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100 articles, 2016-02-21 00:02 1 Justice Antonin Scalia Honored In Funeral Procession The funeral will be held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (4) in Washington. 2016-02-20 11:13:00 2KB newyork.cbslocal.com 2 Ugandan President Wins 5th Term In Election Held Under 'Intimidating Atmosphere' (3) Ugandan President Yoweri Musevani, who has been in power for 30 years, won more than 60 percent of the votes. Observers say the vote fell short of democratic. 2016-02-21 00:21:00 3KB www.npr.org 3 World news: breaking news and current events - powered by FeedBurner (3) More than a dozen drivers that stopped over at the Pennsylvania BZ-Bee gas station to fill their tanks said their cars stopped working soon... 2016-02-20 16:56:55 812Bytes feeds.feedburner.com 4 Antarctic penguins unable to return home due to iceberg grounding—study (2) SYDNEY, Australia—Tens of thousands of Antarctic penguins are estimated to be unable to return to their colony after a massive iceberg grounded there, according to a newly published 2016-02-21 00:57:00 3KB technology.inquirer.net

(2) 5 Nigeria: People Detained by Military Disappear in Northeast First come the whispers, then accusations loud enough to raise alarms throughout Nigeria's northeastern villages ravaged by extremist violence. Next, people accused of being Boko Haram are rounded up, sometimes by the military, sometimes by a civilian self- defense force. Many are never seen... 2016-02-21 00:54:00 8KB abcnews.go.com 6 Lebanese Trade Accusations Over Saudi Aid Suspension Lebanese politicians traded accusations Saturday over the decision by Saudi Arabia to (2) halt deals worth $4 billion aimed at equipping and supporting Lebanese security forces, adding to tensions in the deeply divided country, which is struggling with the fallout from neighboring Syria's civil... 2016-02-21 00:52:00 3KB abcnews.go.com 7 PP-Dem-Delg-All,100 Nevada - Caucus 2016-02-21 00:27:00 608Bytes www.thenewstribune.com (2)

8 Egypt author jailed for violating 'public modesty' Egyptian author Ahmed Naji was sentenced to two years in jail on Saturday by a Cairo (2) appeals court for publishing a sexually explicit excerpt of his novel that prosecutors said violated "public modesty." 2016-02-21 00:12:00 4KB www.charlotteobserver.com 9 Switzerland: Thieves Take Jewels, Cash Worth Over $1 Million (2) Police say three men have stolen jewelry and cash worth well over 1 million Swiss francs ($1 million) in a raid on a shop in downtown Zurich. Zurich police said in a statement that the men entered the jeweler's shop on Saturday lunchtime and threatened the two staff members who were present... 2016-02-21 00:02:00 1KB abcnews.go.com (2) 10 VIDEO: Richard Branson unveils new spaceship Sir Richard Branson has unveiled the new version of his Virgin Galactic Spaceship.It will carry six passengers and is designed to travel more than 60 miles 2016-02-20 21:32:52 795Bytes headlinenewstoday.net

11 Longtime leader Yoweri Museveni declared the winner of Uganda's disputed election

(2) Long-time Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni was declared the winner of the country's disputed presidential election Saturday, but the main opposition party rejected the results as fraudulent and called for an independent audit of the count. Museveni got more than 60% of the votes, and his nearest rival, Kizza Besigye, got 35%, according to final results announced by the election commission. Besigye himself was under house arrest as Museveni was declared the winner, with heavily armed police 2016-02-20 22:25:35 1KB article.wn.com 12 U. S. bombs IS training camp in Libya WASHINGTON — American F-15E fighter-bombers struck an Islamic State training camp in (2) rural Libya near the Tunisian border Friday, killing dozens, probably including an IS operative considered responsible for deadly attacks in Tunisia last year, U.S. and local officials said. The strike did not appear to mark the beginning of a sustained U.S. campaign in Libya but a Pentagon spokesman said “it may not be the last.” The spokesman, Peter Cook, said the U.S. is determined to stop the Islamic State from “gaining traction” in Libya. Mr. Cook said the training camp was “relatively new,” and that the U.S. has identified similar Islamic State training camps elsewhere in Libya, suggesting potential future strikes in defense of regional and U.S. national security interests. In Libya, local officials 2016-02-20 21:55:40 4KB www.post-gazette.com 13 Britain to hold historic referendum on European Union membership in June

