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Total 100 articles, created at 2016-04-09 12:04 1 Reuters: Top News - powered by FeedBurner NEW YORK (Reuters) - U. S... 2016-04-09 05:34 544Bytes feeds.reuters.com

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2 Capture of Man Heightens Scrutiny of Psychiatric Hospital The capture of a man found hiding under debris in the woods after he escaped from a psychiatric hospital where he was held because he was found too mentally ill to face (4.01/5) murder charges comes amid heightened scrutiny of the facility. Anthony Garver, 28, was apprehended without incident Friday... 2016-04-09 03:49 6KB abcnews.go.com 3 Why politicians shouldn't do quizzes The Conservative and Labour candidates have struggled with their general knowledge of (2.01/5) London - but it's not the first time a politician has been caught out by simple questions. Who are the others, and is it fair to laugh at them? 2016-04-09 02:27 7KB www.bbc.co.uk 4 Former Vanderbilt football player found guilty of rape A former Vanderbilt football player has been found guilty of raping an unconscious

(2.00/5) student in a dorm. 2016-04-09 12:03 4KB mynorthwest.com

5 3 rescued from remote island after using palm fronds to spell 'help' (2.00/5) The U. S. Navy and Coast Guard rescued three mariners from a remote, uninhabited Pacific island Thursday after a Navy plane spotted palm fronds spelling the word "help" on the sand. 2016-04-09 07:48 922Bytes rss.cnn.com 6 North Korea boasts new engine for missile North Korea tested a new engine for an intercontinental ballistic missile, according to its (2.00/5) state-run news agency. 2016-04-09 07:36 791Bytes rss.cnn.com

7 Roxas twits Duterte: Next president should be role model to youth The word war between administration bet Mar Roxas and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte rages on, with the Liberal Party standard-bearer saying that the next Philippine president should be decent 2016-04-09 12:03 3KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 8 California Getting Rain, but Not Enough to Ease Drought April showers are arriving in California as a series of low-pressure systems scoots through the state, but the rain totals won't do much to ease five years of drought, forecasters said. Light rain began falling Friday and showers should continue into Sunday, with a slight chance of... 2016-04-09 12:03 2KB abcnews.go.com 9 Mumbai: After Shani Shingnapur 'victory', hope for Haji Ali crusaders With the doors of the Shani Shingnapur temple being opened for women, the Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) is hopeful of females getting entry into the Haji Ali dargah as well 2016-04-09 12:03 2KB www.mid-day.com 10 FBI Shows New Images of Arizona 'Most Wanted' Fugitive There is no reason to believe that a suburban Phoenix man who disappeared after the 2001 slayings of his wife and children is dead, authorities said. Scottsdale police and FBI officials announced plans Friday to plaster age-enhanced photos of Robert William Fisher on digital billboards... 2016-04-09 12:03 3KB abcnews.go.com 11 Dear Abby: Atheist family fed up with friends' preaching DEAR ABBY: About a year ago, my daughter befriended a schoolmate. After numerous playdates, our families have become close. While my 2016-04-09 12:00 2KB chicago.suntimes.com 12 Dortmund, Liverpool hit with UEFA charges UEFA have opened disciplinary proceedings against Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool after Thursday's 1-1 draw in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final in Germany. 2016-04-09 11:25 1KB www.mid-day.com 13 Israeli club ban reporter over racism row A top Israeli football team has banned a left-wing newspaper from its press conferences after it wrote about the club's perceived anti-Arab stance 2016-04-09 11:21 1KB www.mid- day.com 14 Boxing: Fury-Klitschko re-match set for July Tyson Fury will defend his World Boxing Association (WBA) and World Boxing Organisation (WBO) heavyweight titles in a re-match against Wladimir Klitschko in Manchester on July 9, the British boxer's trainer and uncle Peter Fury announced Friday. 2016-04-09 11:17 2KB www.mid-day.com 15 IPL 9: Mumbai Indians hope Jasprit Bumrah delivers in opener against Pune Mumbai Indians bowling coach Shane Bond is hoping pacer Jasprit Bumrah carries his fine form in the recently-concluded ICC World T20 to the ninth edition of the Indian Premier League 2016-04-09 11:03 2KB www.mid-day.com 16 It's loud and clear: MNS violated noise norms at Shivaji Park rally Despite MNS assuring court that there would be no sound pollution at its rally, decibel level reading taken by activist Sumaira Abdulali showed that the sound was louder than the limit of 50 decibels 2016-04-09 10:54 1KB www.mid-day.com 17 What HC order? Sena, MNS mar Mumbai with hoardings on Gudi Padwa Shiv Sena and MNS installed hoardings between Dadar Shivaji Park and Bandra, wishing people on the occasion of Gudi Padwa, in a blatant violation of the Bombay High Court's order 2016-04-09 10:51 2KB www.mid-day.com 18 Unrest at NIT Srinagar: Outstation students demand 24x7 security cover on campus Local students at NIT have opposed most of the demands put forth by outstation students, including that for permanent presence of CSF, saying it will make the campus vulnerable to disturbance 2016-04-09 10:44 2KB www.mid-day.com 19 IPL 9: Sunil Narine's clearance a huge relief for KKR, says Shakib Al Hasan The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) decision to clear the bowling action of West Indies spinner Sunil Narine has come as a huge relief to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), said Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan. 2016-04-09 10:36 1KB www.mid-day.com 20 Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier The city — sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce 2016-04-09 10:15 5KB www.mid- day.com 21 'When I entered the sanctum of Shani Shingnapur temple' Manjusha was overwhelmed as she and her mother hurriedly drove up to the Shani Shingnapur temple yesterday. 2016-04-09 10:11 1KB www.mid-day.com

22 Mumbai: With restoration on at Central Library, readers brave heat in shed The Central Library at Fort, within the iconic Town Hall complex has been closed since December last year. Restoration work is being undertaken by city-based heritage architect, Abha Narain Lambah and is expected to finish in August 2016-04-09 10:03 3KB www.mid-day.com 23 Mumbai: Railway Board left red-faced over CR's money minting plan But Central Railway officials insist that it’s all in good faith and that the amount raised will go to drought-hit farmers; 57 commuters sign up for the last DC local joyride 2016-04-09 10:01 3KB www.mid-day.com 24 Belgian Police Capture Paris Attacks Suspect Mohamed Abrini Law enforcement’s most-wanted man, Paris massacre suspect Mohamed Abrini, has reportedly been arrested in raids relating to the Brussels attacks, multiple news sources are reporting. Belgian authorities announced the arrests the day after they asked for the public’s help to locate Abrini, a key... 2016-04-09 09:45 1KB article.wn.com 25 impact: Chembur pipeline repaired, trench filled Following mid-day's report on colossal waste of drinking water from damaged pipeline in Pestom Sagar, civic authorities not only plugged the leak but also filled the trench that had been flooded for nine days 2016-04-09 09:35 1KB www.mid-day.com 26 ISIS' India strategy: Join forces with Maoists and target kaafirs Investigations by anti-terrorism agencies reveal their plan was to seek arms, ammunition from Maoist groups, train radicalised youths in jungles of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh 2016-04-09 09:02 4KB www.mid-day.com 27 Spieth leads way from McIlroy at Augusta Jordan Spieth clung on to the Masters lead at halfway Friday as arch-rival Rory McIlroy closed to within a shot to set up a classic showdown. 2016-04-09 08:59 1KB rss.cnn.com 28 Raj Thackeray makes much noise about new enemy Narendra Modi While MNS chief's speech at his debut Gudi Padwa rally disappointingly lacked any new ideas, he certainly picked out a new enemy – his one-time favourite Narendra Modi 2016-04-09 08:55 7KB www.mid-day.com 29 Court: OK to call 'gay' hairdresser 'faggot' Contact WND (The Local) According to a shock ruling by a Paris employment tribunal, calling a gay male hairdresser a “dirty faggot” is not a homophobic insult, because there are lots of gay male hairdressers. The ruling, which emerged this week in Metronews, has sparked obvious anger among the gay community, who have been left stunned, not […]... 2016-04-09 07:45 1KB www.wnd.com 30 Obama backtracks on 'freedom of worship' vs. 'freedom of religion' Contact WND The Obama administration routinely has cited “freedom of worship” as a right protected by the U. S. Constitution instead of “freedom of religion.” It was early in Obama’s tenure that Catholic Online and other media outlets reported what appeared to be a deliberate misdirection regarding what the... 2016-04-09 07:45 11KB www.wnd.com 31 VIDEO: Rainiers debut wiffle ball park at season opener A new feature at Cheney Stadium is a wiffle ball field behind the stands along the right field line. 2016-04-09 08:00 1KB www.thenewstribune.com

32 VIDEO: Fans eager for Mariners home opener Mariners fans from Pierce County and beyond share their optimism prior to Friday's home opener against Oakland. 2016-04-09 08:00 2KB www.thenewstribune.com 33 Chirp ‘N Chatter in Fort Mill to Close April 30 Chirp ‘N Chatter, a Fort Mill shop that has been selling wild bird food, birdhouses, garden décor and other nature-themed items for the past 15 years, will close its doors for the last time April 30. 2016-04-09 10:19 3KB www.heraldonline.com 34 The Times & The Sunday Times News and opinion from The Times & The Sunday Times 2016-04-08 23:13 568Bytes www.thetimes.co.uk 35 Yahoo - Introducing Fair Play on Yahoo Sports Daily Fantasy Yahoo Launches Key Changes in Daily Fantasy to Help Level the Playing Field for Fans Including Entry Limits, Labeling of Veteran Players and No... 2016-04-09 09:21 2KB investor.yahoo.net 36 Your daily dose of spiritual inspiration Contact WND Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10 Click here for reuse options! 2016-04-09 08:34 623Bytes www.wnd.com 37 Saudi Arabia, Egypt announce Red Sea bridge Contact WND (BBC News) Saudi Arabia’s king has announced that a bridge linking the country to Egypt will be built over the Red Sea. King Salman said in a statement that the bridge would boost commerce between the two allies. He made the announcement during the second day of his visit to the Egyptian capital, Cairo. Saudi […]... 2016-04-09 08:32 1KB www.wnd.com 38 Compulsive hoarder crushed to death under trash pile Contact WND (The Local) A compulsive hoarder was found dead under piles of garbage at his home in Spain on Thursday, local media report. The 51-year-old man, who lived alone in Alcabre, was found wedged between a 3-foot deep mound of trash and a door to his house, The Local reported. No signs of violence were found […]... 2016-04-09 08:32 1KB www.wnd.com 39 Romania sells communist luxuries of ex-ruler Ceausescu Romania sells off more luxuries from the vast collection of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, executed in 1989. 2016-04-09 07:07 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 40 Nariah Hunter flourishes at Victory Christian North Carolina's Opportunity Scholarship program is making it possible for Janet Nunn's 7-year-old granddaughter, Nariah Hunter, to attend Victory Christian Center School. VCCS is one of the biggest recipients of OpSchool money in the state. 2016-04-09 09:09 2KB www.charlotteobserver.com 41 Images of Love in a Place of Violence Images of daily life in Manenberg, South Africa. 2016-04-09 06:58 876Bytes abcnews.go.com 42 Sake: a spirit made from the spit of ancient virgins As the plane descends, I'm reminded that humanity won’t always rule this patchwork land Around the solid centre of the rice kernel, mystery builds. 2016-04-09 08:00 8KB www.newstatesman.com

43 Carson: Trump should read Bible, pray Contact WND (The Hill) Ben Carson says Donald Trump should read the Bible. “I would say read the Bible and pray, and learn how to put yourself in other people’s shoes,” Carson said when asked what advice he’d offer Trump in an interview with Rita Cosby on WABC Radio Friday. Carson said there are weaknesses in Trump’s […]... 2016-04-09 08:00 918Bytes www.wnd.com 44 Think papers' websites are gaining? Think again Contact WND (MediaLife) For a long time, people assumed the web was the future of newspapers. They figured readers would transition to papers’ websites when they began abandoning their print editions. They thought audiences for papers’ digital side would soar. But just as newspaper advertisers don’t appear to be replacing their print ads with digital ones, print […]... 2016-04-09 08:00 1KB www.wnd.com 45 Catholic Church: Pope Francis urges greater family understanding Pope Francis publishes new guidelines on family values, saying the Church should show more understanding for the realities of modern family life. 2016-04-09 09:07 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 46 Djibouti's Guelleh re-elected with landslide win Djibouti's President Ismail Omar Guelleh, in power since 1999, claimed victory on Saturday following a landslide win in an election boycotted by some opposit... 2016-04-09 07:57 3KB www.dailymail.co.uk 47 David Cameron admits: I had shares in offshore fund Amoris Laetitia: papal document on love and the family goes easy on divorcees; rejects abortion and contraception The Prime Minister has admitted that he and his wife had shares in Panama-registered fund Blairmore. 2016-04-09 08:00 7KB www.newstatesman.com 48 The shortcomings of Midnight Special highlight exactly what Steven Spielberg does right Understanding the boy who became Islamic State’s chief executioner – and his victims Steven Spielberg was evidently much on the mind of the writer-director Jeff Nicholls, whose new film harks back to the senior filmmaker’s golden age. 2016-04-09 08:00 17KB www.newstatesman.com 49 Huge leap to mass produced platelets Scientists have made a significant leap towards mass producing platelets - the part of the blood that forms clots. 2016-04-09 05:58 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 50 Quiz of the week's news The Magazine's weekly quiz of the news, 7 days 7 questions. 2016-04-09 05:57 607Bytes www.bbc.co.uk 51 Steve Clifford Post-game Steve Clifford discusses Friday's victory over the Nets. 2016-04-09 06:57 1KB www.charlotteobserver.com 52 Man rescued from California cliff after proposing to girlfriend A US man's romantic marriage proposal from a steep cliff face in California hits the rocks after he gets stuck and has to be rescued. 2016-04-09 01:58 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 53 11 New Restaurants for You to Try Right Now Get ahead of the pack and check these places out. 2016-04-09 02:09 4KB www.dnainfo.com

54 Indiana state trooper fired for proselytizing on-duty Contact WND (Indianapolis Star) A 14-year-veteran of the Indiana State Police was fired Thursday for allegedly proselytizing to people he stopped for traffic violations. The ACLU of Indiana filed a lawsuit this week against ISP Trooper Brian Hamilton on behalf of Wendy Pyle. The lawsuit claims Hamilton gave Pyle a warning ticket for speeding, then asked her […]... 2016-04-09 06:54 1KB www.wnd.com 55 Mars Science Lab launch delayed two years - CNN.com NASA's launch of the Mars Science Laboratory -- hampered by technical difficulties and cost overruns -- has been delayed until the fall of 2011, NASA officials said at a news conference Thursday in Washington. 2016-04-09 05:46 5KB rss.cnn.com 56 How old banks are learning from a new breed of tech start- ups As tech start-ups muscle in to financial services, banks are realising they have to team up or risk being marginalised in the new mobile economy. 2016-04-09 03:51 6KB www.bbc.co.uk 57 Pups on a plane: Man flies to save 49 furry friends As shelters in the Phoenix area overflow with animals, a surgeon and a lawyer had an idea: Transport pups to areas that have more demand. 2016-04-09 06:16 5KB rssfeeds.11alive.com 58 Yahoo - Yahoo to Participate at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (NASDAQ:YHOO) CFO will participate in a question-and-answer session at the Morgan Stanley in. The session is scheduled to begin on , at /... 2016-04-09 04:26 1KB investor.yahoo.net 59 Yahoo - National Association of Realtors® Sponsors "Now I Get It" Video Series on Yahoo Finance New Campaign Helps Demystify the Home Buying Process and Highlight the Value Realtors® Bring to the Consumer Journey --(BUSINESS WIRE)-... 2016-04-09 04:28 3KB investor.yahoo.net 60 Op-Ed: Bradley will be vulnerable to Pacquiao's attack after six rounds Timothy Bradley would be vulnerable to Manny Pacquiao's unrelenting attack after the first six rounds of their trilogy fight on April 9 at the... 2016-04-09 05:26 750Bytes www.digitaljournal.com 61 Footage of late Paul Walker test driving a Nissan Skyline GT-R emerges The allegedly lost footage of Paul Walker visiting Japan's Mine's Motor Sports was discovered by GTChannel during a move, and the company then posted the video on its Facebook page. 2016-04-09 05:57 4KB www.dailymail.co.uk 62 Microsoft releases tool to convert old win32 software to UWP applications Microsoft announced the tool that would give developers the means to easily convert classic programs to modern Windows 10 apps during two and a half hour 2016-04-09 05:56 1KB www.roundnews.com 63 CBS Chicago Find the latest national and local sports updates at CBS Sports Chicago. 2016-04-09 02:12 2KB scoresandstats.chicago.cbslocal.com

64 The Hidden Histories Podcast Why Turkey's president fears a Kurdish rebellion from the east Series One: The Great Forgetting: Women Writers Before Austen. 2016-04-09 03:27 11KB www.newstatesman.com 65 The end of the Spanish siesta? Spain's acting prime minister has announced proposals to abolish the afternoon siesta, which means the normal working day ends later than elsewhere in Europe. 2016-04-09 03:08 6KB www.bbc.co.uk 66 Former US House speaker Dennis Hastert accused of molesting four boys Prosecutors says Hastert sought to hide his abuse of a 14-year-old boy, which allegedly took place while he worked as a high school wrestling coach 2016-04-09 05:32 6KB www.theguardian.com 67 Claudio Ranieri maintains Foxes focus Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri insists he will remain calm despite the leaders being on the brink of reaching the Champions League. The Foxes could seal a to... 2016-04-09 05:21 3KB www.dailymail.co.uk 68 President Obama to Democratic donors: Donald Trump won't succeed me President Obama has some advice for Democrats who worry about the White House prospects of Donald Trump: Don't. 2016-04-09 05:26 1KB rssfeeds.11alive.com 69 Everything adds up for Edinburgh’s Fintech boom According to recent figures published by Innovate Finance, global investment in financial technology (Fintech) ventures has rocketed from $930m in 2008 to $12.5bn in 2015, with recognised tech clusters such as Edinburgh supporting London’s global dominance. 2016-04-08 19:57 7KB www.newstatesman.com 70 Livonia - News Livonia - News 2016-04-09 01:41 2KB rssfeeds.hometownlife.com

71 Asia Times News & Features – Asia Times Expedited leadership handover Nguyen Xuan Phuc was named as Vietnam’s new Premier by its outgoing National Assembly on April 7. Phuc, 61,... 2016-04-09 03:56 11KB atimes.com 72 Louisiana Tech baller posts picture of midriff to quash 'prego' rumor Ashley Santos, 21, a guard for the university's women's team, posted the picture to Twitter with the caption 'Rumors Squashed. Don't talk about what you don't know.' 2016-04-09 05:14 4KB www.dailymail.co.uk 73 Arrest made in connection with Acworth road rage shooting Cobb County authorities said one person was shot Friday night in a road rage shooting in Acworth. And now the suspect is in custody. 2016-04-09 05:01 1KB rssfeeds.11alive.com 74 Yahoo - Yahoo Appoints Two New Board Members --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced that its board of directors has increased its size from seven to nine directors and appointed the following two new independent directors, effective. With the additions of Cathy and Eric, the board returns to the size it was on , prior to the resignations of and Charles Schwab..... 2016-04-08 23:33 3KB investor.yahoo.net

75 Southerners split on 'religious freedom' laws A spate of bills across the nation, but especially across the South, has pitted religious freedom against LGBT rights. 2016-04-09 04:49 1KB rss.cnn.com 76 UFC legend Frank Mir flagged over potential anti-doping violation Frank Mir, an undisputed UFC legend who won the heavyweight title twice in his career has been flagged by the USADA over a potential drug violation from his last bout in Brisbane, Australia. 2016-04-09 04:43 3KB www.dailymail.co.uk 77 This Week in Pictures: April 2, 2016 - April 8, 2016 Find this week's top photos from around the globe in ABC News' This Week in Pictures slideshow 2016-04-08 20:01 737Bytes abcnews.go.com 78 Prince William and Duchess Kate Step Out Ahead of Their India Trip The life and times of the Duchess of Cambridge. 2016-04-08 21:09 855Bytes abcnews.go.com 79 Escaped psychiatric patient recaptured after two days on the run Anthony Garver, 28, a psychiatric patient ruled too mentally ill to stand trial for murder in 2013, was recaptured by police in Washington state on Friday night after running away to visit his parents. 2016-04-09 04:39 3KB www.dailymail.co.uk 80 Two Australian friends create video of catching sausages bread Nick Garrick and Jack Taylor, from Sydney, have proved they can catch sausages in just about any scenario including catching one thrown over a house. 2016-04-09 04:35 1KB www.dailymail.co.uk 81 Can electric shocks really make you fitter? Is an exercise fad which involves sending small electric shocks to muscles actually beneficial? 2016-04-09 03:17 5KB www.bbc.co.uk 82 Newspaper headlines: Archbishop's surprise and GPs' phone calls A mixed bag of Saturday front pages includes a surprise over the Archbishop of Canterbury's parentage and criticism of GPs' use of expensive phone lines. 2016-04-09 03:16 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 83 Will Rio be ready for the Olympics? With four months to go before the summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro there are concerns whether the city will be ready. 2016-04-09 03:16 699Bytes www.bbc.co.uk 84 X’s John Doe gets spiritual: “I believe in things that you can’t see acting on the way things turn out” Salon talks to the L. A. punk legend about his new album, being a Westerner, and why he'll always defend The Doors 2016-04-09 03:10 6KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 85 Giulio Regeni murder: Italy recalls ambassador to Egypt Italy recalls its ambassador to Egypt for consultations over the murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni in Cairo. 2016-04-09 05:25 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 86 Tourists join bareheaded protest against Iranian clothing laws Female visitors to Iran are posing for photos without the mandatory hijab as part of an online campaign. 2016-04-09 03:08 3KB www.bbc.co.uk

87 Yahoo - Yahoo Sports Partners With NHL to Bring Fans Free, Live Out-of-Market Games & On-Demand Premium Content No Cable or Authentication Required, Alliance Offers New Opportunities for Advertisers to Connect with Fans --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ... 2016-04-09 02:07 4KB investor.yahoo.net 88 Saving money by traveling during 'shoulder season' Whether you're contemplating a trip to Manhattan or prefer a relaxing vacation on the beach, this may be the ideal time to plan your next trip because of something called 2016-04-09 03:59 939Bytes rssfeeds.11alive.com 89 Indian lunar orbiter hit by heat rise - CNN.com Scientists have switched off several on-board instruments to halt rising temperatures inside India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft. 2016-04-09 05:46 2KB rss.cnn.com 90 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. 2016-04-09 05:46 3KB rss.cnn.com 91 Probing the cosmos: Is anybody out there? - CNN.com From a remote valley in Northern California, Jill Tarter is listening to the universe. 2016-04-09 05:46 6KB rss.cnn.com 92 Yahoo - Yahoo Board of Directors Forms Independent Committee to Explore Strategic Alternatives --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ( : YHOO) today provided further details about its previous announcement that its Board of Directors is exploring strategic alternatives alongside its continued consideration of a reverse spin. The Board has formed a Strategic Review Committee of independent directors to lead this effort, with the assistance and support of management... 2016-04-09 06:45 6KB investor.yahoo.net 93 BBC Radio Leicester couple Tony Wadsworth and Julie Mayer face child sex charges Two BBC Radio presenters are charged with sex offences against four children. 2016-04-08 23:23 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 94 The mystery of Republican women backing sexist Trump: They’re female misogynists who’ve grown to accept oppression Most women hate Trump, but some are all too happy to go along with his ugly views on women 2016-04-08 21:03 4KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 95 Patton Oswalt mercilessly skewers his own “Star Wars” obsession In the new trailer for his upcoming "Talking for Clapping" special, he outlines a hilarious hypothetical plan VIDEO 2016-04-09 03:10 1KB salon.com.feedsportal.com 96 Photos: Coachella 2015: Best of Weekend 1 - San Bernardino County Sun Media Center Best of Weekend 1 of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, CA. (Photos by Andy Holzman/Jennifer Cappuccio Maher/Watchara Phomicinda/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin) more 2016-04-08 23:35 826Bytes www.presstelegram.com 97 Amber Alert after dad is no show at drop-off An Amber Alert has been issued for an 18-month-old boy after his father was a no-show for custodial drop-off earlier in the week. 2016-04-09 03:45 1KB rssfeeds.11alive.com 98 Why has Cabbagetown become the new hot real estate market in town? ATLANTA (WXIA) -- Home sweet home. “It’s just this perfect little bubble in Cabbagetown,” said Sasha. “I absolutely love it here.” She and Justin bought a house here seven years ago. Now, they couldn't find one if they tried... 2016-04-09 03:43 1KB rssfeeds.11alive.com 99 Kitchen cabinet: Tony Abbott's office spent $15,000 on ministerial oven The commercial oven in the parliament house cabinet suite was installed in May last year to replace a 24-year-old one that was not repairable 2016-04-09 03:41 1KB www.theguardian.com 100 Rock Hill Applied Technology Center takes on 'rat rod' challenge A team at the Rock Hill Applied Technology Center has taken up a Charlotte businessman on his challenge to create a 'rat rod' car using STEAM instruction. Students and their instructors built the car from scratch using parts from other vehicles. It will be on display... 2016-04-09 01:58 3KB www.heraldonline.com Articles

Total 100 articles, created at 2016-04-09 12:04

1 Reuters: Top News - powered by FeedBurner (4.02/5) NEW YORK (Reuters) - U. S. banks are generally expected to post dismal results when their earnings season gets under way next week, but some analysts say to dig deeper: the fine print in the results, and what bank bosses say, could actually help these long-suffering stocks bounce back.

Reuters: World News - powered by FeedBurner feeds.reuters.com

Reuters: U.S. - powered by FeedBurner feeds.reuters.com

FOXNews.com - powered by FeedBurner feeds.foxnews.com Politics - powered by FeedBurner feeds.feedburner.com Jewish Journal News and Blog Feed - powered by FeedBurner feeds.feedburner.com 2016-04-09 05:34 feeds.reuters.com

2 Capture of Man Heightens Scrutiny of Psychiatric Hospital (4.01/5) The capture of a man found hiding under debris in the woods after he escaped from a psychiatric hospital where he was held because he was found too mentally ill to face murder charges comes amid heightened scrutiny of the facility. Anthony Garver, 28, was apprehended without incident Friday night in Spokane. Garver was taken into custody by law enforcement in the city, Washington State Patrol spokesman Todd Bartolac said. Garver escaped from the Western State Hospital on Wednesday after he crawled out a window of a locked, lower-security unit with another patient, Mark Alexander Adams, 58, who was caught the next day. The escapes intensified federal scrutiny on the hospital, Washington's largest psychiatric facility. Western State had already been under investigation for attacks on patients and staff and a failure to improve safety. Garver was charged in 2013 with tying a 20-year-old woman to her bed with electrical cords, stabbing her 24 times in the chest and slashing her throat, prosecutors said. He had been moved to a lower-security unit of the hospital after a judge said mental health treatment to prepare him to face criminal charges was not working and ordered him held as a danger to himself or others. Garver has a history of running from law enforcement, and Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich had strong works for state officials about the fact that he was able to make another run for it. "The state of Washington needs to get a clue," the sheriff said. "This cannot happen again. " On Friday, the hospital revealed another patient was missing. That patient, who authorities did not consider an immediate danger to the public, has not been found since failing to return from a group outing the same day the other two men escaped. The hospital did not identify the patient. The incidents did not appear related. U. S. regulators already were investigating a recent violent attack on a hospital worker and a patient-on-patient sexual assault at Western State Hospital. A workplace inspection released this week found a series of missteps that posed safety risks, including unlocked rooms, unattended items that could be used as weapons and workers who abandoned their posts instead of watching patients. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has repeatedly cited the facility over safety concerns and threatened to cut millions in federal funding. An agency spokesman says the hospital is under additional scrutiny over the escapes and recent assaults. Garver, who bought a bus ticket from Seattle to Spokane after he escaped, had last been seen on Thursday in the Spokane area where his parents live after his father called authorities to report his son had stopped by briefly. Authorities used SWAT teams, dogs and helicopters to search for him. Knezovich said two police officers tracked Garver with the help of a police dog and found him about 8:15 p.m. in trees above the home of his parents. Garver was hungry and dehydrated and receiving medical treatment before being transferred to jail, the sheriff said. Mark Alexander Adams, who escaped with Garver, had been charged with domestic assault in 2014. Like Garver, he was found too mentally ill to stand trial and a judge ordered him held at the hospital. State officials would not explain why Garver, an ex-felon with a history of running from authorities, was kept in a lower-security area. Some high-security units require patient checks every 15 minutes, but Garver was not placed in one, staffers say. "He was in a locked area with locked windows and hourly checks," said Kathy Spears, a spokeswoman for the Department of Social and Health Services, which oversees the state's mental health care. The history of violence at the facility stretches back years. Hundreds of employees have suffered concussions, fractures and cuts in assaults by patients, resulting in $6 million in workers' compensation claims between 2013 and 2015. Patients also have attacked other patients, causing serious injuries. Most recently, a patient with a history of violent behavior choked and punched a mental health technician on March 26, according to an internal report. A March 23 report said a male patient slipped out of his monitors and was found in a bathroom with another male patient, who said he was sexually assaulted. The hospital faces new scrutiny after the two attacks and escapes, said Steven Chickering, associate regional administrator of a division of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In addition, the hospital's safety and emergency management manager sent a memo to staff Thursday citing numerous violations observed during a recent review. Some of the problems involved how the hospital is laid out, "but they also observed actions by staff that could pose a safety and/or security risk," Pamela Rieta's memo said. Her team saw a patient wearing a long necklace, telephones with long cords, an unattended chair and other items that could be used as weapons left at the nurse's station, the memo said. Cabinets and lockers in activity rooms and kitchen areas were unlocked and unattended. Patients returning from ground privileges were not scanned for contraband. Several kitchen doors were propped open without staffers present, allowing patients to enter, the memo said. The team also saw staff leave their posts "to hang out and talk ... not observing the patients. " ——— Associated Press writer Lisa Baumann contributed from Seattle.

