC Look North's community correspondent Sabbiyah Perrvez, who spoke to Awan's family, they recognised the photograph instantly and said they "knew in their hearts" it was him. He had left the UK in 2015 ostensibly to visit Mecca, but his family have not heard from him since. Letters found at his home said he did not plan to return to the UK and intended to settle in Saudi Arabia, the family said. His identity has not been confirmed by the British Government or Iraqi officials. If al-Britani is confirmed to be Awan, he will be the latest suicide bomber to have come from West Yorkshire. In 2015, Talha Asmal, 17, from Dewsbury, was one of four suicide bombers who carried out attacks near an oil refinery south of Baiji in Iraq. All four of the men who carried out the 7 July bombings in London also had connections to the region.
2016-03-22 22:52 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
62 Cruzfools! Contact WND Ted Cruz, the Canadian globalist, is a FRAUD! He truly is a tea party plant for the New World Order. I hear Cruzfool after Cruzfool tell me he’s the “constitutionalist,” but he’s hiding behind that to bring forth the North American Union. It’s the Cruzfools that are low-info voters. Cruz is no outsider; he is just a sneaky lawyer politician. Whoever listens to Rush, Levin and Beck should be barred from bashing Trump. #GoTrump #NeverCruz Marissa Leone Dreams from my fathers Contact WND wnd.com
'Shocking' unpreparedness by Belgians Contact WND wnd.com Libs' psychotic dreamworld Contact WND wnd.com 2016-03-23 02:20 www.wnd.com
63 The World Says Goodbye to One of its Greats – David Bowie David Bowie passed away today at age 69. The legend has left behind his newest and last release “Blackstar”. Speculation has it, “Lazarus” is the story of his end. Released Friday January, 8 2016, his 69th birthday, tells a chilling tale that only David Bowie himself knows the true meaning of. Bowie appearing as a tattered ailing, and blinded man, combines his talents for the last time, and a final gift to the universe. David Robert Jones, known professionally as David Bowie, was an English singer, songwriter, multi- instrumentalist, record producer, arranger, painter and actor. Rest in Peace, David Bowie you will always be missed but, never forgotten.
2016-03-23 00:17 WNV Headline worldnewsvine.com
64 Hours after Brussels, Obama jokes at Cuban ballgame Contact WND (BUSINESSINSIDER) — US President Barack Obama gave a somewhat surreal interview on ESPN Tuesday at an exhibition baseball game played between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national team. During the lengthy interview, Obama discussed the Brussels attacks earlier in the day, human rights in Cuba, and the stress of throwing out a first pitch as he was split-screened with the game. On Brussels, he reiterated his earlier point that the world “has to unite” against terrorism. At least 34 people were killed in the early-morning attacks. What do YOU think? What should be the U. S. response to ISIS’ latest attacks? Sound off in today’s WND poll!
Europe's fear of 'Islamophobia' led to Brussels attack Contact WND wnd.com
Brussels ad laughed off Islamic terror 2 months ago Contact WND wnd.com Bill's broadside against Obama confuses left Contact WND wnd.com
Obama condemns 'outrageous attacks' in Brussels Contact WND wnd.com 2016-03-23 02:19 www.wnd.com
65 Banned From Amazon for Returning 37 Things (Newser) – Returned a few purchases on Amazon? Then take note of Greg Nelson, a computer programmer who saw his account canceled after he returned 37 of 343 items, the Guardian reports. "I could understand if there were evidence that I had somehow tried to abuse the system, but I haven't," says Nelson. He claims the returns were all justified, but Amazon UK simply axed his account and deleted any remaining gift card balance. Customers who lose their account also lose access to Amazon Prime streaming services and downloading on Kindle. "I find [Amazon's] actions in this situation totally egregious," adds Nelson, who questions whether the site can legally swipe a customer's unspent balance. Questioned by the Guardian , an Amazon spokesman said that "in a tiny fraction of cases we are forced to close accounts where we identify extreme account abuse. " So what constitutes extreme? Amazon UK allows customers to return items within 30 days but refuses to say how many returns are too many. Tech Walls advises customers to keep return rates at under 10%—a threshold that may explain Nelson's canceled account and those of two others (described in this tweet and this posting on Amazon ). "Making a new Amazon customer account, however, remains a simple task," says Inquisitr. "A lot of individuals will just use a spouse or family member’s account after their account is closed. " (In other Amazon news, read about the company's unusual tactic for curbing warehouse theft.)
2016-03-23 00:18 Neal Colgrass rssfeeds.usatoday.com
66 Drowning in data? Start with shoe box prepping Contact WND The Mailbox This week’s mail maintains one of the themes from last week concerning the futility of prepping, to wit: “Millions will die from lack of water and food. The others who do survive will be murdered, raped and pillaged by their fellow Americans. It isn’t going to be the ‘Walking Dead,’ it’s going to be murder nation on planet Earth. …” This same poster suggests his arsenal will consist of only a gun and three bullets so that he can take out his family when it all hits the fan. Two thoughts: One, what an interesting survival strategy; and two, let’s hope you weren’t listening to a replay of Orson Wells’ “ War of the Worlds ” when you decide to go for it, or won’t you be embarrassed. Folks, I just finished attending an amazing seminar on threat assessment and local intelligence development. I was surrounded by a bunch of long-time serious prepper experts with years of police, military and governmental experience between them. The instructor, a guy with an impressive military intel background, took us through an exercise where we listed all of the potential disasters that we could imagine and plotted them against their likelihood of occurrence. We were all pretty amazed to discover that a lot of the popular “end of the world” scenarios were actually very unlikely when analyzed by a bunch of experts. I mean, we all recognized the various threats. But when you actually plot them out, it’s the regional and transient disasters that really demand the most planning. But “end of the world” prepping has become a big business. As one person said in a comment, “It’s all snake oil to make money off the panicked masses.” It didn’t used to be this way. Most of us old-timers began with the idea of simply being more self- sufficient and, since info on the subject was limited, we made do or did without. Today, however, the freshman prepper can type a few words on Google and immediately drown in the ocean of prepper data, opinion and products. As an example see this link from a respected company called Ready Nutrition. Now please understand Ready Nutrition is a great site. But when their top “Prepper 101” article titles include “How to retread your old shoes with a car tire,” – well, that’s a bit esoteric for the average person who just wants to be able to feed his family if the power goes out. And it’s that “lights out” condition that most freshman preppers should prepare for first. According to a Congressional research report , roughly 80 percent of all power outages are weather-related, and fully 95 percent of power outages nationwide are over within four hours or less. To be prepared for the remaining 5 percent (and other disasters of relatively short interval), FEMA recommends that every person keep a three-day (72 hour) supply supply of food and water. So where does the freshman prepper get this 72-hour kit? Once again, the internet can crush you with its bounty. Every self-sufficiency site out there seems to be selling a 72-hour kit. One gourmet kit (food only) costs about $50 per person and consists of freeze dried meals like Savory Stroganoff, Pasta Alfredo, and Veg Rotini, all packed in Mylar bags that require you to simply add water and heat (which you may not be able to do if the power is out). Let’s face it, in the kind of emergency situation that will reasonably be over in three days during which you don’t have to do anything but stay put, don’t waste your money. For one-third of the cost or less of these pricey pre-assembled units, you can put together a three-day kit that will be custom-tailored to your family’s food preferences (just in case Veg Rotini doesn’t tickle your palate) and can still be enjoyed even if you have no water nor any way to heat it. I call this the “Shoebox 72 hour emergency home kit” and it goes like this: To survive a three day in-house emergency, the average human requires only three things: To help with the visualization of the space needed for your three-day kit, I will use a highly scientific measurement of volume, the shoe box. The shoe box I used came with a pair of woman’s sneakers size 7 1/2 (352 cubic inches or 0.2 cubic feet). Your shoe box may vary. Water So let’s start with water. You should store some water. It doesn’t matter if you think your water supply is independent of the power supply. An earthquake can damage lines. A flood can contaminate water sources. A freeze can break pipes. You need to make sure you have water. So how much? To get an idea of how much water you need based on your circumstances, try this great plug-in website. To further save you the trouble, let’s figure the water needs for a family of four for three days. A 150-pound individual doing no more than 20 minutes of hard work in very cold conditions will need 0.65 gallons of water a day. A family of four, all weighing an average of 150 pounds, will need a total of 7.8 gallons for three days. A cubic foot of water is about 7.5 gallons, so using our volume measure you would need about five shoe boxes to store all the water a family of four would need in cold weather conditions. (Important safety tip: Do not store water in shoe boxes. Use previously acquired food-grade plastic containers with lids, such as used soda bottles. To each gallon of clean drinking water to be stored, add six drops of liquid household chlorine bleach that contains 5.25 percent sodium hypochlorite. Do not use bleach with soaps or scents added.) But what about a situation where the weather is very hot? Probably need a whole lot more water, right? Nope. How about 11 ounces more per person per day. Yes, really. The numbers go up with exercise, but if you are stuck somewhere for three days waiting for the power to come back on, you might as well chill anyway. Now, I could calculate it all out again but I hate numbers, so let’s splurge and have a water party! We’ll put aside 12 gallons of water or roughly 1.5 cubic feet of water. Just how big an volume is that? Now we’re up to 7.5 shoe boxes. Food Now on to the the food, the best part of the shoe box system. Daily caloric needs for men, women and children obviously differ. But as an approximation, the U. S. Department of Agriculture recommends men consume between 2,000 to 2,600 calories per day if they’re sedentary. So, since men need the greater number of calories, we will use 2300 calories per day for each of our four family members. So what does the beginning prepper store in his 72-hour food supply? Anything he wants … with certain provisos: So what magical food will fulfill these requirements? Plain old commercial canned food. A lot of people don’t realize that prepared commercial canned food is already cooked and can be eaten right out of the can. Sure, we all “cook” a can of soup again before we eat it, but it’s not actually necessary. So what types of canned foods does your family like? Chili con carne? Buy it up! Mini ravioli? Get a case! Chunky clam chowder? Chow down! The important thing here is what you’re willing to eat and how many calories it will provide. If you still have a means of heating it up, so much the better. But if not, so what? It’s food that comes with its own bowl. No dishes to wash. Now some may say, “Pat! What about nutrition?” And I say, “It’s three days. You can worry about eating healthy on the fourth.” However, do include some cans of fruits or vegetables. Not for nutritional reasons but for “regularity” issues – otherwise Day Three may be more of a trial then it should be. So how many shoe boxes are we talking about for food? Well, a can of Dinty Moore beef stew contains 400 calories. My kids like SpaghettiOs (360 calories per can). Let’s just work with the stew for ease of calculation. Six cans of stew equals 2400 calories or one day’s worth of calories for one person. Therefore if all we had was beef stew (the horrors!), we’d need 72 cans of stew for the four family members for three days. I can fit about eight cans in my shoe box, therefore nine shoe boxes will feed four people for three days. What I’m saying here is that calories are king. Later on we’ll address nutrition when we cover your three-month or one-year supply of food. Shelter Finally, let’s talk shelter. In any short-term emergency, sheltering in place is always your best bet. But if the power goes out in the cold of winter and you don’t have any way to heat your surroundings (such as a fireplace, wood stove or certified gas heat), then your best bet is a community shelter or a friend with a heat source. Whatever you do, please please don’t rig up a DIY gas heater or a charcoal briquet grill in your home. It will kill you and those you love from carbon monoxide poisoning. But if you can’t get to a shelter, then you need to layer up and bag down. We’ll discuss more about prepper clothing in a later column. Oh, and one last thing. Your food and water should be used up and replaced at least once a year – and you don’t have to store everything in shoe boxes. But do keep everything together and make sure you have a can opener. The whole system kind of falls apart if you can’t open the cans. Bon Appétit!