(2) A historic referendum on whether Britain should stay in the European Union will be held on June 23, Prime Minister David Cameron announced Saturday, even as he declared his belief that the U.K. would be "safer and stronger" if it remained in the 28-nation bloc. Cameron spoke in front of his 10...... 2016-02-20 21:56:53 1KB article.wn.com 14 2 Plainclothes Police Officers Are Shot After a Brief Car Chase in Brooklyn (2) The police shot the suspect, Jamal Funes, 34, after he drove head-on into a marked police vehicle and then exchanged fire with officers, officials said. 2016-02-20 22:11:24 5KB www.nytimes.com 15 Comelec denies discrimination in choosing networks for presidential debates CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines--Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairperson Andres Bautista on Saturday denied there was undue benefit and discrimination in the choice of lead networks to air 2016-02-21 12:40:00 3KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 16 Ex-WWE star Batista calls Pacquiao ‘idiot’ over gay remarks Former World Wrestling Entertainment star and Filipino-American Dave Bautista slammed Manny Pacquiao for his controversial remarks against homosexuals and same-sex marriage. Bautista, who is 2016-02-21 01:06:00 1KB sports.inquirer.net 17 Lost Tapes Reveal Apollo Astronauts Heard Unexplained ‘Music’ On Far Side Of The Moon "If you’re behind the moon and hear some weird noise on your radio, and you know you’re blocked from the Earth, then what could you possibly think?" 2016-02-21 00:52:00 3KB www.huffingtonpost.com 18 Deadpool Slams 'SNL' With Perfect Kanye West Impression So much for that petition. 2016-02-21 00:33:00 1KB www.huffingtonpost.com 19 John Legend Kissing Chrissy Teigen's Stomach Is Peak Them The Dream Couple is at it again. 2016-02-21 00:28:00 1KB www.huffingtonpost.com 20 Supreme Court Scuffle Triggers Constitutional Clash It only took one man's death to give Congress an opening to extend its dysfunction to the rest of government. Republican opposition to letting President Barack Obama replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia quickly sparked a constitutional clash over the president's right to fill Supreme... 2016-02-21 00:19:00 6KB abcnews.go.com 21 15 Science-Backed Ways To Make Any Workout Feel Easier Breeze through your next gym session with less sweat and better results. 2016-02-21 00:18:00 6KB www.huffingtonpost.com 22 Donald Trump wades into US privacy battle calling for Apple boycott GOP frontrunner Donald Trump has called for a boycott of Apple, despite its iPhone being the most widely used mobile handset in the US... 2016-02-21 00:17:00 1KB www.thedrum.com 23 Migrant island documentary "Fire at Sea" wins at Berlin fest 'Fire at Sea,' a documentary about the Italian island of Lampedusa -- many migrants' first destination on risky journeys toward safety and a better life in Europe -- won the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday. 2016-02-21 00:17:00 3KB mynorthwest.com 24 The Latest: Hundreds line up to see Kasich in Massachusetts The Latest on the 2016 presidential election and two crucial contests Saturday: South Carolina's Republican primary and Nevada's Democratic caucuses (all times are Eastern Standard Time): 2016-02-21 00:02:00 7KB www.thenewstribune.com 25 Apple-Justice Department Battle Pits Privacy Against National Security Apple and the Department of Justice are in a battle of wills over access to a San Bernardino shooter's cell phone. 2016-02-20 23:58:43 5KB www.npr.org 26 Nevada Caucuses: What You Need to Know Nevada voters caucus on Saturday for the state’s Democratic presidential contest. Here is a look at some key information. 2016-02-20 23:54:44 1KB www.nytimes.com 27 3 Lake Wylie restaurants part of River Week Dining out Feb. 21-27 can help protect the Catawba River Basin, including three restaurants in Lake Wylie. 