Murder suspect who escaped psych hospital found in woods nypost.com

Remaining psych hospital escapee captured rss.cnn.com 2016-04-09 03:49 By abcnews.go.com

3 Why politicians shouldn't do quizzes (2.01/5) This week, Zac Goldsmith and Sadiq Khan both flunked questions on a quiz about London - the city they hope to become mayor of in May. It's not the first time a politician has stumbled in this way. But does a politician's general knowledge really matter? Conservative candidate Mr Goldsmith was sitting in the back of a black cab driven by BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith when he hit a stumbling block. He did not know where Queens Park Rangers played or which Tube station came after Tottenham Court Road on the Central Line. Similarly, Labour's Mr Khan failed to name London's oldest museum (it's the British Museum) offering only "the history museum" as an answer - though he got the other questions right. And they were not alone in flunking the questions set by the Victoria Derbyshire programme. Green candidate Sian Berry scored two out of four and Lib Dem Caroline Pidgeon got three right. In fact, UKIP's Peter Whittle was the only candidate to score an impressive full house. So who are the other politicians to make similar slip ups? And which subjects are most likely to catch them out? The most notorious incident of a sporting slip-up was David Cameron's proclamation of support for West Ham , when he had always previously said he was a fan of Aston Villa, who also play in claret and blue. Ex-sports minister Helen Grant scored an unfortunate zero out of five when she was quizzed by ITV on head-scratchers including the identity of the Wimbledon Ladies' champion and the FA Cup holders. Labour's Luciana Berger, who represents Liverpool Wavertree, did not endear herself to Liverpudlians when she revealed she didn't know who Bill Shankly - Liverpool FC's legendary manager - was. She then made the situation worse by claiming she should not have been asked a football question because she's a woman. Whether it's getting your Tyneside and your Teesside confused or not being entirely sure where you're campaigning, politicians have often found their geography lacking. Ed Miliband couldn't remember the name of the Labour leader on Swindon Council in an interview with BBC Radio Wiltshire . Boris Johnson failed to name the Conservative candidate in the 2014 Clacton by-election and Conservative MP David Burrowes accidentally canvassed in the wrong constituency - only realising he was in Edmonton rather than Enfield South after knocking on the door of the wife of the then Labour MP Andy Love. It doesn't end there. Conservative Chloe Smith referred to Sunderland as "near Bolton" - when it's 142 miles away. Labour's Helen Goodman got her Ingletons mixed up , and Chuka Umunna mistakenly referred to Worcester as "Wichita". But perhaps the finest compass malfunction of all was that which befell Jersey Constable Steve Pallett when he flew to the wrong country entirely, landing in Budapest, Hungary, instead of Bucharest, Romania. It's also generally inadvisable for politicians to share what's in their shopping basket - despite Margaret Thatcher famously wielding hers to demonstrate consumers' dwindling spending power before the 1979 election. Ed Miliband was accused of underestimating the cost of his weekly groceries bill when he told ITV his family "probably spends £70, £80 a week" on the weekly shop. Mr Johnson was bullish after admitting he didn't know the price of a pint of milk , saying to Jeremy Paxman: "So what? " The prime minister was also given a hard time in 2012 when he claimed to have bought a pasty from a shop in Leeds station which had shut down several years ago. After geography, maths is surely one of politicians' least favourite subjects. Specifically times tables, with Chancellor George Osborne refusing to answer "what's seven times eight? " on Sky News. He was probably mindful of the ridicule faced by Labour schools minister Stephen Byers in 1998 when he incorrectly worked out that the same multiplication came to 54 (the correct answer is 56). Education Secretary Nicky Morgan balked more recently at being asked to calculate 11 x 12. But Mike Ellicock, of the National Numeracy project, says while times tables are important it should be part of a wider effort to teach the techniques and understanding of this and other aspects of maths. "When you put people on the spot and ask quick questions, it creates a physiological response," he says. "Pupils dilate and the heart rate rises, as people are waiting for you to get it wrong. We need a different approach. " Questioning a politician "can often be a bit like feeding a horse straw," says BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith. "They can chew it over and over for a vast amount of time without even blinking. "What they dread are the simple bread-and-butter, "price of a pint of milk" style questions. Why? Well, its very hard to prepare for them. Second, there's no scope to hide in a thicket of waffle. "But it's not just a question of placing the politician on the spot. In one question you can learn much more about a politician than any number of queries about their views on the economy or global warming. It gives you a sense of the person; what he or she knows about people's everyday lives. "Are they the sort of person who catches the Tube, watches EastEnders, or supports their local team? "Now, no-one expects them to get them all correct but even the way they answer can be revealing. Better to admit you haven't a clue than to fluster and bluster. "Is it unfair? I don't think so - if the questions are reasonably judged and the sort of thing you might expect your neighbours or work colleagues to get. "And in the era of the professional politician I would suggest these questions matter more than ever. " But should all of the answers be on the tip of an MP's tongue? Sean Kemp, former special adviser to Nick Clegg, says: "When someone is being grilled on topics outside their policy areas you can guess certain things are coming like the price of petrol or the price of milk, but in any broader interview it's difficult to anticipate what's coming because the range is so big. "It's slightly unfair really. You could easily think why should I pretend to be interested in football or Strictly Come Dancing if I'm not? " He adds that asking a candidate to be conversant with every football ground in London could actually be damaging to their campaign. "If someone can name every cast member of EastEnders, what does that say about his ability to be mayor? Nothing. And is briefing him on it really a good use of his abilities and time? " He recalls that during the furore over the 2011 Budget, he was tasked with asking various Cabinet members when was the last time they had eaten a pasty or a sausage roll - "one of the more surreal experiences of my career". Mr Kemp suggests politicians might win more fans if they play it straight and simply admit they don't know, or care. The message, then, to candidates is something along the lines of: wisest is he who knows that his wisdom is worth nothing. Just don't try to answer who said that. More information on who's standing in the mayoral and London Assembly elections. Politics - powered by FeedBurner feeds.feedburner.com 2016-04-09 02:27 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

4 Former Vanderbilt football player found guilty of rape (2.00/5) NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A former Vanderbilt football player has been found guilty of raping an unconscious student in a dorm. It took less than three hours for the jury of nine men and three women to find Cory Batey guilty of aggravated rape, two counts of attempted aggravated rape, facilitation of aggravated rape and three counts of aggravated sexual battery. Batey, a 22-year-old from Nashville, is one of four former football players charged with rape and accused of violating the female student in a dorm room in June of 2013. He was the only one on trial. The verdict Friday arrived as other colleges and universities across the country continue to face significantly increased scrutiny of sexual misconduct on campus, both by activists, lawmakers and the federal government. A jury last year convicted Batey and former player Brandon Vandenburg on multiple aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery charges. The verdicts were thrown out after Davidson County Criminal Court Judge declared a mistrial after lawyers discovered that the jury foreman had been a victim of statutory rape. Just like the trial last year, the retrial featured graphic images and videos of the sexual assault. Police said they recovered images and videos from the players' cell phones. Testimony showed that one of the players sent video of the assault to friends while it was happening. "Our first thoughts are with the victim and the incredible strength she has shown, and continues to show, both throughout the investigation and the legal proceedings," Vanderbilt University Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs Beth Fortune said in a statement. "Our heart continues to go out to her as she has endured this retrial. This case has had a lasting impact on us all.' The trial this week once again raised questions about bystanders in campus sexual assaults. At least five student athletes saw the unconscious woman in a state of distress but did not call for help, including several who testified that they saw her lying partially nude in a dorm hallway. In closing arguments, prosecutors told jurors that the woman was raped in the dorm room and then taken out in a hallway and left out there like trash. But they also said jurors had more than enough evidence to convict. "I've never had a case that was videoed and photographed by the people who committed the crime," Tom Thurman, one of the prosecutors, told jurors. Prosecutors said the dorm room attack lasted 32 minutes and it was Batey who was all over the woman once the players got her in the room. Batey testified that he had been drinking heavily, blacked out and couldn't remember the sexual assault. "There's nothing to show that Mr. Batey has a memory of anything," defense attorney Courtney Teasley told jurors in closing arguments. She called Vandenburg the "puppet master" and said Batey was the second drunkest person in the room and was being used as the entertainment by his teammates. She said what happened to the woman was bad but it wasn't rape. "We know what rape is and Mr. Batey's not guilty of that," Teasley told jurors She compared Batey to the victim and said both had blacked out. However, prosecutors maintained that, unlike the victim, Batey was walking around. The victim in the case testified earlier in the day, the second time in a year that she told a courtroom full of strangers what happened to her. When a prosecutor showed the woman a picture of herself unconscious, she broke down in tears and said: "It's me. It's me. " She was then a 21-year-old incoming senior. The woman, who graduated from Vanderbilt and is now in a neuroscience Ph. D program in another state, said she has no memory of the sexual assault. She testified that she woke up alone in a strange dorm room, feeling sick and not knowing where she was or what happened to her. She said she had been dating Vandenburg for about two weeks, and the last thing she remembered was him plying her with alcohol at a popular bar the night before. The woman discovered what happened after police showed her some of the images and video recovered from the cell phones. Nashville police got involved because Vanderbilt officials contacted them when school surveillance footage showed players carrying an unconscious woman in a dorm. Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Former Vanderbilt football player found guilty of rape (again) nypost.com 2016-04-09 12:03 Associated Press mynorthwest.com

5 3 rescued from remote island after using palm fronds to spell 'help' (2.00/5) Washington (CNN) The U. S. Navy and Coast Guard rescued three mariners from a remote, uninhabited Pacific island Thursday after a Navy plane spotted palm fronds spelling the word "help" on the sand. 3 castaways rescued – spelled 'help' with palm leaves Contact WND wnd.com 2016-04-09 07:48 Ryan Browne rss.cnn.com

6 North Korea boasts new engine for missile (2.00/5) Seoul, South Korea (CNN) North Korea tested a new engine for an intercontinental ballistic missile, according to its state-run news agency. CNN's KJ Kwon reported from Seoul and Madison Park wrote from the U. S.

North Korea 'tests long-range missile engine' bbc.co.uk 2016-04-09 07:36 K.J rss.cnn.com

2016-04-09 12:03 Yuji Vincent newsinfo.inquirer.net

8 California Getting Rain, but Not Enough to Ease Drought April showers are arriving in California as a series of low-pressure systems scoots through the state, but the rain totals won't do much to ease five years of drought, forecasters said. Light rain began falling Friday and showers should continue into Sunday, with a slight chance of thunderstorms. Downtown Los Angeles recorded about a fifth of an inch of rain on Friday. The chance of thunderstorms in the mountains and deserts prompted the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management to issue lightning safety tips. They included a suggestion to unplug electronic equipment before a storm arrives and a warning that rubber-soled shoes and rubber tires don't provide protection from lightning. The coast, deserts, valleys, foothills and mountains could see anywhere from a half-inch to 1 1/2 inches of rain as a Pacific weather systems moves over southwestern California on Saturday, when the heaviest showers will occur, the National Weather Service said. The brunt of the system wasn't forecast to hit Southern California until afternoon or evening. Even Northern California won't get much rain, however, and some areas of the state won't see much more than glorified sprinkles, according to predictions. Sports enthusiasts might be worrying, though. A wet Saturday could have implications for horses running in the $1 million Santa Anita Derby at Santa Anita Park in the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia as well as the Formula DRIFT auto racing event on the streets of Long Beach. Southern California could use any rain it gets. As of Friday, downtown LA had recorded less than half the normal 13.67 inches of rain that normally falls to date. San Diego has fared better, with a deficit of little more than 2 inches. While the El Nino warming phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean brought rain and snow to California this winter, most of those storms hit northern areas including the Sierra Nevada while bypassing the southern half of the state.

2016-04-09 12:03 By abcnews.go.com

9 Mumbai: After Shani Shingnapur 'victory', hope for Haji Ali crusaders With the doors opening for activist Trupti Desai and the Bhumata Brigade in fact, for women for entry into the inner sanctum of the Shani Shingnapur temple, the Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) is hopeful that women get entry into the Haji Ali dargah. Haji Ali dargah has stopped women from entering the inner sanctum of the dargah since 2011. file pic The BMMA, founded in Mumbai in 2007 has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court seeking entry of women into the inner sanctum of Haji Ali dargah. They have also demanded a ban on the practice of 'Triple Talaq' (verbal divorce). Noorjehan Safia Niaz from BMMA said, “The Shani Shingnapur happening is very positive. I am sure it will influence our PIL verdict as well. In February this year, we were told that our verdict would be announced in five weeks, we are still waiting. Hopefully, soon we will also get the green signal. Our case is easier since women were stopped from entering in 2011, women were allowed access t. Now, if the temple, which had not allowed women to enter for centuries, throws open its doors to them, then, the Dargah which has closed its doors to women for five years should once again open them for women. We can also expect good things.” Zakia Soman from the group said, “The Shani Shingnapur verdict is a huge precedent. I am hoping we also get a favourable verdict, before the court goes for vacation. Our battle is legally and theologically sound as Islam treats men and women equally. In the Kaaba in Mecca, men and women go as equals. The dargahs represent plural and liberal Islam. The banning of women was pure nonsense. Reasons like they distract men or that they are unclean and dirty were used to stop access. Till 2011, for almost 100 years, women were allowed into Haji Ali, after which they were stopped. So, we expect good news soon, too.”

2016-04-09 12:03 By Maleeva www.mid-day.com

10 FBI Shows New Images of Arizona 'Most Wanted' Fugitive There is no reason to believe that a suburban Phoenix man who disappeared after the 2001 slayings of his wife and children is dead, authorities said. Scottsdale police and FBI officials announced plans Friday to plaster age- enhanced photos of Robert William Fisher on digital billboards across Arizona as the case approaches its 15th anniversary. Fisher, who would be 54 now, has been missing since his Scottsdale home exploded on April 10, 2001, and the passage of time necessitated a new rendering of the suspect, who is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, authorities said. The agency had been publishing a photo of Fisher taken in 1999. "It's a difficult case to work because he's a loner," Special Agent Robert Caldwell said. "Loners are difficult to find. " Investigators still get tips about possible Fisher sightings — one as recently as last week. But the hope is an updated image will generate even more calls, said Acting Special Agent in Charge Justin Tolomeo. Authorities have offered a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to his arrest. Fisher is wanted on charges that include three counts of murder, arson of an occupied structure and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Authorities found the bodies of Mary Fisher, 38, and the couple's children, Robert Jr., 10, and Brittney, 13, in their beds amid debris in April 2001. All three had their throats slashed, while Mary Fisher also had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Based on interviews with friends and family, investigators believe Mary Fisher was making plans to leave her husband. But Fisher, a child of divorce, killed the family rather than allow a split to happen. Investigators determined the explosion was arson and triggered by the disconnection of a natural gas line. Fisher, who was 40 years old at the time, was seen the night before. Police said the family attended a hunting safety class while he shopped for camping-related supplies at nearby stores. Less than two weeks later, authorities found Fisher's abandoned SUV and his dog about 90 miles northeast of Phoenix near the town of Young. Believing Fisher was possibly hiding out in a series of caves, more than 100 officers conducted a manhunt of the mountainous terrain. The search was called off a few days later. Fisher was known as an avid survivalist, hunter and angler. Officials say he would be capable of sustaining himself. "Our theory is he wanted to start with a clean slate," Special Agent Robert Caldwell said.

2016-04-09 12:03 By abcnews.go.com

11 Dear Abby: Atheist family fed up with friends' preaching Recently, after I mentioned in conversation that we “weren’t religious,” they invited us to their church for service. I diplomatically declined, but it felt awkward having told the mom our non- beliefs. Since then, this family invites us to church constantly, and the mom routinely brings up Scripture while we’re talking. I feel like they are trying to convert us. I’m hurt that the respect we have extended to this family isn’t being reciprocated. It might be gentler if you told her that in light of the fact that you are an atheist, you find what she’s trying to do to be “hurtful.” Continue to politely refuse her invitations to attend her church. If she’s in the habit of quoting Scripture in normal conversation, you will have to grit your teeth and tolerate it. (Remember, we all have freedom of expression.) But I can’t guarantee that you will always remain as close as you have been, not because she’s hurt that you’re not interested in being converted, but because at some point you may find her behavior so annoying that YOU will end the relationship. That you would feel sad is natural because there is loss involved in the demise of your relationship with Mimi. And so that this doesn’t happen in your next relationship, I’m advising you to discuss this with a therapist. You have some grieving to do, and it would be better if you don’t do it alone. What teens need to know about sex, drugs, AIDS and getting along with peers and parents is in “What Every Teen Should Know.” Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U. S. funds), to: Dear Abby, Teen Booklet, P. O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054- 0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

2016-04-09 12:00 Abigail Van chicago.suntimes.com

12 Dortmund, Liverpool hit with UEFA charges Paris: UEFA have opened disciplinary proceedings against Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool after Thursday's 1-1 draw in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final in Germany. European football's governing body hit Dortmund with a charge of blocking stairways at their Signal Iduna Park stadium, while Liverpool face punishment after away fans set off fireworks inside the ground. UEFA also charged Sparta Prague with "crowd disturbances" following their 2-1 defeat at Villarreal in Spain. "These cases will be dealt with by the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body on 19 May," said UEFA in a statement. nip/cda/mw/dj

2016-04-09 11:25 By AFP www.mid-day.com

13 Israeli club ban reporter over racism row Jerusalem: A top Israeli football team has banned a left-wing newspaper from its press conferences after it wrote about the club's perceived anti-Arab stance. Haaretz daily has been highlighting the lack of diversity at Beitar Jerusalem since last summer, adding a sentence to every match report saying that they have never had an Arab player. Beitar, who have some notoriously ultra-nationalist fans, are currently third in the Israeli premier league. Haaretz reporter Dor Blech said they were the only professional club never to have had an Arab player, calling it "unacceptable". The club confirmed that Blech was banned from the press box for last Monday's game and would continue to be in the future. Oshri Dudai, spokesman for Beitar, told AFP the allegation repeated in every article was "out of context and not connected to the main issue". Blech said Haaretz had appealed to the Israeli football association and to league management over the ban, and was starting a legal challenge. In 2013, the Israeli Attorney General ordered the police to crack down on Beitar fans after they set fire to a club office in protest at the signing of two Muslim players from Chechnya.

2016-04-09 11:21 By AFP www.mid-day.com

14 Boxing: Fury-Klitschko re-match set for July London: Tyson Fury will defend his World Boxing Association (WBA) and World Boxing Organisation (WBO) heavyweight titles in a re-match against Wladimir Klitschko in Manchester on July 9, the British boxer's trainer and uncle Peter Fury announced Friday. Fury senior tweeted that the rematch would be confirmed later on Friday, saying: "(On) 9th July Tyson Fury vs Klitschko is coming to Manchester Uk. "Official announcement coming 12 noon (UK time, 1100 GMT). " Hamburg-based Klitschko lost his WBA, IBF, IBO and WBO belts to Fury on points in Duesseldorf last November as the Ukrainian suffered his first defeat in more than a decade. Fury, from Manchester, northern England, was stripped of the IBF belt for agreeing to face Klitschko in a re-match. Talks, however, proved protracted. Fury suffered a minor back injury last month and recently said that he thought the delay was due to Klitschko's hope he will gain weight in the time between bouts. "I think they think I will put on 10 stone and self-detonate, but that's not going to happen," explained Fury. "When I get the date, I'll go straight back in the gym and start working it off. "I've got a back injury. An old injury flared up when I went over to help Hughie (my cousin) out for his fight (on March 26). "I got taken to hospital and ever since then, every time I get punched in the back, it goes into a spasm, like a trapped nerve. It's a painful experience. "But, listen, when they announce the date, I'll be ready, back injury or not. " Fury's decision to opt for a re-match with Klitschko paved the way for Charles Martin to win the vacant IBF title when Ukrainian Vyacheslav Glazkov injured a knee during their bout in January. The American will defend his title against Britain's Anthony Joshua, an Olympic gold medallist in 2012, at London's O2 Arena on Saturday. This week has seen Fury and Joshua exchange insults via Twitter in the build-up to that world title fight.

2016-04-09 11:17 By AFP www.mid-day.com

15 IPL 9: Mumbai Indians hope Jasprit Bumrah delivers in opener against Pune Mumbai Indians bowling coach Shane Bond is hoping pacer Jasprit Bumrah carries his fine form in the recently-concluded ICC World T20 to the ninth edition of the Indian Premier League. Mumbai Indians' Jasprit Bumrah The T20 extravaganza kicks off at the Wankhede Stadium today where Mumbai Indians take on new franchise Rising Pune Supergiants. Shane Bond Bright spot “Bumrah was one of the best bowlers on show with the way he bowled for India in the World T20. And for us, it’s great to get him back with the form that he is in and also with the confidence he has. “He has got great skills and adds a great amount to our team,” said Bond. “He was coming into matches after a serious knee injury last year, so we didn’t see the best of him, but his development over the last year is a credit to himself and the hard work he has put in.” Pacer Bond, who troubled Sourav Ganguly’s Indian team in the 2002-03 series in New Zealand, spoke about the kind of planning that goes into games today. “There is a lot more technology in the game now, particularly in the analytical side of the game. It is about working out where and whom the batsman wants to target at some point of the game and what bowlers you want to bowl to a particular batsman,” he said. Bumrah, who made his international debut in Australia earlier this year, was tipped to do well at the World T20 by Sachin Tendulkar. “As far as the ‘game changer’ is concerned, I feel Jasprit Bumrah can be that man for India in the World T20. He has a deceptive action and may look slow but hits the bat harder than you can think,” Tendulkar said in a television show. Good man to have In 16 T20 internationals, the 22-year-old Bumrah has claimed 19 wickets, four of which came in the World T20. MI head coach Ricky Ponting too is expecting a top-class performance from Bumrah. “He was coming out of an injury in the last season and therefore he wasn’t at his best, but to see him where he is now, is a matter of pride,” Ponting said on Thursday.

2016-04-09 11:03 By Subodh www.mid-day.com

16 It's loud and clear: MNS violated noise norms at Shivaji Park rally Despite the MNS assuring a court that there would be no sound pollution at its Shivaji Park rally, the decibel level reading taken by activist Sumaira Abdulali from AWAAZ Foundation showed that the sound was louder than the limit of 50 decibels. Activist Sumaira Abdulali showing the high decibel reading outside Shivaji Park A Mumbai-based NGO had approached the court recently, saying the MNS should not be allowed to hold its rally at Shivaji Park as the area is a ‘silence zone’. MNS had assured the court that it would not violate the Noise Pollution (Control and Regulation) Rules, 2000. Before the rally, an MNS office bearer said, “We have told the court that we will not be using loudspeakers and will use sound distribution systems, instead, which is why there will not be any sound pollution.” But activists at the venue differed. Loudspeakers, drums and dhols raised the decibel levels considerably, they said. Abdulali told mid-day that the decibel level even touched 119.04 at one point. “But this was before the programme started. Once MNS chief Raj Thackeray began speaking, the maximum decibel level recorded was 85. When MNS leader Avinash Abhyankar spoke, the reading was 89 decibels.” 2016-04-09 10:54 By A www.mid-day.com

17 What HC order? Sena, MNS mar Mumbai with hoardings on Gudi Padwa Fines, warnings and criticism be damned. The Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena installed hoardings between Dadar Shivaji Park and Bandra, wishing people on the occasion of Gudi Padwa, in a blatant violation of the Bombay High Court’s order. Hoarding put up at Shiv Sena Bhavan in Dadar. Pic/Atul Kamble The HC has repeatedly asked political parties and BMC officials to ensure that no banners or hoardings mar the cityscape, but the festival turned out to be a poor excuse to break the law. The stretch leading to the Shiv Sena Bhavan junction was dotted with banners and hoardings of all sizes. Ditto the scenario near Shivaji Park, and the Western and Eastern Express Highway suburbs was not much different. The political parties also put up their flags on lampposts across the city. Mumbai has been reeling under the menace of illegal hoardings for several years now. After the HC rapped the BMC a few times, asking it to take action under the Maharashtra Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 1995, the BMC launched toll-free helplines — 1292 and 1293 — in December 2014 to report illegal hoardings. But these have been of little use; very few complaints have been registered through them. mid-day had on January 5 put the spotlight on the issue after the civic body appointed nodal officers in every ward to keep a check on hoardings. BMC speak An official from BMC’s licence department said, “We have been taking action against illegal banners and hoardings, but they are still being put up by political parties. On Saturday morning, we will start removing them.” SB Bande, superintendent of the department, said, “I am on official leave and, hence, cannot comment on the issue.”

2016-04-09 10:51 By Ranjeet www.mid-day.com

18 Unrest at NIT Srinagar: Outstation students demand 24x7 security cover on campus Srinagar: Local students at National Institute of Technology (NIT) have opposed most of the demands put forth by the outstation students, including that for permanent presence of central security forces (CSF) , saying it will make the campus vulnerable to disturbance. Students of Jammu University shout slogans during a protest rally against the police action on non-Kashmiri students. Pic/PTI In a memorandum to the team of Union HRD Ministry, the local students said the demand for permanent presence of central security forces at the institute could make it vulnerable to disturbances owing to political events outside the campus. “We are all aware of the volatile nature of Kashmir region. Presence of central security or armed security forces of any type will only make the campus (and subsequently, its students) vulnerable to disturbance owing to political events outside college,” the memorandum reads. “Let’s make this very clear. They are demanding the presence of armed security on the grounds of an educational institute. This is not acceptable here, or anywhere in the world. In the past, security forces used to reside in the hostel. This set a tone of hostility and fear amongst every student and parent,” a local student said. Cops hit back Mubassir Latifi, a SSP posted with the elite crime branch and Firoz Yehya, Deputy SP at Baramulla Headquarters — took to social media on Thursday to vent their anguish over the criticism against the state police for the action against the students in the wake of the unrest at the NIT. “J and K Police doesn’t need any certificate of nationalism or impartiality from those whose valour doesn’t extend beyond their keypads,” Latifi posted on his Facebook account. While Yehya wrote, “Many of my colleagues have been asking and many more must be thinking ‘whose war are we fighting?’ All I can tell them is that, this is just another phase and will pass. Further, JK Police doesn’t need any certificate...”

2016-04-09 10:44 By Agencies www.mid-day.com

19 IPL 9: Sunil Narine's clearance a huge relief for KKR, says Shakib Al Hasan Kolkata: The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) decision to clear the bowling action of West Indies spinner Sunil Narine has come as a huge relief to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), said Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan. Kolkata Knight Riders spinner Sunil Narine and Shakib Al Hasan Narine, who has played a key role in KKR’s success in recent years, was cleared by the ICC yesterday. The mystery spinner successfully underwent tests at the Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai on March 28 after spending months remodelling his action. The 27-year- old was banned last November after the ICC ruled his action to be illegal. “I don’t know what changes he has had now. But it is a huge relief for the team. He is a very important part of KKR. Every time KKR has done well he has had huge influence. It is a positive news for us,” Shakib said. The all-rounder, who bowls left-arm off-spin, said Narine will still be the leader of the spinning unit. “For Narine, I don’t think so the set back will matter too much. He is a world class spinner and everybody respect him. This time too he will be leading the spinning attack. He has always played a vital role for KKR,” Shakib stated.

2016-04-09 10:36 By IANS www.mid-day.com

20 Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier Tweet time with Tendulkar On Friday for exactly an hour, cricket fans on Twitter had an unbelievable experience, witnessing Sachin Tendulkar live-tweeting answers to their questions on the hashtag #AskSRT. The first question answered was about his favourite cuisine and his answer was that he loves his mom’s cooking. He also remarked that his own Baingan Bharta is something to try out. Pic/Bipin Kokate (Now wouldn’t we all love to have some of that?) Questions chimed in from friends and past cricketers such as Anil Kumble, Michael Vaughan, and sports journalist Piers Morgan. Shiva Thapa, Indian boxer, asked a question about facing pressure in light of his own preparation for the upcoming Rio Olympics. Sachin answered with warm, encouraging words, advising him to focus on the process and the preparation. “The results will come…we are with you.” The question that took Sachin by surprise was: “When was the last time you did something for the first time?” He replied saying that this way of connecting with fans was something he’d never done before. He answered questions about his love for tennis (he prefers Djokovic over Wawrinka), about memories such as the special Wankhede final of the 2011 World Cup and about Cricket All- Stars that he believes has greatly benefited the sport in the US. Wait up...there’s more coming Pic/Pradeep Dhivar Bigg Boss contestants Nora Fatehi (centre) and Mandana Karimi (right) reunited at Ritika Bharwani’s store in Bandra recently. Our own feral beast On Sunday, April 10, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge begin a four-day India tour, landing in Mumbai first. At the press briefing yesterday at the British Council in Lower Parel, the media was apprised on the schedule and how they would be able to cover the visit. The spokesperson got a glimpse of how feral (an unforgettable word bestowed upon the British media by a beleaguered Tony Blair in his lowest ebb) the Indian press pack can be, when the media started asking him about what exactly Kate would be wearing on her visit. “Any outfits by Indian designers?” he was asked. “We can’t say, this always evokes a lot of interest but we can’t say,” said the Briton. “Will she be wearing a sari?” asked another journalist. The answer was, “We can’t comment specifically but the Duchess does like to pay a tribute to the local people when she’s there, but we can’t say.” Yet the press persisted. “When can you tell us if she will wear a sari?” was the next question. The answer was, “You will know when you see her, wearing one,” to laughter all across. Well, so very stiff upper lip, really. But let us warn these Brits… Picture abhi bakhi hai. And while on the topic of the royal visit, this diarist also stumbled upon an amusing set of tweets that began to surface on social media last evening. From Karan Johar to Arjun Kapoor and Alia Bhatt (at the time of going to press), each of these celebs had posted identical tweets like: ‘Can’t wait for the Royal Gala Dinner’! So much for streamlining processes, Brit style! Move it like Dwayne Bravo Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi Fresh off his heroics at the T2O World Cup, Dwayne Bravo, shakes a leg along with Amit Tiwari at the opening of the 9th IPL edition. #jhakaas! The eternally youthful Anil Kapoor has turned out to be quite an entrepreneur. The actor will be a part of a new venture called Indi.com, which is an international video social network that allows artistes, brands and the like to connect with fans, specialising in video challenges. With direct connectivity, the platform also facilitates artistes to audition online, thus making it a medium to scout talent. More details about this as well as their expansion plans will be revealed on Monday. (Left-right) Raqesh Bapat, Surbhi Jyoti, Asha Negi, Riddhi Dogra and Rithvik Dhanjani at the premiere of their film held at INOX Malad Political thriller in January 2017 This diarist has always applauded the high quality of fiction and non-fiction writing from our neighbours across the border. Benazir Bhutto and Sabyn Javeri The most recent to join this talented club is Sabyn Javeri who comes with an impressive list of literary exploits including being shortlisted for the Tibor Jones Award. Come January 2017, and she will release a thrill-a-page political saga called Nobody Killer Her (HarperCollins). Structured like a courtroom drama, it begins with the assassination of a popular and strong- willed woman leader. A source revealed to us that the book is a loose fictionalization of the life of none other than late Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto. What with the heady mix of politics and family, this should be one helluva page-turner.