2016-03-23 02:10 Pat McLene www.wnd.com
67 Cruz pushed to double immigrants in 2013 Contact WND (WASHINGTONEXAMINER) — Plans pushed by GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz under the immigration reform debate in 2013 would have jumped the number of immigrants, including those from Muslim nations, by doubling green card caps and boosting temporary worker visas five-fold. Under the Cruz plan, yearly legal immigration would have gone from 740,000 to 1,675,000. Well before Donald Trump drew a line on Muslim immigrants following a wave of terror attacks, highlighted by Tuesday’s deadly blasts in Belgium, Cruz’s suggested changes to the so-called Gang of Eight legislation would have also created a family green card category and lifted the per-country caps on immigrants.
2016-03-23 02:09 www.wnd.com
68 CBS Chicago The Chicago Blackhawks are having trouble shifting into another gear as the regular season reaches the home stretch. With five losses in their last six games (1-3-2), the Blackhawks look to get back on track and cut into their deficit behind the first-place Dallas Stars on Tuesday when the Central Division rivals meet at the United Center. "We want to get as high (in the standings) as we can," Chicago defenseman Duncan Keith told reporters. "At the same time, we're not looking farther than our next game on Tuesday. It's been tough to play against Dallas. We haven't had much success. We need to have a good effort. " The reigning Conn Smythe Trophy recipient is correct as the Stars have won three of the four meetings this season, with Patrick Eaves collecting three goals and an assist versus the Blackhawks. Eaves also tallied in Saturday's 3-0 victory over the New York Islanders as Dallas improved to 5-1-2 in its last eight to open a two-point lead over St. Louis and a four-point edge over Chicago.8:30 p.m. ET, FSN Southwest (Dallas), CSN Chicago, NHL. TVKari Lehtonen turned aside all 27 shots he faced on Saturday to improve to 5-1-1 in his last seven outings. While the 32-year-old Finn (21-9-2, 2.85 goals-against average) will receive his team's fourth consecutive start on Tuesday, coach Lindy Ruff stopped short of naming Lehtonen the club's No. 1 goaltender over Antti Niemi (22-12-7, 2.76 GAA). "I'm not establishing anybody as No. 1," Ruff told reporters on Monday. "But I like the way (Lehtonen's) playing, and the reason he has been playing is because his game has been better than Antti's. "Backup Scott Darling is in line to make his fourth straight start as Chicago attempts to weather the storm without Corey Crawford, who has been sidelined for the last week with an upper-body injury. "Obviously I wish it were different circumstances. We don’t want Corey to be hurt; we miss him for sure,” Darling told CSN Chicago on Sunday after making 32 saves in a 3-2 shootout loss to Minnesota. The 27-year-old Darling has posted a 1-1-1 mark in Crawford's absence and has stopped 24 of 25 shots combined in a pair of relief appearances versus Dallas.1. Chicago is mired in an 0-for-17 stretch on the power play in the last five contests while Dallas has thwarted all but one of its last 19 short-handed situations in the last eight.2. Stars D Jordie Benn is expected to return from an eight-game absence due to a lower- body injury.3. The Blackhawks are 0-7-2 in their last nine games versus Western Conference teams currently holding a playoff spot. Blackhawks 4, Stars 3
2016-03-23 00:22 Sportsdirect Inc scoresandstats.chicago.cbslocal.com
69 SRSLY #36: Thirteen, Anomalisa, A Little Chaos Will Glastonbury decide the outcome of the EU referendum? /* */ This is SRSLY, the pop culture podcast from the New Statesman. Here, you can find links to all the things we talk about in the show as well as a bit more detail about who we are and where else you can find us online. Listen to our new episode now: ...or subscribe in iTunes. We’re also on Stitcher , RSS and SoundCloud – but if you use a podcast app that we’re not appearing in, let us know. SRSLY is hosted by Caroline Crampton and Anna Leszkiewicz, the NS ’s web editor and editorial assistant. We’re on Twitter as @c_crampton and @annaleszkie , where between us we post a heady mixture of Serious Journalism, excellent gifs and regularly ask questions J K Rowling needs to answer. The Links (03:30) Thirteen The whole series on BBC iPlayer. The trailer on YouTube. Our episodes about Room and My Mad Fat Diary . (15:10) Anomalisa The trailer on YouTube. Ryan Gilbey's review. Peter Bradshaw's review (with the bit about the sex scene). (23:20) A Little Chaos The trailer. A n interview with Alan Rickman about the film. Next week: Caroline is listening to the first Alt-J album, An Awesome Wave. If you’d like to talk to us about the podcast or make a suggestion for something we should read or cover, you can email srslypod[at]gmail.com . You can also find us on Twitter @srslypod , or send us your thoughts on tumblr here. If you like the podcast, we'd love you to leave a review on iTunes - this helps other people come across it. We love reading out your emails. If you have thoughts you want to share on anything we've discussed, or questions you want to ask us, please email us on srslypod[at]gmail.com , or @ us on Twitter @srslypod , or get in touch via tumblr here. We also have Facebook now. Our theme music is “Guatemala - Panama March” (by Heftone Banjo Orchestra) , licensed under Creative Commons. See you next week! PS If you missed #35, check it out here . On Thursday 23 June in the UK, you will be doing one of two things. Staggering through a field in Somerset, head pounding from too much booze and bass, pretending to enjoy yourself. Or walking to a polling station, head pounding from too much Boris and British sovereignty, pretending not to enjoy yourself. Anyone who will neither be attending Glastonbury festival nor voting in the EU referendum, click away now. The vote falls on the second day of the festival, when the vast majority of attendees will have arrived. Over 200,000 people go to Glastonbury at the peak of the festival, and pollsters are beginning to analyse how this could possibly affect the EU referendum result. Although 200,000 people are a drop in the ocean of the 30m people expected to vote in the referendum, there are certain scenarios in which the diary clash could affect the way the vote plays out. “The only circumstance in which it could have an effect is if it’s incredibly close between Leave and Remain,” says Joe Twyman, YouGov’s Head of Political and Social Research. “In order for that to happen, it needs to be really close – I don't think that's incredibly likely. But you never know. Even if all 250,000 attendees were voting the same way, it would still have to be within 250,000 to make a difference.” And would all attendees be voting (or missing out on voting) the same way? The demographic of Glastonbury goers certainly suggests a bias for staying in. “If you look at the people who go to Glastonbury – and, ok, excuse me of massive stereotyping here – let’s assume that everyone at Glastonbury is white, middle-class, university-educated and under the age of 30. Who’d have thought it?!” laughs Twyman. “We assume that that group is overwhelmingly likely to vote to stay.” The fear is that, if over 200,000 people who are generally in favour of Britain’s EU membership are absent on the day of the vote, it could dent the Remain vote. This has even led to a conspiracy theory that the vote was scheduled over the festival on purpose. “Sounds to me like some sort kind of conspiracy. While all them pesky lefty, pro-EU hippies are at Glastonbury, eh lads?” commented one suspicious tweeter. Of course, this is nonsense. And Raph Malek, Research Lead at the public attitudes surveyor BritainThinks, suggests that Glastonbury goers may not be much use to the Remain campaign anyway: “We know that educational achievement and age are the two biggest drivers of positions on the EU referendum. If we’re speculating, if it’s younger people who are more likely to be university- educated, most people – or more people – at Glastonbury would be likely to be in favour of Remain than Leave. But we also know that if younger voters are less likely to turn out, then it would make less of a difference anyway.” Twyman agrees: “You know how in general elections we talk about Worcester Woman and Essex Man and all that sort of thing? I wonder whether ‘Glastonbury Attendee’ will become shorthand for the type of person the Leave campaign doesn’t like, and the type of person the Stay campaign desperately needs to turn out. “Because Leave know they’re not going to win these people over, the best that they can hope for is that they’re not going to turn up.” Because of our voting system relying on local authority-based electoral registers, Glastonbury is not allowed to have its own polling station (although reportedly the festival did look into it). But it has been encouraging its attendees on Twitter and on its website to apply either for a postal or proxy vote. Twyman suggests that this could even help the Remain campaign – people who are less likely to vote receiving extra encouragement could give it a small boost. However, the chances of the festival clashing with the vote influencing its result are very slim. When the date of the vote was decided, the Electoral Commission did an analysis of lots of factors as part of what it calls its “planning assumptions” – and it didn’t include Glastonbury as a factor. All the experts I speak to believe it’s highly unlikely unless such a small difference would swing the vote either way. But that’s no reason for Glastonbury goers to abstain. If you’re going to the festival, you can apply to vote by post beforehand here , or you can nominate someone to vote for you by proxy here. Then you can have that breakfast Strongbow on Thursday morning with a clear conscience.