2016-02-20 22:36:51 1KB www.heraldonline.com 28 Apple Sees Value in Its Stand to Protect Security Apple’s refusal to help the F.B.I. break into its secure mobile operating system may benefit its brand in the rest of the world. 2016-02-20 23:48:44 8KB www.nytimes.com 29 AMBER Alert still active for 4-year-old Savannah Walker in Detroit An AMBER Alert is still active for 4-year-old Savannah Walker, and police are also looking for 33-year-old Marcus Hightower as a person of interest. 2016-02-20 23:47:43 2KB www.wxyz.com 30 6 dead in protests for caste benefits in northern NEW DELHI (AP) Hundreds of army and paramilitary soldiers on Saturday tried to quell protests by angry mobs demanding government benefits in a northern Indian state, with at least six people killed in clashes between security forces and protesters, officials said. The violence raged for a second straight day, as 2016-02-20 22:32:23 1KB article.wn.com 31 S Koreans alarmed as North fires shots Sounds of explosions caused South Korean residents of a frontline island to prepare to evacuate early yesterday, but it was later determined that the noise came from a North Korean artillery drill across the rivals’ disputed maritime border, officials said. The false alarm was indicative of the high anxiety between 2016-02-20 21:38:51 995Bytes article.wn.com

32 As Nevada and South Carolina Vote, Six Dynamics Could Alter 2016 Race The Democratic caucus in Nevada and the Republican primary in South Carolina could answer pressing questions about the campaign. 2016-02-20 21:44:29 11KB www.nytimes.com 33 Ugandan protesters beaten amid vote counting As election returns showed a strong, early lead on Friday for incumbent Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the longtime leader’s security forces briefly detained the main opposition candidate and cracked down on protesters with beatings, tear gas and stun grenades. The actions were condemned by the US, which gives financial support to the East African nation and helps train its military. Thursday’s vote was extended for a second day in two main districts because ballots 2016-02-20 21:38:41 1KB article.wn.com 34 Virginia Tech community copes with latest violent incident As two Virginia Tech students face charges in the slaying of a 13-year-old girl, their classmates are repeating what they have said following other violent debacles in the last decade: The community is defined not by the horrific crimes themselves, but by the way its people pull together afterward. 2016-02-20 23:36:41 4KB www.washingtontimes.com 35 Rubio Tries To Sell The New Face Of The GOP Establishment To S. C. Voters The Florida senator needs a rebound in the state's GOP primary after a disappointing New Hampshire finish. And he's hoping the backing of the state's young, diverse leadership can help him do that. 2016-02-20 23:35:23 6KB www.npr.org 36 Ex-‘CEO’ killed at southwest Atlanta motorcycle club What led to a fatal shooting outside a southwest Atlanta motorcycle club — and who pulled the trigger — remained mysteries Saturday afternoon. 2016-02-20 22:25:19 976Bytes www.ajc.com 37 Leaders of Nepal and India mend fences after friction NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The leaders of Nepal and India have overcome mutual misgivings, India's foreign secretary said on Saturday, after talks to ease tensions over Nepal's recently-adopted constitution. 2016-02-20 23:34:57 841Bytes article.wn.com 38 Serbia: 2 hostages killed in US airstrikes in Libya Two Serbian embassy staffers held hostage since November died in Friday's U.S. airstrikes on an Islamic State camp in western Libya that killed dozens, Serbian officials said Saturday. Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said there was no doubt that Sladjana Stankovic, a communications officer, and Jovica Stepic, a driver, were killed in the American bombing. They were snatched in November after their diplomatic convoy, including the ambassador, came under fire near the coastal Libyan city of 2016-02-20 23:34:51 1KB article.wn.com 39 Zootly is a New York moving app with a Canadian connection Canadian-designed moving app Zootly has been compared to Uber, but unlike the ride- sharing app, Zootly doesn't bypass existing companies but collects them under one umbrella, much like a dispatch or booking service for movers. ... 