2016-04-09 10:15 By Team www.mid-day.com

21 'When I entered the sanctum of Shani Shingnapur temple' Manjusha was overwhelmed as she and her mother hurriedly drove up to the Shani Shingnapur temple yesterday. The 30-year-old physically-challenged resident of Bangalore was in Shirdi when she heard that women could enter the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. “I was asked to worship Lord Shani, but I never got a chance to visit the Shani temple. We were planning on visiting it on Saturday. But after we heard of the change in practice, we couldn’t wait. It’s like a dream come true.” Devotees gather at The Shani Shingnapur Temple in Ahmednagar. File pic/AFP M Jyoti, too, couldn’t believe her luck. The 36-year-old pilgrim from Hyderabad was staying put in her car outside the premises — as has been the norm in her family — while her male relatives were getting ready for a darshan when the huge rush at the temple and the police bandobust piqued her interest. “When we enquired, we found out about the change in tradition. We’re finally being treated equally,” she said. The end of the discriminatory practice, however, did not sit well with many local devotees. Shakuntala Shah (75) was furious at the change. “This is wrong. We need to follow our customs and rituals,” she rued. Many regulars did not turn up for the evening prayers in protest. Some grumbled — and even raged — over what they perceived to be an ill omen and harbinger of bad luck. Over 200 police personnel were deployed on its premises.

2016-04-09 10:11 By Chaitraly www.mid-day.com

22 Mumbai: With restoration on at Central Library, readers brave heat in shed The Central Library at Fort, within the iconic Town Hall complex has been closed since December last year. Restoration work is being undertaken by city-based heritage architect, Abha Narain Lambah and is expected to finish in August. With the magnificent library out of bounds, periodicals have been shifted to a makeshift tin shed, just a few feet away. People are reading in the shed, braving the heat, which is exaggerated because of the asbestos roof. Ceiling fans fight a valiant but losing battle against the merciless April mercury. The Central Library within the magnificent Town Hall complex Vijay Rikame, librarian in-charge of the newspapers and magazines, ensured that there was silence in the shed, when we visited. In fact, the only sound was the rustle of papers and books by students who were immersed in their books, studying feverishly for upcoming or ongoing exams. A tin shed now functions as a reading room. Pics/Datta Kumbhar The space in the shed is limited compared to the huge library. Jason D’lima, English Literature student at St Xavier’s College said, “Often, post 2 pm, all seats in the shed are taken as a large number of people traipse in at this time. Fans do dispel some heat but because of the asbestos roof, it is baking like an oven.” Priti Anand, a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph D) student said, “The staff has a tough time locating books when they are asked as the books are stored in a cupboard, unlike earlier, when they were on shelves and we could browse them ourselves, and, in the process find books that we did not know even existed! Now it has become troublesome. I have started using the David Sassoon library instead, even though I paid my membership fee here.” The strong sunlight, throwing its rays on the library door was not enough to illuminate a notice pasted on the door, stating that the library is closed for renovation. Nazia Pathan, Colaba housewife, trudged up several Asiatic steps before she could read the notice. She said, “They need to put up a bigger notice, probably near the start of the steps. I thought reference books were in the shed, it was only after I sat there that I realised that there were only newspapers and magazines inside and the books, available only to members now, unlike earlier, when non- members could refer to them, had been shifted inside.” Not everybody is unhappy though. Aman Khan, media student from KC College said, “This is the best place to refer to old newspapers — both Indian as well as international. They have a good regional paper collection, too. Even though work is on, that has not been disrupted my reading schedule.” Competitive exam students were aplenty, braving conditions in the shed. “Though the library is closed, they have this space for us to study. This is a blessing. I live in Vasai and my centre is at CST for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) exams. I prefer to come here and study as it is quiet, and close to my centre,” finished Raghu Bajaj, one amongst those who are making the best of the situation.

2016-04-09 10:03 By Maleeva www.mid-day.com

23 Mumbai: Railway Board left red-faced over CR's money minting plan The Railway Board isn’t too chuffed about riding the gravy train. It has pulled up the Central Railway (CR) for its plan to charge commuters Rs 10,000 per ticket to take the last DC (direct current) local on Saturday midnight and watch a live screening of the conversion from 1,500-volt DC to the 25,000-volt AC (alternating current) system. File pic mid-day had yesterday reported the CR’s grand plans for the conversion (‘Central Railway wants to sell last DC local ride for Rs 10,000’). Sources said CR officials faced the heat from the Railway Board for the “negative publicity” that came in the wake of their decision to turn the historic moment of conversion into a money- spinner. “Railway Board officials feel that we are collecting money for commercial purposes, which is not the case,” said a source in the CR. CR officials have claimed that the money raised through the sale of the tickets would go to parched regions of the state. Subhash Gupta, president of Rail Yatri Parishad and member of the Zonal Rail Users Consultative Committee, picked at this claim of benevolence. “If they are worried about farmers, then railway officials should contribute a day’s salary for their uplift,” he contended. SK Sood, general manager, CR, however, dug in his heels. “I want to reiterate that the money will be given to drought-affected farmers of Maharashtra,” he said. Rajiv Mishra, principal of JJ College of Architecture, which is handling the sale of tickets, said 57 commuters had made bookings for the expensive joyride. Conditions apply The Railway Board also set a few riders for issue of a condonation letter for the power upgradation on the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST)-Panvel Harbour line. A condonation letter allows railway authorities to skip stringent engineering rules on the grounds that they wouldn’t cause any accident or injure people. Sources said special rods need to be fitted on the 20 high-tension transmission towers which ensure that the supply of electricity on the CST-Panvel and Thane-Vashi rail sections is not disrupted. The CR will also have to conduct regular inspections and patrols. There are two road overbridges and as many foot overbridges on the Harbour and Trans- Harbour sections that still need height clearance for accommodating the AC traction. Sources said trains taller than 4,270 mm will not be allowed to ply on these stretches. The Railway Board has asked the CR to restrict the running of certain locomotives and coaches that fall in this category and also display the height limit before these bridges.

2016-04-09 10:01 By Shashank www.mid-day.com

24 Belgian Police Capture Paris Attacks Suspect Mohamed Abrini i Mohamed Abrini (top right) is seen with Salah Abdeslam in this image taken from a CCTV camera at a gas station north of Paris on Nov. 11, 2015. Wanted for questioning... Mohamed Abrini, who was seen in a car with terror suspect Salah Abdeslam two days before atrocity, has been detained Mohamed Abrini, a 31-year-old Belgian wanted in ... Click photo to enlarge FILE - This is an undated photograph provided by Belgian Federal Police shows Mohamed Abrini. Belgian authorities say several arrests have been made... The Latest on the arrests in Belgium of suspects related to the Paris and Brussels attacks (all times local): 5:50 p.m. Two Paris police officials have confirmed that a key... (From Reuters) Mohamed Abrini, wanted over November’s Islamic State attacks in Paris, has been arrested in Brussels, Belgian public broadcaster VRT said on Friday, adding ...

2016-04-09 09:45 article.wn.com

25 impact: Chembur pipeline repaired, trench filled Within hours of mid-day putting the spotlight on Tuesday on a colossal waste of drinking water from a damaged pipeline on Pestom Sagar Road 3, opposite Shoppers Stop, in Chembur, civic authorities not only plugged the leak but also filled the trench that had been flooded for nine days. Civic workers filled the trench and repaired the leaking pipeline right Businessman Rashmin Gala, who had on March 29 raised a complaint with civic officials that a trench dug opposite Krushal Tower in the locality got waterlogged each morning from a leaking underground pipeline, told mid-day that civic workers repaired the pipeline on Tuesday evening. “Residents are relieved that the leak was plugged. But why did they allow gallons of water to be wasted by not taking prompt action when I raised the complaint? At a time when Mahara-shtra is parched, every drop of water counts. Action should be initiated against those responsible for carelessly digging the trench and damaging the pipeline,” demanded Gala. Municipal councillor Deepa Parab said she had visited the site, along with BMC officials, after the mid-day report and ensured that immediate measures were taken to contain the leak.

2016-04-09 09:35 By Shailesh www.mid-day.com

26 ISIS' India strategy: Join forces with Maoists and target kaafirs The enemy’s enemy is a friend — so believes the ISIS. Investigations by several anti-terrorism agencies into the conspiracy hatched by suspected ISIS members in India have revealed that to pull off its sinister plan of waging a full- fledged attack against the country, the terror group had allegedly planned to join forces with Maoist groups. The plan was to approach Maoists for arms and ammunition procurement as well as arms training. ISIS handlers in Syria and Iraq also asked their Indian counterparts to build a force of ‘lone wolves’ to carry out fidayeen attacks. File pic/AFP Nearly 20 suspected members of ISIS’ Indian wing — Ansar-ut Tawhid fi Bilal al-Hind — have been arrested by various agencies, including the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the anti-terrorism squads (ATSs) of several states, in the last few months. Cases of most of the states, including one of the Maharashtra ATS — lodged in December 2015 after four youths from Malwani fled their homes to join the ISIS in Iraq and Syria — were taken over by the NIA. Crucial meeting Investigations by the Intelligence Bureau, the NIA and the Maharashtra ATS into the plans of Mudabbir Sheikh, the chief of Ansar-ut Tawhid fi Bilal al-Hind who was arrested on January 21, and Khalid Ahmed Ali alias Rizwan, the second-in command — arrested the day after — have blown the lid off a significant secret meeting convened in Lucknow late in December last year. Besides discussing strategies for carrying out attacks, the idea of taking Maoists’ help was also mooted by one of the top members of the group at the meeting, said sources in the Maharashtra ATS. The meeting was attended by eight members of the terror outfit, including Sheikh and Ali, Akhlaq-ur-Rehman, Mohammed Mehraj and Mohammed Azim — who were later arrested for planning a terror strike during the Ardh Kumbh Mela at Haridwar in January — as well as Mohammed Osama. “At the meeting, the suspects discussed joining hands with Maoist groups operating in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh to procure arms and ammunition, and also for arms training. Since, the Maoists, too, have an anti-nation ideology, the idea of joining hands with them was strongly contemplated by ISIS members,” said an ATS official. A few top members of the terror outfit had even explored options and identified jungles in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to train radicalized youths, said sources. Lone wolves The arrested suspected ISIS members also revealed that they had received instructions from their ISIS handlers in Iraq and Syria on building a force of ‘lone wolves’ who could individually carry out fidayeen attacks in various parts of the country. It was planned that once an attack was carried out, the ISIS from Iraq and Syria would take responsibility for it. “ISIS members were instructed to not only attack foreigners for global impact, but also ‘kaafirs’ (who don’t follow ISIS’ ideology),” said another ATS official. Mazgaon bizman chickened out One of the key suspected members of the ISIS, Mohamed Hussain Jamil Khan, revealed that he had refused to become a fidayeen. The 36-year-old businessman from Mazgaon had been under the scanner of the Intelligence Bureau for over one-and-a-half years before his arrest on January 22. “When one of the senior members in the terror group asked him why he didn’t want to become a fidayeen despite taking the ‘bait’ (oath taken on joining the ISIS), he said he had taken the oath to work towards ISIS’ aims and would do it by contributing to its funds,” said a source. Khan allegedly generated Rs 1.20 lakh for ISIS’ activities and accepted a delivery of explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) in Delhi to make IEDs. Scared of getting caught, he, however, flushed the explosives in a masjid’s toilet in Delhi, said sources.

2016-04-09 09:02 By Vijay www.mid-day.com

27 Spieth leads way from McIlroy at Augusta (CNN) Jordan Spieth clung on to the Masters lead at halfway Friday as arch- rival Rory McIlroy closed to within a shot to set up a classic showdown at the first major of season. Watch @McIlroyRory 's second round in under three minutes. #themasters https://t.co/SdAJGBxKkF In difficult conditions, @JordanSpieth stood strong and held the lead at #themasters for a sixth consecutive round. https://t.co/Bf07uZqb84 Get the popcorn ready Your final group on Masters Saturday. pic.twitter.com/2SxPqPM4Fm Watch two-time champion @TomWatsonPGA make par on his final competitive hole and say farewell at #themasters . https://t.co/kMEcfFE7S9

2016-04-09 08:59 Paul Gittings rss.cnn.com

28 Raj Thackeray makes much noise about new enemy Narendra Modi Seven years after he electrified the city promising change in his speech at Shivaji Park, Raj Thackeray returned there for his debut Gudi Padwa rally in the hopes of reviving his now beleaguered party. But while the MNS chief’s speech disappointingly lacked any new ideas, he certainly picked out a new enemy – his one-time favourite Narendra Modi. Thackeray invoked the ghost of his uncle and mentor Bal Thackeray, and recounted all that he had done for the Marathi manoos. MNS chief Raj Thackeray at Shivaji Park. Pic/Rane Ashish He began his speech addressing the recent controversy over the noise restrictions for the rally. “I am speaking after a long time on my home pitch, so I will start playing now. I asked the government to let me hold a rally on Gudi Padwa. Everyone gave permission, then someone went to court, and I was told noise shouldn’t be above 50 decibels. Outside the park, the traffic noise is above 100 decibels.” It didn’t take long for him to take a dig at long-time rival, Shiv Sena. He pointed out that the Sena had suddenly become more active after he announced his Padwa rally. “The moment the announcement was made for the Padwa rally, many other parties realised that there are days to be celebrated in Maharashtra and Shiv Sena started up putting flags too. So the rally is ours, and they are putting up their flags. This is what happens when people lack self-confidence,” he said. But he said he didn’t mind seeing the Sena’s saffron flags beside MNS flags. “When I see the Sena flag around my rally, I consider it a blessing from Balasaheb — he is telling me ‘I am with you’.” On MNS’ impact “They say MNS leaves its campaigns, I say, name one that we left in the middle. It’s because of our efforts that Marathi name plates are seen outside every shop now, and Marathi has been included as a language by mobile operators. It’s because of us that railway examinations are being conducted in the local language. Had we not taken up the toll issue, 65 toll nakas would not have shut down. When I could do that without being in power, I can shut them all, just give me power.” Instead, he attempted to turn the table on his detractors and attacked the Sena and BJP for leaving their campaigns midway. “What happened to Ram Mandir? What happened to the Jaitapur nuclear plant, taken up by Sena? They are in power and still keep complaining they have no importance. If you have no value, then leave the government.” On Modi He also took a potshot at the ruling alliance’s stand against Pakistan, particularly Prime Minister Modi’s brand of Indo-Pak relations. “If you oppose Pakistan then why is Samjhauta Express still alive? Modi visits the Pakistan PM on his birthday, and then comes back and abuses the same.” MNS chief Raj Thackeray thanks supporters at the rally. Pic/Rane Ashish Thackeray also admitted that he was once full of praise for Modi, and explained why he was speaking against him now. “When people ask me why I was speaking good about Modi earlier and now am bad-mouthing him, I point out media is doing the same. I did visit Gujarat and had then said that the kind of development he did in Gujarat is good, but still Maharashtra is number one. It was I who had first said that Modi is made for the PM’s post, when his own party men weren’t in his favour.” “But after becoming PM, you (Modi) have changed. You are doing the same thing that Congress was doing, so what’s the difference between you and them? So many foreign visits -- what happened to bringing acche din in 100 days? The jewellers association came to me protesting against the Modi government imposing excise duty on them. He (Modi) had opposed the same thing when Congress had proposed it. After meeting me, they went out and said, ‘Ek hi bhool, kamal ka phool’.” Bharat Mata row Thackeray also weighed in on the Bharat Mata row and said it was a non-issue being propagated by the RSS. “Now the issue of Bharat Mata ki Jai is being brought up, but let me ask you, before this, when was the last time you said it? We don’t use it in our daily life. To bring up this issue, they have used the Owaisi brothers who are financed by them.” At the same time, the firebrand politician also made it clear what his personal stand on the matter was: “He (AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi) said he won’t say Bharat Mata ki Jai even if a knife is put to his throat. Come to Maharashtra, I will show you.” A huge crowd turned out for the rally. Pic/Ajinkya Sawant He then took a swipe at CM Devendra Fadnavis who said those who don’t chant the slogan don’t deserve to live in India. “Before saying all this, do something for the state and country, and we will all proudly say Bharat Mata ki Jai.” He further added, “Why aren’t Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh residing in Mumbai being thrown out? Who are the true anti-nationals? The corrupt who gave away river water to private companies, because of whom Maharashtra is facing drought today, they are the real anti- nationals.” Marathwada row Thackeray said the Marathwada statehood row is a planned strategy but it’s not to be taken as a joke. “They say Vidarbha has faced injustice, it gave rise to three CMs and even the present CM is from there. So when all these people didn’t do anything for Vidarbha, how can you blame Maharashtra? Shivaji is from Pune and Jijamata is from Buldhana in Vidarbha. How can you separate son and mother? After Vidarbha, they are demanding separate Marathwada. If CM and ministers should vacate chairs of they can’t develop that area. If RSS wants division then divide Gujarat; but there they can do nothing.” “Places where there’s no water, only to please ministers sugar factories are constructed, sugarcane is being harvested, and beer factories are coming up. Farmers aren't getting water, but ministers’ fields are getting water in abundance. Farmers were dying before and they are dying now.” Selective diversity Thackeray also explained the diversity symbolised in the ‘rainbow’ colours of the MNS flag: “Some students asked me what is my opinion on Hindutva. I told them I am a Hindu, and in my flag, the saffron is for Hinduism, blue for Dalits and the green is for APJ Abdul Kalam and AR Rahman, not for the residents of Behrampada, Bhiwandi and Bhendi Bazaar.” On his anti- outsider policy, he claimed he wanted people to burn new auto rickshaws belonging to non- Maharastrians so that the corruption behind the grant of licences comes to the fore. He also targeted the Gujarati community and said Gujaratis in Mumbai had helped their native state after the Bhuj earthquake but didn't help Maharashtra after the during Latur quake.

2016-04-09 08:55 By Varun www.mid-day.com

29 Court: OK to call 'gay' hairdresser 'faggot' Contact WND (The Local) According to a shock ruling by a Paris employment tribunal, calling a gay male hairdresser a “dirty faggot” is not a homophobic insult, because there are lots of gay male hairdressers. The ruling, which emerged this week in Metronews, has sparked obvious anger among the gay community, who have been left stunned, not only by the judgement but also by the tribunal’s explanation. The ruling relates to the sacking of a hairdresser in Paris last year after he failed to turn up for work, because he was sick. Court overturns Puerto Rico judge's protection of marriage Contact WND wnd.com 2016-04-09 07:45 www.wnd.com

30 Obama backtracks on 'freedom of worship' vs. 'freedom of religion' Contact WND The Obama administration routinely has cited “freedom of worship” as a right protected by the U. S. Constitution instead of “freedom of religion.” It was early in Obama’s tenure that Catholic Online and other media outlets reported what appeared to be a deliberate misdirection regarding what the Constitution requires. Catholic Online noted that in President Obama’s June 2009 speech in Cairo, Egypt, he spoke of a Muslim America and the nation’s “freedom of religion,” but by the November 2009 memorial for the Fort Hood soldiers gunned down by a homicidal Muslim, he was terming it “freedom of worship.” From that point, “freedom of worship” has become the term of choice, the report said. But now the administration is backtracking, at least in one instance. Leon Rodriguez, director of the Department of Homeland Security’s U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said in a letter to Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., that the agency now is accepting “freedom of religion,” in addition to “freedom of worship,” as a correct answer to the question, “What are two rights of everyone living in the United States?” Lankford had asked for the change because of the agency’s use of “freedom of worship” on a naturalization test. “On June 26, 2015, I responded that there were no plans to change the naturalization test or study materials,” Rodriguez told Lankford in a recent letter. “Upon further consideration, however, we have determined that making this change is feasible because it is a change in terminology rather than an addition or deletion of test content.” Get “The Corruption Chronicles,” by Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, which describes “Obama’s Big Secrecy.” Lankford charged last year during a congressional hearing that the government was “misrepresenting” the First Amendment. “We in the United States actually have freedom of religion, not freedom of worship,” Lankford said. See his comments: “The questionnaire civics test,” he said, “has in it one of these things, ‘What are two rights of everyone living in the United States, and it listed out six different things: freedom of expression, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to petition the government, freedom of worship, the right to bear arms. I’d love to see ‘freedom of worship’ switched to ‘freedom of religion.'” Rodriguez’ letter said his agency was reviewing test study materials as well as Web content to reflect the change back to “freedom of religion.” “In accordance with agency policy, if the applicant’s answer to a civics question is an ‘alternative phrasing of a correct answer,’ U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers will continue to accept both ‘freedom of religion’ and ‘freedom of worship’ as correct answers,” he wrote. Lankford told the Daily Signal, “It’s one of those small, incremental victories.” Real consequences Sarah Torre of the Heritage Foundation said the difference is significant. In practice, the “freedom to worship” seldom has been challenged or even questioned. But “freedom of religion” is under direct fire. See WND’s Big List of Christian Coercion about this very topic. Just ask the New York landowners who were fined by the state for following their Christian faith regarding sponsorship of same-sex ceremonies, or the Oregon bakery owners fined $135,000 for the same thing, or the Colorado baker who is fighting for his economic future against state officials suggesting that he go out of business because his faith forbids supporting same-sex marriage. Then there was the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, established in 1869, which houses one of the world’s 20 largest pipe organs. It’s been the site of traditional and contemporary worship programs featuring speakers such as Billy Graham, Billy Sunday, D. James Kennedy and Charles Stanley. But it’s no longer is used for weddings, because a lesbian duo was denied permission to use it, and a state discrimination complaint was filed. The Hitching Post Wedding Chapel is facing demands from the city of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to perform “same-sex weddings” in violation of the owners’ Christian faith. In Washington state, a state judge said the home, assets and savings of Arlene’s Flowers owner Barronelle Stutzman, 70, could be targeted in court by two homosexuals for whom she declined to provide wedding services. ‘Troubling’ Early in Obama’s administration, Catholic Online noted that Ashley Samelson of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty explained that to “anyone who closely follows prominent discussion of religious freedom in the diplomatic and political arena, this linguistic shift is troubling: The reason is simple. Any person of faith knows that religious exercise is about a lot more than freedom of worship. “It’s about the right to dress according to one’s religious dictates, to preach openly, to evangelize, to engage in the public square. Everyone knows that religious Jews keep kosher, religious Quakers don’t go to war, and religious Muslim women wear headscarves – yet ‘freedom of worship’ would protect none of these acts of faith.” Catholic Online said: “Let’s be clear … language matters when it comes to defining freedoms and limits. A shift from freedom of religion to freedom of worship moves the dialog from the world stage into the physical confines of a church, temple, synagogue or mosque. … It … could exclude our right to raise our children in our faith, the right to religious education, literature or media, the right to raise funds or organize charitable activities and the right to express religious beliefs in the normal discourse of life.” In just the last few weeks, a new “uncivil war” has erupted over state efforts to protect religious freedom. “Gay” advocates are insisting that Americans’ religious rights must be subservient to their rights to alternative sexual lifestyles. Several states have outlined plans to protect religious rights, and the homosexual community and its corporate sponsors have erupted in rage. Proudly display your faith with a CHRISTIAN LIVES MATTER bumper sticker from the WND Superstore! Companies that denounced a recent Mississippi law protecting religious rights include MGM Resorts International, Nissan, Toyota, Tyson Foods, AT&T, IBM and Levi Strauss & Co., CNN reported Tuesday. “Bathroom bills that allow men to use the women’s restrooms and locker rooms are nonsense. A biological man should use the men’s restroom. How simple can that concept be?” said Mathew Staver, of Liberty Counsel, which has been involved in the fight. “The North Carolina law did not address employment in the private sector. The relationship between private employers and employees remains free of local government interference, and remains regulated by the state. If private companies want to provide additional policies, they are free to do so. People should read the law and stop the histrionics.” Cuba has ‘freedom of worship’ Rafael Cruz, the father of GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, also has raised alarms about the issue. The author of the new book “A Time for Action: Empowering the Faithful to Reclaim America,” he warns that a change to “freedom of worship” would be devastating for America if the policy and practice follow the words. “Most Christians don’t realize the danger of freedom of worship,” Rafael Cruz said in a recent interview on “Hagee Hotline” with pastor Matthew Hagee. “Freedom of worship is not the same as freedom of religion. Every Communist country around the world has freedom of worship. What freedom of worship means is you can worship inside a house of worship.” SPECIAL OFFER: Get an autographed copy of Rafael Cruz’s powerful new book, “A Time for Action: Empowering the Faithful to Reclaim America,” at a discounted price, from the WND Superstore. Cruz explained that even in his native Cuba a person can share the gospel inside a church. There may be spies present to ensure no one speaks out against the government, but congregants nevertheless have the freedom to go to church and worship their God. However, anyone who tries to spread the gospel outside the church building goes to prison. “So freedom of worship is to try to keep our message of the gospel just locked up inside the four walls of the church and remove any message of Christianity from the civic society,” Cruz said. “That will destroy the moral fiber of America, and that’s what’s happening in America today.” WND has published a Big List of many more violations of Americans’ religious liberties because of beliefs about same-sex marriage. It shows the Obama administration seems to be trying to move the United States away from freedom of religion. The interview: Bunning’s decision WND reported in 2015 a ruling from U. S. District Judge David Bunning appeared to advance Obama’s move to replace “freedom of religion” with “freedom of worship.” He ordered Rowan, Kentucky, County Clerk Kim Davis to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in violation of her deeply held religious beliefs, protected by the First Amendment. He noted she was able to attend the church of her choice and believe what she wanted, but she could not practice her religion in her job. A big list of prominent faith leaders also had joined to ask Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to fix the problematic document that references “worship” rather than “religion” on the exam for newcomers to the country. “We … write to you with deep concern about the wording of the answer to question 51 on the study materials for the civics portion of the naturalization exam. The question asks students to provide two rights guaranteed to everyone living in the United States, and listed among the possible correct answers is ‘freedom of worship.’ We write to you requesting that this answer be immediately corrected to the constitutionally accurate answer – ‘freedom of religion,'” the recent letter said. “We believe that the wording change we are requesting represents much more than a ‘distinction without a difference.’ Many totalitarian forms of government have allowed for the freedom of worship in their governmental documents but in practice severely restricted individual religious freedoms. The phrase freedom of worship, as it has been used throughout history, articulates an intentionally limited freedom that restricts a citizen’s rights to the four walls of a government-sanctioned house of worship and only for specific times and events.” The letter was issue by the Weyrich Lunch participants. The group is named after the late chairman of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation Paul Weyrich.

2016-04-09 07:45 Bob Unruh www.wnd.com

31 VIDEO: Rainiers debut wiffle ball park at season opener Got 59 seconds? Take this mini tour of Tacoma residents enjoying the first truly gorgeous day of the year. Port of Seattle commission president John Creighton talks about the importance of upgrades to the Port of Tacoma's Husky Terminal. Upgrades will eventually allow two post- Panamax class vessels to dock on the Blair Waterway at the same time. Tacoma City Councilman and board of health member Marty Campbell said Northwest Innovation Works ought to complete a health impacts assessment for its proposed methanol plant on the Tacoma Tideflats. Tacoma police use new technology to make composite sketches of men suspected of killing two Tacoma children in 1986. Previously the two crimes were believed to have been committed by the same person. Behind the scenes with trainer Candi Tollett, who helped owner John Parker finish second in the owner standings at Emerald Downs last season with 15 wins. Marc Jarrett, vice president of Pink Lung Brigade, talks about the new state regulations for vaping. Sounders coach Sigi Schmid talks about red cards in MLS. Washington Huskies quarterback Jake Browning talks about improving his deep throws at spring practice Monday, April 4, 2016. Longtime quarterback Jeff Lindquist discusses his switch to tight end this season for the Washington Huskies. Emily Oliver of Spanaway Lake High School is chosen as the 2016 Daffodil Queen at the Pantages Theater in Tacoma.

2016-04-09 08:00 www.thenewstribune.com

32 VIDEO: Fans eager for Mariners home opener Seattle Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano met with the media Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, at Spring Training in Peoria, Arizona. The Mariners opened spring training with the first day of workouts for pitchers and catchers at the Peoria Sports Complex. Mariners manager Scott Servais chats with the media about star pitcher Felix Hernandez and what this season holds for him. Washington Huskies head coach Chris Petersen discusses spring practice. Washington Huskies offensive coordinator Jonathan Smith discusses spring practice. Got 59 seconds? Take this mini tour of Tacoma residents enjoying the first truly gorgeous day of the year. Port of Seattle commission president John Creighton talks about the importance of upgrades to the Port of Tacoma's Husky Terminal. Upgrades will eventually allow two post-Panamax class vessels to dock on the Blair Waterway at the same time. Tacoma City Councilman and board of health member Marty Campbell said Northwest Innovation Works ought to complete a health impacts assessment for its proposed methanol plant on the Tacoma Tideflats. Tacoma police use new technology to make composite sketches of men suspected of killing two Tacoma children in 1986. Previously the two crimes were believed to have been committed by the same person. Washington Huskies defensive end Elijah Qualls talks Wednesday with reporters about his boxing background. Behind the scenes with trainer Candi Tollett, who helped owner John Parker finish second in the owner standings at Emerald Downs last season with 15 wins.

2016-04-09 08:00 www.thenewstribune.com

33 Chirp ‘N Chatter in Fort Mill to Close April 30 Twins Nora and Charlotte Bailey, 8, train for their next gymnastics competition at Thomas Gymnastics in Rock Hill. The sisters recently medaled at the S. C. Championships. After nearly 1,500 people attended the pre-selling events for Carolina Orchards, a new Pulte Homes project for adults age 55 and older in Fort Mill, the community officially opened recently. Unlike the other area Pulte community, Sun City in Indian Land, Carolina Orchards does not have its own golf course, but the community has a membership arrangement for residents with nearby Springfield to use the course and facilities there. The Fort Mill High School Marching Band hosted the public for a free concert to thank everyone for their support for the band's Marching to Normandy campaign. The band played the songs it will perform April 1 in Normandy, France, at a cemetery that holds the reamins of U. S. servicemen killed in World War II, including two from Fort Mill. Fort Mill's Full Spectrum Brewing Co. last week introduced its newest craft beer – the Reaper Roast Amber. The beer features coffee roasted in Fort Mill and the Carolina Reaper – the world's hottest pepper, produced by Puckerbutt Pepper Co., also in Fort Mill. Five of seven eggs hatched at Smart Kids Child Development Center in Fort Mill, with young chickens teaching 3-year-olds lessons on nature. Wild Women Unite, a weekend conference founded to introduce women to the outdoors, was held at the Anne Springs Close Greenway. Women participated in archery, kayaking, mountain biking, geocaching and outdoor cooking at the Greenway’s Adventure Road section. The Fort Mill Fire Department held a controlled burn Thursday at Anne Springs Close Greenway in Fort Mill. Liberty Balloon Company made a surprise visit Thursday morning to Fort Mill Elementary School. He brought a hot air balloon that was used to provide a school-wide lesson in STEM – science, technology, engineering and math. The student council at Fort Mill Elementary School dedicated its Little Free Library at Harris Street Park. A school book drive stocked it. There are books for younger and older readers, some from the school and some from people already using it. The Fort Mill Fire Department recently tried out new, battery-operated life-saving tools from four different vendors. The town will soon decide which ones to add to the department's kit.