Zayn Malik’s new song BeFoUr and the dissolution of One Direction SRSLY #36: Thirteen, Anomalisa, A Little Chaos newstatesman.com 2016-03-23 00:14 Shiraz Maher www.newstatesman.com
70 70 Shuttle Endeavour lands at California air base - CNN.com (CNN) -- Space shuttle Endeavour landed safely Sunday afternoon at California's Edwards Air Force Base after NASA waved off two opportunities for a Florida landing because of poor weather. The shuttle, steered by commander Christopher Ferguson, landed at 1:25 p.m., ending a mission that lasted more than two weeks. Wind, rain and reports of thunderstorms within 30 miles of the shuttle landing facility at Florida's Kennedy Space Center prompted NASA to cancel the landing attempts there. Those had been scheduled for 1:19 p.m. and 2:54 p.m. ET. After determining Monday's weather forecast at Kennedy Space Center was equally unpromising, flight controllers decided they would try to land the shuttle and its seven astronauts at Edwards AFB, about 100 miles from Los Angeles, California, where Sunday's forecast was sunny. Flight controllers prefer landings at Kennedy Space Center because of cost and schedule. NASA has estimated it costs about $1.7 million to bring a shuttle home to Kennedy Space Center from California. Watch Endeavour's Sunday landing in California » It also takes at least a week to get the shuttle ready for the trip, but schedule is not a major factor for the Endeavour; it is not scheduled to fly again until May. Endeavour's 15-day mission to the international space station began on November 14 and included four spacewalks. During that time, the crew brought key pieces -- including exercise equipment, more sleeping berths and a urine recycling system -- for a project to double the capacity of the station from three in-house astronauts to six. The recycling system was installed to turn urine and sweat from the astronauts into drinking water. Other modules are scheduled to arrive on a February shuttle flight. The goal of expanding the station's capacity to six astronauts is expected to be reached by the summer. The crew also worked on a joint that helps generate power for the space station. Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve Bowen spent hours cleaning and lubricating the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, which is designed to allow the solar panels on the left side of the station to rotate and track the sun. The astronauts also removed and replaced several trundle bearing assemblies. The mission went according to plan, despite a minor interruption on the first spacewalk when a grease gun in Stefanyshyn-Piper tool's bag leaked, coating everything inside with a film of lubricant. While she was trying to clean it up, the bag -- with $100,000 in tools -- floated away. CNN's Kate Tobin and Miles O'Brien contributed to this report.
2016-03-22 18:29 rss.cnn.com
71 Probing the cosmos: Is anybody out there? - CNN.com (CNN) -- From a remote valley in Northern California, Jill Tarter is listening to the universe. Her ears are 42 large and sophisticated radio telescopes, spread across several acres, that scan the cosmos for signals of extraterrestrial origin. If intelligent life forms do exist on other planets, and they try to contact us, Tarter will be among the first to know. Are we citizens of Earth alone in the universe? It's a question that has long fascinated astronomers, sci-fi authors, kids with backyard telescopes and Hollywood executives who churn out spectacles about alien encounters. Polls have found that most Americans believe that some form of life exists beyond our planet. "It's a fundamental question," said Tarter, the real-life inspiration for Jodie Foster's character in the 1997 movie "Contact. " "And it's a question that the person on the street can understand. It's not like a... super-collider or some search for neutrinos buried in the ice. It's, 'Are we alone? How might we find out? What does that tell us about ourselves and our place in the universe?' "We're trying to figure out how the universe began, how galaxies and large-scale structures formed, and where did the origins of life as we know it take place? " Tarter said. "These are all valid questions to ask of the universe. And an equally valid question is whether the same thing that happened here [on Earth] has happened elsewhere. " Watch a preview of CNN's "In Search of Aliens" series » Thanks to advancements in technology, scientists hope to get an answer sooner rather than later. Rovers have snapped photographs of the surface of Mars that show fossil-like shapes. NASA hopes to launch within a decade a Terrestrial Planet Finder, an orbiting observatory that would detect planets around nearby stars and determine whether they could support life. Such developments are catnip to scientists like Geoffrey Marcy, a professor of astronomy at the University of California-Berkeley who has discovered more extrasolar planets than anyone else. "It wasn't more than 13 years ago that we hadn't found any planets around the stars, and most people thought that we never would. So here we are not only having found planets, we are looking for habitable planets, signs of biology on those planets," Marcy told CNN. "It's an extraordinary explosion of a field of science that didn't even exist just a few years ago. " Then there's Tarter, whose quest for signs of extraterrestrial life kept her on the fringes of mainstream science for decades. While pursuing her doctorate at UC-Berkeley, Tarter came across an engineering report that floated the idea of using radio telescopes to listen for broadcasts by alien beings. It became her life's work. In 1984 Tarter founded the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) in California. Using telescopes in Australia, West Virginia and Puerto Rico, she conducted a decade-long scouring of about 750 nearby star systems for extraterrestrial radio signals. None was found, although Tarter had some false alarms. In 1998, she intercepted a mysterious signal that lasted for hours. Tarter got so excited she misread her own computer results: The signal was coming from a NASA observatory spacecraft orbiting the sun. Today, Tarter listens to the heavens with the Allen Telescope Array, a collection of 20-foot-wide telescopes some 300 miles north of San Francisco. The dish-like scopes are a joint effort of SETI and UC-Berkeley's Radio Astronomy Lab and have been funded largely by Microsoft co- founder Paul Allen, who donated more than $25 million to the project. Unlike previously existing radio telescopes, which scan the sky for limited periods of time, the Allen Telescope Array probes the universe round the clock. Each of the 42 scopes is aimed at a different area of the sky, collecting reams of data that are continually studied by computers for unusual patterns. Then the listeners must filter out noise from airplanes and satellites. "We're listening for something that we don't think can be produced by Mother Nature," Tarter said. "We're using the radio frequency, other people are using optical telescopes... and in both cases we're looking for an artificial nature to a signal. "In the case of radio, we're looking for a lot of power being squished into just one channel on the radio dial. In the optical, they're looking for very bright flashes that last a nanosecond... or less, not slow pulsing kinds of things. To date we've never found a natural source that can do that. " Signals that any extraterrestrials might be transmitting for their own use would be difficult to detect, Tarter said. Astronomers are more likely to discover a radio transmission broadcast intentionally at the Earth, she said. Astronomers at SETI, however, are not sending a signal into space in an attempt to communicate with aliens. University of California professor Marcy is skeptical about the existence of intelligent alien life and believes our galaxy's vast distances would make communication between Earth and beings on other planets almost impossible. "The nearest neighbor might be halfway across our galaxy, 50,000 light-years away. Communicating with them will take a hundred thousand years for a round-trip signal," he said. Still, Tarter remains undaunted. The Allen Telescope Array already does in 10 minutes what once took her scientists 10 days. When the project is completed, it will have 350 telescopes that, combined, can survey tens of thousands of star systems. "We can look in more places and more frequencies faster than we ever could. And that will just get better with time. We're doing something now we couldn't do when we started, we couldn't do five years ago," she said. "Think of it as a cosmic haystack. There's a needle in there somewhere. If you pull out a few straws, are you going to get disappointed because you haven't found the needle yet? No. We haven't really begun to explore. " All About Astronomy • UFOs and Alien Abductions • SETI Institute
2016-03-22 18:29 By Brandon rss.cnn.com
72 Brussels explosions: UK Foreign Office warns against travel to Brussels The Foreign Office is warning against travel to Brussels after more than 30 people are believed to have been killed in attacks on the airport and metro. Two British nationals were among the injured, a spokesman confirmed. Security at ports, airports, Tube and major railway stations in the UK has been stepped up. David Cameron condemned the attacks, which have been claimed by so-called Islamic State, and warned of "a very real terror threat" across Europe. Twin blasts hit Zaventem airport at about 07:00 GMT, with 11 people reported killed. Another explosion at Maelbeek metro station near EU headquarters an hour later left about 20 people dead. Brussels police have issued a wanted notice for a man seen pushing a luggage trolley through the airport. Specialist police from the UK have been sent to Brussels to help with the investigation. The prime minister will chair a second Cobra security meeting to determine the UK's response to the attacks on Wednesday morning. The Foreign Office said embassy staff were "providing consular assistance to two injured Britons and are ready to support any further British nationals that have been affected". Britons in Brussels were told "to remain alert and vigilant, and stay away from crowded places". An emergency number for those worried a relative may have been affected has been issued - 020 7008 0000. It is also advising British nationals to follow the guidance of the Belgian security authorities, which are advising against travel to the capital. Latest updates on Brussels attacks What we know so far In pictures: Brussels explosions Why was Brussels attacked? Full coverage The UK's most senior counter-terrorism officer, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, said increased police activity in the UK was a precaution and not in response to any specific threat. In London, he said, the Met Police were putting more officers on duty to carry out patrols at key locations. Home Secretary Theresa May said security checks at UK borders were being increased "to ensure public safety and provide public reassurance". She told MPs there would be more searching of vehicles and greater use of search dogs. The Belgian flag is being flown at half mast above Downing Street. Mr Cameron chaired an emergency Cobra meeting to determine the UK's response to the attacks, and said Britain would do all it could to help the Belgian authorities. "These are appalling and savage terrorist attacks and I've just spoken to the prime minister of Belgium to give our sympathies and our condolences to the Belgian people," Mr Cameron said. "They could just as well be attacks in Britain or in France or Germany, or elsewhere in Europe and we need to stand together against these appalling terrorists and make sure they can never win. " Mr Cameron said UK authorities were continuing to review information coming in - and would raise the terror threat level if there was information of a direct threat. The terror threat level has been at "severe" since August 2014, meaning an attack is highly likely. By BBC home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds Airports are generally designed around a clear security "line" after which people pass into the "airside" area - in effect a security bubble. This protects the aircraft as much as the airport. The Brussels bombs were detonated outside the bubble, in the terminal before the security check. Passengers will wonder why there are no security scanners at the door of the airport, or the entrance to the car park. Should we move the line of security? The problem is that this simply moves the place where the queue forms. And queues are the ideal soft target for a terrorist. Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, often cited as the world's most secure, relies on profiling. Passengers are closely watched and intensively questioned about who they are and where they are going. Some experts swear by it, but it has been criticised as "politically incorrect". Meanwhile, the UK government stresses the importance of good intelligence. But even if it was possible to fully protect air travellers, there are plenty of other places where crowds gather, which could be targeted instead. Read more: Airport security under the spotlight The attacks come four days after Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in the Paris attacks, was captured in Brussels. The Belgian federal prosecutor said it was "probably a suicide bomber" who struck the airport. Police in the UK have appealed for any British nationals who were in Brussels and may have images or footage of the incidents to come forward and assist the investigation. They have set up a website where images and videos can be uploaded. In the latest developments:
2016-03-23 00:40 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
73 Homosexuality: A Christian View | CBN.com (beta) This week we'll be featuring a special series that examines the subject of homosexuality from a Christian perspective. We begin our series with the Word of God, where homosexuality is mentioned only a few times. Several experts offer a careful examination what the scriptures tell us about this issue.