2016-02-20 23:34:03 924Bytes article.wn.com 40 Top Rhode Island lawmaker signs on to legalizing pot A push to legalize recreational marijuana in Rhode Island has won the support of a top lawmaker. 2016-02-20 22:23:29 2KB www.washingtontimes.com 41 Watch now: Scalia’s Mass begins in hallowed place where popes have prayed In a hallowed place where popes have prayed and pilgrims have flocked, Washington is capping two days of official mourning for Antonin Scalia with a funeral Mass for the late Supreme Court justice. Watch it live here. One of Scalia’s nine children, the Rev. Paul Scalia, was to lead the Mass on Saturday at the nation’s largest Roman Catholic church, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It can hold at least 3,500 2016-02-20 22:05:15 1KB article.wn.com

42 Posner family gives $5 million to CMU for scholarships Officials hope a $5 million gift announced Friday to Carnegie Mellon University from the Posner family of Pittsburgh will help the school broaden and diversify its student population by providing additional undergraduate scholarships. At least five scholarships a year are to be created from the gift announced by family members, including school trustee Anne Molloy and her husband, Henry Posner III. These latest Presidential Scholarships at Carnegie Mellon will be awarded based on degree of academic success and future potential. “I’ve been moved by the stories of students who receive these scholarships. As someone who benefited from a scholarship myself, it’s exciting to have the opportunity to pay it forward to a future generation of CMU students,” said Ms. Molloy, the Posners’ daughter- 2016-02-20 21:55:50 2KB www.post-gazette.com 43 Russian bid at UN to halt Turkey fails Western powers on Friday rejected a Russian bid at the UN to halt Turkey’s military actions in Syria, as France warned of a dangerous escalation in the nearly five-year conflict. The emergency UN Security Council meeting came as US Secretary of State John Kerry cautioned there was “a lot more work to do” for a ceasefire to take hold in Syria, following talks in Geneva between US and Russian officials. In related news, US President Barack Obama, in a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip 2016-02-20 21:55:37 1KB article.wn.com 44 UK to hold referendum on whether to stay in the EU Cameron Sets Out EU Deal To Cabinet UPDATE: 7:39 a.m. EST — British Prime Minister David Cameron said Saturday that the U.K. will hold a historic referendum on whether to stay in the European Union on June 23, according to reports. Original story: British Prime Minister David Cameron held a meeting ... 2016-02-20 21:56:46 1KB article.wn.com 45 6 held in Spain court probe into China's ICBC bank in Madrid A Spanish judge has ruled that six executives of China's state-owned ICBC bank in Madrid should be detained pending a judicial probe into money laundering and tax fraud. ... 2016-02-20 21:57:06 850Bytes article.wn.com 46 Black Lives Matter Activist-Professor Threatens Ben Shapiro and Conservative Students at CSULA A Black Lives Matter activist who is also a professor at California State University Los Angeles (CSULA) is threatening Breitbart News senior editor-at-large Ben Shapiro and the conservative Young America’s Foundation (YAF) in advance of Shapiro’s lecture at the school on February 25. ... 2016-02-20 23:21:51 1KB article.wn.com 47 Fashion’s Newest Trend: Silence in the Front Row Increasingly, the celebrities who turn up at fashion shows seem to be doing so only if they don’t have to give interviews. 2016-02-20 22:12:16 3KB www.nytimes.com 48 Police: Man who shot officer kills himself during standoff Authorities say a man they accuse of shooting and injuring an officer and sparking a nearly 24-hour standoff fatally shot himself. 2016-02-20 22:15:30 1KB www.washingtontimes.com 49 Discover resort treasures in Costa Rica "There he is," said Juan Jose, pointing to the young sloth on a tree near the entrance to Nayara Springs. Not to want to see a sloth is akin to not wanting to go zip lining in Costa Rica. ... 2016-02-20 21:54:42 800Bytes article.wn.com