2016-04-09 10:19 www.heraldonline.com

34 The Times & The Sunday Times Get the story behind the headlines with 12 weeks for £12 With analysis from Henry Winter, Mike Atherton and Stuart Barnes. Get the story behind the headlines with 12 weeks for £12 From the FTSE 100 to SMEs to entrepreneurs. Get the story behind the headlines with 12 weeks for £12.

2016-04-08 23:13 www.thetimes.co.uk

35 Yahoo - Introducing Fair Play on Yahoo Sports Daily Fantasy Yahoo Launches Key Changes in Daily Fantasy to Help Level the Playing Field for Fans Including Entry Limits, Labeling of Veteran Players and No Scripting --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced important changes to its Sports Daily Fantasy product to make contests more transparent and fun for all users. Changes include limiting entries to a max of 10 entries per user per contest (and in no event can a single user's entries make up more than 1% of total entries in a contest), clearly identifying Veteran players with a badge, and prohibiting the use of any type of scripting tool to upload or edit entries. "We first launched Yahoo Sports Daily Fantasy back in because it was an exciting addition to our product suite and because our users were clamoring for it," said , Head of Product for and Finance. "Yahoo Fantasy Sports has tens of millions of registered fans and we are making these changes today as the result of months of user experience and customer requests. values an environment that is transparent and trustworthy. We also want to provide the best Fantasy games for true sports fans. does both. " As daily fantasy continues to evolve, the labeling of a small percentage of "Veteran" players with a distinct badge is a key change that will make it easier for all players to know who they are playing against on Yahoo Sports Daily Fantasy. Veterans will be defined as users who have entered more than 1,000 contests within a single year, or who have entered more than 250 contests and prevailed in greater than 65% of them within a single year, or who have won a single prize of or greater more than three times within a single year. As a thank you to those users who have been so dedicated to Yahoo Sports Daily Fantasy, will be inviting Veterans to a special, free, invitation-only contest. has been a leader in fantasy sports for over 17 years. The changes made today will continue the tradition of fun and social user experiences that fans have come to expect from. is a guide focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining our users. By creating highly personalized experiences for our users, we keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the world. In turn, we create value for advertisers by connecting them with the audiences that build their businesses. is headquartered in , and has offices located throughout the , (APAC) and the , and (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the Company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com).

2016-04-09 09:21 investor.yahoo.net

36 Your daily dose of spiritual inspiration Contact WND Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

Man for the job Contact WND wnd.com Bagel break Contact WND wnd.com

GOP hostage taking in Washington Contact WND wnd.com

Jefferson on who decides constitutionality Contact WND wnd.com

Hatred in the Heartland Contact WND wnd.com

Minimum wage, maximum poverty Contact WND wnd.com

Stop being nice to leftist intimidators Contact WND wnd.com Venereal disease is nothing to clap about Contact WND wnd.com 2016-04-09 08:34 Daily Blessing www.wnd.com

37 Saudi Arabia, Egypt announce Red Sea bridge Contact WND (BBC News) Saudi Arabia’s king has announced that a bridge linking the country to Egypt will be built over the Red Sea. King Salman said in a statement that the bridge would boost commerce between the two allies. He made the announcement during the second day of his visit to the Egyptian capital, Cairo. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have supported Egypt with billions of dollars since President Sisi took power in 2013 following mass street protests. Saudi Arabia regards Egypt as a crucial partner in efforts to build a bloc of friendly Sunni Muslim states as a bulwark against growing regional influence of Shia-led Iran. U.S. Navy christens self-driving 'Sea Hunter' warship Contact WND wnd.com 2016-04-09 08:32 www.wnd.com

38 Compulsive hoarder crushed to death under trash pile Contact WND (The Local) A compulsive hoarder was found dead under piles of garbage at his home in Spain on Thursday, local media report. The 51-year-old man, who lived alone in Alcabre, was found wedged between a 3-foot deep mound of trash and a door to his house, The Local reported. No signs of violence were found on the body and it was removed by firefighters. The man reportedly suffered from Diogenes syndrome, which includes symptoms of hoarding and living in extreme squalor.

2016-04-09 08:32 www.wnd.com

39 Romania sells communist luxuries of ex-ruler Ceausescu For the fifth year running a Romanian auction house is putting up for sale diplomatic gifts and other luxuries once owned by ex-communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena. Nicolae Ceausescu held Romania in an iron grip as communist leader from 1965 to 1989. Anti- communist revolutionaries executed him and Elena in 1989. The sale items include a pen holder made of stag antlers and a scale model of the dictator's childhood home. There are also shoes that Elena wore. A pair of designer bespoke shoes with matching handbag, made by Guban of Timisoara, have a starting price of €500 (£404; $571). Another set is going for €400. A leather case used by Nicolae Ceaușescu to carry a double-barrelled shotgun on hunting trips is also up for sale. The Artmark auction, called "Golden Age", also includes communist medals, posters and other memorabilia from the Ceausescu dictatorship. It will take place on 19 April. An Artmark statement underlined the significance of Nicolae Ceausescu's model of his childhood home, which was in the village of Scornicesti. The dictator sought to turn the village into an ideal town for "Socialist Man", Artmark said. "So, in 1988, he began his plan by demolishing the traditional village houses and replacing them with apartment buildings, and changed the status of the place from 'village' to 'city'. However, the bulldozers did not destroy the leader's birth home. " Previously Artmark has sold a leopard skin, silver doves and a bronze yak that belonged to the Ceausescus. The couple surrounded themselves with luxuries while most Romanians struggled with poverty, power cuts and constant surveillance by the secret police.

2016-04-09 07:07 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

40 Nariah Hunter flourishes at Victory Christian Liquid asphalt tank on fire on Reames Road. The Ballantyne Breakfast Club hosted a discussion on CMS and the southern suburbs, featuring Matthews Mayor Jim Taylor, Rep. Bill Brawley, and school board member Paul Bailey. A number of Matthews residents had questions for Bailey about neighborhood schools and other topics. One of the suspects charged with beating a woman near the Saluda River until she lost consciousness was caught on camera during a previous fight, according to court documents. Arlinda Craft, 18, pleaded guilty to 3rd degree assault and battery in January after officials say she attacked another girl in November. (Family members of the victim provided the video.) A bicycle is a vehicle and, for many, an important means of transportation. Drivers should expect to see them on all roads. Produced by Karen Sullivan. Four students from Metrolina Regional Scholars Academy will compete in the LegoLand North American Open FLL Competition in Carlsbad, Calif. Transgender Day of Visibility Rally held outside the Charlotte Government Center on Thursday. Urban Ministry’s Room in the Inn closes for season Friday morning Kyle Hagel, the enforcer for the Charlotte Checkers hockey team, is fighting to increase literacy at McClintock Middle School through his Stick to Reading program and more recently a book club for boys. Dave Scott, staff veterinarian for Carolina Raptor Center, Charlotte developer Johnny Harris, and Kelsey Conroy, Rehabilitation Associate for Carolina Raptor Center, release a rehabilitated bald eagle in front of Quail Hollow Club at 3700 Gleneagles Road in Charlotte on Thursday, March 31, 2016 WBTV meteorologist Chris Larson with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for March 31, 2016.

2016-04-09 09:09 www.charlotteobserver.com

41 41 Images of Love in a Place of Violence Photographer Sarah Stacke has spent several years documenting families in the South African town of Manenberg. Her series "Love From Manenberg" focuses on the relationships in an area known for its gangs and poverty. Meezie Lottering, 6, is comforted by his aunt, Naomi Lottering. When this picture was taken Naomi, who primarily lives on the streets of Cape Town and is living with HIV, was staying with her sister Debby in an effort to take care of her health and change her lifestyle, Jan. 2016.

2016-04-09 06:58 ABC News abcnews.go.com

42 Sake: a spirit made from the spit of ancient virgins As the plane descends, I'm reminded that humanity won’t always rule this patchwork land Wine buffs praise its “body” and Catholics revere it as blood; still, nobody has yet credited wine with a heart. That honour belongs to sake, the Japanese liquor whose quality is measured in its closeness to a rice-grain’s starchy centre: its shinpaku , or heart. The more the grain is polished – that is, the more its outer layers are milled away – the better the sake, a liquid evocation of the “less is more” philosophy that seems entirely appropriate to the signature drink of a nation that has produced both the paper house and Marie Kondo. Around that solid centre, mystery builds. Nothing about sake is quite as it seems. This rice wine is no wine at all – rice is a grain and sake is brewed, like beer – and in fact, “ sake ” is simply Japanese for alcohol: a local would order nihonshu. As for sake’s status as a national drink, its birthplace was probably the Yangtze Basin of China, in about the 5th millennium BC, though it was the Japanese who refined that early potion into the elegant beverage we know today. That process, once again, is based on a lack – one as crucial for an alcohol as having a heart is for a human being: a lack of sugar. Without it, yeasts have nothing to transform into alcohol; deprive them of their dinner and we’ll have no drink. In grapes, sugar occurs naturally, and the grains in beer or whisky can be malted into sugariness. Rice cannot be malted without its husk – and husk removal, as we have seen, is the beating heart of sake creation. Almost seven thousand years ago, a bored or hungry peasant popped a grain of rice in her mouth and noted, as she chewed, an increasing sensation of sweetness: saliva, it turns out, contains an enzyme able to break down rice starch into glucose. How she got around to fermenting the soggy remains of her prehistoric chewing gum I have no idea, but her descendants took to the results with enthusiasm, allocating unmarried girls to help create bijinshu , or “beautiful woman sake”. And so, for many centuries, Japan’s famously delicate national spirit, served in ritualistic fashion to emperors, warriors and Shinto gods, was created from rice and the spit of virgins. These days, you’ll be relieved to hear, a special mould does the job, but the other essentials have not changed. Water is still the crucial component, as it is in all brews, from beer to whisky. The equivalent of soil for vines, it is believed to convey flavour, distinction, a sense of place, and breweries are as fiercely proud of the streams they turn into sake as an alchemist would be of the base metal from which he created gold. The dangerous tradition of heated sake also persists: how speedily and imperceptibly those miniature flasks empty! The subtler flavours of certain sakes are, however, spoiled by heat – and in any case, the precision of chilling may be better suited to the favoured tipple of a country that didn’t open its frontiers to Western sloppiness until 1853. In that year, Commodore Matthew Perry sailed in from the United States to “persuade” the Japanese to trade and treat. His success, coupled with the law of unintended consequences, enables me to drink a delightful, surprisingly light cocktail of Bourbon, genmaicha (brown rice tea) and sake at Pidgin, the funky fusion restaurant in Hackney, or sip Ine Mankai, a delicate pink sake made from red rice by a rare female master brewer, at the superb restaurant in Beechworth, Australia, that its chef, Michael Ryan, has aptly named Provenance. Gunboat diplomacy isn’t usually responsible for spreading love but Perry’s inroads have bequeathed the world the juice of a very particular kind of heart – a liquid hard to make and almost impossible to describe, but excellent in every sense at making its presence felt. Next week: John Burnside on nature It’s a strange feeling, as the plane descends towards Edinburgh and I can see the land all around for miles: the Pentlands dusted with snow on a winter’s day or, when we swing out over the Forth to descend from the north side, the Fife hills where I grew up, bright and sunny in the March light, as we come in from Berlin. Looking down on those hills, I can almost pinpoint where each old family member is buried, under his slab of masonry or her cheap stone angel, and I turn to my son in the seat next to me, ready to regale him with stories of his grandmother cycling to work in the 1940s, or the great- uncle who served in the Black Watch, home from the war with his medals and secrets – but he is engrossed in a magazine and, besides, he has heard it all before, one way or another. All of my family tales are used and touched with sadness: how the war heroes came home to the docks or the new construction sites, how the women did all the moral and emotional heavy lifting while their husbands turned to drink, or hid away in lofts and home-made aviaries, breeding songbirds and pigeons. Still, just as I turn back to the window, resigned to my solitary reminiscences, my son mutters something and, when I tell him that I didn’t hear, he looks up from the magazine and says, “People make me sick.” It’s apropos of something he has just read, I know, an item about whatever the latest environmental scandal might be, but when I raise my eyebrows to show that I’m all attention, Lucas just shakes his head and goes back to the article. By now, we are close to touchdown, so I let it pass. All the way home from the airport, though, I ask myself the question: is it acceptable that, at 15, my son feels that “people” make him sick? And is it acceptable that I cannot very convincingly disagree? When it comes to the environment, I’ve felt sick for decades at what I’ve seen people do but I’ve usually blamed that on “the system” and have chosen to see most people as preoccupied, as I am, with family and work and keeping things together – too preoccupied and worried about what tomorrow may bring to pay full attention to what all our tomorrows, however many there may be, will do to the environment. Still, there have been times when I’ve felt sick to the stomach at what is being done worldwide by “people” and I have felt a sense of present and impending loss that is not uncommon but also seems not quite enough to drive us to do more for the environment than the mostly cosmetic things we do now. At the same time, that aerial view comes back to me and I see the land again in my mind’s eye: pit towns, upland villages, cemeteries, old schools, buildings that were once libraries and are now awaiting the worst-laid plans of developers, yes, but also sheep trails and stands of pine, dark lochs and waves of wading birds drifting along the shore, stretches of edgeland recolonised by native plants and garden refugees, and even the odd plot of unbroken land that the old folk called a “De’il’s piece” (an offering to the spirits of the earth in that place and nothing to do with Satan, though the Christian Kirk never saw it that way). It is a patchwork and, for now, humanity dominates, but that has not always been – and will not always be – the case. Left to me, I would have the scales tipped the other way fairly drastically and I know Lucas would. But, as Yeats says, “All that is personal soon rots; it must be packed in ice or salt” if it is to be transmuted into something other than attachment, or dread, or feeling sickened by “people”. I wish I could persuade my son of what I sometimes convince myself: that even as I despair, the world is moving, in its mysterious ways and through a longer timescale than mine, towards a more lifelike condition.

2016-04-09 08:00 Salman Rushdie www.newstatesman.com

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200 unbound delegates could stop Trump Contact WND wnd.com 2016-04-09 08:00 www.wnd.com

44 44 Think papers' websites are gaining? Think again Contact WND (MediaLife) For a long time, people assumed the web was the future of newspapers. They figured readers would transition to papers’ websites when they began abandoning their print editions. They thought audiences for papers’ digital side would soar. But just as newspaper advertisers don’t appear to be replacing their print ads with digital ones, print newspaper readers aren’t transitioning to newspapers’ websites in this digital age. A new research paper finds that over the past eight years the websites of 51 major metropolitan newspapers have not on average seen appreciable readership gains, even as print readership falls.

2016-04-09 08:00 www.wnd.com

45 Catholic Church: Pope Francis urges greater family understanding Pope Francis has published new guidelines on family life that argue the Church should show more understanding of modern realities. The document , based on two Synods on the issue, was eagerly awaited by the world's 1.3bn Roman Catholics. Entitled "The Joy of Love", it does not change Catholic doctrine. But it opens the way for bishops in each country to interpret doctrine to suit their own culture, the BBC's religion correspondent reports. Pope Francis urges priests to exercise careful discernment over "wounded families" and be merciful, rather than judgemental. He criticises the individualism that has led many in the West to value their own personal satisfaction over the needs of their spouse. While saying yes to sex education, he argues it must be within a framework of education about love. The emphasis throughout is on better pastoral care: better preparation for couples on what marriage involves, and more understanding from parish priests and others for human frailty. The document is the culmination of three years' work by the Pope, who sent a questionnaire to families across the world asking them about their hopes and their fears. He then brought bishops and cardinals together for two Synods in Rome, at which he encouraged them to debate and even to disagree over issues that divide the Church in many countries. Among the most divisive issues are offering communion to the divorced and remarried, contraception and the treatment of gay Catholics. Our correspondent, Caroline Wyatt, says the lengthy document shows exactly where Pope Francis stands as he steps into the minefield of Catholic teaching on the family. This Papal exhortation treads a careful path. It reflects the debate between bishops and cardinals from across the world at both Synods held in Rome over the past two years. The Pope has not changed Catholic doctrine, as some had hoped, but he does open the way for greater devolution within the Catholic Church on issues such as communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. What he suggests is that bishops in each country can seek solutions best suited to their own culture, and he calls for better integration into the Church of those in what he calls "irregular" situations. Traditionalists, though, are likely to say that Pope Francis is opening the door to chaos in the future by suggesting that a "one size fits all" Church is not the way forward. Likewise, some liberals will be bitterly disappointed that there is not a greater welcome for gay Catholics - something Pope Francis was never likely to deliver. Liberals had hoped he would tell the Church to show a more merciful attitude to those whose families do not conform to the current Catholic ideal. Conservatives had maintained it would devalue the principle established by Jesus of marriage being indissoluble. At the conclusion of the Synod last year, Francis castigated Church leaders who, he said, buried their heads in the sand over the issue. He argued that their adherence to rigid doctrine was over-riding their concern for the suffering of families. The document, formally known as a papal exhortation, has been trending worldwide on Twitter under its Latin name, #AmorisLaetitia. In another development, US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders announced he would attend a conference at the Vatican next Friday. It was not immediately clear if he would meet Pope Francis himself. Back in 2014, before the Synods got under way, the BBC spoke to four Catholic families - in the Philippines, Brazil, Ireland and Ghana - about how their family values relate to the teachings of the Church. Ginggoy and Jill Lotho from the Philippines would like to see the Church loosen its restrictions on family planning. Louis Doe Atsiatorme from Ghana had to get a special dispensation from the Church before he could marry a Methodist.

2016-04-09 09:07 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

46 Djibouti's Guelleh re-elected with landslide win Djibouti's President Ismail Omar Guelleh, in power since 1999, claimed victory on Saturday following a landslide win in an election boycotted by some opposition parties in this strategic African nation. Friday's vote, which activists complained was preceded by political repression and curbs on basic freedoms, saw Guelleh winning 86.68 percent of ballots, according to the interior ministry. "The people of Djibouti have again entrusted me with the state's highest office," Guelleh, 68, said in a speech on national TV. "I have understood their hopes and will get back to work tomorrow. " Facing a fractured opposition, Guelleh had been widely expected to cruise to a fourth term in the tiny Horn of Africa country that has attracted the US, France and China as a prime location for military bases. The closest opposition candidate won just over seven percent of the vote in a race where some 187,000 people -- around a fourth of the population -- were eligible to cast a ballot. Some opposition parties had called for a boycott, as they had done in previous votes, but turnout was reported to be 68 percent. Looking relaxed and smiling, the head of state cast his vote in the centre of Djibouti City on Friday accompanied by his wife, saying he was "very confident" he would be reelected. - Opposition complaints - Several opposition candidates complained that their representatives had been turned away from a number of polling stations. "We demand that the government fix this and organise transparent, free, fair and just elections," independent candidate Jama Abderahaman Djama told AFP. With a population of 875,000 people, Djibouti is little more than a port with a country attached, but the former French colony has leveraged its position on one of the world's busiest shipping routes. It is home to Washington's only permanent base in Africa, which is used for operations in Yemen -- just across the Gulf of Aden -- as well as the fight against the Islamist Shebab in Somalia and Al- Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Guelleh won the last election in 2011 with 80 percent of the vote, after parliament changed the constitution to clear the way for a third term. Following parliamentary elections in 2013 which Guelleh's UMP party won, sparking furious opposition claims of fraud, rival parties demanded the creation of an independent electoral commission -- which has never happened. Opposition groups complained of curbs on freedom of assembly ahead of the vote, while rights groups denounced political repression and crackdowns on basic freedoms. This week a BBC team was detained, interrogated and then expelled after interviewing an opposition leader. Djibouti has launched major infrastructure projects aimed at turning it into a regional hub for trade and services, using money largely borrowed from China, which is planning to build a military base there. Despite the investment and perky economic growth, four out of five people live in poverty.

2016-04-09 07:57 Afp www.dailymail.co.uk

47 David Cameron admits: I had shares in offshore fund Amoris Laetitia: papal document on love and the family goes easy on divorcees; rejects abortion and contraception David Cameron has admitted that he and his wife, Samantha Cameron, had shares in his father's offshore wealth fund, Blairmore. The Camerons invested £12,497 in 1997, and sold the stake in January 2010 - four months before Cameron became Prime Minister -for £31,500. As the profit fell below the capital gains tax threshold, they paid no tax following the sale, though Cameron insisted in an interview with ITV News that the shares' dividends were subject to British income tax. In the interview, Cameron stated: I’ve been very clear about the future. I’ve said I’m not going to benefit from any family trusts. I’ve been very clear about the present: I don’t own any shares, I don’t own any unit trusts or any investments like that. I own two homes, one of which I rent out, and I have a salary as Prime Minister", but added. "I did own stocks and shares in the past, quite naturally, as my father was a stockbroker. I sold them all in 2010, because if I was going to become Prime Minister, I didn’t want anyone to say you’ve got other agendas or vested interests or all the rest of it. Cameron came to the defense of his father, who died in September 2010, insisting that he was not a tax avoider, saying: [A] lot of the criticisms are based on a fundamental misconception, which is that Blairmore Investment, a unit trust, was set up with the idea of avoiding tax. It wasn’t. It was set up after exchange controls went, so that people who wanted to invest in dollar-denominated shares and companies could do so, and there are many other, thousands of other unit trusts set up in this way. The fund, Cameron said, "wasn’t a family trust. It wasn’t for the benefit of one particular family; anyone could have bought units in it. And crucially, if you were a UK citizen and bought units in it, then you paid income tax on the dividends. " Cameron added that he would be happy for both him and the leader of the Opposition to publish their tax returns, saying: "whether we do it, you know, every year or starting now or going back a couple of years. Whatever. I’m very happy with that. " At midday today, Pope Francis released Amoris Laetitia, a document containing recent Catholic Church thinking on love and the family. It's an "apostolic exhortation", so not to be confused with a (more authoritative and weighty) papal encyclical, but it has been hotly anticipated thanks to its controversial subject matter. Exhortations are generally a round-up of recent Synod thinking, though following his last exhortation Francis was accused of introducing a distinctly "Marxist" spin of his own. As a result, some commentators were hoping that this release would be even more progressive - but they're likely to be disappointed. I've summarised some key points below. No movement on contraception Francis emphasises that sex should only be for procreation: "no genital act of husband and wife can refuse this meaning, even when for various reasons it may not always in fact beget a new life.'" This appears to draw back from Francis's recent (rather exceptional) suggestion that contraception could be used to avoid pregnancy during the Zika virus outbreak. ...or abortion and euthanasia Francis makes no allowances for abortion whatsoever in Amoris Laetitia. He even criticises the vocabulary of the pro-choice movement when he notes: "no alleged right to one’s own body can justify a decision to terminate that life" (emphasis mine). The pope also criticises state action on abortion and contraception: The Church strongly rejects the forced State intervention in favour of contraception, sterilization and even abortion. Such measures are unacceptable even in places with high birth rates, yet also in countries with disturbingly low birth rates we see politicians encouraging them. Elsewhere, he cites euthanasia and assisted dying as "serious threats to families worldwide". He says the church "firmly [opposes] these practices" but should " assist families who take care of their elderly and infirm members”. Gay people should be respected and defended from violence, but not marry Francis seeks to "reaffirm that every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity...while every sign of unjust discrimination is to be carefully avoided. " However, elsewhere he reiterates that the Synod has strongly opposed any redefinition of marraige - which includes same-sex marriage. On communion for remarried people In several places, the Pope acknowledges that "irregular situations" can make it difficult to stick to the letter of Church law: "It is possible that in an objective situation of sin... a person can be living in God's grace, can love and can also grow in the life of grace and charity, while receiveing the Chruch's help to this end. " In a footnote, Francis notes that this should extend to sacraments, including communion and confession, implying that those who have sinned through remarriage should be able to partake. He quotes a particularly cutting line against those with a more purist outlook: "The Eucharist 'is not a prize for the perfect, but a poweful medicine and nourishment for the weak". The need for sex education This is acknowledged as a section title in the document, which may sound impressive - but the Church has actually acknowledged that a "positive and prudent" sex education is needed since the 1960s. This, of course, would not include teachings on contraception. Francis notes that information should be given to children at the "proper time and in a way suited to their age". He criticises pornography as one of many negative messages that "deform" children's sexuality. Masculinity and femininity aren't rigid In a passage that still asserts God's role in creating two separate genders, Francis encourages families to be flexible with gender roles: "Masculinity and femininity are not rigid categories. It is possible, for example, that a husband’s way of being masculine can be flexibly adapted to the wife’s work schedule. Taking on domestic chores or some aspects of raising children does not make him any less masculine or imply failure, irresponsibility or cause for shame. " You can read the full exhortation here.

Watch: Scottish Liberal Democrat upstaged by a randy pig Amoris Laetitia: papal document on love and the family goes easy on divorcees; rejects abortion and contraception newstatesman.com Dear former doctor, here's why we're on strike Amoris Laetitia: papal document on love and the family goes easy on divorcees; rejects abortion and contraception newstatesman.com

It's not Panama that's hurting David Cameron. It's his pro-Europeanism Amoris Laetitia: papal document on love and the family goes easy on divorcees; rejects abortion and contraception newstatesman.com

Jeremy Corbyn's confident response to the steel crisis shows he's settling in for the long haul Amoris Laetitia: papal document on love and the family goes easy on divorcees; rejects abortion and contraception newstatesman.com Everything Bernie Sanders doesn’t know about his own policies Amoris Laetitia: papal document on love and the family goes easy on divorcees; rejects abortion and contraception newstatesman.com 2016-04-09 08:00 Salman Rushdie www.newstatesman.com