2016-03-23 03:53 www1.cbn.com
74 Concealed carry gun looks like a smartphone Contact WND (CNN) A concealed carry gun is coming out this year that can be folded into a box resembling a smartphone … a feature that makes cops nervous. Ideal Conceal, a Minnesota startup, is developing a two-shot pistol that folds into a palm-sized square. It can be slipped into a back pocket or displayed openly in a coffee shop with no one the wiser. “Ingeniously designed to resemble a smartphone, yet with one click of the safety it opens and is ready to fire,” says the company website. “Smartphones are everywhere, so your new pistol will easily blend in with today’s environment. In its locked position it will be virtually undetectable because it hides in plain sight.”
2016-03-23 01:34 www.wnd.com
75 Donald Trump tells Fox & Friends America must be “vigilant” or become “disaster city” like Brussels Topics: Elections 2016 , 2016 GOP primary , Donald Trump , Fox News , Video , fox & friends , Brian Kilmeade , Brussels , Belgium , Elections News , News , Politics News In the wake of a terror attack that took the lives of at least 26 people and injured over 130 in Belgium this morning, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump called in to Fox News not to offer sympathy to the bereaved, but to warn viewers that if they don’t elect him in November, such tragedies will happen on American soil. “I think it’s absolutely horrible,” Trump began. “I’ve been talking about this for a long time. Brussels was a beautiful place.” Trump later told co-hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade. It went from “zero crime,” but because of what he considers Belgium’s lax immigration policies, Brussels is now “a disaster city, it’s a total disaster, and we have to be very careful as to who we allow in this country.”
2016-03-23 00:13 Scott Eric salon.com.feedsportal.com
76 Southern Half of Calais Refugee Camp is Razed French authorities have finished razing half of the Calais refugee camp in Calais, France. Some refugees have been moved to a nearby shipping container camp. A refugee walks on a hill in the southern part of the camp, March 13, 2016.
2016-03-23 00:16 ABC News abcnews.go.com
77 The first Muslims in England Sixteenth-century Elizabethan England has always had a special place in the nation's understanding of itself. But few realise that it was also the first time that Muslims began openly living, working and practising their faith in England, writes Jerry Brotton. From as far away as North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, Muslims from various walks of life found themselves in London in the 16th Century working as diplomats, merchants, translators, musicians, servants and even prostitutes. The reason for the Muslim presence in England stemmed from Queen Elizabeth's isolation from Catholic Europe. Her official excommunication by Pope Pius V in 1570 allowed her to act outside the papal edicts forbidding Christian trade with Muslims and create commercial and political alliances with various Islamic states, including the Moroccan Sa'adian dynasty, the Ottoman Empire and the Shi'a Persian Empire. She sent her diplomats and merchants into the Muslim world to exploit this theological loophole, and in return Muslims began arriving in London, variously described as "Moors", "Indians", "Negroes" and "Turks". Before Elizabeth's reign, England - like the rest of Christendom - understood a garbled version of Islam mainly through the bloody and polarised experiences of the Crusades. No Christian even knew the words "Islam" or "Muslim", which only entered the English language in the 17th Century. Instead they spoke of "Saracens", a name considered in medieval times to have been taken from one of Abraham's illegitimate offspring who was believed to have founded the original twelve Arab tribes. Christians simply could not accept that Islam was a coherent religious belief. Instead they dismissed it as a pagan polytheism or a heretical deformation of Christianity. Much Muslim theology discouraged travel into Christian lands, or the "House of War", which was regarded as a perpetual adversary of the "House of Islam". But with Elizabeth's accession this situation began to change. In 1562 Elizabeth's merchants reached the Persian Shah Tahmasp's court where they learned about the theological distinctions between Sunni and Shi'a beliefs, and returned to London to present the queen with a young Muslim Tatar slave girl they named Aura Soltana. She became the queen's "dear and well beloved" servant who wore dresses made of Granada silk and introduced Elizabeth to the fashion of wearing Spanish leather shoes. Hundreds of others arrived from Islamic lands and although no known memoirs survive, glimpses of their Elizabethan lives can still be gleaned from London's parish registers. In 1586 Francis Drake returned to England from Colombia with a hundred Turks who had been captured by the Spanish in the Mediterranean and press-ganged into slavery in the Americas. One of them, known only as Chinano, is the first known Muslim to convert to English Protestantism. He was baptised at St Katharine's Church near the Tower of London, where he took the name William Hawkins, and insisted that "if there were not a God in England, there was none nowhere". Perhaps he meant it and relished his new Anglican identity, or he knew what to say to his new English masters. Whatever the truth, like many of his fellow Turks he quickly disappeared into London's bustling life, taking with him his true religious beliefs. How sincere Chinano's conversion was may never be known, but he was not alone, and others like him were clearly keen to make a living in diverse urban occupations. They included weavers, tailors, brewers and metalsmiths. Other registers record Muslim women being baptised like Mary Fillis, a "blackamoor" daughter of a Moroccan basket-maker who after working in London as a seamstress for 13 years and "now taking some hold of faith in Jesus Christ was desirous to become a Christian". She was baptised in Whitechapel in 1597 where she presumably lived out the rest of her life. The faith of others was less certain, like the unnamed Moroccan who was buried the same year "without any company of people and without ceremony", because church authorities "did not know whether he was a Christian or not". Nor were such conversions one-way. Hundreds of Elizabethan men and women travelled into Muslim lands in search of their fortune, and many converted - some forcibly, but others willingly - to Islam. They included the Norfolk merchant Samson Rowlie, who had been captured by Turkish pirates off Algiers in 1577, where he was imprisoned, castrated and converted to Islam. He took the name Hassan Aga and rose to become Chief Eunuch and Treasurer of Algiers as well as one of the most trusted advisers to its Ottoman governor. He never returned to England or the Christian fold. Elizabeth's alliances with the Ottoman, Persian and Moroccan empires also brought more elite Muslims to London. Records show that Turkish diplomats were sent over in the 1580s, though no trace of them survives. More details remain of Moroccan embassies from later that decade. In 1589 the Moroccan ambassador Ahmed Bilqasim entered London in state, surrounded by Barbary Company merchants, proposing an Anglo-Moroccan military initiative against "the common enemy the King of Spain". Although the anti-Spanish proposal came to nothing, the Moroccan ambassador sailed in an English fleet later that year that attacked Lisbon with the support of the Moroccan ruler, Mulay Ahmed al-Mansur. Just over 10 years later another Moroccan ambassador called Muhammad al-Annuri arrived in London, with a large retinue of merchants, translators, holy men and servants who stayed for six months living in a house on the Strand where Londoners watched them practising their religious faith. One reported that they "killed all their own meat within their house, as sheep, lambs, poultry" and "turned their faces eastward when they kill any thing; they use beads, and pray to Saints". Al-Annuri had his portrait painted, met Elizabeth and her advisers twice and even proposed a joint Protestant-Islamic invasion of Spain and naval attack on her American colonies. The plan only seems to have foundered because Elizabeth feared upsetting the Ottomans, who were at the time al-Mansur's adversaries. The alliance came to an abrupt end with Elizabeth's death and her successor James I's decision to make peace with Catholic Spain, but the presence of Muslims like al-Annuri, Ahmed Bilqasim and more modest individuals like Chinano and Mary Fillis remain a significant but neglected aspect of Elizabethan history. It shows that Muslims have been a part of Britain and its history much longer than many people have ever imagined. Read the full timeline on BBC iWonder. Jerry Brotton is the author of This Orient Isle: Elizabethan England and the Islamic World Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox
2016-03-23 00:16 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
78 Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko given 22-year sentence A Ukrainian pilot has been found guilty in Russia of charges relating to the deaths of two Russian journalists. Nadiya Savchenko was sentenced to 22 years in jail after being convicted of directing artillery fire which killed them in eastern Ukraine in June 2014. She burst into a folk-style protest song in the courtroom as she was finally pronounced guilty after the judge's two-day reading of the verdict. She denied all the charges and her case has become internationally notorious. Ukraine would never recognise the "so-called" verdict, President Petro Poroshenko said, describing the trial as "infamous". In a statement (in Ukrainian), he added that he was ready to exchange Savchenko for two Russian soldiers detained in Ukraine for "their participation in the armed aggression" against the country. Savchenko has become a national hero - elected as a Ukrainian MP while in detention - and scuffles were reported in the courtroom after members of a Ukrainian delegation unfurled a national flag. Her lawyer, Nikolai Polozov, told journalists that she would "not appeal against this illegal verdict", in which Savchenko was also found guilty of illegally crossing the border into Russia and the attempted murder of civilians. "She is an iron person, she has an iron will," Mr Polozov said, according to AFP news agency. This tiny Russian border town was under lockdown for the final hours of the trial. Dozens of Cossacks were drafted in to line the streets alongside heavily armed police. At a security check outside court, officers checked bags and scanned journalists' notebooks for "forbidden" texts. Inside, Nadiya Savchenko was a picture of calm - until the verdict. As the judge pronounced her guilty she broke into deafening song to drown him out. But the result was no surprise to her defence team, nor the fact that the judge dismissed all the evidence they presented. A few half-hearted protesters gathered outside waving signs declaring Savchenko a "war criminal" and in court three young men suddenly displayed T-shirts with the faces of the Russian journalists she is accused of killing. They were outnumbered, though, by politicians from Kiev and supporters of Savchenko. As her sentence was handed down - and she yelled abuse at the judge - some pulled out the Ukrainian flag and burst into their national anthem before being bundled unceremoniously out of court by bailiffs in balaclavas. According to reports, Savchenko has threatened to go on a dry hunger strike (refusing all fluids) on 6 April - the latest in a string of such protests she has staged since her arrest. Russian prosecutors said Savchenko had been driven by "political hatred". Western politicians and intellectuals have been among those calling for her release, echoing her lawyers' descriptions of the process as a show trial and a farce. Human Rights Watch condemned the trial as unfair , complaining that the court had "refused to admit crucial defence evidence and consistently rejected important defence motions, making it impossible for her legal team to effectively challenge the allegations against her as fair trial standards require. " The hearing took place in the southern Russian town of Donetsk, not far from the Ukrainian border. There was confusion on Monday at the start of the court session, when Russian state media announced the guilty verdict prematurely. Savchenko, a military pilot by training, was accused of having acted as an artillery spotter on the ground. Her lawyer has argued that phone records prove she was captured by rebels before the attack, and that she was trying to reach fighters from her volunteer force who had been wounded in an ambush. Savchenko's capture - or as she puts it, her kidnapping - contributed to the deterioration in Russia-Ukraine relations since 2014. Moscow annexed the Crimea peninsula in March 2014 after an unrecognised referendum on self-determination, and is accused of covertly supporting separatist rebels in the bloody conflict in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.
2016-03-23 01:22 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
79 VIDEO: EU foreign policy chief Mogherini breaks down over Brussels attacks European Union's Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini cut short a news conference in Jordan after tears welled in her eyes, hours after attacks in the Belgian capital Brussels killed at least 30 people. Mogherini praised Jordan for promoting "an Islam of peace and dialogue and cooperation" before cutting short the news conference adding, "you will understand today is a difficult day. " As Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Joudeh began to speak, Mogherini appeared to fight back tears before shaking her head. "I'm sorry," she said, putting her head briefly on his shoulders and walking off the platform with him.
2016-03-23 01:06 www.jpost.com
80 The Fab 40: The World's Most Valuable Sports Brands 2015 - In Photos: The Fab 40: The World's Most Valuable Sports Brands 2015 The Forbes Fab 40 comprises the 10 most valuable sports brands in the world in four distinct categories: businesses, events, athletes and teams. What does it mean to be one of the 40 most valuable sports brands in the world, exactly? It means that the brand commands a big monetary premium to its rivals due to a combination of its size and profitability. How that premium is measured depends on the category. All figures are in U. S. dollars. Photo: AP Photo/Felipe Dana
2016-03-23 00:16 Lauren Gensler www.forbes.com
81 81 Tech unicorns have hundreds of job openings In
the past 30 days, Uber has posted 158 jobs in the Bay Area (and that doesn't include drivers). Dropbox has posted 113 jobs. Even Zenefits, which laid off 250 employees in February after its CEO and founder Parker Conrad abruptly quit, has posted 9 jobs. That's according to a new report from sales intelligence company DataFox. The report looked at job postings at the 100 top privately-held companies in Silicon Valley. Many of the companies are "unicorns," the term for startups valued at $1 billion or more. It culled the job posting data from careers site Indeed.com over the past 30 days. In total, more than 1,500 jobs in Silicon Valley have been posted at the companies. Some of these firms (Dropbox, Zenefits) are among the companies that mutual fund investors like Fidelity Investments have marked down in recent months. Those markdowns led to worries about the swelling number of unicorns -- and what would happen to these companies if and when they can't raise a next round of funding. More than than 35 tech companies -- including Microsoft ( MSFT , Tech30 ) , Yahoo ( YHOO , Tech30 ) , LivingSocial and Birchbox -- have let go of workers this year. But it's not all doom and gloom on the job front, according to DataFox growth marketing manager Anisha Sekar. Related: 17% of startups are gunning for an IPO "Startups with strong fundamentals are still hiring, and taking advantage of layoffs at other companies to grow their teams," she said. "That's going to make them even more resilient. " Companies aren't just looking for engineers , either. Uber, for instance, has openings for everything from account executives, to copywriters, data engineers and a behavioral scientist. It also has a host of positions open across the globe, according to its Careers page. Dropbox, on the other hand, is hiring for recruiters, people operations, sales reps, and designers, among other jobs. Related: San Francisco is 'separate from the real world' "We haven't seen a slowdown among the top-tier companies," said Dan Weiner, cofounder of Revel Talent, which helps firms like Thumbtack, a unicorn company valued at $1.3 billion, recruit marketing and product talent. According to Weiner, companies are getting smarter and more specific about the types of roles they're looking to fill. He said that in addition to engineer, hot jobs right now include growth strategy roles. It's an especially important position given the shift in investor emphasis from "growth at all costs" to growth and profitability. Kathryn Minshew, the founder and CEO of millennial jobs site The Muse, says that she hasn't seen tech companies pull back. The Muse reaches 5 million people every month -- and counts companies like Slack and Dropbox among its clients. Minshew says that the vast majority of tech companies they work with are still actively recruiting -- and spending advertising dollars on their site to get in front of the right candidates. "For all of the conversation around a slowdown in tech, I have yet to see that reflected in the hiring appetite and enthusiasm of most mid- to large-size tech companies," added Minshew.
2016-03-23 00:58 Sara Ashley rss.cnn.com
82 How the FBI might hack into an iPhone without Apple's help NEW YORK (AP) — For more than a month, federal investigators have insisted they have no alternative but to force Apple to help them open up a phone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. That changed Monday when the Justice Department said an "outside party" recently showed the FBI a different way to access the data on the phone used by Syed Farook, who with his wife killed 14 people in the Dec. 2 attack. The magistrate judge in the case postponed a hearing scheduled for Tuesday and gave the government two weeks to test its method. But federal officials have been mum about who came forward and what method they've proposed. Here are some of the leading options outside experts think the FBI might be exploring. ___ BACK UP AND ATTACK One likely scenario involves making multiple copies of the iPhone's flash memory, which investigators could use to restore the phone's data should they inadvertently trigger the phone's "self-destruct" feature by making too many wrong guesses at the passcode. That feature doesn't actually erase all the files on the iPhone. Instead, it erases a section of the iPhone's memory that contains one of the keys necessary to unlock the data on the phone. This section, known as the "effaceable storage," sits in a memory chip that theoretically could be removed and plugged into a reader device that's capable of electronically copying what's stored on the chip — and then replacing the data if it's been erased. While the technique hasn't been proven for this purpose, forensic expert Jonathan Zdziarski said it was demonstrated in a widely circulated video that shows a Chinese smartphone vendor using a similar procedure to install more memory capacity on an iPhone. FBI Director James Comey was asked about the technique during a congressional hearing on March 1, but Comey didn't say directly whether the FBI had considered the approach. ___ RESET THE COUNT A more nuanced approach would involve isolating the portion of the phone's memory where the count of how many passcode attempts have been made is stored, said Ajay Arora, CEO and co-founder of Vera, an encryption software company. In theory, the person working on the phone would then be able to reset the count each time it approached 10, allowing investigators to make an infinite number of guesses. "This is more technical and a little more difficult, because you'd have to isolate the section," he said. Apple hasn't provided any maps to show where that data is stored. The main problem: The FBI would run the risk of losing information if something went wrong. Shane McGee, chief privacy officer at the FireEye cybersecurity firm, agreed that this kind of approach could potentially work. "All the government really needs is the opportunity to do a very simple, brute-force attack," he said. ___ DE-CAPPING Another approach, sometimes known as "chip de-capping," calls for physically removing the casing of the iPhone's processor chip, using acid or a laser drill. In theory, investigators could then connect electronic probes capable of reading the phone's unique identification code bit by bit from the location where it is "fused" into the phone's hardware. This method would also have to read the algorithm that combines that code with the user passcode to unlock the phone. Once they get that information, investigators could then load it onto another computer, where they can run thousands of attempts at guessing the passcode without worrying about triggering the auto-erase function on the phone itself. Forensic investigators have used similar procedures to read other kinds of data from computer chips, according to McGee. But experts say the process of physically dismantling a chip is technically demanding and has a high risk of causing damage that would make the data unreadable. ___ A BRAND NEW 'ZERO DAY' Even a tiny flaw unknown to the software's creator — known as a zero-day vulnerability — could potentially give the government, or someone else, a way in, said Jay Kaplan, CEO of Synack and an a former NSA counterterrorism researcher. Those exploits are considered valuable to hackers, who often sell them to others, and to intelligence agencies that use them for gathering data. It isn't clear if the government would share the information with Apple — which might then try to fix the vulnerability — or if the government would try to keep the information "in its back pocket" so it can be used for future cases, Kaplan said. While in theory it's possible that investigators could go with some kind of brute-force attack, Kaplan thinks it's more likely that the FBI's mystery assistant found a zero day instead. "There's plenty of them out there that vendors don't know about," Kaplan said. "Regardless of the method, it's going to be a pretty complex process, whether it involves a zero day or not. I'm sure a lot of really smart people are working on the problem. " ___ Bailey reported from San Francisco. Follow Bree Fowler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/APBreeFowler and Brandon Bailey at https://twitter.com/BrandonBailey .
2016-03-23 00:56 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk
83 Man shot in Englewood A man was shot Tuesday morning in the South Side Englewood neighborhood. The shooting happened about 11:50 a.m. in the 7100 block of South May, according to Chicago Police. The 21- year-old was shot in the buttocks and taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where his condition stabilized, police said.