48 The shortcomings of Midnight Special highlight exactly what Steven Spielberg does right Understanding the boy who became Islamic State’s chief executioner – and his victims At the end of next month, BFI Southbank will host a Steven Spielberg retrospective, beginning with a new 35mm print of the director’s cut of his 1977 masterpiece Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I’ll return to the subject of Spielberg nearer the time but he was evidently much on the mind of the writer-director Jeff Nicholls, whose new film Midnight Special harks back to the senior filmmaker’s golden age. In this case, though, the shortcomings of Nicholls’s movie help throw into sharp relief exactly what it was that Spielberg got so right. Midnight Special begins with an extreme close-up of a peep-hole in a motel door, except that the glass has been covered with duct tape so that no one can see either in or out. Hiding in the dingy room are Roy (Michael Shannon) and Lucas (Joel Edgerton), whose faces we see in a TV news broadcast flickering in the corner; they are wanted for the abduction of an eight-year-old boy. It isn’t long before we see the “victim”: he’s sitting on the floor, reading comic books by torchlight beneath a white sheet. One minute in and already that’s two things we’ve seen covered up – the peep-hole and the child. When he emerges from beneath the sheet, his little face is overwhelmed by bulky headphones and swimming goggles. More concealment. The contrast between blindness and illumination, darkness and light, will be one of the recurring themes here. This child, Alton Meyer (Jaeden Lieberher), has a miraculous gift: his peepers are liable at special moments to emit a dazzling white light that produces in the observer feelings of love and comfort. He’s like a benevolent version of the villains in The World’s End , who release beams of light from their accusing eyes and O-shaped mouths. And he isn’t exactly being kidnapped. Roy, his father, has liberated him from the Third Heaven Ranch, where his enigmatic gifts have been exploited by a shifty preacher (Sam Shepard). Now the FBI and the NSA are in pursuit, threatening the trio’s attempts to make it to some unspecified site in time for a mysterious rendezvous. The outlaws travel by night. Alton sits in the back with his comics; “What’s Kryptonite?” he asks, which is dangerously close to an in-joke when your father is being played by General Zod from Man of Steel. Lucas is at the wheel wearing night-vision goggles. The headlights are off and we only know the car is there because we can hear its engine labouring in the dark. For a good half-hour, Midnight Special gets by on old-fashioned, tantalising suspense: we don’t know where Alton is heading, or the precise nature of his gift, and it seems at that point that the movie could be about almost anything. A couple of ambitious set-pieces (one at a petrol station, the other at the home of one of Roy’s associates) inflame magnificently the sense of magic, so it can only be disappointing when the film plumps finally for a common-or-garden explanation to what we’ve been watching. The cast members – also including Kirsten Dunst in a thankless role as Alton’s mother and Adam Driver as a slightly bumbling NSA agent – have quite the repertoire between them of awestruck reaction shots. But their goggle-eyes and gaping mouths can’t convince us that what we are seeing is visionary, any more than it could in Tomorrowland , another recent science- fiction adventure which also squandered an intriguing set-up. The film shares its title with the 1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival song that featured prominently in Twilight Zone: The Movie , the underrated 1983 portmanteau movie that counted Spielberg among its four directors. It’s not only him who looms over Midnight Special ; there are also strong echoes of Disney’s Witch Mountain adventures – Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) and Return from Witch Mountain (1978) – as well as John Carpenter’s bewitching Starman (1984). But it is the Spielbergian effect, where innocence feeds into wonder, which Nicholls is aiming for, and which he fails signally to achieve. I think I know why. The picture aspires to cast a spell of the same intensity found in Close Encounters and ET the Extra Terrestrial , but it doesn’t bother to do any of the heavy lifting that is required to pave the way for grandeur. The greatness of those earlier movies isn’t related to the scale of their spectacle. Rather it is the close proximity of the spectacular to the quotidian that makes them so wonderful. In Spielberg’s best work, miracles happen in between doing the housework, or while families are squabbling or falling apart. The stunning UFO shots in Close Encounters would count for much less were they not set alongside scenes of Richard Dreyfuss losing his mind among his noisy kids and his bewildered wife and his mashed potato sculpture. The best sequence in the whole film – the abduction of the child in the middle of the night – is rooted in the details of messy domesticity (the toys that spring to life on the bedroom floor) and the everyday mise en scène (the screws unscrewing themselves, the vacuum cleaner whizzing across the floor of its own accord). The same is true of ET. The title character may leave Elliot’s life in a shower of light but he enters it ignominiously, hiding in a cluttered shed on pizza night. Spielberg and his contemporaries (Scorsese, De Palma, Lucas, Coppola) are routinely described as the first generation of directors who grew up on movies and then fed what they had seen back into their own work. But their homages never overwhelmed their attention to detail; real life is always in there, muddled up with the layers of cinephilia. That is the crucial difference with Midnight Special , which is all movie. There is little in the film unconnected to its plot; it has no inner life. The actors try their damnedest, especially Shannon and Edgerton, but they don’t have any nuances to play – only notes that will move the plot forward, or amplify the implied awe. It might have been subtly different if Nicholls had started the film at an earlier point in the story, so that we had a chance to see Alton before he was snatched by his father. That might have provided an even more suspenseful opening, in which a child is abducted without the audience knowing initially the identity or intentions of his captors. But he’s on the run from the get-go, and there isn’t even time to make a pit-stop to, say, a crummy roadside restaurant so that we can get a taste of Americana to add flavouring to the fantasy. It is this obliviousness to the ordinary that finally prevents Midnight Special from achieving any specialness of its own. Midnight Special opens on Friday. Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Director’s Cut is re- released on 27 May. Of all the images issued by a group known for giving the world cinematic glimpses of horror and human depravity, few have become as enduring or indelible as that of an Islamic State executioner towering over his next victim. The sight of a masked murderer posturing with a cold, burnished knife is now depressingly familiar. Beheadings were common practice in the Syrian conflict from the start but they entered broader public consciousness once IS subjected the journalist James Foley – an affable, square-jawed American from New Hampshire – to this grisly fate. Newspaper editors across the world immediately applied themselves to unmasking the man known in the media as “Jihadi John”. Months of rumour and speculation finally ended after Adam Goldman and Souad Mekhennet of the Washington Post identified him as Mohammed Emwazi, a British man of Kuwaiti origin who had grown up in west London. What followed was surreal. An advocacy group called Cage organised a press conference and blamed MI5 for radicalising him. Between 2009 and 2012, the group had met with and represented Emwazi, who alleged that he was being “harassed” by intelligence officers who were trying to recruit him as an informant. Asim Qureshi, the research director of Cage, argued that contact with security officials had transformed Emwazi from a “kind, gentle, beautiful young man” into a murderer. Cage was widely condemned for its analysis; even the Prime Minister denounced the group’s comments as “reprehensible”. Cage responded by releasing the entirety of its email correspondence with Emwazi, thus revealing that he had also been in contact with Robert Verkaik, then a journalist with the Independent. “It quickly dawned on me that I was now the story,” Verkaik writes in his new book, Jihadi John: the Making of a Terrorist . “I started to feel anxious and excited at the same time.” He carefully dissects the issues and allows readers to draw their own conclusions about how a 26-year-old Londoner became the most hunted man on Earth. This is no easy task, considering how emotive and politicised the topic has become. Verkaik presents the case articulated by Cage: that here was an ordinary man who, were it not for the security services, would have been a flourishing, middle-class professional. He gives this idea more space than some would like, though it is satisfyingly debunked at frequent intervals. “It is clear that he [Emwazi] was much more engaged in Islamist thinking than he was prepared to reveal to me,” Verkaik writes, reflecting on their face-to-face encounters in 2011. Elsewhere, he reasons: “Emwazi was already on an extremist path before he had finished his studies at Westminster University.” The chief strength of this book lies in its exploration of the radical subculture in parts of west London, especially around the Westbourne Park area, from where some young men have ventured to Syria as foreign fighters. The web of influences is complex but Verkaik skilfully unpicks it, while losing none of the atmosphere that makes his book so readable and engaging. Context is crucial. It quickly becomes apparent that Emwazi was an established figure in a broader milieu of Islamists. Indeed, court documents show that five men he was connected to had travelled to Somalia in 2006 for terrorist training. This was a significant moment for the security service. Not only had home-grown terrorists successfully struck the London transport network the previous year on 7 July, but another group of men originating from the Horn of Africa had tried to repeat the atrocity just two weeks later. Only good fortune spared commuters on the second occasion. Verkaik alerts readers to these challenges but does not go far enough. By the time Emwazi’s friends had disappeared into Somali terrorist cells, the domestic terrorist threat was so severe that it jeopardised Britain’s diplomatic relations with the United States. In one significant plot, directed from the tribal areas of Pakistan, British radicals planned to destroy seven transatlantic flights using liquid bombs. “I think that the plot, in terms of its intent, was looking at devastation on a scale that would have rivalled 9/11,” Michael Chertoff, the then US secretary for homeland security, told ABC News. He estimated that thousands of lives would have been lost, and there would have been far- reaching economic implications. It was a watershed moment. Details of the plot came to light only after intelligence officials intercepted emails between the ringleaders, prompting a huge counterterrorism operation across the United States, Britain and Pakistan. The repercussions are still being felt today: travellers are restricted in how much liquid they can carry through airport security. In late 2012 or early 2013, not long after some of his west London associates were killed in Somalia, Emwazi went to Syria. By that stage, Western journalists were already treated as prized commodities, snatched by criminals and jihadis alike before being sold. IS collected most of these hostages and, encountering the testimonies of those whom the group released, we now know just how brutal their ordeals were. Many of their harrowing memories are included in James Harkin’s Hunting Season. While Verkaik takes his readers into the mind of IS’s best-known executioner, Harkin tells the story of those whom he tormented. There is little about Emwazi in this account but its purpose is different. Through an extensive series of interviews, most notably with the hostages and their families, readers are exposed to the sadistic culture that pervades IS. Hostages were sometimes forced to fight each other, for no purpose other than the pleasure of their captors. The loser in these bouts was then tortured. Foley was singled out for particularly barbarous treatment because his brother was a captain in the US air force. On one occasion, he was waterboarded after a failed escape attempt. These tales are not generally known beyond the small community of journalists and analysts covering Syria – and for good reason. When IS first released some Western hostages, it warned them against speaking publicly about their ordeal, vowing to inflict ever more punishing torture on those who remained if its demands were ignored. Brief accounts of the hostage experience were published occasionally but the convention was observed by most of the press. Similar blackouts were imposed on the circumstances of individual kidnappings – when people were taken, where, how and by whom. All of these agreements exist to protect hostages by neither drawing attention to their case nor exposing potentially damaging information about them. Harkin is aware of this, acknowledging: “Since kidnap investigations occur in real time, while the crime is still happening, one false move can make things worse.” This makes his book very troubling, not least because two of the journalists he discusses at length remain in captivity: John Cantlie and Austin Tice. Cantlie, a British journalist, has appeared under duress in a bizarre series of propaganda videos documenting life inside IS. Tice is a former US marine currently believed to be held by the Assad regime. Both have suffered terrible torture and their ordeals are ongoing. Harkin has drawn criticism for reporting on these cases in the past, for detailing the circumstances in which the men went missing. That was bad enough. Yet here he goes further, in one case repeating a highly inflammatory (not to mention false) allegation relating to Tice’s background. Though he accepts that the allegation is false, the manner in which he presents it could easily put Tice in even greater peril. The book is unsympathetic to the hostages, portraying them as naive or reckless. Peter Kassig is dismissed as “idealistic”; Steven Sotloff was “stubborn [and] rambunctious”. Both men were beheaded by IS. The accounts of Cantlie are even worse. Whatever his shortcomings, he is an experienced journalist who produced some extraordinary reporting in the early phases of the Syrian uprising. Cantlie was kidnapped together with Foley at the end of a trip to Syria as they headed back towards the Turkish border. Harkin recounts the moments leading up to their capture, concluding: “They’d grown lazy and complacent, and attracted attention where they should have been trying to blend in.” Cantlie is consistently portrayed as a maverick who had it coming. The families of these men have strong feelings about Harkin’s book – mainly that it should never have been written. Many of those who spoke with the author feel betrayed. These are grave errors for an otherwise accomplished journalist who writes seamlessly and is a gifted storyteller. John Cantlie is the last remaining Western hostage in IS custody that we know of, but in the past six months a new wave of kidnappings has resulted in more journalists disappearing into the black hole of Syria’s miserable war. Just as that procession replenishes itself, so does IS. Mohammed Emwazi was killed in a US drone strike in November last year but the group was quick to replace him with yet another British executioner in its next video. The hunt is on once again to find the new Jihadi John. Robert Verkaik appears with Andrew Hosken and the NS deputy editor, Helen Lewis, at the Cambridge Literary Festival, on 9 April: cambridgeliteraryfestival.com Jihadi John: The Making of a Terrorist by Robert Verkaik is published by Oneworld (302pp, £9.99) Hunting Season by James Harkin is published by Abacus (246pp, £9.99)

2016-04-09 08:00 Salman Rushdie www.newstatesman.com

49 Huge leap to mass produced platelets Scientists have made a significant leap towards mass producing platelets - the part of the blood that forms clots. The NHS and University of Cambridge team have discovered how to grow the body's platelet factories in the laboratory. It could provide a new source of platelets to stop heavy bleeding, for example after a car crash. But the researchers need to make the process more efficient before starting trials. If you donate blood, then it is separated out into red blood cells, plasma and platelets so patients are given only the component they need. Platelets are needed after trauma, surgery, leukaemia therapy and in some blood disorders like haemophilia. "We're totally dependent on blood donation to produce those platelets," said Dr Cedric Ghevaert, a consultant haematologist. His team has been trying to grow megakaryocytes - the platelet mother cells that live in your bone marrow and manufacture the clotting platelets. Their breakthrough, reported in the journal Nature Communications, was the discovery of a set of chemical switches needed to create megakaryocytes in the lab. Dr Ghevaert described their results as a "major step forward" and told the BBC News website that "the next big step is to get enough platelets out of each megakaryocyte". The lab-made cells produce around 10 platelets each. But each one functioning normally in the bone marrow would produce up to 2,000. It is hoped that recreating the same conditions as in the bone marrow could make the cells more effective. If the researchers are successful, then lab-grown platelets could be more useful than ones collected in a blood donation. Dr Ghevaert added: "We can modify the platelets so they can trigger the clotting even better which would have huge advantages indeed for patients who have had a crash or a bleed or even in soldiers who have been injured. " It could also allow doctors to have stockpiles customised to different patients. Platelets come in different forms just as red blood cells come in A, B, O and AB. And some platelet types, particularly those common in black and Asian ethnic groups, are relatively rare. Follow James on Twitter .

2016-04-09 05:58 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

50 Quiz of the week's news It's the Magazine's weekly news quiz - have you been paying attention to what's been going on in the world over the past seven days? If you missed last week's quiz, try it here Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

2016-04-09 05:57 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

51 Steve Clifford Post-game Charlotte Hornets coach Steve Clifford on the status of Cody Zeller and Spencer Hawes. Charlotte Hornets guard Troy Daniels on his recent up-tick in playing time. Charlotte Hornets forward Marvin Williams discusses his season after matching a career- high with 5 3-pointers Friday against the Detroit Pistons. Charlotte Hornets coach Steve Clifford on how trading for Tobias Harris improved the Detroit Pistons. Hornets' Jefferson on Rookie of the Year favorite Towns, the Timberwolves center. Nic Batum talks about the Charlotte Hornets' goals when and if they reach the playoffs Charlotte Hornets point guard Kemba Walker comments on coach Steve Clifford saying it's a surprise whenever Walker misses a shot. Charlotte Hornets guard Jeremy Lin talks about why he tweeted concerning stereotyping of Asians in a skit during Sunday's Oscars show. Charlotte Hornets coach Steve Clifford discusses the Hornets' slow start against the Atlanta Hawks Sunday. Hornets coach Steve Clifford on the matchup with the Atlanta Hawks.

2016-04-09 06:57 www.charlotteobserver.com

52 Man rescued from California cliff after proposing to girlfriend A US man aimed high when he decided to propose to his girlfriend - climbing a steep cliff face to pop the question via a video-app on his phone. Only Michael Bank's romantic gesture hit the rocks after he became stuck on his way down and had to be rescued. The drama unfolded on the 600ft (180m) high Morro Rock off California's Central Coast. The good news, his girlfriend said yes. The bad news, he now faces a hefty bill for his rescue. A helicopter had to be called to help bring the 27-year-old back down to earth. "He couldn't go any direction, on a sheer ledge, with his feet dangling 80ft (25m) off the ground," Morro Bay fire Capt Todd Gailey said. Climbing on Morro Rock is officially banned, though some people ignore the warnings. There have been several fatal falls over the years.

2016-04-09 01:58 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

53 11 New Restaurants for You to Try Right Now Open Since: February 2016 Type of Cuisine : Italian A cozy new eatery is bringing a piece of Naples to South Slope with homemade pastas to fresh burrata, seafood risotto and more. Nostro Ristorante , which recently opened on Fifth Avenue, is currently BYOB. Open Since: April 2, 2016 Type of Cuisine: Soul food The owners of nearby Brooklyn Commune are bringing Southern-style comfort food to Windsor Terrace with Butterfunk Kitchen. The menu includes soul food classics such as ribs, collard greens, fried chicken and cornbread. Open Since: mid-February Type of Cuisine: Beer and cocktails Sip on draft beers and Brooklyn-themed cocktails at the Dazzler Hotel’s new rooftop beer garden. The full service bar has eight beers on tap and offers cocktails like the Sunset Park (Baron tequila, triple sec, sour, jalapeno, orange juice), the Bushwick (Bulliet bourbon, lemon sour, pineapple juice, cherries) and the Greenpoint (Ciroc vodka, fresh lime, simple syrup, ginger beer). The beer garden is open from noon to midnight. Open Since: March Type of Cuisine: Viennese/Austrian Restaurateur Peter Grünauer, of the former Vienna 79, is back on the Upper East Side with a new bistro, serving classic Germanic fare as well as some new and refined dishes , like pan- seared sea scallops with broth, bacon and potato, the “Farmer’s Delight,” which is a classic choucroute garnie , with roast and smoked pork chop, bratwurst, double-smoked bacon and sauerkraut, and for dessert, Viennese chocolate cake, apple strudel and more. Open Since: March 2016 Type of Cuisine: Ceviche Tacombi’s still-new outpost on Bleecker Street just launched a new ceviche to-go counter just in time for spring. Open Since: End of February Type of Cuisine: Vegetarian, Vegan Grab your daily dose of fresh fruits and vegetables at Bed-Stuy’s newest vegan eatery. Natural Blend, which opened up its second location in Brooklyn, serves up a variety of fresh juices and smoothies, along with Jamaican-influenced dishes like ackee and codfish with breadfruit. Try vegan menu items, including stews and vegan citrus spareribs, curry chicken, and pepper steak, all made from soy. Open Since: Late March Type of Cuisine: Pizza From the owners of the Bensonhurst Italian eatery Europa, Piesmith promises Williamsburg residents custom-built pizzas with an array of delicious toppings and sauces to choose from all melted together in a wood-burning oven. Open Since: March 15 Type of Cuisine: Sushi/Japanese A new spot for sustainably harvested sushi is now open in Crown Heights. Chisai Sushi Bar took the place of the short-lived grilled cheese and sandwich eatery Morris on Lincoln Place off Franklin Avenue, opening in mid-March with a menu of maki rolls priced between $4 and $12, rice bowls with eel, tuna or chef’s choice of sashimi (between $9 and $16) and standards like miso soup, seaweed salad and edamame. All their seafood and fish comes from Greenpoint Fish & Lobster Co. and the Brooklyn-based organization Sea to Table that connects independent fishermen with restaurants. Open Since: March 25 Type of Cuisine: Italian The sister space to Vite Vinosteria, Vite Bar opened in late March serving Italian fare like lasagna and rice balls, plus panini, salads, cheese and charcuterie. The bar is currently open just for breakfast and lunch as it awaits its liquor license. Open Since: Late March Type of Cuisine: Chinese A fire started in a Barnard dorm extended to the Ollie’s location at West 116th Street and Broadway, forcing it to close last March; but the popular chain has just reopened in a new location about 13 blocks south. The restaurant chain specializes in Sichuan dishes. This location has an extensive menu, with standbys like lo mein and General Tso’s Chicken but also specialties for more adventurous eaters, like the pork stomach with salted cabbage or pork intestine with chives flower. Open Since: February 2016 Type of Cuisine: American When you’ve got a hankering for good old fashioned bovine protein (or your parents are in town) head to this Midtown East steakhouse to indulge. It's the second location for the establishment, which also has a spot at 237 West 54th Street.

2016-04-09 02:09 www.dnainfo.com

Pro-Trump Twitter accounts part of marketing campaign? Contact WND wnd.com Pro-abortion AG sent 11 agents to raid pro-life activist's home Contact WND wnd.com 2016-04-09 06:54 www.wnd.com

55 Mars Science Lab launch delayed two years - CNN.com WASHINGTON (CNN) -- NASA's launch of the Mars Science Laboratory -- hampered by technical difficulties and cost overruns -- has been delayed until the fall of 2011, NASA officials said at a news conference Thursday in Washington. The mission had been scheduled for launch in the fall of 2009. The Mars Science Lab is a large, nuclear- powered rover designed to traverse long distances with a suite of onboard scientific instruments aboard. It is, according to NASA's Web site, part of a "long-term effort of robotic exploration" established to "study the early environmental history of Mars" and assess whether Mars has ever been -- or still is -- able to sustain life. The delay of the launch, according to NASA, is due to a number of "testing and hardware challenges that must (still) be addressed to ensure mission success. " "The progress in recent weeks has not come fast enough on solving technical challenges and pulling hardware together," said Charles Elachi, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Changing to a 2011 launch "will allow for careful resolution of any remaining technical problems, proper and thorough testing, and avoid a mad dash to launch," argued NASA Associate Administrator Ed Weiler. The overall cost of the Mars Science Lab is now projected to be roughly $2.1 billion, according to NASA spokesman Dwayne Browne. The project originally carried a price tag of $1.6 billion. NASA's entire budget for the current fiscal year, according to Browne, is approximately $15 billion. According to NASA, the Mars rover will use new technologies and be engineered to explore greater distances over rougher terrain than previous missions to the planet. This will be done in part by employing a new surface propulsion system. "Failure is not an option on this mission," Weiler said. "The science is too important and the investment of American taxpayer dollars compels us to be absolutely certain that we have done everything possible to ensure the success of this flagship planetary mission. " Weiler asserted that, based on the agency's preliminary evaluations, additional costs tied to the delay of the Science Lab launch would not result in the cancellation of other NASA programs over the next two years. He did, however, concede that it would result in other unspecified program delays. Critics have charged that the delay and cost overruns associated with the Mars Science Lab are indicative of an agency that is plagued by a lack of accountability and inefficiency in terms of its management of both time and taxpayer dollars. "The Mars Science Laboratory is only the latest symptom of a NASA culture that has lost control of spending," wrote Alan Stern, a former NASA associate administrator, in a November 24 op- ed in the New York Times. "A cancer is overtaking our space agency: the routine acquiescence to immense cost increases in projects. " Stern charged that the agency's cost overruns are being fueled by "managers who disguise the size of cost increases that missions incur" and "members of Congress who accept steep increases to protect local jobs. " Browne replied in a written statement saying that NASA administrators are "constantly working to improve (the agency's) cost-estimating capabilities. ... We continually review our projects to understand the true risk in terms of performance, cost and schedule. " "The fact of life at NASA, where we are charged with creating first-of-a-kind missions of scientific discovery, is that estimating the costs of... science can be almost as difficult as actually doing the science," Browne said. NASA's most recent Mars project -- the mission of the Phoenix Mars Lander -- came to an end last month after the solar-powered vehicle's batteries ran down as the result of a dust storm and the onset of Martian winter. It had operated two months beyond its initial three-month mission. NASA officials had landed the vehicle on an arctic plain after satellite observations indicated there were vast quantities of frozen water in that area, most likely in the form of permafrost. They thought such a location would be a promising place to look for organic chemicals that would signal a habitable environment. Scientists were able to verify the presence of water-ice in the Martian subsurface, find small concentrations of salts that could be nutrients for life, and observe snow descending from the clouds, NASA said Thursday.

2016-04-09 05:46 Alan Silverleib rss.cnn.com

56 How old banks are learning from a new breed of tech start- ups Banks around the world are realising that in the rapidly developing world of smartphones and apps they are at risk of falling behind in the innovation race. Fresh-faced financial technology start-ups (fintechs) are coming up with new mobile-first services - payments, loans, money transfers, digital currencies - and threatening to steal customers, particularly younger ones. Investment bank Goldman Sachs estimates that $4.7tn (£3.3tn; €4.1tn) in revenue for traditional financial services is at risk of being displaced by these fintech upstarts. "From Amazon's transformation of the retail sector, to Uber's revolution in personal transportation, banks are taking heed of what is happening in other industries," says Mohit Joshi, global head of financial services at tech consultancy, Infosys. "The biggest banking market challenge is coming not from challenger banks, but from fintech start-ups. " This is why many old banks have been flirting with younger models in an effort to stay hip. But are such apparently mismatched relationships doomed to failure? At the southern tip of Africa, in Cape Town, global banking giant Barclays is busy developing a secret tech solution to make it easier for consumers to make payments online. But it has called on the expertise of local tech start-up Peach Payments to help, and the two are working on a product aiming to change the way people transact online in emerging markets. Rahul Jain, co-founder of Peach Payments, says: "We are helping them actually design the product since we have the feedback from the market and understand e-commerce from the perspective of the merchant and the consumer. 'Invaluable feedback' "This is invaluable feedback which the bank doesn't have normally. " From the bank's point of view, "it's about recognising that not all innovation has to happen within our own four walls," says Lubaina Manji, head of Barclays' group innovation office. "There is a talented and vibrant start-up community globally, which Barclays can work with to co- create the future of financial services. " Peach Payments was one of 10 start-ups to participate in a 13-week Tech Lab Africa accelerator programme hosted by Barclays in Cape Town in December. The bank also runs programmes and hubs in the UK, USA, and Israel, and has plans to launch activities in India and Lithuania. Another start-up taking part in the programme was Nigerian firm Aella Credit , which has built an instant loan approval and payment platform that relies on data analytics to identify creditworthy borrowers. Aella Credit director Akinola Jones says his firm has remained in constant communication with Barclays' innovation team since taking part in the programme. But sceptics will point out that Barclays' recent decision to sell its Africa operations shows that such partnerships may be more to do with playing catch-up than leading from the front. All those attractive fintech start-ups may appear tempting, but there is no consensus among the big beasts on the best way to get a piece of the action. Some banks, such as Santander, National Bank of Australia and Citigroup, are providing venture funding and seed investments for fintechs. Others, such as Barclays, Bank of America, and Sberbank, are creating or partnering with start- up incubator programmes. Others still, like Spain's BBVA, are simply buying them up. "We're yet to see which type of approach will prove the most fruitful, but industry experts are unanimous in their belief that those banks which bury their heads in the sand and fail to acknowledge the impact of fintechs are putting their entire business at risk," says Vincent Bastid, chief executive of Efma , a research and networking organisation for financial institutions. Efma has just produced a report looking at the impact of fintechs on the established financial services industry. In a similar example, French bank BNP Paribas has linked up with Swiss fintech accelerator, Fusion - a partnership the bank says is "at the heart" of its digitisation plan. Based in Geneva, Fusion takes on 10 start-ups each year, and puts them through a 12-month intensive programme of mentoring, funding, and access to markets. Kim Potvin, chief operating officer at BNP Paribas (Suisse), believes the partnership is already yielding tangible results, and will help its Swiss arm become "a leading player in the financial services of the future. " Fusion's programme director Sebastien Flury describes the partnership as a "win-win" situation, with benefits for banks and start-ups alike. But if all this sounds a little too cosy, entrepreneur Daniel Doderlein, chief executive of Norwegian cloud-based mobile payments platform Auka, has this stark warning for fellow fintech start-ups. "If you partner with banks too early on, they can basically poison the well for you - you effectively become a consultant. They take the air out of the innovation balloon and the project dies instantly. " By building his own platform, mCash, and establishing a consumer business first, Mr Doderlein found he was then able to sell it to initially sceptical banks from a position of strength. Norway's Sparebank 1 bought the mCash business in October last year. And Gareth Mellon of research firm Frost & Sullivan warns that the jury is out on just how effective such partnerships are. Many are purely "defensive strategies" by the banks, he says, and have proved difficult to integrate within existing business models. "While fintechs have brought heightened innovation, they remain limited in their scope and, in many ways, are forced to rely upon the established players to ensure market adoption," says Mr Mellon. Perhaps the biggest threat to banks, in Europe at least, is the European Commission's forthcoming Payment Services Directive 2 , due to come into force early in 2018. This aims to open up electronic payments to more competition by forcing banks to open up their IT systems to new entrants, thus encouraging innovation. "If you don't provide a mobile payments app to your customers, your risk being marginalised," says Mr Doderlein. "It's going to be a bloodbath. " Perhaps the banks need tech start-ups more than tech start-ups need the banks. Follow Technology of Business editor @matthew_wall on Twitter .

2016-04-09 03:51 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

57 Pups on a plane: Man flies to save 49 furry friends PHOENIX — As shelters in the Phoenix area overflow with animals, a surgeon and a lawyer had an idea: Transport pups to areas that have more demand. The problem is that Phoenix, which has recorded a temperature as high as 122 degrees, is as much as 1,000 miles from many of those places. "Chihuahuas and pit bulls and cats are the most populated pets in Maricopa County," said outreach manager Erin Denmark of with HALO Animal Rescue, a Phoenix-based no-kill shelter. Finding a Chihuahua a home outside Arizona is easier than here because fewer are available for adoption elsewhere. In 2012, lawyer Judy Zimet of Scottsdale, Ariz., and Dr. Peter Rork, a retired surgeon from Wyoming, decided to tackle this supply-and- demand problem. Zimet listened as Rork told her that his wife had died and he didn't want to work as an orthopedic surgeon anymore. “He called me and said, ‘I don’t have the heart for this anymore. I just want to fly my airplane and save animals,' ” Zimet said. The plan was to turn Rork's small Cessna plane into a lifesaving vessel for dogs and cats at risk for euthanasia. They named the animal-rescue venture Dog Is My CoPilot because Rork liked to think of his own shelter black Labrador retriever, Doyle, as his canine co-pilot. Zimet started searching for shelters willing to promise to keep animals until they found each one a home. “It’s just an incredible opportunity to bring happiness, as corny as that sounds.” “We also have them sign an agreement that no animals will be displaced and that they have a demand for the animal,” she said. After the first few flights, word spread of the airplane that specialized in giving animals a second chance. Soon Zimet realized she didn't want her work with Dog Is My CoPilot to be temporary. She jokes now that she’s still a lawyer so she can finance her animal-rescue work. “It’s just an incredible opportunity to bring happiness, as corny as that sounds,” she said. The nonprofit operates primarily from donations and doesn’t charge rescue organizations for the flights. Since the first flight in 2012, nearly 3,500 animals have been saved. The organization now flies to 11 Western states. In March, Dog Is My CoPilot bought a bigger plane, potentially doubling the number of animal lives they save. Zimet expects the extra cargo space to increase the number of animals flown each year from about 1,000 to at least 2,500. The bigger plane also means extra room for saving bigger breeds such as pit bulls or German shepherds, she said. On a cool morning in March, Rork piloted the maiden flight for the new plane from Arizona. He carried 49 animals, mostly Chihuahuas, in many shapes, colors and sizes. These Phoenix, AZ pups ... and many more...are packing their bags for tomorrow's flight to Boise, ID. Shelter volunteers from HALO and Maricopa County Animal Care and Control, where the dogs had been staying, met Rork and Zimet at Scottsdale Airpark to help the animals board the plane. They sweet-talked the nervous, wiggly dogs heading to the Idaho Humane Society in Boise. They cuddled Oreo, who loves to play with other dogs, and Frankie, who likes to burrow in his blankets, and little Sara, who’s known for being shy when you first meet her but warms up after building a little trust. They hoped all the pups on the flight soon would find families. “It’s great to give these kind of dogs a quicker chance to get their forever family rather than have to sit in a shelter,” said Denmark, the Halo manager. Ten days after the flight, Zimet got an update. All but about a dozen pups already had a new home, a family. The remaining dogs are getting extra training and care so they're ready for their new homes, said Allison Maier, an Idaho Humane Society spokeswoman. "These little dogs, they go fast here," Maier said. Zimet likes to think of each flight as a lifesaver for puppies on the plane as well as ones in Phoenix who still need a home. "Not only have we saved 3,500 animals, but every time we move another animal out of the shelter, we’ve made room for another,” she said. Rork and Zimet will remember the March flight for another reason. Two days after flying the 49 dogs from Arizona, Doyle, Peter's canine co-pilot, died. Zimet posted the news, along with photos of Doyle on a mountain hike, in the airplane and guarding his favorite tennis ball, on the nonprofit organization's Facebook page. It is a very sad day... Doyle, the original CoPilot, our mascot, our logo inspiration, and Pilot Peter's best friend crossed the rainbow bridge this evening. He will be furever missed, and furever the top "Dog" at Dog is My CoPilot. Hundreds of people left prayers for Rork and for Doyle. Soon the retired surgeon posted a thank-you and a promise. I want to thank all of you for your kind words about Doyle. When 10,000 dogs are killed every day, it seems small to mourn the passing of one, but I was Doyle's people, and he was my dog. He flew many rescue flights with me. So with our new plane, we hope to double or triple our numbers of transported animals. Doyle was a rescue. I owe this to him and the thousands like him. It is a very sad day at DIMC. Doyle, the original CoPilot, our mascot, our logo inspiration, and Pilot Peter's best...