Police: Person fatally shot in West Garfield Park chicago.suntimes.com 2016-03-23 00:53 Jordan Owen chicago.suntimes.com
84 Emanuel unveils park plan as Lucas museum battle drags on The dangerous free-for-all between cyclists and runners would end along two widened stretches of Chicago’s lakefront bike path, under a park improvement plan unveiled Tuesday that ignores the elephant in the room: the legal battle over the Lucas Museum. Runners and bikers would get separate lanes from Fullerton to Ohio and again from 31st to 51st Streets, under the so-called “Building on Burnham” plan proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Seven miles of the 18-mile lakefront path would be repaved “with a clear north and south divider” to improve safety. The mayor’s plan also calls for: creating a pool and event space at 31st Street Beach Harbor; improving the concert area at Montrose Beach; adding a new triathlon training space at Ohio Street Beach; building a state-of-the-art climbing wall at Steelworkers Park in South Chicago; adding lakefront “gathering places; increasing access to the Chicago River “at almost every mile” from the Evanston border to Little Village; and establishing a goal of increasing protected natural areas from 1,400-to-2,020 acres by 2020. Emanuel called the 18-mile lakefront trail that runs from South Shore to Edgewater the “recreational heart” of Chicago’s lakefront. “More Chicagoans than ever before are walking, running and biking along this unique trail — and that’s great. But more traffic brings more bottlenecks — and even some collisions,” the mayor said in a speech delivered Tuesday at Hamilton Park Fieldhouse, 513 W. 72nd Street. “That’s why, as part of this plan, we will improve the Lakefront Trail to make it safer, more accessible and more enjoyable for Chicago residents. By 2018, we will complete the Navy Pier flyover. We will also create separate trails for runners and bikers. … No longer will you have to hear repeatedly over your headphones, `On your left.’ ” Juanita Irizarry, executive director of Friends of the Parks, said the group has long pushed for the separation of cyclists and joggers on the lakefront in conjunction with the Active Transportation Alliance and the Chicago Area Runners Association. “We haven’t seen all the details of how wide the path is going to be. But, it sounds like the kind of thing we’d be excited about,” Irizarry said Tuesday. “There have been many safety concerns as pedestrians, runners and cyclists get in each other’s way on a very crowded lakefront. Improving and expanding those trails and separating the different uses from each other is a good thing.” The mayor also talked about completing a downtown Riverwalk that’s “transforming the area along the river” in Chicago’s Central Business District. “We are also expanding the Riverwalk from Roosevelt to Harrison in the South Loop, paving the way for more recreational and economic opportunities in that fast-growing neighborhood,” he said. “We will construct two bridges. One is the Riverview Bridge — a two-block-long pedestrian-only bridge in Albany Park. The second one is a new connection to Horner Park under the Irving Park Bridge, meaning there will be one less road to cross for walkers, joggers and bicyclists.” As for the Montrose Beach improvements, Irizarry said she’s concerned that building a concert pavilion at there “may be part of the plan” unveiled by the mayor. “Many communities have been complaining to us about concerts. People are okay with some concerts, but not others. It’s a decision by fiat about how that space will be used for concerts on a regular basis and concern about construction of new structures on the lakefront and park land in general,” she said. Those same concerns are at the core of the ongoing legal battle between Emanuel and Friends of the Parks—kept alive by a federal judge — over the mayor’s giveaway of 17 acres of prime lakefront land near Soldier Field to movie mogul George Lucas. A copy of the mayor’s 12-page speech made no mention of the legal battle over the Lucas Museum. Irizarry argued that the lakefront land grab for Lucas’ $400 million interactive museum casts a pall over Emanuel’s stewardship of Chicago parks. “It says that he wants to make a deal with his friends without thinking about the public interest. That’s a sad thing,” she said. “There are questions about his genuine interest in preservation of park space and stewardship of our parks. He’s willing to give away park land when it’s convenient.” Earlier this month, Emanuel warned that Lucas has his “heart set” on building the museum to house his formidable collection of artwork and movie memorabilia on the disputed lakefront site. As a result, the mayor said Chicago was in serious danger of losing he coveted prize. Weeks after opening the door to a site change to avoid a protracted legal battle, Emanuel hinted strongly that his efforts to convince Lucas and his wife, Chicago businesswoman Mellody Hobson, to consider another site have either failed or are not going particularly well. “We have a lawsuit. Other cities are not going to wait for that lawsuit to play itself out. We have that as a challenge,” the mayor said then. “My goal is to keep it here, but there are other cities competing for it now. While it was destined for Chicago, I hope we don’t lose it.” On Tuesday, Irizarry once again urged the mayor to prevail upon Lucas to build his museum at the old Michael Reese hospital site acquired by the city for an Olympic Village or on the west side of Lake Shore Drive on a deck above rail yards similar to the one that holds Millenium Park. “If Chicago loses this museum because Mr. Lucas goes to another city, we put the blame on the mayor. This is on him. He should have facilitated a process from the start by which a legal site was found,” Irizarry said. As for the mayor’s broader plan for the parks, Irizarry questioned how much the improvements would cost and how they would be paid for. More importantly, she questioned why the mayor is “prioritizing these new additions” while existing fieldhouses are “crumbling” and Chicago continues to have a shortage of soccer and baseball fields. “We are always concerned about the process by which his decisions are made about parks. We have not been included in any of those processes and we hear from community folks all the time who are concerned about the process by which park decisions are made. What was the process to engage the communities about our park needs?” she said. Last spring, city and state transportation officials held a series of hearings to seek citizen input on how to “re-invent” North Lake Shore Drive from Grand to Hollywood. Their No. 1 recommendation was to separate bike and pedestrian paths. One year later, no progress has bee made on that long-awaited project.
2016-03-23 00:50 Fran Spielman chicago.suntimes.com
85 Prince Harry Enjoys Nepal Prince Harry visits Bardia National Park and meets members of the local community as he views conservation measures and takes part in tourism activities in Bardia, Nepal, March 21, 2016.
2016-03-22 23:41 ABC News abcnews.go.com
86 Trial postponed in lawsuit against Duckworth JONESBORO — Court officials in southern Illinois say a civil lawsuit against U. S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth stemming from when she led Illinois’ veterans agency won’t go forward next month. Union County Circuit Clerk’s Office officials say a May 12 hearing for summary judgment in the case was set during a hearing on Tuesday. The case was to go to trial April 4. Two employees of a southern Illinois veterans home filed the lawsuit in 2008 alleging workplace retaliation. The Illinois Attorney General’s office is handling Duckworth’s defense and has previously asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed. Duckworth last week won the Democratic nomination for U. S. Senate and will face Republican U. S. Sen. Mark Kirk in the November general election.
2016-03-23 00:43 Associated Press chicago.suntimes.com
87 Texas Man Charged in Death of Infant Son Left in Hot Car A South Texas man has been charged in the death of his 4-month-old son whom he left in a hot car for at least 40 minutes last summer. Nueces (nyoo-AY'-sis) County jail records show 22-year-old Alex Rodriguez of Corpus Christi is being held Tuesday on charges of criminally negligent homicide and abandoning or endangering a child. Corpus Christi police say they believe the father drove home with his son and toddler daughter in the car Sept. 8, but went inside without them. Alex Rodriguez Jr. died at a hospital. His then-16-month-old sister was treated at the scene and released to relatives. Rodriguez was arrested Monday. Bond is set at $25,000. Jail records do not list an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
2016-03-23 00:38 By abcnews.go.com
88 Texas executes man who killed city inspector in 2005 By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas, March 22 (Reuters) - Texas on Tuesday executed a convicted killer who repeatedly shot a city code officer inspecting piles of garbage at the death row inmate's former home, a department of criminal justice official said. Adam Ward, 33, was pronounced dead at 6:34 p.m. after receiving a lethal injection at the state's death chamber in Huntsville. The execution was the fifth this year in Texas, which has executed more offenders than any state since the U. S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. "There are a lot of things that are not right in this world, I have had to overcome them myself. I hope all that are on the row, I hope they find peace and solace in their life," Ward was quoted by prison officials as saying in his final statement. In 2005 in Commerce, about 65 miles northeast of Dallas, city code officer Michael Walker was called out to look at a heap of rubbish that Ward and his father hoarded inside and outside their home, the Texas Attorney General's office said. The family also hoarded guns, it said. When Walker approached the property taking pictures of its perimeter, Ward sprayed the city inspector with a hose he had been using to wash his car, and then argued with him, the office said. Ward then went back in the house to get a gun, and shot Walker, who was 46. "After Walker fell, Ward shot him again at close range. Walker sustained nine gunshot wounds in total and died," the office said. Ward confessed to killing Walker shortly thereafter, explaining he believed the city was after his family and was going to tear down their home, it said. "This is not a capital case. I never had intended to do anything. I feel very grieved for the loss of Walker," Ward was quoted as saying in his final statement. Lawyers for Ward had filed an appeal to halt the execution, arguing he suffered from severe mental illness. But the U. S. Supreme Court denied the appeal about two hours before the execution. "The crime for which Mr. Ward received the penalty of death was an act inextricable from the delusions and paranoia fed by his disabling bipolar disorder," lawyers for Ward said in a petition filed with the court. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by David Gregorio, Sandra Maler and Bernard Orr)
2016-03-23 00:35 Reuters www.dailymail.co.uk
89 US airstrike hits al-Qaida training camp in Yemen SANAA, Yemen (AP) — The U. S. military conducted an airstrike Tuesday against an al-Qaida training camp in Yemen, causing dozens of casualties, a Pentagon spokesman said. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the training camp was located in the mountains, and was being used by more than 70 terrorists belonging to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Cook did not specify the location of the camp. But Yemeni security officials and a witness said the airstrike hit a former military base that had been taken over by al-Qaida militants about 75 kilometers (47 miles) west of the terror group's stronghold city of Mukalla. "We continue to assess the results of the operation, but our initial assessment is that dozens of AQAP fighters have been removed from the battlefield," Cook said. A tribal member at the site said about 40 people were killed and wounded in the Brom Maifa district on Tuesday. He didn't give a breakdown and said that bodies were still being counted. He spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his safety. The Yemeni officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to reporters. "This strike deals a blow to AQAP's ability to use Yemen as a base for attacks that threaten U. S. persons, and it demonstrates our commitment to defeating al-Qaida and denying it safe haven," Cook said. Yemen has been left fragmented by war pitting Shiite Houthi rebels and military units loyal to a former president against a U. S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition supporting the internationally recognized government. The war has given AQAP a freehand to expand and seize cities and large swaths of land. Militants from the extremist Islamic State group have also taken advantage of the chaos to wage a series of deadly attacks across the country.
2016-03-23 00:31 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk
90 Mississippi senators seek to end personal campaign cash use JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi Senate committee Tuesday proposed to ban elected officials and candidates from spending campaign money on themselves, after Associated Press and Clarion-Ledger reports highlighted widespread personal use. The Senate Elections Committee amended House Bill 797 to say campaign money can't be used for purposes including rent, gasoline purchases, car payments or loans to candidates. The bill also says candidates can't cash out campaign accounts at career's end. The AP reported Sunday that at least five former Mississippi officials in recent years cashed out more than $50,000. Rep. Hank Zuber, R- Ocean Springs, said the news reports helped thaw longstanding resistance to making changes. "It was well worth the wait," Zuber said. He repeatedly introduced unsuccessful proposals to ban personal use of campaign funds and cashing them out when officials retire. "For me it's an issue of what is right and moral, and reinstating confidence in the political process. " Candidates would still be able to spend the money on "ordinary and necessary expenses of a candidate or officeholder. " The bill moves to the Senate for further debate. Prospects may be cloudy in the House, though. House Apportionment and Elections Committee Chairman Bill Denny, R- Jackson, declined comment on the Senate proposal because he hadn't seen it, but his committee Tuesday called for a study of campaign finance practices, with a committee to report proposals by Oct. 15. "The best way to do it isn't amendment by amendment when we don't really have a handle on the issue," Denny said. "We don't yet know what the whole picture is. " Mississippi is one of only five states that still allow elected officials to pocket campaign money for personal use during or after their careers, based on a survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures and AP research. The others are North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Virginia. Experts say the lack of legal safeguards could erase the line between campaign contributions and bribery. "It erases the distinction between the political candidate and the person," said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. "The money might mean more to the candidate because they would know they could use it later. " The use of campaign finance money rose to prominence in last year's election campaigns after an opponent disclosed that state Auditor Stacey Pickering had bought a car, a camper and a garage door using campaign funds. An Associated Press review found that of 99 elected officials who have left office in recent years, as many as 25 may have pocketed more than $1,000 when they closed their campaign accounts. Former Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck took more than $261,000 from 2007 to 2013. A series of reports in Jackson's Clarion-Ledger also drew attention to state officials who were spending on what appeared to be personal purposes, including cowboy boots, dry cleaning, clothing, groceries, golf outings, windshield repair, apartments in Jackson and out-of-state trips Much ongoing spending is opaque because officials use their campaign accounts to pay off credit cards without itemizing individual charges. The House Apportionment and Elections Committee on Tuesday passed Senate Bill 2374, which would require credit card expenses be itemized on campaign reports. The Senate amendment was added to a larger bill intended to overhaul the state election code. However, the committee didn't agree to two other proposed election law changes. The Senate Elections committee discarded House Bill 796, which would allow voters to cast ballots during a 14-day period before any election at their county circuit clerk's office. Now, voters must offer a reason allowed under the state's absentee law to vote early. It's not clear if that proposal could be revived before the session ends. House Bill 809, which would have allowed voters to register online, was amended to say voters could only update information online, not register initially. ___ Online: House Bill 797: http://bit.ly/1WGKSDs ___ Follow Jeff Amy at: http://twitter.com/jeffamy. Read his work at http://bigstory.ap.org/author/jeff-amy
2016-03-23 00:31 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk
91 Mock Ice arrest at The Square Local activists acted out a dramatization of an immigration raid to educate the Charlotte community on the realities of families facing immigration raids on Monday at The Square. Charlotte Environmental Action protests "conflict of interest" between Duke, McCrory on coal ash. WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for March 21, 2016. Thousands of people, bedecked in every shade of green, lined Tryon and Caldwell streets to watch Irish dancers, pipe and drum bands and anything else Irish in Charlotte's St. Patrick's Day Parade. North Carolina running back Romar Morris impresses at UNC pro day Tuesday. Hornets forward Nic Batum on Jeremy Lin and beating the Spurs. Hornets guard Jeremy Lin on Monday's victory over the Spurs. Hornets coach Steve Clifford on Tim Duncan's career with the Spurs.
2016-03-23 00:16 www.charlotteobserver.com
92 Rob Ford, former mayor of Toronto, succumbs to cancer at 46 Topics: Mayor Rob Ford , Death , Toronto , Canada , Cancer , public figure , Social News , Media News , Life News , News , Politics News Rob Ford, the controversial former mayor of Toronto whose admitted to smoking crack while in office, died on Tuesday morning aged 46, after an 18-month struggle with cancer. Ford had been diagnosed with pleomorphic liposarcoma, a rare form of soft-tissue cancer in September of 2014 during his re-election year. The disease forced him to withdraw his candidacy in order to focus on treatment. Both Ford and his brother Doug were contentious figures in Toronto politics for their small- government manifesto, gaining popularity with suburban conservatives, but running afoul with left-wingers and unions. Ford’s standing began to erode after videos surfaced online in 2013 of him smoking crack. The revelations launched a Toronto Police investigation and while Ford initially denied the accusations he eventually yielded in November, admitting, “Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine.”
2016-03-22 19:23 Antoaneta Roussi salon.com.feedsportal.com
93 Irony? Syrian refugees save German far-right party candidate from car crash Stefan Jagsch, 29, a leading NPD candidate in this month’s local elections in the Hesse region, lost control of his car and crashed into a tree in the town of Büdingen last week. Two Syrians who were travelling with a group came upon the scene and pulled the seriously injured Jagsch from the wreckage. They gave him first aid treatment until an ambulance arrived and brought him to a hospital. Two vans carrying about 16 refugees had already stopped at the site of the crash by the time emergency services arrived, a spokesman for the Büdingen fire brigade said. Many people took to Twitter to point out the irony of the refugees rescuing a man from the extremist, anti immigration party The NPD’s leader in Hesse, Jean Christoph Fiedler, spoke out with uncharacteristic, yet not unwavering, praise for the refugees who assisted his party member. They “probably performed a very good and humane deed,” he told the Frankfurter Rundschau. Jagsch remains in the hospital and is in a condition “to be expected in the circumstances,” Fielder said. The NDP, which has been labelled an “anti-democratic, xenophobic, anti-Semitic and anti- constitutional party” by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office, is currently appealing a ban in Germany’s constitutional court READ MORE:Germany’s top court starts hearings on banning far-right NPD party
2016-03-23 00:15 www.rt.com
94 Pope to Wash Feet of Refugees in 1st Application of New Law Pope Francis will wash the feet of young refugees during an Easter Week ritual in a gesture high in symbolism inside the Catholic Church and beyond. The Vatican didn't say Tuesday if non-Catholics would be among the 12 refugees participating in the Holy Thursday rite at an asylum center in Castelnuovo di Porto, north of Rome. But women will almost certainly be involved, and a Vatican official, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, noted that most of the center's residents are non-Catholic. The ritual is meant to be a gesture of service, and re-enacts a rite Jesus performed on his apostles before being crucified. Within weeks of becoming pope, Francis stunned conservatives by washing the feet of women, Orthodox Christians and Muslims at a juvenile detention facility. In subsequent years, he has washed the feet of other Muslims and even a Brazilian Catholic transsexual at Rome's main prison. Vatican rules had long called for only men to participate, and popes past and many priests traditionally performed the ritual on 12 Catholic men, recalling Jesus' 12 apostles and further cementing the doctrine of an all-male priesthood. But Francis in January changed the regulations to explicitly allow women and girls to participate. The new norms said anyone from the "people of God" could be chosen. While the phrase "people of God" refers to baptized Christians, the decree also said that pastors should instruct "both the chosen faithful and others so that they may participate in the rite consciously, actively and fruitfully," suggesting that the rite could be open to non-Catholics as well. Fisichella, who is spearheading Francis' Holy Year of Mercy initiative, said the choice of the refugee center was highly symbolic given the current migration crises. "He means to tell us that at this historic time, we must pay attention to the weakest and that we are called to restore their dignity without falling into subterfuge," Fisichella wrote in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. The fact that most of the residents aren't Catholic "is an even more eloquent" sign that respecting one another is the best path to peace, he wrote. "By washing the refugees' feet, Pope Francis is asking for respect for each one of them," he wrote. ——— Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
2016-03-23 00:14 By abcnews.go.com
95 Stoking fear and pushing bigotry: Ted Cruz’s Brussels reaction has again showed why he’s nearly as bad as Donald Trump Topics: Ted Cruz , Donald Trump , brussels attack , Frank Gaffney , Islamophobia , GOP 2016 , Terrorism , isis , Torture , Elections 2016 , Elections News , News , Politics News No more than a few hours after news of the terrorist attack on Brussels reached the United States, Donald Trump was on Fox News and the “Today” show , crowing about the many ways in which the brutal murder of dozens of innocent people ultimately represented his vindication. “I will tell you, I’ve been talking about this a long time,” Trump told the intellectual heavyweights that host “Fox & Friends,” where he is always welcome . “And look at Brussels,” he added. “Brussels was … a beautiful place with zero crime. And now it’s a disaster city.” His recommended next step? Ban Muslim refugees ( now more than ever ); and some waterboarding, he said, “would be fine,” too. Just one more example of how Donald Trump degrades American politics and ignores once sacrosanct norms of liberal democracy, right? More gutter politics, more fueling his campaign with bigotry and fear. Trump being Trump; a reminder of why his combination of shamelessness and megalomania is such a grave threat to modern liberal democracy. A reminder of why, in his special way, he is unique. Oh, would that it were so simple. The truth, however, is that it is not. Because while the world would be a slightly nicer place if Trump was the only one to worry about, the unpleasant reality is that he’s not alone when it comes to undermining the foundations of a pluralist, open society. He’s the best in the business today, no question. But as he reminded us this morning with his response to Brussels, Trump’s closest competitor, Sen. Ted Cruz, can come mighty close. This is a point I’ve made before , but I suppose any argument worth its salt bears repeating: If this were any other election (by which I mean, an election not involving Donald Trump) then Cruz would be the one whose ascendancy would have the political class fretting. Indeed, except for Cruz’s distaste for unvarnished gangsterism, there’s not much that separates the two. And Cruz’s reaction to Brussels shows what I mean. If you can’t quite read the statement (tiny text and whatnot), here is the most relevant section, which comes after the usual fulminations over the president’s refusal to use the phrase “radical Islam” as a rhetorical cudgel, via Mother Jones :