2016-04-09 06:16 Dianna M rssfeeds.11alive.com

58 Yahoo - Yahoo to Participate at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (NASDAQ:YHOO) CFO will participate in a question- and-answer session at the Morgan Stanley in . The session is scheduled to begin on , at / . A live webcast of the session will be available on the Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/events.cfm? CalendarID=5. is a guide focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining our users. By creating highly personalized experiences for our users, we keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the world. In turn, we create value for advertisers by connecting them with the audiences that build their businesses. is headquartered in , and has offices located throughout the , (APAC) and the , and (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the Company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com). is the trademark and/or registered trademark of All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

2016-04-09 04:26 investor.yahoo.net

59 Yahoo - National Association of Realtors® Sponsors "Now I Get It" Video Series on Yahoo Finance New Campaign Helps Demystify the Home Buying Process and Highlight the Value Realtors® Bring to the Consumer Journey --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced that the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) will sponsor new episodes of "Now I Get It", a popular video series on Yahoo Finance. NAR's campaign will connect with future home buyers and renters, especially millennials, through targeted ads and brand integrations within episodes that feature , President of NAR. "Yahoo Finance is known for its unrivaled access to financial insights and news, and we're always looking for new ways to work with great brands like the to help them share a compelling story with this audience," said , Chief Revenue Officer,. "Working with NAR, we're delivering video content that's not only relevant and informative for our users, but something they can enjoy watching across devices. " As the exclusive sponsor, NAR will engage viewers around six new episodes of "Now I Get It" on Yahoo Finance. This special real estate focused miniseries will answer commonly asked questions about the home buying process to help consumers make educated decisions, while reinforcing the value of an experienced broker. During branded segments at the end of each episode, NAR President will share perspectives on topics including when to sell, remodeling, buying vs. renting and more. The first episode of the NAR sponsored series debuts today and will focus on the best time to sell a house based on region, time of year, and type of property. NAR will also run targeted pre-roll video, native and display ads on to amplify the sponsorship. Gemini native ads will enhance the campaign by driving consumers to a custom Mobile Content Module, featuring articles that highlight each episode theme. NAR's campaign on was developed in partnership with the real estate organization's agency of record,. "Whether you are a current or aspiring homeowner, we're excited to partner with for this new campaign to share advice and tips on navigating the real estate market with a wide audience of all ages through video, native and display advertising," said , NAR President. "With Yahoo's extensive video advertising solutions and editorial capabilities, we are creating and sharing content that helps break the barriers between Realtors® and consumers. " "Now I Get It" is a popular video series on Yahoo Finance that explains the business concepts and jargon from the biggest financial stories of the day. New episodes of "Now I Get It" will air every other week. Episodes, additional clips and articles are available at https://finance.yahoo.com. is a guide focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining our users. By creating highly personalized experiences for our users, we keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the world. In turn, we create value for advertisers by connecting them with the audiences that build their businesses. is headquartered in , and has offices located throughout the , (APAC) and the , and (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the Company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com). About the National Association of Realtors® of Realtors®, "The Voice for ," is America's largest trade association, representing more than 1.1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries. 2016-04-09 04:28 investor.yahoo.net

60 Op-Ed: Bradley will be vulnerable to Pacquiao's attack after six rounds Timothy Bradley would be vulnerable to Manny Pacquiao's unrelenting attack after the first six rounds of their trilogy fight on April 9 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

2016-04-09 05:26 By Leo www.digitaljournal.com

61 Footage of late Paul Walker test driving a Nissan Skyline GT-R emerges

Unused footage of late Hollywood actor Paul Walker emerged earlier this week showing the car enthusiast visiting the world-renowned GT-R performance shop, Mine's Motor Sports in Japan. The allegedly lost footage was discovered by GTChannel during a move, and the company then posted the video on its YouTube page. In the video, Walker tests out a Mine's-modified R35 GT-R and reacts excitedly as he takes the 600- horsepower, all-wheel-drive vehicle for a spin. GTChannel has announced that all proceeds made from video views will be made to the Paul Walker Foundation. ‘We share this as a tribute to Paul's passion for cars, good humor, and a reminder of the gravity of such a loss,’ GTChannel said in a statement accompanying the video. It continued: ‘All proceeds from this video will be donated to the Paul Walker Foundation, a charity launched by Paul's daughter as a tribute to his enduring legacy.’ Walker, best known for his role as Brian O’Connor in the Fast and Furious franchise, shared a love for the Nissan Skyline GT-R with his character, according to Auto Blog. Walker’s character is seen driving Skylines or R35 GT-Rs in all but one of the Fast and Furious films that he is featured in. The footage was released just days before Walker’s daughter was granted a $10.1million settlement. The court reportedly found in favor of Meadow Walker, 17, in 2014 when Roger Rodas, the man driving the car in the fatal accident, was found 'partly to blame for fatal accident.' According to TMZ , the ruling means Meadow was awarded around $7 million while Attorney Jeff Milam received $3 million, but details of the case have only just come to light, two years on. It is as yet undetermined whether the money was received from the insurance company or from Rodas' estate. Most notably in this case - originally filed under 'Meadow W' - it was agreed that Rodas was 'not directing the car through any particularly unsafe maneuvers when it went out of control.' It was deemed a 'small fraction' of what Meadow should have received and she is determined to press on with a case against car manufacturer Porsche for 'design defects', the website claims. News of the ruling comes after a judge acting on behalf of Roger's widow Kristine Rodas cleared Porsche of any wrongdoing in their deaths, just last week. In a separate case, Kristine filed a wrongful death/product liability lawsuit alleging a combination of four defects had caused the horrific 2013 crash that killed her husband and the Fast And Furious star. However, the court's decision does not undermine the case of Paul's daughter Meadow, her attorney went on to say in a statement. Jeff Milam said Rodas was killed instantly upon impact, adding, 'Meadow's father... was a passenger in the car. He survived the crash but was trapped and burned to death because of the vehicle's defects.' The 2005 Carrera GT was being driven by Rodas, the owner of an auto racing shop, when it spun out of control on a city street in Valencia, near Los Angeles, and burst into flames after hitting a power pole and several trees. Walker, who was 40, and Rodas, 38, both died at the scene. Kristine claimed the car had a faulty suspension, lacked a racing fuel cell, and did not have a 'racing cage' meaning it could not withstand an impact from the side. According to TMZ, the argument that the car was ill equipped to handle side impact was moot, since the fatal force came from the front when it hit the lamppost - as her own expert confirmed. Last month Radar reported that Porsche had attempted to have the case thrown out, labeling Rodas' claims as 'nonsense'. It also attempted to block Kristine's introduction into evidence of the testimony from a man named Jeff Westphal regarding her late husband's 'skill and competency as a driver' as well as his 'history of race car driving' in an attempt to prove human error was not a factor. 'The mere fact that Mr Rodas had driven with some skill in race does not mean that he always drove with skill on the street and was incapable of losing control of a car,' documents filed by Porsche stated. 'One does not need to be a NASCAR or Formula One fan to know that expert drivers lose control and crash with great frequency.'

2016-04-09 05:57 Kelly Mclaughlin www.dailymail.co.uk

62 Microsoft releases tool to convert old win32 software to UWP applications Microsoft announced the tool that would give developers the means to easily convert classic programs to modern Windows 10 apps during two and a half hour keynote at its annual Build conference in San Francisco. A preview version of this tool is already available for download. Besides win32 application the tool is also able to convert. NET applications to Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps that can be then included in the Windows Store. The way this conversion is achieved is by creating AppX packages that support the UWP APIs. While there is nothing magical about these conversions, Microsoft still hopes their efforts won't go unnoticed and will encourage even more developers to make the transition to its store. The American multinational technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington wants to make UWP the main way of creating apps for Windows. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as all apps installed through their Store are guaranteed not to include any kind of malware or spyware as the applications go through a review process. Developers that want to download this tool need to have the latest Windows Insider Build, the first preview for the Anniversary update, in order to be able to install Microsoft's app converter.

2016-04-09 05:56 Written by www.roundnews.com

63 CBS Chicago Off to their best start since winning the World Series in 2005, the Chicago White Sox will play their home opener against the Cleveland Indians on Friday afternoon in the first of a three-game set between AL Central Division rivals. Chicago continued its impressive start with a 6-1 victory over Oakland on Thursday to take three of four in the series. Adam Eaton is providing quite the spark at the top of the lineup for the White Sox by going 9-for-16 and collecting multiple hits in each of the four games. Jose Abreu also has hit safely in all four games and clubbed his first homer while driving in three runs Thursday. The finale of Cleveland's three-game series at Boston was postponed on Thursday, with a likely makeup date set for Aug. 15. After a pair of shaky starts from Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco, the Indians send Danny Salazar to the mound to oppose veteran left-hander John Danks.4:10 p.m. ET, STO (Cleveland), CSN ChicagoIndians RH Danny Salazar (2015: 14-10, 3.45 ERA) vs. White Sox LH John Danks (2015: 7-15, 4.71)Salazar went through his first full season as a major-league starter in 2015 and established himself as one of the better young arms in the game. The 26-year-old Dominican notched 195 strikeouts in 185 innings and limited opponents to a.226 batting average. Although he split two decisions versus the White Sox in 2015, Salazar struck out 16 batters and permitted only a pair of runs in 12 2/3 innings. Danks set a career high in losses in 2005 -- his seventh season with double-digit defeats -- while his unsightly ERA actually was his lowest over the past four years. Cleveland contributed to those ugly stats for Danks, who was 0-3 with a 6.49 ERA in four starts against the Indians while surrendering five home runs in 21 innings. That pushed his careeer numbers versus Cleveland to 5-14 with a 5.29 ERA.1. Eaton has a 13-game hitting streak dating to last year and has reached base safely in 26 games in a row.2. Indians OF Michael Brantley will work out with Triple-A Columbus over the weekend while rehabbing from shoulder surgery.3. Cleveland won 10 of 19 games against Chicago in 2015. Indians 6, White Sox 4

2016-04-09 02:12 Sportsdirect Inc scoresandstats.chicago.cbslocal.com

64 The Hidden Histories Podcast Why Turkey's president fears a Kurdish rebellion from the east Welcome to Hidden Histories, the New Statesman’s history podcast, hosted by deputy editor Helen Lewis. Each series explores a subject that the textbooks hid, held-back, or hijacked, starting with “The Great Forgetting: Women Writers Before Austen”. Most eighteenth century novels were written by women. So why are the authors we remember mostly men? Here, you can find out how our episodes will confront this question, explore links to further reading and learn more about the show’s guests. You can also listen to the trailer using the player below...... or subscribe in iTunes. Series Breakdown 1. Re-writing the rise of the novel: who do conventional accounts of the era overlook? 2. Bluestocking culture: how did women become writers? 3. Sociable spaces: what did it mean to have a magazine by women? 4. Unsex’d females: women writers and radical politics 5. Fight club: who’s the most interesting female writer of the Eighteenth century? 6. The Great Forgetting: why are the authors we remember mostly men? About our Guests Dr Sophie Coulombeau is a lecturer at Cardiff University, novelist , and BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker. She blogs at Sophie Coulombeau and tweets @SMCoulombeau. Her favourite female writer of the period is Frances Burney. Dr Elizabeth Edwards is a research fellow on the “ Curious Travellers : Thomas Pennant and the Welsh and Scottish Tour” project, at the University of Wales. She specialises in the history of women’s writing, tweets @eliz_edw and flies the flag for Hester Thrale Piozzi. Dr Jennie Batchelor is a Reader in Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of Kent and Principal Investigator on " The Lady's Magazine (1770-1818) : Understanding the Emergence of a Genre”. She tweets @jenniebatchelor and her favourite writer of the series is ‘Anonymous’. Series Reading list Episode 1: Rewriting the Rise of the Novel Jane Spencer, The Rise of the Woman Novelist: From Aphra Behn to Jane Austen (Wiley Blackwell, 1986) Dale Spender, Mothers of the Novel: 100 Good Women Writers before Jane Austen (Pandora, 1986) Janet Todd, The Sign of Angellica: Women, writing and Fiction, 1660-1800 (Virago, 1989) Episode 2: Bluestocking culture Elizabeth Eger, Bluestockings: Women of Reason from Enlightenment to Romanticism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) Harriet Guest, Small Change: Women, Learning, Patriotism, 1750-1810 (Chicago University Press, 2000) Norma Clarke, The Rise and Fall of the Woman of Letters (Pimlico, 2004) Devoney Looser, ‘Catherine Macaulay: The “Female Historian” in Context’ , Études Épistémè 17 (2010) Episode 3: Sociable spaces Jennie Batchelor, Koenraad Claes and Jenny DiPlacidi, 'The Lady's Magazine: Understanding the Emergence of a Genre' Alison Adburgham, Women in Print: Writing Women and Women's Magazines from the Restoration to the Accession of Victoria (Allen and Unwin, 1972) Mary Thale, 'Women in London Debating Societies in 1780', Gender & History, 7:1 (April 1995), pp. 5-24 London Debates: 1780 Episode 4: The Unsex'd Females Anne K. Mellor, Mothers of the Nation: Women's Political Writing in England, 1780-1830 (Indiana University Press, 2002) Angela Keane, Women Writers and the English Nation in the 1790s (Cambridge University Press, 2001) Brycchan Carey, British Abolitionism and the Rhetoric of Sensibilit y (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) Episode 5: Fight Club Margaret Anne Doody, Frances Burney: The Life In The Work s (Rutgers University Press, 1988) Frances Burney, Evelina (World's Classics, 2008) William McCarthy, Hester Thrale Piozzi: Portrait of a Literary Woman (University of North Carolina Press, 1985) John Mullan, Anonymity: A Secret History of English Literature (Faber, 2008) Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (World's Classics, 2015) Episode 6: The Great Forgetting Clifford Siskin, The Work of Writing: Literature and Social Change in Britain, 1700-1830 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997) William McCarthy, 'The Repression of Hester Lynch Piozzi: or, How we forgot a revolution in authorship', MLA 18:1 (Winter, 1988), pp. 99-111. For the first time in months, you can walk freely across Seyh Said Meydani, a city square on the edge of the historic centre of Diyarbakir. Here, the leader of the first big Kurdish uprising in modern Turkish history was hanged in 1925. Until recently the square flanked a battleground: for more than eight months, Turkey has been conducting a brutal campaign in its south-eastern provinces, home to Diyarbakir’s basalt-walled Sur district, against militants linked with the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), declaring a military lockdown that led to open fighting in the streets. The government claims that its operations are intended to eradicate terrorists and protect civilians but few in Diyarbakir see it that way. The campaign has been relentless: an “onslaught” of collective punishment, according to Amnesty International. Sur was subjected to more than 100 days of 24-hour curfews until operations ended in early March. The dust is settling and the bodies are being buried but much of the city remains closed off behind police barricades. No one is allowed in or out, except those in the lorries responsible for taking the rubble away. The militants were mostly young men from the neighbourhoods under curfew who supported the political objectives of the PKK and took up arms despite mass arrests. They were not trained guerillas but they were very committed and the fighting was fierce. Towards the end, the army destroyed entire buildings, leaving neighbourhoods levelled and most of the militants dead. Outside the barricades, life is beginning to resemble its former patterns. A group of five men, all in their sixties, returned to the spot on the corner of Gazi Street and Çiftehan Street where, for thirty years, they used to meet and drink tea together. “This is the heart of Diyarbakir and it’s in ruins,” said one of the men, who previously sold walnuts from a shop on the corner. “The fighting has stopped and we’ve just started to breathe again but my shop was ruined – and for what?” The man’s house was just 200 metres away but behind the barricade, and he had not been able to visit it to inspect the damage. The level of destruction is such that you can now pass between major landmarks by walking in straight lines across the plots where houses used to be. The Turkish government has decided to assume possession of most of the property in the destroyed areas of Sur – including the shopkeeper’s house. The state is paying compensation but that comes as little comfort. “I’ve spent all my life right here,” the shopkeeper said. “It’s my home and they’ve destroyed it. I don’t want their money.” The special forces of both the police and the gendarmerie have stayed on after the fighting to maintain order, but residents are most wary of the Ford Rangers with blacked-out windows that you can see patrolling the streets or ominously parked at main junctions. They are used by a harsher, previously unknown special forces group that appears to hire only very large men with beards and long hair. The fight for Sur coincided with an even bloodier conflict in Cizre, in which the Turkish national army stationed artillery and tanks on the surrounding hills and flattened the town centre. Hundreds of civilians were killed and more than 100 people burned to death after soldiers stormed the basements of three residential buildings where wounded militants were holed up. The military operations have spread to Sirnak, Nusaybin and Yüksekova, further into the heart of Turkey’s Kurdish provinces in the far south-east, where most villagers do not speak Turkish. The PKK has vowed to expand its resistance. The Turkish army often appears to view these areas as rebellious Ottoman provinces in need of reconquest. When it defeats militants and takes control of a neighbourhood, its soldiers raise the Turkish flag in courtyards and many write racist slogans on the walls of buildings in order to stamp their authority. For the government, the problem can be reduced to the existence of the PKK. It considers the group to be a well-oiled terrorist organisation that has somehow survived the repeated crackdowns. With a little more concerted violence, the state suspects, it might just crumble. Since the founding of the Turkish republic, there have been more than 50 Kurdish insurrections under various banners, but that of the PKK, begun in 1984 in response to harsh government repression, has proved by far the most tenacious. The government may claim that the group is nothing more than a band of extremists, yet its survival is evidence to the contrary. Not everyone supports the PKK or its goals, but it is a natural part of a political movement expressing a widely held sentiment. “The government cannot destroy the demand for Kurdish rights and autonomy by shedding any amount of blood,” Ramazan Tunç, the chief adviser to the head of the Kurdish Democratic Regions Party, told me. “All it does is store up hatred that will go on living in the sons of the dead.” Tunç is a representative of a party that is in essence pro-PKK, but his views are not uncommon. Beneath the acrimony, there is a basic, ineradicable desire for the region’s people to run their own affairs, without a Turkish soldier watching over them. In Diyarbakir, the curfews may be over and the militants dead, yet the bomb attacks on the security forces continue. A splinter group of the PKK known as the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons has even forced the conflict out of the south-east, where the government had hoped to confine it, by staging two mass-casualty attacks in Ankara so far this year, killing at least 66 people. Turkey has attempted once more to use tanks and soldiers to suppress Kurdish political ambitions and it has done so with the quiet acquiescence of European countries that care more about Turkey taking back the deported migrants who arrived in Dikili on 4 April aboard the Nazli Jale than about the rights of Kurds. It does not take much insight to conclude that the only conceivable end to it all is a negotiated settlement extending substantial political and cultural rights to the Kurds. Yet it is difficult to envision such a future amid the ruins.

Salman Rushdie: how Cervantes and Shakespeare wrote the modern literary rule book Why Turkey's president fears a Kurdish rebellion from the east newstatesman.com 2016-04-09 03:27 Salman Rushdie www.newstatesman.com

65 65 The end of the Spanish siesta? Many Spaniards were glad to hear acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announce proposals recently to end the normal working day at 6pm, rather than 7pm or later. It spells the end of the two-hour afternoon siesta - but this has long tormented parents balancing work with the needs of their family, writes James Badcock in Madrid. "In my house we would be totally in favour of changing the schedules. My kids virtually never see their father during the week," says Cristina Matarranz from Madrid, who is on her own with her three-year-old girl and seven-year-old boy after she finishes work in a bank at 3pm and picks them up from school. The medical supplies company where her partner works insists on employees working from 9am in the morning to 7pm at night - the classic Spanish office timetable which includes a two- hour lunch break from 2pm to 4pm. As it takes him an hour to travel between home and the office, he doesn't have time to enjoy the once-traditional home-cooked meal and a nap at lunchtime - and he only gets home at 8pm, Matarranz says. "Very rarely do they let him work from home. People at school don't believe our children has a father - he has never picked them up or attended any events. " In a country where unemployment stands at 21%, it can be hard to ask for concessions from an employer, which is why campaigners such as Jose Luis Casero want incentives to be introduced to make companies change their hours. "People want to work but they also want a life," says Casero, president of the National Commission for the Rationalisation of Spanish Schedules. He thinks employers who introduce flexitime and home-working should be rewarded with tax breaks - and he wants the government to provide more nursery places, and to open schools earlier in the morning. The reason Spain has a low birth rate of 1.32 children per woman, compared to 1.58 for the whole of the European Union, is partly to do with the state of the economy, he argues, but also "because people are tired even when it comes to human relationships". Carolina Dobrzynki Kearney, a Madrid-based single mother who works in marketing says half her day is wasted because clients are unavailable for long periods. "I could get my work done in six hours but I need people to take my calls," she says. "Until 10 in the morning no-one will answer, and then again from about 1.30 or 2pm it's impossible. So I find myself setting up conversations with people between six and eight in the evening when I would much rather be in the park with my daughter. " It's a constant battle to defend her family space, she says. "As individuals we have to try to make a point of saying no to work-related tasks during family time, but you get looked down on for doing that. "People in Spain are fixed in their ways like cogs on a wheel. They complain about their schedules, but that's all. Someone is going to have to make this change happen. " One idea put forward by Rajoy is to turn Spanish clocks back one hour from Central European Time, and to align the country with the UK and Ireland. This would in fact be a return to the status quo before 1942 when the country's dictator, Francisco Franco, moved the clocks forward as a gesture of allegiance to Hitler. Jose Luis Casero blames the "abnormal" use of Central European Time for a late-hours culture in which prime-time TV runs from 10pm until midnight. "Spain needs to use the time zone it is in," he says. "The Greenwich Meridian passes through Zaragoza. " But it's the end of evening work that would represent the biggest change for most families. For many years Consuelo Torres's job with a multinational telecommunications firm kept her in the office until 7pm, obliging her to drive around during her unwanted two-hour lunch break to deposit her four children with carers for the evening. Recently she took action to change this, knocking an hour off her daily schedule and cutting the lunch break altogether. "I've been running around like a fool for years. By law, if you have a child in primary school, you can demand a shorter working day," she says Now Torres works for seven straight hours from 9am to 4pm and goes home with her children after school. "I don't even lose money due to the saving in petrol and the fact that I have dropped a tax bracket," she says. "A lot of people don't do it because they fear reprisals from the company. But there is a growing social clamour for change now. " Some Spanish residents, such as Penny Thompson, a British media professional and entrepreneur, fear the country could lose some of its charm, however, if it banishes the concept of the siesta period altogether. "To have a bit of a break after lunch is reasonable given the hot weather you get here from this time of year to October," says Thompson, who has lived near Malaga for the past decade. "Most families like to have a family meal in the evening. Because of the heat, they're not going to have it in the early evening. "And at lunchtime too, there is a focus on proper cooking with fresh ingredients here. That food takes time. If you're going to do that for a family meal, you might like a little rest afterwards. " Modern life can ride roughshod over our internal clock. We want to believe we can do whatever we want at any hour of the day or night if we need to, be it having dinner at 11pm, or flying to New York at 4am, with no ill-effects. However, millions of years of evolution have given our bodies a finely-tuned internal clock. Are you in tune with your body clock? Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

2016-04-09 03:08 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

66 Former US House speaker Dennis Hastert accused of molesting four boys Dennis Hastert , the former US house speaker, moltested four boys while working as a high school wrestling coach, prosecutors have said. Hastert agreed to pay one of his victims, who was aged 14 at the time of the abuse, $3.5m, court filings have shown. The filing is the first time prosecutors have confirmed Hastert, who worked as house speaker from 1999 to 2007, paid hush-money to conceal sex abuse . It chronicles a chain of deception that began with Hastert exploiting his position of trust as a teacher and coach and carried on years later to include lying to bank officials and making false claims of extortion to the FBI to conceal his wrongdoing. The filing recommends that a federal judge sentence Hastert to up to six months in prison for violating banking laws as he sought to pay one of his victims, identified in court documents as “Individual A,” to ensure the person kept quiet. The sex abuse allegations date to Hastert’s time at Yorkville high school in the Chicago suburb of Yorkville from 1965 to 1981. “While defendant achieved great success, reaping all the benefits that went with it, these boys struggled, and all are still struggling now with what defendant did to them. Some have managed better than others, but all of them carry the scars defendant inflicted upon them,” the filing says. Prosecutors say Hastert still was abusing boys when he first decided to run for office, but the now-74-year-old Republican managed to keep any hint of sexual misconduct quiet throughout a political career that carried him from the Illinois Legislature to the halls of Congress and eventually to the speaker’s office, where he was second in the line of succession to the presidency. Hastert, who pleaded guilty in October to breaking banking laws, is scheduled to be sentenced on 27 April. The defense has asked the judge to give Hastert probation and spare him prison time, citing his deteriorating health and the public shame he’s already suffered. Hastert’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment about prosecutors’ filing Friday night. Individual A is one of at least four people cited in the filing as saying that Hastert sexually abused them as children. Three were wrestlers and the fourth was a student-manager on the team Hastert coached. Another wrestler said Hastert touched his genitals while he was on a locker room massage table, but he wasn’t sure if it was intentional. Prosecutors say in the filing that Hastert’s known sexual acts against Individual A and other accusers consist of “intentional touching of minors’ groin area and genitals or oral sex with a minor.” According to the document, Individual A told prosecutors the abuse occurred in a motel room on the way home from wrestling camp. Hastert, the only adult on the trip, told the 14-year-old that he would stay in his room while about a dozen other boys stayed in a different room. Individual A said Hastert touched him inappropriately after suggesting he would massage a groin injury the boy had. The other former wrestlers told prosecutors Hastert touched them in the locker room at Yorkville High, after saying he would give them massages. Two of those wrestlers, who were ages 14 and 17, say Hastert performed sex acts on them. The student-manager was Stephen Reinboldt, who died in 1995, and whose sister, Jolene Burdge , has spoken to The Associated Press. Burdge said her brother told her that the sexual abuse lasted throughout his time at Yorkville. In their filing, prosecutors wrote that Hastert’s “history and characteristics are marred by stunning hypocrisy.” He made his victims “feel alone, ashamed, guilty and devoid of dignity,” they said. Prosecutors noted the statute of limitation on any sex-abuse charges have long since run out, making the banking charges the only ones they could pursue. “The government seeks to hold defendant accountable for the crimes he committed that can still be prosecuted,” the filing says. Hastert made 15 withdrawals of $50,000 – for a total of $750,000 – from 2010 to 2012. It’s what he did next that made his actions a crime. After learning withdrawals over $10,000 are flagged, he withdrew cash in smaller increments, taking out $952,000 from 2012 to 2014. The case has been shrouded in secrecy since Hastert was indicted in May 2015. Prosecutors only confirmed at a March hearing that sex-abuse claims were at its core. Hastert’s fear, prosecutors said Friday, was that if he didn’t pay Individual A “it would increase the chance that other former students he molested would tell their stories.” Burdge had already confronted Hastert at her brother’s funeral and he could see “she had been deeply affected by what defendant did to her brother, and she was likely to tell her story publicly if anyone would listen.” Court records say Hastert managed to pay $1.7m to Individual A – handing it over in lump sums of $100,000 cash – starting in 2010. The payments stopped late in 2014 after FBI agents questioned Hastert about his cash withdrawals. Prosecutors said on Friday that it was a bank compliance officer who spotted the huge withdrawals. Pressed about the withdrawals, Hastert gave various explanations for what he was doing with the cash – that it was for vintage cars and for stocks, that he didn’t trust the banks – before he claimed he was be being extorted by someone he said was making a false sex-abuse claim. Hastert agreed to let investigators record phone conversations he had with the man, and prosecutors concluded the man’s tone and comments “were inconsistent with someone committing extortion.” Days after pleading guilty, Hastert entered the hospital and nearly died from a blood infection, according to his lawyers. They also say he had a stroke and required in-home care.

2016-04-09 05:32 Staff and www.theguardian.com

67 Claudio Ranieri maintains Foxes focus Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri insists he will remain calm despite the leaders being on the brink of reaching the Champions League. The Foxes could seal a top four place if West Ham drop points against Arsenal on Saturday and they then win at Sunderland and Manchester United lose at Tottenham on Sunday. Ranieri has consistently refused to talk about winning the Barclays Premier League title and only entertained reaching the Champions League last month - despite currently being seven points clear at the top. Victory on Sunday will open up a 10- point gap to second placed Spurs if they lose to United but Ranieri insisted he is not thinking about the Champions League yet. He said: "What we do is important, before thinking about everything, then we can check the table. I'll repeat to my players it's important what we do. "I can wait, the others can win all their matches. I must be focused. I expect Tottenham, Arsenal, everyone to win all their games and then I want to fight to achieve the Champions League. It will be a fantastic achievement. "At this moment I don't think behind me, I look forward and to the next match. Sunderland is a very difficult match. "I am very happy we saved the team (from relegation), that is important. Our fans continue to dream, a lot of children come to our training ground, it is fantastic. "Everyone is looking at what happens in the last six matches, me too, I am very curious, but we have to wait. There are a lot of people pushing behind us and that's important but it's important to keep our feet on the ground. " Ranieri won the manager of the month prize for March after three wins and a draw but is taking nothing for granted at the Stadium of Light, with Sunderland four points from safety. He added: "Sunderland are desperate and it will be a big battle. Sometimes there is pretty football but I am waiting for a battle. " Jeff Schlupp is available after a knee injury while Ranieri has no fresh injury worries. Leicester have six games left and will win the title with another four wins. And, with the Foxes in the final straight on Grand National weekend, Ranieri has urged his side not to fall at the final hurdle. He said: "We are in front, but we have to run a lot now. We have finished the [last] corner and now we are looking at the line. We have to hold on tight and stick our elbows out to make sure nobody gets past. "I think now we have opened the heart to everybody, the little normal teams and the normal players. How many of our players were playing in non-league or small leagues a few years ago? And that is good for football. It's good publicity for everybody. "We are building something good. The foundation is done. That is fantastic. Now we have to continue this dream. We are doing something special, but we have to work. Only the right work can give us the right points. "

2016-04-09 05:21 Press Association www.dailymail.co.uk

68 President Obama to Democratic donors: Donald Trump won't succeed me USA TODAY - President Obama has some advice for Democrats who worry about the White House prospects of Donald Trump : Don't. "One of you pulled me aside, and squeezed me hard, and said, 'tell me that Mr. Trump is not succeeding you,' " Obama told Democratic donors in Los Angeles on Thursday. "And I said, 'Mr. Trump is not succeeding me,' " Obama said. The president said that Trump and his closest Republican rival, Ted Cruz , are actually performing a public service: "Laying bare unvarnished some of the nonsense that we've been dealing with in Congress on a daily basis. " While the president has not endorsed in the Democratic race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders , he has become increasingly vocal about Trump, Cruz and other Republicans. Speaking at the L. A. fundraiser to benefit the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee , Obama compared GOP congressional candidates to Trump and Cruz. "People act as if these folks are outliers — but they're not," Obama said. "Listen to talk radio, watch their interviews. Look at how they operate in town halls. They're saying stuff that's just as wacky as what we're hearing out of the presidential candidates. " And so, he added, "we should thank Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz for just being honest. " Obama's visit to Atlanta