2016-03-23 00:16 Elias Isquith salon.com.feedsportal.com
96 World capitals wrap landmarks in Belgian tricolor to mourn with Brussels (PHOTOS, VIDEO) Follow RT’s LIVE UPDATES on Brussels bombings From the Belgium capital to the skyscrapers of Dubai, the world is in mourning for the victims of the shocking twin blasts that rocked Brussels’ airport and metro on Tuesday morning. Paris, which itself is still healing from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) attacks on November 13 of last year, was the first to light up in support for its neighbor. The Eiffel tower was illuminated in the colors of the Belgian flag, kicking off a wave of unity against terror across the world. Berlin followed suit, lighting up its landmark Brandenburg gate in the heart of the German capital in lights of the Belgian tricolor. Amsterdam’s Royal Palace has joined the tribute, changing the lights on its facade in memory of the victims of the Brussels attacks. In Rome, the Trevi fountain was lit up in black, yellow and red, turning the elaborate tourist landmark into a makeshift memorial. Elsewhere in Rome, Campidoglio’s Senate Palace, just a 15-minute walk from the Trevi fountain, is projecting the tricolor on its façade. The tribute has reached far beyond the major landmarks of Europe’s capitals, with the UK’s remote city of Sunderland in England’s northeast bringing lights of support to the walls of its ancient-looking Penshaw Monument. The night of solidarity with Brussels has also bridged faiths, with England’s Sikh community coloring the cupola of its temple in Smethwick, near Birmingham. The Serbian capital, Belgrade, has also extended its support, with lights of the Belgian flag beaming on the face of its city hall. Athens’ Parthenon, the world’s best-known Greek landmark, has also turned black, yellow and red in memory of the victims and support of Belgium. As the world mourns those killed in the string of explosions in Brussels, the United Arab Emirates garbed the world’s tallest building in the Belgian colors. As darkness descended on the US’ east coast, New York changed the lights on the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. The governor of New York State, Andrew Cuomo, has directed that lights of the WTC’s 408-foot spire glow in the colors of the Belgian flag tonight. “New York stands shoulder to shoulder with the people of Belgium and the rest of the world in rejecting the hate and extremism behind this violence,” Governor Cuomo said . “We join the world in mourning the victims of these attacks and remain committed to helping create a more just and peaceful world.” In the meantime, hundreds of people bringing flowers and candles have spontaneously flocked to Bourse Square in central Brussels. READ MORE: Solidarity amid terror & grief: Brussels square filled with heartwarming messages, rooms offered
2016-03-23 00:10 www.rt.com
97 England see off Italy threat to keep four Champions League places England will retain four Champions League places until at least the end of the 2017-18 season, European governing body UEFA has confirmed. The Premier League had faced a challenge from Italy - which currently has only three spots - as a result of a fall in its rating in UEFA's coefficient system. But the progress of Manchester City and Liverpool to the quarter- finals of this season's Champions League and Europa League respectively, while Roma, Juventus and Lazio have all been eliminated from European competition, has reversed the situation. UEFA awards four Champions League places to the top three nations in its rankings. These allocations are determined a year in advance, meaning those for 2016-17 were set by the ratings at the end of the 2014-15 season. The countries in possession at this point were Spain, England and Germany. However, the system is run on a rolling five-year basis and so for the 2017-18 allocations, points accrued during 2010-11 - which was strong for England and poor for Italy - were discounted from the reckoning. This saw England drop to third behind Germany, just three points ahead of Italy. England's clubs therefore needed a better 2015-16 campaign than Italy to ensure four places would be retained. With all Serie A sides now out, this has been achieved.
2016-03-23 00:08 Press Association www.dailymail.co.uk
98 Newcastle 'considered me a liability' after cancer, Jonas Gutierrez tells panel Former Newcastle United star Jonas Gutierrez has claimed he was "frozen out" of the first team by the club's hierarchy - which, he believes, viewed him as a liability after his cancer diagnosis. In a statement to an employment tribunal hearing his claim for disability discrimination, the 32-year-old star also accused Newcastle of ensuring he did not make enough appearances to trigger a one-year contract extension. Gutierrez, currently playing for Spanish side Deportivo La Coruna, spent seven seasons with Newcastle after joining the club in 2008, and underwent an operation to remove a tumour in his left testicle in October 2013. In his statement to the tribunal, the midfielder said he was called into then manager Alan Pardew's office in early December 2013 - when he felt he was returning to full fitness - to be told that he did not feature in Newcastle's future plans, and was free to agree terms with another club. Describing the meeting, Gutierrez said: "This was the first time I - or any of my representatives - had been notified of this and came as a great shock, so soon after my cancer treatment. "I was very shocked by the club's sudden change of heart about me, particularly as I had played in 194 games for the club at this point and was one of the key first team players. " Pointing out that the decision was taken when he still had 19 months remaining on his contract, Gutierrez added: "I believe that the reason for this was due to my cancer diagnosis and very recent operation to remove the tumour. "I think they feared my illness would mean that I could no longer play at the highest level and they considered me to be a liability rather than an asset to the club. "I got the impression that they thought I couldn't be the same player again after such an illness or that I would be bound to have lingering effects, other episodes of illness off the back of it. "This caused me a lot of distress, given my hard work and commitment for the club in the preceding five-and-a-half years. " Gutierrez, who earned around £40,000-a-week during his time with Newcastle, is reported to be seeking a payment of around £2 million after missing out on an "automatic" 12-month extension to a four-year contract, which would have kicked in if he had started 80 games between 2011 and 2015. The player, who in fact made 78 starts and five appearances as a substitute, said in his statement: "It is notable that during my chemotherapy treatment, neither the manager, Alan Pardew, or any club directors contacted me to see how I was feeling or to congratulate me on my recovery. "Shortly after my return to the club from chemotherapy, I was called into Mr Pardew's office. "Mr Pardew apologised for the way he had treated me in December 2013, when he told me I was not wanted by the club any longer but he said that this was not his decision. "I understood by this that the decision was actually that of the club's owner, Mike Ashley. " In his evidence, Gutierrez said he had agreed to "draw a line under the past" with Pardew, but the manager moved to Crystal Palace within a month of the conversation. Alleging that he had been told to train with the Under- 21 squad around five times between November 2014 and February 2015, the former Argentina international stated: "I was an established senior, international player and had been a near guaranteed first team starter until my cancer diagnosis. "I felt that I was being frozen out of the first team picture as a consequence of my cancer, which was incredibly upsetting, at a time when the club could and should have been supporting me and allowing me to train alongside my first team colleagues. "As an established first team, international player, being made to train and play with the Under-21 squad left me feeling humiliated and degraded both as a professional player and as a human being. "From the way I was treated, I understood that the club hierarchy - in particular the club owner Mike Ashley and the managing director Lee Charnley - were concerned about my cancer diagnosis and were either trying to force me out of the club permanently or if this was not possible, to ensure that I would not be selected to play in games which would force Newcastle to extend my contract by one year. "I believe that pressure was placed on Mr Pardew, as he admitted to me, and (Pardew's successor) John Carver to encourage me to leave the club in late 2013 or to at least ensure that the contract was not automatically extended in the 2014/15 season. "
2016-03-23 00:08 Press Association www.dailymail.co.uk
99 UW doctor: There isn't a one-size-fits-all cure to cancer Seattle's Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center became Vice President Joe Biden's latest stop Monday on his "moonshot" tour to cure cancer. But some scientists say that using a slogan like "cure cancer" is misguided. When asked about this commonly-used phrase, Dr. Mary-Claire King of the University of Washington said it's not so simple. Related: Biden tours Seattle cancer center, sees more cooperation "When we think of curing cancer, we need to think in terms of there being many cancers and many cures," King said. "It's not one size fits all. It's not one dress fits all. It's absolutely precision- fit of the dress to the patient. " King was one of the several panelists who joined Biden Monday. She's been immersed in the cancer fight for 40 years and was the first to show that breast cancer is inherited in some families. King says she would feel bad if the scientific community led the public to believe that there could be one cure. "It's patronizing to people to oversimplify. It leads to unrealistic expectations," she said. "It leads to people being understandably frustrated and unhappy. We need to be honest with people to say that every cancer is different and so there are many cures and we need to develop them one by one, cancer by cancer. " How do we do that? King says it's a continuing challenge. "Each cancer is its own vicious genetic set of mutations and we have ways now to attack those specific lesions much more effectively than even a few years ago," she said. "We're getting better and better at it. The challenge is that every cancer is different and that cancers develop even more mutations when we successfully attack the first ones. " No matter the language the president and Vice President use, or the slogan-style approach towards the cancer fight, Dr. King says it's marvelous to see the White House put this attention into fighting cancers. "It's inspiring," she said. And it sends the right message. "We're all in this together. We're all here for the same reason. "
2016-03-23 00:08 Sara Lerner mynorthwest.com
100 Ambulance crews saw ‘scene of war’ Saint-Luc Hospital on the outskirts of Brussels has a well-drilled plan for handling disasters but nothing could have prepared staff for what happened yesterday. Its ambulance crews were called to the airport after the initial explosion and returned four hours later in a state of shock, according to Jean-Philippe Heymans, a psychiatrist who works in the emergency department. “What they saw was really a scene of war,” he said. “Of course when you are in an accident and emergency department you are used to seeing serious injuries. But they are not used to treating horrific war injuries on such a
2016-03-23 00:02 www.thetimes.co.uk
Total 100 articles. Created at 2016-03-23 06:03