2016-04-09 05:26 David M rssfeeds.11alive.com

69 Everything adds up for Edinburgh’s Fintech boom Fintech is, to coin a phrase, white hot right now. It is not only empowering new start-ups with the ability to launch disruptive technologies into parts of the banking business, it is also helping banks to meet their own customer’s expectations of ever more accessible services. It’s the very nature of heavily regulated industries, such as a banking sector governed by legal compliance requirements and unprecedented cyber security, that they require highly specialised skillsets to remain on the right side of the fence. The result? Digital innovation strangled through compromise and rapidly escalating costs. Perhaps it’s no wonder that disruptive innovation is coming to both the finance and legal professions – especially in Fintech, where a fertile environment for collaboration between the regulatory-driven banking sector and dynamic digital start-ups is revolutionising customer engagement. The rise of the smartphone has transformed customers’ behaviours and expectations. Today’s ‘always online’ culture – and the explosion of new services and apps that fuel it – mean people can not only access previously unavailable goods, services and data, they can do so while sitting on the bus or enjoying a cup of coffee. Whether it’s checking your bank account online, or applying for a new mortgage, people expect – even demand – to be able to handle their financial affairs as easily as their social media interactions. Mobile payments, both in app and browser-based, are driving the growth of ecommerce. In fact, it’s fair to say a new financial epoch is dawning, driven by a mobile-first approach to financial transactions. According to Adyen, the global payments technology company, 34% of browser-based online transactions globally are now made on a mobile device. Among individual markets, the UK continues to lead the world in mobile payment adoption, with 49% of online transactions on mobile device (a figure increasingly dominated by smartphones). Launched in 2010, one Edinburgh business epitomises how technology can be used to meet customer expectations. Money Dashboard has built the UK’s leading personal financial management service that gives more than 100,000 UK consumers a true view of their financial lives. “We securely pull in data from any UK bank account. This allows consumers to get a holistic overview, with spending categorised, so they can see how much they're spending on groceries, public transport, entertainment and so on. It allows people to get on top of their finances and ultimately achieve their financial goals,” explains Steve Tigar, chief executive officer. “We believe an independent personal financial management service has the potential to attract a user base of multiple millions in the UK alone. The catalyst for this will be the forthcoming Open API, meaning that, with the customer’s consent, banks will be able to send a direct data feed to trusted third party developers.” Roll Run is another example of how digital technology is having a transformative impact on legal firms and the insurance sector. The embryonic start-up only came into being in December 2015, but already has ambitious plans for the future. By accessing court lists, Roll Run saves considerable time and cost by providing law firms with automated litigation analytics about clients: how often they appear in court, who they are sued by or who they are suing. The system has multiple applications for other sectors, such as credit reference agencies and lenders, enabling financial service providers to mitigate risk exposure more effectively. “The legal industry is an enormous, data-driven market that is ripe for disruption,” says Founder Ruairidh Wynne-McHardy. “For us, Edinburgh was the natural choice in which to set up. Apart from being a beautiful city and one of the best-educated in Europe, the tech ecosystem is very strong. On any given day you will find multiple events happening, people meeting and helping each other out.” Money Dashboard moved its HQ to Edinburgh in 2013, to gain access to the city’s impressive talent pool. Securing talent remains a common theme shared by many Fintech businesses attracted to Edinburgh. In the latest Tech Nation 2016 report, one in three digital technology businesses source talent from local universities. Every year, Edinburgh’s universities produce an impressive 1,200 highly skilled computing and software graduates – a significant cohort further supported through dedicated incubation centres to support digital start-ups. As the second largest financial centre in the UK, Edinburgh also has an enormous presence in the world of global finance. No wonder the city’s Fintech sector already has its stars. Companies such as FreeAgent, miiCard, and Money Dashboard, have all secured investment and are expanding rapidly. A growing reputation as one of the UK’s most vibrant, innovative and dynamic tech clusters is also helping to forge and reinforce a real sense of community across the city. Helping to nurture this vision is StartEDIN , a membership-led, non-profit organisation brought together and supported by a blend of established companies, start-ups and digital entrepreneurs. The group organised Fintech hackathons in 2015 and worked together with Silicon Milkroundabout to host the first Scotland Silicon Milkroundabout job fair – the first time the event has been held outside London. StartEDIN also offers members regular networking opportunities, a key benefit cited by 87% of tech businesses in Edinburgh in the 2016 Tech Nation report. In fact, more than 2,630 people regularly attend technology meet-ups in the city, with Edinburgh businesses more likely to take advantage of local business and technical support than anywhere else in the UK. “We have long talked about building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Edinburgh. I truly believe it now exists and it's flourishing; whether that's unicorn businesses like Skyscanner or the Fintech stars of tomorrow,” adds Steve. “I firmly believe the best is yet to come.” For further information www.investinedinburgh.com

2016-04-08 19:57 Salman Rushdie www.newstatesman.com

70 Livonia - News This feed's current articles are shown below. Subscribe for updates to all the content available in this feed, or click through here to see the original article. Canton has slashed millions from its legacy costs Br. Guy Consolmagno is a graduate of Our Lady Queens of Martyrs School in Beverly Hills Location on Farmington Road just north of Eight Mile Road is prime, owner said. Composer/producer to receive achievement award, along with Kid Rock and the late Al Abrams Plymouth Township’s appointed supervisor announced that he is running for an elected term. Police say Joshua Palmer has been found. He was reported missing Thursday. The Yankee Air Museum will offer air tour rides on a Waco biplane April 9. Shocking headlines dominate the news as a murder trial unfolds. Dark secrets are revealed. Pain turns to sorrow. Questions linger. What went wrong that day? What if? Reporters Aileen Wingblad and David Veselenak search for answers in interviews with convicted murderers Nancy Seaman and Lakeshia Valdez. This is the third and final month of the summer with a Supermoon. It's when a full or new moon coincides with the moon's closest point to Earth in its orbit. Basically, the moon appears bigger and brighter than usual in the night sky. Angels Above has made more than 10,000 care packages. Two projects will add residential and retail components to the city Westland’s Wild chosen for fellowing to train at Harvard Business School South Lyon group happy with progress in its first three years Westland expects less 2016-17 revenue; savings to be used to balance budget Redford police arrest man for possession, other offenses after routine traffic stop Could a closure date for the freeway be announced Tuesday? The increase of just over 1.5 percent would be the first in two years.

2016-04-09 01:41 rssfeeds.hometownlife.com

71 Asia Times News & Features – Asia Times Expedited leadership handover Nguyen Xuan Phuc was named as Vietnam’s new Premier by its outgoing National Assembly on April 7. Phuc, 61, is now de facto the second highest figure in the one-party state’s political hierarchy. Among other important duties, he will oversee the country’s economy and represent it at regional and international fora. Five days earlier, the legislature approved Tran Dai Quang as the new head of state of the 93-million nation. Quang, 60, led the Ministry of Public Security for the past five years. Though the presidency remains a primarily ceremonial role, its power has been significantly enhanced in recent years. On March 31, the 500-member parliament elected Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan as its new head. Ngan, 61, is the first woman to hold this role, which is one part of Vietnam’s quartet of power. Though, on the paper, it is the “highest organ of state power,” the National Assembly is virtually controlled by the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Politburo, Central Committee and National Congress. Its main task is to rubber-stamp important decisions regarding the country’s leadership and policy that have already been made by these supreme organs. Phuc, Quang and Ngan were already chosen for their respective position at the CPV’s 12th National Congress in January, which also re-elected party chief Nguyen Phu Trong. Usually, the nominations for these three top posts and other important positions in Vietnam’s politics would be approved in July by a new National Assembly, which is set to be elected in May. However, this normal route was ditched, making some Vietnamese analysts argue that the expedited leadership handover was unconstitutional. Yet, in a single-party state, where the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) wields overarching control of all political processes and decision-making, the move is not surprising. At the January Congress, several top leaders were not elected to the 200-member Central Committee and the 19-member Politburo. These include Nguyen Sinh Hung, Truong Tan Sang and Nguyen Tan Dung, who are the outgoing legislative head, president and premier respectively. Their exclusion from these two all-powerful bodies means they effectively entirely retired from Vietnam’s politics. Thus, for both political and practical reasons, it is expected that they were rapidly relieved of their duties and replaced by the new leaders the party had already picked. Numerous and enormous challenges An immediate and practical reason for the acceleration of the leadership handover is that, in May, Vietnam will receive President Barack Obama on his first trip to the country. The visit will also be the first by a sitting American president to its former war enemy since 2006, when President George W. Bush made a four-day visit to Vietnam. The leaders will welcome and hold talks with the US president at a time when both Washington and Hanoi have sought closer ties due to Beijing’s growing aggressiveness in the disputed South China Sea. Besides territorial challenges from China, Vietnam is faced with other pressing issues that need urgently to be addressed. These include huge public debt, a high budget deficit, a scandal-hit banking system and an inefficient and corrupt state-owned sector. Judging by international indicators, Vietnam fares quite badly. It trails far behind many countries of Southeast and East Asia in many areas. After 30 years of Doi Moi (renovation policy), Vietnam’s GDP per capita remains only a fraction of that enjoyed by the region’s other countries, e.g. Singapore and Malaysia. In 2015, outgoing Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung acknowledged that “Vietnam’s competitiveness is now the lowest among the ASEAN+6 countries.” In the same year, the one- party state, whose media is highly censored, ranked 175th in Reporters Without Borders’ Freedom of Press Index, far behind the nine other ASEAN members. To deal effectively with those challenges that can help their country shorten the gaps with its regional peers, Vietnam’s new leaders have to undertake new and bold reforms. However, unlike elsewhere, in this communist-ruled country, it is not always inevitable that new leaders will bring new policies. New motivation, new policies? At a press conference on March 18, Nguyen Hanh Phuc, the National Assembly’s general secretary, was quoted by Vietnam’s state-run media as saying it would be too long to wait until July to endorse the new leadership. The reason he gave is that 2016 is the first year of the implementation of the new resolution made by the party at the January congress and thus “new spirit, new motivation, new impetus” is needed to implement the party resolution from the beginning. This somehow indicates that the first and foremost duty of the new leadership is to implement the policies that the party adopted three months ago. At that five-yearly congress, though pledging to continue the Doi Moi that it initiated three decades ago, the CPV decided to firmly pursue its old Marxism-Leninism. In many people’s views, its commitment to an ideology that increasingly appears outdated to the vast majority of Vietnam’s population, who wholeheartedly embrace a free market economy, prevents the CPV from undertaking the radical political and economic reforms that the country greatly needs. That the party chose Nguyen Phu Trong, 71, a Marxist-Leninist scholar and believer, over Nguyen Tan Dung, 66, who was widely seen as the front-runner until shortly before the congress, for the party’s supreme post also illustrates that the CPV will maintain the status quo. Whilst he left a mixed legacy, Dung, who was PM since 2006, was regarded as a charismatic, strong-minded and economic liberal leader. Concerns that he could become a strongman, and overlook the party and its traditional consensus leadership were believed to be a key reason why party conservatives omitted him. It is for the same reason that the party nominated Phuc for the post of prime minister. In terms of personality and leadership style, Phuc is seen as in contrast to what Dung stands for. Though he was the standing deputy prime minister for the last five years, he remains a relatively low-key figure without any notable achievements. Moreover, as he is new to his role, it is very unlikely that he will dare to embark on new and radical changes. The unprecedented appointment of a top police general for the role of president also hints that the country will not see greater political openness in the years to come. The security apparatus, which Tran Dai Quang joined as a teenager and was promoted to lead in 2011, has sweeping powers, including identifying and heading off any political threats to the regime. It is often criticized by western governments, international rights organizations and Vietnamese activists for its harassment and imprisonment of regime critics. It is unclear whether in his new role, Quang can help change Vietnam’s image. Of the three newly-elected leaders, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan is probably the most favored among the Vietnamese public and her communist comrades. Through the roles she previously assumed, including Vice-chair of the National Assembly, Minister for Labor and Social Affairs and Deputy Finance Minister, Ngan has made a good impression. In 2013 and 2014, the National Assembly held confidence votes for members of the government and on both occasions, Ngan recorded the most number of “high confidence” votes. The approval rating she received in the parliament this time was also relatively higher than that of Quang and Phuc. While she was elected with 95.5% of votes whereas Quang and Phuc won 91.5 and 90.3% respectively. However, Ngan cannot be a game changer because she is much less influential than the triumvirate of party chief, prime minister and state president. Among the 19 politburo members, only four, including Ngan, come from the country’s south. Leaders from the southern part tend to be less dogmatic and more pragmatic than those from the north. Or much more of the same? Judging by the direction and the leadership chosen at the CPV’s 12th Congress in January, barring an unexpected change, Vietnam will not experience a radical economic and political reform – or another Doi Moi – in the next five years as many people from outside and even within the party have long hoped and called for. What the country may see is gradual change in some areas. A litmus test of whether Vietnam’s domestic politics will witness some changes or be much more of the same will be how independent candidates, including activists, fare during May’s parliamentary elections. If a handful of some 100 independent candidates made the ballot box – or better, were elected – this would be a clear signal that the CPV is willing to open up political space. In contrast, if none of them pass the long and complex vetting process, which is strictly controlled by the party, this would indicate that Vietnam’s new leadership still strongly resists political change. While Vietnam’s internal politics, which has remained virtually unchanged during the last seven decades, is highly unlikely to change, its foreign policy, especially its relationship with the US and China, has significantly shifted in recent years. Despite ideological similarities, Hanoi’s interaction with Beijing has become markedly edgy due to the latter’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea. A number of recent signs signify that Vietnam’s China policy has significantly shifted. This trend is likely to continue under Vietnam’s new leadership, unless China softens its posture and actions in the South China Sea. The CPV’s permissiveness in recalling a naval battle against China in 1988 and Vietnam’s recent seizure of a Chinese vessel for encroaching into its territorial waters, which was widely reported by its state media, are signs that Hanoi has become more open and direct in dealing with China. The vessel-capture incident is remarkable because Chinese ships had intruded into Vietnam’s waters many times. Yet, instead of being caught and retained, they had been let off with warnings or just chased away. The latest move by Vietnam may show that Hanoi has become tougher in protecting Vietnam’s maritime territory. It is also worth noting that in his inaugural speech, Vietnam’s new prime minister vowed to “firmly defend the country’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.” This rhetoric is likely aimed at the domestic audience, which often criticize their government of being too restrained in its handling of disputes with China over the Spratly and Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. Yet, it could also signal that Vietnam’s new leadership will not submit to China on territorial issues. Whilst Vietnam’s relationship with its communist neighbour has deteriorated, its relations with the US remarkably progressed even though Hanoi and Washington remain on the opposite side of the ideological spectrum. The upcoming visit by President Obama is likely to further Vietnam- US ties. Xuan Loc Doan is a research fellow at the Global Policy Institute. He completed a PhD in International Relations at Aston University, UK in 2013. His areas of interest and research include Vietnam’s domestic and foreign policy, ASEAN’s relations with major powers, and international politics in the Asia-Pacific region. The opinions expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Asia Times. (Copyright 2016 Asia Times Holdings Limited, a duly registered Hong Kong company. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

2016-04-09 03:56 atimes.com

72 Louisiana Tech baller posts picture of midriff to quash 'prego' rumor A Louisiana Tech basketball player posted a photo of her bare midriff Friday to quash rumors she was carrying the child of her coach, who was forced to resign the previous day after admitting to having an inappropriate relationship. Ashley Santos, 21, a guard for the university's women's team who grew up in New York, posted the picture to Twitter with the caption 'Rumors Squashed. Don't talk about what you don't know. #notprego #LetsMoveOn #LadyTechsterTerritory.' According to USA Today , Santos's parents said she posted the photo in response to online rumors she was having a child with Tyler Summitt, the 25-year-old son of Pat Summitt, who resigned Thursday as the women's basketball coach at the college during his first season in charge. 'Ashley’s just an innocent bystander,' said her father Jose Santos, according to USA Today. 'People were asking if she was pregnant, so she defended herself. That’s all that it is.' In announcing his resignation, Summitt said he had engaged in 'a relationship that has negatively affected the people I love' - but did not mention names, and did not address rumors he hooked up with a player. Summitt married his high school sweetheart almost three years ago and a year later he was hired by Louisiana Tech as their assistant coach. His mother is the most successful coach in college basketball history, and was in charge at the Tennessee Lady Volts for 38 years. In a statement issued through the college, he said given his situation, it was best he resigned. He said: 'I am profoundly disappointed in myself for engaging in a relationship that has negatively affected the people I love, respect and care about the most. 'My hope, plans and prayers are to repair those relationships. I am appreciative of the opportunity I was given to coach at Louisiana Tech. 'I am heartbroken that my time has ended in Ruston, but because of my respect for the institution, it is best that I resign. 'I am hopeful the media and the public will respect the privacy of my family and me as we deal with this difficult situation I have caused.' He was named Scholar Athlete of the year at his high school and went on to play for the University of Tennessee. He also spent time as an assistant coach at Marquette University before being hired by Louisiana Tech. His resignation comes four years after his mother stepped down from her coaching role at the University of Tennessee after being diagnosed with the early-onset of Alzheimer's. Speaking at the time, she said: 'I've loved being the head coach at Tennessee for 38 years, but I recognize that the time has come to move into the future and to step into a new role.' She was given the title of head coach emeritus, meaning she could attend practice and help out the new coach with duties, but is not allowed to sit on the bench. During her time, Tennessee never failed to reach the NCAA tournament, never received a seed lower than No. 5 and reached 18 Final Fours. The 62-year-old has also released two books, including one called Sum It Up, covering her life including her experience being diagnosed and living with Alzheimer's and won the Arthur Ashe courage award at the 2013 ESPYs.

2016-04-09 05:14 Daily Mail www.dailymail.co.uk

73 Arrest made in connection with Acworth road rage shooting ACWORTH, Ga. (WXIA) – Cobb County authorities said one person was shot Friday night in a road rage shooting in Acworth. And now the suspect is in custody. The incident took place in front of a Hardee's restaurant at Georgia Highway 92 and Robin Road. Police said a man in a black SUV got into an argument with a man in a white van who pulled out a gun and started shooting. A public information officer with Cherokee County confirmed that the suspect was arrested off of Delk Road in Cobb County after a slow speed chase. The suspect was eventually boxed by Cobb and Marietta police along with Cherokee County deputies and was taken into custody. The shooting victim was treated and is expected to be okay. (© 2016 WXIA)

2016-04-09 05:01 Michael King rssfeeds.11alive.com

74 Yahoo - Yahoo Appoints Two New Board Members --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced that its board of directors has increased its size from seven to nine directors and appointed the following two new independent directors, effective . With the additions of Cathy and Eric, the board returns to the size it was on , prior to the resignations of and Charles Schwab. "Eric and Cathy are both highly respected, experienced practitioners in their fields, and we welcome them to Yahoo's board of directors," said , chairman of the board at. "Today we are at an important juncture in Yahoo's transformation, as we execute on our refined strategy and explore strategic alternatives for the company. " "Today we are expanding our board of directors with additional expertise to help advance our strategic goals as continues its transformation. We are pleased to welcome and to our board," said , CEO of. "I am honored to join the board of a company I have observed and admired over the course of my career," said. "As the technology landscape continues to change, I am excited to work with the board and management during this important time. " "I am delighted to have the privilege to serve on the board. The opportunity to work with my fellow directors and the management team to guide into its next chapter is exciting," said Ms. Friedman. held numerous positions over a 23-year investment banking career with Morgan Stanley, including Managing Director and Head of and Co-Head of the Biotechnology Practice, where she was strategic and transaction advisor to many of the most important companies in the sector. Friedman is a director of XenoPort, Inc., EnteroMedics Inc., GSV Capital Corp., Innoviva, Inc. (formerly Theravance, Inc.), and Radius Health, Inc. served as the Chief Financial Officer of until its acquisition by Avago in February of this year, the President and Chief Executive Officer of , and as the Chief Financial Officer of Brandt also served as Vice President and Partner at. Brandt is a director of Lam Research Corporation and Dentsply Sirona Inc. is a guide focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining our users. By creating highly personalized experiences for our users, we keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the world. In turn, we create value for advertisers by connecting them with the audiences that build their businesses. is headquartered in , and has offices located throughout the , (APAC) and the , and (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the Company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com).

2016-04-08 23:33 investor.yahoo.net

75 Southerners split on 'religious freedom' laws Jackson, Mississippi (CNN) A spate of bills across the nation, but especially across the South, has pitted religious freedom against LGBT rights, resurrecting the specter of the civil rights movement, which saw religion and race locking horns many decades ago. CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin, Tessa Carletta, Ashley Fantz, Cameron Tankersley and Fredricka Whitfield contributed to this report. 2016-04-09 04:49 Kevin Conlon rss.cnn.com

76 UFC legend Frank Mir flagged over potential anti-doping violation He is one of the undisputed greats of the octagon - a two-time heavyweight champion who holds the record for most wins, most fights, and most submissions in his division. But things don't seem to be working out lately for Frank Mir, 36, the Vegas-born UFC fighter who was knocked out by Mark Hunt just three minutes into the main event of Fight Night 85. And now it seems as though things are going from bad to worse after the U. S. Anti-Doping Agency informed Mir that a sample he gave on that night has been flagged for a potential doping violation. In a statement, UFC bosses said: 'The UFC organization was notified today that the USADA has informed Frank Mir of a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation. The violation stemmed from an in-competition sample collected the day of his fight on March 20, 2016 in Brisbane, Australia. 'USADA, the independent administrator of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, will handle the results management and appropriate adjudication of this case involving Mir. 'It is important to note that, under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, there is a full and fair legal process that is afforded to all athletes before any sanctions are imposed.' Sanctions can include temporary bans from competition, or forfeiture of results, titles and earnings from bouts, according to UFC and USADA guidelines. Mir said: 'To all my fans and supporters, I recently have been notified by USADA that the test I took on the night of the fight came back positive for a substance that I did not take. 'I don't know how it is possible since I didn't take any performance enhancing drugs to compete. 'I have never tested positive for a banned substance since joining the UFC and becoming two-time champion. I ask all of you to hold judgement against me until all the facts have been revealed.' Neither Mir nor the USADA revealed what the substance found in the sample was. The typical doping penalty in the UFC is two years, but recently Brazilian fighter Yoel Romero was handed a six-month suspension after appealing his initial ban. The sentence was reduced after Romero showed he had unintentionally taken a banned substance by consuming a tainted supplement. Mir, once among the greatest fighters in the heavyweight class, is on a two-bout losing streak this year and is just 2-6 in the octagon since 2012.

2016-04-09 04:43 Chris Pleasance www.dailymail.co.uk

77 This Week in Pictures: April 2, 2016 - April 8, 2016 Participant from Aksarka ride a sled during a reindeer race on the Reindeer Herders Day in the village Aksarka, center Priuralsky district of Yamalo-Nenets autonomous district, Russia, April 7, 2016.

2016-04-08 20:01 ABC News abcnews.go.com

78 Prince William and Duchess Kate Step Out Ahead of Their India Trip Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Princess Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend a reception ahead of their tour of India and Bhutan at Kensington Palace, April 6, 2016, in London. 2016-04-08 21:09 ABC News abcnews.go.com

79 Escaped psychiatric patient recaptured after two days on the run An escaped psychiatric patient ruled too mentally ill to face charges of torturing a woman to death has been recaptured near his parents' house in Washington state, police said. Anthony Garver, 28, who crawled out the window of a low-security unit at Western State Hospital on Wednesday was recaptured near Mount Spokane on Friday night, more than 300 miles away. Garver was charged in 2013 with tying a 20-year-old woman to her bed with electrical cables, stabbing her 24 times in the chest and then slashing her throat but was ruled unfit to stand trial. Police hunting for Garver with helicopters and dogs had warned Washington residents that he was 'dangerous to others and should not be approached.' Garver escaped from a locked room at the hospital with fellow patient Mark Alexander Adams, 58, before the pair split and Adams was quickly recaptured. Meanwhile Garver is believed to have used $55 he had to buy a Greyhound ticket to Spokane, where his parents still live. His father called officers on Thursday to report that his son has stopped by but left again a short time later. Eventually Spokane County deputies and U. S marshals found Garver at 8:15 p.m. dehydrated and hiding beneath a pile of debris east of his parents home The Spokesman Review reports. The escape was the latest problem for Western State Hospital, where violent assaults on both staff and patients have led to federal scrutiny. It has increased in the wake of the escape and two recent attacks. U. S. regulators have repeatedly cited the facility over safety concerns and threatened to cut millions in federal funding. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services gave the hospital until May 3 to address the violations. Patients in the hospital's lower-security unit are checked every hour, said Carla Reyes, assistant director of the Department of Social and Health Services' Behavioral Health Administration, which oversees mental health services in the state. Some high-security units require patient checks every 15 minutes, but Garver was not placed in one, staffers said. Security staff was trying to determine how the men loosened the bolts on the locked windows, state officials said. Officials are conducting a safety review of the hospital and will bring in outside experts to help, Reyes said. The history of violence at the facility stretches back years. Hundreds of employees have suffered concussions, fractures and cuts in assaults by patients, resulting in $6 million in workers' compensation claims between 2013 and 2015. Patients also have attacked other patients, causing serious injuries. Most recently, a patient with a history of violent behavior choked and punched a mental health technician on March 26, according to an internal report. Another report on March 23 said a male patient slipped out of his monitors and was found in a bathroom with another male patient, who said he was sexually assaulted. The state has tried to fix some of the problems by increasing funding so more staff could be hired. But the hospital has struggled with recruiting and retaining workers.

2016-04-09 04:39 Chris Pleasance www.dailymail.co.uk

80 Two Australian friends create video of catching sausages bread Two Australian friends have taken the traditional 'trick shot' to a whole new level and shown their amazing ability to snag sausages in bread. Nick Garrick and Jack Taylor, from Sydney, have proved they can catch sausages in just about any scenario including catching one thrown over a house, another caught while driving and after relieving themselves in the bathroom. A video posted to Facebook by Mr Garrick which has since gone viral and been viewed more than two million times starts off by showing Mr Garrick flipping a sausage from a frying pan behind him and Mr Taylor successfully catching it in bread. Scroll down for video Alex Neil posted on the video 'This is something else' while Yasmin Tuncdoruk wrote 'This is the most Australian thing I've ever seen'.

2016-04-09 04:35 David Jeans www.dailymail.co.uk

81 Can electric shocks really make you fitter? Wearing a padded suit with electrodes to stimulate muscles during workouts is the latest gym fad. But is it really a good idea, asks Michael Mosley. Most people know about the benefits of doing exercise. These include reducing your risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. We should also know (it's repeated often enough) that according to government guidelines we need to be doing at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week. The good news is that when people are asked, in surveys, how much exercise they do, most claim to do at least these sorts of levels. What is less reassuring is that when researchers look at what people actually do (by asking them to wear accelerometers which measure movement), they find that we tend to massively overestimate our levels of activity. Now, one of the main reasons that people give for not doing more exercise is "lack of time". It certainly used to be my excuse. That is why I am a fan of high intensity interval training (HIIT). I first came across this form of exercise when I was making a film, The Truth About Exercise, for the BBC science series Horizon. In the course of making the film I met Jamie Timmons, professor of precision medicine at King's College, London, who assured me that I could get many of the major benefits of exercise from doing a few minutes of HIIT a week I followed his six week programme of HIIT, on an exercise bike , and, as predicted, saw significant improvements in things like my blood sugar levels. Since then I have maintained that regime, and thrown in some strength building exercises that we featured on a recent series of Trust Me I'm a Doctor . Although HIIT and strength-building exercises are now a fairly standard part of any exercise regime, these days they can come with an added twist. Electric shocks. One of the latest fitness fads is called whole body electrical stimulation, or ES. The idea is that you get into a padded suit that is dotted with electrodes and these will then stimulate muscles all over your body while you are exercising. The claim is that by doing this you can get the benefits of an hour's workout in about 20 minutes. Sadly, it is not enough to simply get into the suit. You also have to do a conventional work-out (squats, lunges, running and jogging on the spot, abdominal crunches etc), while the suit is giving you lots of little electric shocks. The shocks won't make doing these exercises easier - they actually make a workout harder. Much harder. And more painful. The effort, and the pain, it's claimed, will also make doing the exercise more effective. I haven't personally tried out one of these suits, but I'm told it turns even the simplest squat or lunge into a real, sustained effort. Using electric shocks to improve physical performance is not quite as unlikely as it sounds. Electrical stimulation has been used as an effective form of rehab for many years. If, for example, you have a muscle which is not being stimulated due to nerve damage, then applying an electrical current can help restore muscle mass, or at least stop it getting any worse. But is it really a good idea to stimulate lots of muscles all over your body, rather than a few specific ones, if you are otherwise healthy? Dr Nicola Maffiuletti, from the human performance lab at the Schulthess clinic in Zurich, thinks not. In a recent letter to the BMJ he and his colleagues expressed concern that "despite limited scientific evidence on the safety and effectiveness of this form of exercise", fitness centres in many countries (including the UK) are now promoting ES to the general public. In terms of potential risks from this sort of activity, Dr Maffiuletti points to the case of a 20-year- old man who came to his hospital complaining of severe muscle pain shortly after a gym session "based on whole body ES exercise supervised by a fitness professional". After they had done some tests they discovered that the young man had rhabdomyolysis (muscle breakdown), a serious condition where you see widespread destruction of muscle fibres. This leads to the release of a protein called myoglobin into the blood, which can then lead to kidney failure (if the kidneys are unable to cope). In this case the patient had to stay in hospital on an intravenous drip for five days, while they monitored him. In response to Dr Maffiuletti's work, the Israeli Ministry of health has recently warned that ES devices "are intended for use by skilled healthcare professionals (primarily physicians and physiotherapists) for the purposes of diagnosis and rehabilitation. The devices must not be used in gyms. Use without medical supervision could cause danger to health". I think I will stick to the more conventional uses of electricity. Is it better to run outside or on a treadmill? (January 2016) Can you cheat your way to fitness? (October 2014) How much better is standing up than sitting? (October 2013) Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

2016-04-09 03:17 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

82 Newspaper headlines: Archbishop's surprise and GPs' phone calls As the front pages go their separate ways after days of clustering round single stories - the EU leaflet, and the prime minister's financial affairs - the Daily Telegraph leads off with a startling revelation about the Archbishop of Canterbury's parentage. Justin Welby is quoted by the paper as saying the news that his father was not his mother's ex- husband, as he had thought, but a former private secretary to Winston Churchill, was "a complete surprise". Nevertheless, the archbishop adds, "I wasn't in any way upset". Together with chief reporter Gordon Rayner, the paper's ex-editor Charles Moore has his by-line on the story, and describes how he began to build on "interesting gossip" he heard while "chatting to neighbours on the Kent-Sussex border" some two years ago. Pages of coverage include pen-portraits of the various family members involved, a statement by the archbishop's mother, and a piece catchingly entitled "A No 10 hot house of drinking, affairs, and Churchill's bedside meetings. " Still, the David Cameron story will not go away, though it dominates only two of the Saturday front pages, and in the Daily Mail Mr Cameron's family members get almost as much scrutiny as Archbishop Welby's in the Telegraph. The Mail says the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner has been asked to investigate after it emerged that Mr Cameron did not disclose his stake in his father's offshore fund for nine years while he was an MP. Sounding like the Daily Mirror, the Mail says "it is far from clear we know the full truth about how far he and his inner circle of cronies and donors have benefited from elaborate schemes to keep their private wealth from the Treasury". In the Times, Sam Coates writes that Downing Street's "faltering grip" on the arguments in the tax row is being blamed on "intense focus on the EU referendum" which made Mr Cameron's team take its eye off the ball. Tom Newton Dunn writes in the Sun that Mr Cameron has "handled the story atrociously" and a "bunker mentality" has descended on Downing Street, but gives Mr Cameron credit for trying to protect his "distraught" mother amid allegations about her husband's conduct. Express political editor David Maddox claims that "senior Tories were yesterday questioning whether Cameron can survive". Another embarrassment for the government is the leak claimed by the Daily Mirror that Business Secretary Sajid Javid plans to axe the jobs of over 4,000 civil servants in his department. "Steel rescue minister in secret bid for 'King of cuts' crown," says its headline. Another story in the Mirror concerns the British mother and her son who, as its sister paper New Day reported earlier in the week, have been reunited after some 30 years and say they have become lovers and want to have a baby. It says the pair, who live in the US, have gone into hiding as police warned that the penalty for incest is up to 15 years in jail. The Sun leads with allegations of ill-treatment by a maid working for a Premier League footballer and his wife. The papers all look forward to today's Grand National, with colourful charts of the runners and riders and even more colourful pictures of female racegoers carousing at Aintree on Friday. According to the Guardian, if favourite Many Clouds wins the National for the second time it could result in bookmakers losing a total of some £30 million.

2016-04-09 03:16 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

83 83 Will Rio be ready for the Olympics? With four months to go before the summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, there are concerns whether the city will be ready. There have been public protests over alleged corruption and the outbreak of the Zika virus has meant pregnant women have had to stay away. Aleem Maqbool reports from Rio.

2016-04-09 03:16 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

84 X’s John Doe gets spiritual: “I believe in things that you can’t see acting on the way things turn out” Topics: John Doe , X , Music , Editor's Picks , Entertainment News For four decades, John Doe’s been the sturdy and surly voice of Los Angeles punk, as singer and songwriter in the genre’s finest band, X. His lengthy solo career has revealed him to be more of a wanderer, exploring various sounds and landscapes. He’s also been a hard-working character actor and poet and will release his new book, “Under the Big Black Sun,” (also the title of X’s classic third album) a collaborative memoir, in May. For his new album, “Westerner,” Doe ventured to Tuscon, Arizona, home of his late friend Michael Blake (screenwriter of the Oscar-winning epic “Dances with Wolves”) and the studio of producer and performer Howe Gelb of Giant Sand, to achieve his unique rootsy, spacious quality. The result recalls the quieter Doors, various psychedelic Nuggets and a healthy amount of Americana folk. Here, Doe discusses the album, the book, the West and X’s upcoming fortieth anniversary (yes, fortieth anniversary). You’re originally from the East Coast, but you’ve been on the West Coast for about 40 years now. Do you identify as a “Westerner”? Compared to the East Coast, it’s like a different planet out there. [Laughs] Spoken like a true Easterner. I love Los Angeles, but I feel like I’m from space when I visit. Do you feel like a native? Is the title of the album autobiographical? Yes, it is. I identify as a male, first. [Laughs] I’m joking. What is it about the West that you identify with? Any place that has that kind of vista and horizon. That’s what first struck me about it. But I would agree with you: Los Angeles, especially the emotional state that it puts me in now, is totally another planet. A lot of it had to do with the space and the light. When I first went to L. A. in early ‘76, it just hit me like a brick, just walking out of the airport terminal. There’s a certain texture to the album that reminds me of space and sky and heat. It feels geographically specific. I’m glad that translates, because it was intentional. That’s why I wanted to work with Howe. I think “Hal” has done a really great job in refining that kind of sound. What does your late friend Michael Blake mean to the record? Michael and I met probably 30 years ago. He’s most famous for writing “Dances with Wolves.” He wrote the story and the screenplay and won an Oscar for that, but he also wrote several other historical fiction books that were really simple and all about telling a story. His favorite writer was Jack London, and he was in somewhat the same camp as him. Michael wasn’t quite the adventurer. Michael and I were like brothers. We talked about art, we talked about writing, we talked about everything, our relationships, character or narrator, in most of the songs. The songs are autobiographical too, it’s not just about him. The Native American presence in the Southwest is palpable. I would say that’s what he dedicated his life to. Some people don’t like that movie as much as others, and some people like to poke fun at it. But regardless of your opinion of the movie, it completely changed the modern perception of what Indian culture was like at the time. Before that, it was pretty simple. That was such a commercial success that people had to look at Native American culture in a different way, like, “Oh! Shit!” It’s come around. I really think that Michael is still helping me with this project. It sounds very “woo-woo,” and I don’t care, to be honest. [Laughs.] I saw this image that’s on the cover, and that is also helping Native American causes, because it was a collaboration between Aaron Huey and Shepard Fairey. The photograph was taken up at the Rosebud Reservation, and it’s helping that cause, called “Protect the Sacred” or “ Honor the Treaties.” Does playing music allow you to open up more to those kinds of spiritual influences? Yeah, that’s really true. I think it’s something that you either develop as you get older or you choose to ignore. Even though I’m not religious, I’m more and more spiritual. I believe in spirits and I believe in things that you can’t see acting on the way things turn out. Anytime you’re being open, anytime your guard is down, anytime you’re using the right side of your brain I think you’re more open to different ways of explaining things or experiencing things. There are a lot of harmonic vocals on the record, almost reminiscent of what you and Exene [Cervenka, of X] would do. Was this intended to bring out a certain quality? Yeah. Exene and I taught each other great lessons. Exene was also a true friend to Michael, and he actually patterned the main female character in “Dances with Wolves” after Exene and dedicated the book to her. I like singing with somebody else, and I’ve done that a lot. Which song is Chan Marshall on? She’s on that song “A Little Help.” And Debbie Harry is on “Go Baby Go.” In Blondie, she is usually a lead singer, but here she’s definitely a little bit more in the background, which was interesting. What was that like in the studio? Debbie is a great singer, but, like you say, she’s not used to singing harmonies that much. So she was asking me, “Is that OK?” And I’m saying, “Look, you can just read the phone book and it’d be fine.” It took her a minute to understand and get the line, but then the crazy thing is, she said, “Ok, well, what if I just doubled that?” And I thought, “Sure, why not?” And she did it in one take. It was like she knew exactly what she’s done. And if you think of Debbie’s voice on a lot of Blondie stuff, a lot of it is doubled. So she knows that like the back of her hand. So it took her maybe 45 minutes to work out the part and to get the phrasing right and stuff like that, but then, once that was done, she doubled her own voice in, like, one take. It was insane. It was like totally uncanny. Like, “What did I just experience?” And that was pretty awesome.

2016-04-09 03:10 Marc Spitz salon.com.feedsportal.com

85 Giulio Regeni murder: Italy recalls ambassador to Egypt Italy has recalled its ambassador to Egypt for consultations over the murder of student Giulio Regeni in Cairo. It comes after Egyptian officials briefed their Italian counterparts on the investigation into the killing. Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni tweeted (in Italian) that Italy wanted "one thing only: the truth about Giulio". Rights groups have suggested security forces were to blame, but Egypt says a criminal gang was behind his murder. Mr Regeni, 28, disappeared on his way to meet a friend on 25 January. His body, mutilated and showing signs of torture, was found in a ditch on 3 February. The Italian foreign ministry said it had recalled Ambassador Maurizio Massari for "an urgent evaluation" of what steps to take to "ascertain the truth about the barbaric murder of Giulio Regeni". Egypt's probe into the death of Mr Regeni came under strong criticism after successive and sometimes contradictory accounts were issued by the Egyptian authorities. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has said Italy will not settle for what he called a "convenient truth", and promised swift action if the meeting failed to produce concrete results. Many in Italy think that Mr Regeni could have been targeted by the Egyptian intelligence services because of his research on trade unions and activism. The Egyptian team indicated that they were still considering the possibility the student was abducted by an anti-foreigner criminal gang whose members all died in a police shoot-out last month. In a statement, the Italian prosecutor "reiterated his conviction that there are no elements to directly link the gang to the torture and death of Giulio Regeni". The meeting in Rome between detectives from both countries was supposed to mark a turning point in the protracted investigation into Giulio Regeni's death. In the event, it was a turn for the worse. Italian officials say the Egyptian dossier did not include any new information, like Mr Regeni's mobile phone records or CCTV footage of the area in Cairo where he went missing - so they feel more crucial time has been lost in a probe that they already believed was moving too slowly. The recall of the ambassador marks the lowest point in a bilateral relationship already strained by the lack of progress in the investigation. Two major trade partners are at odds over a death that has brought international attention to what many believe is a violent crackdown on dissent under the current Egyptian government. Giulio Regeni's family think he was targeted because of his doctoral research. They remain no closer to discovering the truth of what happened to him. The 28 year old disappeared on 25 January, the fifth anniversary of the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak, while there was a heavy police presence in Cairo. His body was found a week later in a ditch on the outskirts of Cairo, showing signs of severe torture. Egypt's initial autopsy report said Giulio Regeni had been hit on the back of the head with a sharp instrument. Much of the evidence of torture came to light in a second autopsy by Italian doctors. Italy's Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Mr Regeni had suffered "something inhuman". As a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, Mr Regeni was carrying out research on trade unions and labour rights in Egypt, a sensitive topic in recent years. Rumours about possible involvement of Egypt's security services in the killing have been reported by the Italian press, activists and opposition groups. Cairo investigators have suggested that Mr Regeni was kidnapped and killed by a criminal gang posing as members of Egyptian police. Police then said they had killed all five members of the alleged gang in a raid and recovered some of Mr Regeni's personal belongings. Mr Regeni's family say they are adamant their son was killed by Egyptian authorities and that the criminal gang theory is a cover up.

2016-04-09 05:25 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

86 Tourists join bareheaded protest against Iranian clothing laws Wearing the hijab is a legal requirement for women in Iran. But a controversial Facebook campaign is calling on female tourists visiting the country to post pictures of themselves removing the garment. The campaign is the work of My Stealthy Freedom , an online movement which is no stranger to this particular act of defiance. Almost two years ago BBC Trending reported on the group's launch, since then the campaign has posted dozens of photos of Iranian women risking arrest by going out in public without the religious head covering. But its latest request comes in response to the plight of a group of female crew members at a French airline. When it was announced that Air France would begin flying into Tehran after an eight year hiatus, a number of the female crew demanded the right to opt-out of working on the new route. Why? Well many objected to an internal memo asking them to wear a hijab when disembarking the plane in the Iranian capital. The crew members have now won the battle. On Monday Air France announced it would allow its female staff to be reassigned to other flights, should they not wish to fly to Iran. In support of the their concerns, My Stealthy Freedom asked all female visitors to Iran to remove their headscarves and send in photographs - and many have obliged. Their images have been shared tens of thousands of times online. Along with their pictures the women sent in messages of support for women in Iran. "Your government tries to keep you little in the name of God! They try to keep you silent, but you have so much to say! " wrote one. "It's a pity that not only these amazing people, but also tourists like me are having the mandatory hijab imposed. I am annoyed that I can't express myself truly," said another Another woman posted a picture of herself with the caption: "Iran is beautiful and Iranian people are wonderful. Great hospitality and a strong desire for freedom and peace. Wearing the compulsory hijab gave me a terrible feeling of slavery. I didn't feel free to be what I am, which is horrible. For me, it was only 22 days of my life. For you, you always have to wear it! " Masih Alinejad, who created the My Stealthy Freedom movement confirms that all the women featured have now left the country. Join the conversation on this and other stories here . She told BBC Trending that she started this latest iteration of the campaign because she felt the Air France debate showed the matter was not just confined to Iranian women. "When the issue of the veil applies to all non-Iranian women in the Islamic Republic, then it is a global issue. I think all women who are not happy to be forced to wear the hijab, should stand together and talk about it. " In October, BBC Trending wrote about a trend driven by the same Facebook page in which husbands in Iran were declaring solidarity with their wives. Many posted messages to say they were ashamed to have more rights than their partner. Blog by Sam Judah Next story Music fans share most embarrassing memories in Indie Amnesty Guitar band fans have been revealing their most hilarious cringe-making stories. READ MORE You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending , and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending .

2016-04-09 03:08 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

87 Yahoo - Yahoo Sports Partners With NHL to Bring Fans Free, Live Out-of-Market Games & On-Demand Premium Content No Cable or Authentication Required, Alliance Offers New Opportunities for Advertisers to Connect with Fans --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (NASDAQ:YHOO) and the (NHL®) today announced a strategic alliance to deliver premium sports content to Yahoo Sports' millions of users. Now fans can access live, out-of-market games for free on , throughout the week, no cable subscription or authentication required. will offer unique advertising opportunities for brands to connect with their audiences, alongside and within this live and on-demand sports contents. Beginning , , in collaboration with the , will live stream an "Game of the Day" to hockey fans in the , up to four days a week, along with delivering in-game highlights for each game. This is in addition to the Wednesday and Sunday national games currently promoted by to its fans in partnership with. will also provide condensed games, "Best of the Day" and "Best of the Week" top plays and postgame highlights. also will continue to bring fantasy hockey highlights and our season-long game to fans around the world. "This alliance brings us one step closer to providing fans a live professional sporting event every day, on , completely frictionless and for free - no cable subscription or authentication required," said , VP, Media Partnerships at. "We remain committed to delivering the best digital content to our users and advertisers, and the NHL's premium content nicely complements our offering of live and on-demand partner content, including Yahoo/MLB's Game of the Day, content and our recently announced deal with the TOUR. " Building on the success of the NFL live stream on which drew more than 15 million viewers, is introducing new video advertising opportunities that will run within commercial breaks during the live streams of live sporting events, which includes and MLB games. Brands will have new ways to connect directly with an engaged audience of sports fans around this live video programming on , while using Yahoo's audience insights and retargeting capabilities to engage with viewers after a game concludes. The (NHL®), founded in 1917, consists of 30 , with players from more than 20 countries represented across team rosters, competing for the most revered trophy in professional sports - the Stanley Cup®. Each year, the entertains hundreds of millions of fans around the world. The League broadcasts games in more than 160 countries and territories through its rightsholders including /NBCSN in the , Sportsnet and in , and Viasat in the. The reaches fans worldwide with games available online in every country including via its live and on-demand streaming service NHL. TV™. Fans are engaged across the League's digital assets on mobile devices via the free app; across nine social media platforms; on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio™, and on NHL.com, available in eight languages and featuring an enhanced statistics platform powered by SAP, providing the definitive destination for hockey analytics. A historic media rights partnership between the and MLBAM has transformed the fan experience across the League's digital and broadcast assets, with an emphasis on deeper access into the game and enhanced storytelling. To celebrate the NHL's international diversity, the World Cup of Hockey will return in September, 2016, a best-on-best international tournament featuring eight teams comprised of the world's best hockey players. On Founder's Day in , the League will celebrate its Centennial anniversary, commemorating 100 years of hockey. The is committed to giving back to the community through programs including: Hockey is for Everyone™ which supports nonprofit youth hockey organizations across ; Hockey Fights Cancer™ which raises money and awareness for hockey's most important fight; NHL Green™ which is committed to the pursuit of sustainable business practices; and a partnership with the , which is committed to supporting the LGBT community and fighting homophobia in sports. For more information, visit NHL.com. and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks of the. All Rights Reserved. is a guide focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining our users. By creating highly personalized experiences for our users, we keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the world. In turn, we create value for advertisers by connecting them with the audiences that build their businesses. is headquartered in , and has offices located throughout the , (APAC) and the , and (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the Company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com).

2016-04-09 02:07 investor.yahoo.net

88 Saving money by traveling during 'shoulder season' Whether you're contemplating a trip to Manhattan or prefer a relaxing vacation on the beach, this may be the ideal time to plan your next trip because of something called "shoulder season". Gabe Saglie, senior editor for TravelZoo , joined 11Alive's Melissa Long to explain what the season is and how it translates to deals for you on your next big trip. (© 2016 WXIA)

2016-04-09 03:59 Melissa Long rssfeeds.11alive.com

89 Indian lunar orbiter hit by heat rise - CNN.com NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Scientists have switched off several on-board instruments to halt rising temperatures inside India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft. Mylswamy Annadurai, the project director for the lunar mission, told CNN that temperatures onboard Chandrayaan-1 had risen to 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit). The increase occurred as the craft, the moon -- which it is orbiting -- and the sun lined up, a phenomenon which Annadurai said was not unexpected and which would likely last until the end of December. "We have switched off the systems (aboard) that are not needed to be on," Annadurai said, ruling out the possibility of damage and adding that the temperature was now down to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Heat on board the Chandrayaan-1 should not exceed 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), Annadurai said -- but insisted the orbiter is designed to withstand up to 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit). The Chandrayaan-1 -- Chandrayaan means "moon craft" in Sanskrit -- was successfully launched from southern India on October 22. Watch the launch of India's first lunar mission » Its two-year mission is to take high-resolution, three-dimensional images of the moon's surface, especially the permanently shadowed polar regions. It also will search for evidence of water or ice and attempt to identify the chemical composition of certain lunar rocks, the group said. Earlier this month the Moon Impact Probe detached from Chandrayaan-1 and successfully crash-landed on the moon's surface. Officials say that the TV-size probe, which is adorned with a painting of the Indian flag, hit the moon's surface at a speed of 5,760 kilometers per hour (3,579 mph). It transmitted data to Chandrayaan-1 ahead of impact but was not intended to be retrieved after that. Chandrayaan-1 is carrying payloads from the United States, the European Union and Bulgaria. India plans to share the data from the mission with other programs, including NASA.

2016-04-09 05:46 Harmeet Shah rss.cnn.com

90 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.

2016-04-09 05:46 rss.cnn.com

91 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

2016-04-09 05:46 By Brandon rss.cnn.com

92 Yahoo - Yahoo Board of Directors Forms Independent Committee to Explore Strategic Alternatives --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ( : YHOO) today provided further details about its previous announcement that its Board of Directors is exploring strategic alternatives alongside its continued consideration of a reverse spin. The Board has formed a Strategic Review Committee of independent directors to lead this effort, with the assistance and support of management. The Strategic Review Committee has engaged , J. P. Morgan and PJT Partners Inc. as its financial advisors, and as its legal advisor. The Strategic Review Committee and its advisors are establishing a process for outreach to and engagement with potentially interested strategic and financial parties. The Strategic Review Committee will recommend to the Board whether any proposed transaction is in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders. "The Board recently formed an independent committee to conduct a process to evaluate strategic alternatives for the company. We have hired excellent advisors and are working closely and in alignment with management to pursue an effective process," said , Chairman of the Board. "The Board is thoroughly committed to exploring strategic alternatives while simultaneously supporting management and the employees in their implementation of Yahoo's strategic plan. We believe that pursuing these complementary paths is in the best interests of our shareholders and will maximize value. " "Separating our Alibaba stake from Yahoo's operating business is essential to maximizing value for our shareholders. In addition to the reverse spin, there are strategic alternatives that could help us achieve the separation, while strengthening our business," said , CEO of. "As both shareholders and employees, all of us here at want to return this iconic company to greatness. We can best achieve this by working with the committee to pursue various strategic alternatives while, in parallel, aggressively executing our strategic plan to strengthen our growth businesses and improve efficiency and profitability. " The Company does not intend to make any further disclosure regarding these matters until a definitive transaction agreement is reached or a determination has been made that none will be pursued. is a guide focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining our users. By creating highly personalized experiences for our users, we keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the world. In turn, we create value for advertisers by connecting them with the audiences that build their businesses. is headquartered in , and has offices located throughout the , (APAC) and the , and (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the Company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com). This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning expected financial performance and strategic and operational plans (including, without limitation, quotations from management and the Board). Risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. There is no assurance that any formal strategic proposal will be made or that any strategic proposal will be on terms the Strategic Review Committee finds acceptable, and therefore there is no assurance that any transaction will occur, or if it does, as to its terms or timing. All information set forth in this press release and its attachments is as of. does not intend, and undertakes no duty, to update this information to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, risks related to acceptance by users of new products and services; risks related to ability to compete with new or existing competitors; reduction in spending by, or loss of, advertising customers; risks related to ability to continue to grow its mobile users and revenue; risks related to ability to continue to grow Mavens revenue; risks related to ability to provide innovative search experiences and other products and services that differentiate its services and generate significant traffic; risks associated with the Search Agreement with Microsoft Corporation; risks related to acquiring or developing compelling content; risks related to joint ventures and the integration of acquisitions; risks related to possible impairment of goodwill or other assets; risks related to ability to manage its operating expenses effectively; risks related to ability to protect its intellectual property and the value of its brands; adverse results in litigation; security breaches; interruptions or delays in the provision of services; risks related to regulatory environment; risks related to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; risks related to international operations; risks related to ability to recruit and retain key personnel; dependence on third parties for technology, services, content, and distribution; risks related to the calculation of our key operational metrics; and general economic conditions. More information about potential factors that could affect the Company's business and financial results is included under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended , as amended, and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended , which are on file with the and available on the website at www.sec.gov. Additional information will also be set forth in those sections in Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended , which will be filed with the in the first quarter of 2016.

2016-04-09 06:45 investor.yahoo.net

93 BBC Radio Leicester couple Tony Wadsworth and Julie Mayer face child sex charges Two BBC Radio presenters have been charged with sex offences against four children in the 1990s. Married Tony and Julie Wadsworth have presented on BBC Radio Leicester and BBC WM in Birmingham. The couple from Leicestershire are due to appear at Warwickshire Magistrates' Court on Wednesday 11 May. A BBC spokesman said: "We understand the charges do not relate to their conduct or position at the BBC. " He said both presenters remain off air. Mr and Mrs Wadsworth are accused of offences against boys aged 11 to 15 that are alleged to have taken place in Atherstone, Warwickshire, between 1996 and 1999. Mr Wadsworth, 68, of Old Mill Road, Broughton Astley, has been charged with five counts of inciting a boy under the age of 16 to commit an act of gross indecency. His wife, 58, whose on-air name was Julie Mayer, has been charged with seven counts of inciting a boy under the age of 16 to commit an act of gross indecency. They both also face one count of committing an act outraging public decency.

2016-04-08 23:23 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

94 The mystery of Republican women backing sexist Trump: They’re female misogynists who’ve grown to accept oppression Topics: trump and women , trump sexism , Donald Trump , female sexism , conservative women , republican women , Republican Primary , Elections 2016 , Editor's Picks , Elections News , Media News , News , Politics News It’s safe to say most women don’t like Donald Trump. Polls show about 70 percent of women openly dislike the man , an unfavorability rating that far surpasses any other candidate/gender combination out there. But, as Melissa Deckman for the Washington Post reminds us , Trump does have his female supporters. Amongst Republicans, Trump is nearly as popular with women as he is with men, with 41 percent of GOP women vs. 43 percent of GOP men citing him as their favorite presidential candidate. Deckman, who wrote a book on Tea Party women , suggests that these female voters are so invested in Trump’s views on immigration and race that they’re willing to overlook his misogyny. Deckman is dead right about that, but I think there’s even more to it. The sad truth is that many conservative women are simply accepting of misogyny. If anything, for many conservative women, misogyny is a value-add. As illogical as it might seem on the surface, many, many women share all manner of sexist and derogatory beliefs about women. Female misogyny has been central to the conservative movement for decades now. A reliable career path for a conservative woman who wants a career in politics is to be a spokeswoman for female misogyny, using her gender as cover to advance anti-feminist goals, such as stripping away reproductive rights, fighting women’s equality in the workplace and even, disturbingly, undermining efforts to reduce sexual harassment and violence. Since the ’70s, when Phyllis Schlafly was organizing efforts to stop the Equal Rights Amendment, to today, when many anti-choice leaders are women and Fox News has its own mostly female show whose purpose is excusing sexual harassment and bashing feminists, female anti-feminism has been a critical component of the right-wing ecology. Not that this is just a cynical money and power grab by heartless women willing to throw other women under the bus (though some of it probably is). Anti-feminist female punditry works in no small part because a whole lot of women sincerely agree with sexist ideas. The reason is that misogyny is almost never about some categorical hatred of women just for being women. It’s about dividing women into two categories, good women and bad women, and then dumping all this bile and hatred on women who are deemed unworthy for whatever reason. Even blatant misogynists like Trump will swear up and down that they don’t hate women, they’re just bashing some women. On its surface, this kind of logic doesn’t seem so offensive. After all, we all accept that there are good people and bad people. Are feminists saying that women are somehow exempt from that? Of course not. The issue here is that women are being judged by unfair, irrational standards that are nothing like what we judge men by. What makes you a “good” woman in sexist thinking has little to do with whether you’re kind or even smart, but has more to do with adherence to unfair gender norms. Women are judged more by their sexuality or their submissiveness than their actual character. So someone gets more points for being a virgin or being a doting housewife than they do for being smart and talented at their job. Or, in the case of Donald Trump, women are judged by their adherence to his very narrow views of what constitutes fuckable, and the rest of us are a waste of oxygen.

2016-04-08 21:03 Amanda Marcotte salon.com.feedsportal.com

95 Patton Oswalt mercilessly skewers his own “Star Wars” obsession Topics: Patton Oswalt , Netflix , Talking for Clapping , Media News , Entertainment News , News Everyone’s losing their minds about this “Rogue One” (or is it “Rouge One”?) teaser that dropped yesterday, but let’s not let it overshadow announcement of Patton Oswalt’s new hour of stand-up, “Talking for Clapping.” The trailer dropped today on YouTube: Among the topics of discussion: San Francisco, “the capitol of the snappy answer for the completely reasonable question”; the missed opportunity of being able to talk to terminal patients about “Star Wars”; gay prom vs. straight prom. And, perhaps best of all, “Talking for Clapping” will be streaming on Netflix starting April 22, so you won’t have to wait ’til December.

2016-04-09 03:10 Brendan Gauthier salon.com.feedsportal.com

96 Photos: Coachella 2015: Best of Weekend 1 - San Bernardino County Sun Media Center A couple rest in the shade of the Chrono Chromatic art installation as the giant caterpillar crawls past them during opening day at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. on April, 10, 2015. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda/ San Gabriel Valley Tribune)

2016-04-08 23:35 www.presstelegram.com

97 Amber Alert after dad is no show at drop-off DORAVILLE, Ga. -- An Amber Alert has been issued for an 18-month-old boy after his father was a no-show for custodial drop-off earlier in the week. He was last seen on April 1 when he was scheduled for the drop at the Doraville Police Department. The boy and his father never showed up and attempts to find them have failed. Thursday, the mother went before a Fulton County judge in an emergency hearing. At that time, the judge ordered an Amber Alert. The suspect is listed as 31-year-old Willis Anthony Johnson, described only as a black male. They were last seen in a blue Kia Forte EX but police have since located the vehicle at a family member's home and the two were not in it. (© 2016 WXIA)

2016-04-09 03:45 Julie Wolfe rssfeeds.11alive.com

98 Why has Cabbagetown become the new hot real estate market in town? ATLANTA (WXIA) -- Home sweet home. “It’s just this perfect little bubble in Cabbagetown,” said Sasha. “I absolutely love it here.” She and Justin bought a house here seven years ago. Now, they couldn't find one if they tried. Not a single home is on the market! "This is just what's sold in the last 365 days," said Realtor Kerry Loftis. Loftis monitors listings constantly, and has seen home prices skyrocket over the past few years. "Who would have thought a two bedroom-two bath in Cabbagetown would be right under half a million dollars? " Why? Well, it goes back to what you find here. We asked Justin and Sasha their favorite thing about the neighborhood. “Every walks and just says hi. It's the most walkable community in Atlanta. " And that word is key – “They want a walkable neighborhood.” Neighborhoods that offer that – particularly access to the BeltLine – are the ones where… "Right now we just have a very limited amount of inventory on the market. That's creating a feeding frenzy. " So what neighborhood is next? According to Loftis, Adair Park, Howell Station and Riverside are poised to be the next high-selling hot spots in the city. Just don’t expect this couple to move any time soon. (© 2016 WXIA)

2016-04-09 03:43 Jeremy Campbell rssfeeds.11alive.com

99 Kitchen cabinet: Tony Abbott's office spent $15,000 on ministerial oven The prime minister’s office spent more than $15,000 on a new oven in the parliament house cabinet suite. Information tabled by the Department of Parliamentary Services confirms a total of $15,535 was spent on the oven, including $13,490 on its manufacture. The installation occurred in May last year, when Tony Abbott was still prime minister. The department said the appliance replaced a 24-year-old oven that was not repairable and presented a health and safety risk for chefs using it. During a Senate estimates hearing earlier this year, the department secretary Robert Stefanic said $15,000 was not an unusual cost for a commercial oven and not at the upper end of pricing. The former prime minister has been known for getting a good deal, especially when it comes to appliances. In December last year, his purchase of a second-hand fridge on Gumtree made news in the Australian media, when he arrived at the house of Emmanuel and Emily Hastings, in the Sydney suburb of Newport, to collect the large fridge his wife had bought on the trading website.

2016-04-09 03:41 Staff and www.theguardian.com

100 100 Rock Hill Applied Technology Center takes on 'rat rod' challenge The mock trial team at Nation Ford High School will compete in the state competition Friday and Saturday in Columbia. Twelve high school teams are competing; students talk about what they've learned. Twenty teachers from around the globe have been visiting Rock Hilll schools through a U. S. State Department program based at Winthrop University for the fifth year. The teachers talk about what they've learned and what they've seen. Students at York Preparatory Academy in Rock Hill confront their hopes, dreams and fears about the future in an e-book, 'The Next Step.' Students in a fall English 4 class wrote the essays and read them or talk about them. The Rock Hill school district wants to move the Head Start program out of the Russell Street Edgewood Center, owned by the district, due to severe roof problems and other issues. The district has examined the condition of the building. Students at Rock Hill's Old Pointe Elementary School wrote letters and submitted a video asking the Carolina Panthers to take two teachers to the Super Bowl. The teachers are part-time employees of the team; the team is taking full-time employees to Sunday's game. Fort Mill's school board had a little fun Tuesday night, opening the meeting in true Carolina Panthers style. The Panthers appear in the Super Bowl on Sunday. Fort Mill's 2015-2016 "players" included board members Patrick White, Scott Patterson, Wayne Bouldin, Pam Martin, Diane Dasher, Tom Audette, and Michele Branning. Also joining the team was superintendent Chuck Epps and "Keep Pounding" cheerleaders Michael Pratt (BMTS principal) and Michelle Gritz (SCES principal). Students in AP and honors biology courses at South Pointe High School in Rock Hill did a genetics lab to assess the causes of cancer in a mobile lab from Greenwood Genetics Center. The lab, which visited the school Tuesday, travels around the state offering genetics education to high school students. Students at York Middle School "dabbed" at the command of their teachers on Monday, part of a week of events planned in advance of the Carolina Panthers' appearance at the Super Bowl. Other events included students writing fan letters and a raffle of Panthers gear. Interact clubs at York Comprehensive and Clover high schools teamed up to do community service in both communities. The joint project was planned during a week when the school basketball teams play a rivalry game. Mary Ann Weir has banded with fellow educators in Chester County to help curb bullying at Lewisville Elementary School. Last week, third-graders participated in a hands-on workshop to learn about emotional, mental and physical disabilities that could be affecting how their classmates learn.

2016-04-09 01:58 www.heraldonline.com

Total 100 articles. Created at 2016-04-09 12:04