50 AMERICA/BRAZIL - 11 years after the death of Sister Dorothy Stang,... Many families of Anapu farmers in the south of Para , met on February 12 and in the following days to commemorate the murder of Sister Dorothy Stang, which occurred 11 years ago. She was a loyal friend and close to their problems, as well as a religious known for her courage and availability. ... 2016-02-20 21:55:44 1KB article.wn.com 51 Video: Newly Appointed Deputy Sheriff Gets Engaged on Same Day As Her Graduation Kaitlyn Cowell knew Feb. 19 would be a special day. She was set to become a Deputy Sheriff for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. What she didn't know was that her boyfriend of three years, Deputy Sheriff Andrew McCorkle, would propose. 2016-02-20 22:33:40 1KB abcnews.go.com 52 Chinese Securities Regulator Is Out, but Little May Change The dismissal of Xiao Gang is a gamble by President Xi Jinping that he can limit damage to the Communist Party from the struggling economy. 2016-02-20 22:02:29 8KB www.nytimes.com 53 Turkey to take additional security measures after bombing: PM Davutoglu ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey is to tighten security across the country, and especially the capital, 2016-02-20 20:56:14 750Bytes article.wn.com 54 Clinton vs Sanders in Nevada: Urban vs rural Seeking an edge, Hillary Clinton courted voters throughout Las Vegas’ sprawling population centers on Friday while rival Bernie Sanders barnstormed across northern Nevada in search of delegates in the state’s high-stakes Democratic presidential caucuses. The divergent scenes offered evidence of the two paths Clinton and Sanders are following as they furiously stump for every vote before Saturday’s Nevada caucuses. Clinton is hoping minorities and unions in Nevada’s population center give her the 2016-02-20 20:53:32 1KB article.wn.com 55 A hole in one: Fairmont holds annual disc golf tournament As a boy, Joshua Smith played disc golf before he even knew what disc golf was. 2016-02-20 22:35:18 3KB www.washingtontimes.com 56 After devastating fire, Huntington restaurants rise again Drew and Megan Hetzer were running errands when they got a most unwanted call on the Sunday morning of July 27, 2014. The historic Morris Building, at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street in downtown Huntington, was on fire. 2016-02-20 22:35:04 3KB www.washingtontimes.com 57 Fire hits Phoenix oil depot in Batangas LOS BAÑOS,Laguna-At least 16 firetrucks from different parts of the region were already deployed to contain the big fire that hit an oil depot in Calaca,Batangas. In a phone interview, Batangas 2016-02-20 22:34:00 1KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 58 Venezuela's decline fuelled by plunging oil prices Venezuela is a country of superlatives. Many of them, alas, are not particularly desirable: the world's largest proven oil reserves; the world's highest rate of inflation; the world's worst performing economy etc. The South American country now has another "title" to add to that list: that of the world's most murderous nation. A recent report by the Venezuelan Observatory on Violence (OVV) calculated that the 2015 murder rate was a shocking 90 per 100,000 residents, a figure considerably higher 2016-02-20 22:32:48 1KB article.wn.com 59 OPEC Is Out of Business, But Dollar Crash Will Save the Oil Price The OPEC oil cartel is finished because its members don't trust each other, but a severe weakening in the US dollar will cause oil prices to rise later in the year, investment expert Michael Pento told Sputnik. ... 2016-02-20 22:32:24 874Bytes article.wn.com 60 Israel harnesses skills of soldiers on the autism spectrum Pvt. E never thought he’d join the army. As someone on the autism spectrum, he struggled with certain social situations and would get easily distracted. Now, at 19, he is serving in a sensitive intelligence unit in the Israeli military, working in software quality assurance and defying what he and many of those around him thought he could accomplish. 2016-02-20 22:28:35 5KB www.washingtontimes.com 61 Recreational trail program grants available for projects State Parks Director Doug Hofer says there are grants available for trail projects. 2016-02-20 22:28:33 1KB www.washingtontimes.com 62 Daugaard proclaims Bald Eagle Awareness Week in South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard has proclaimed next week as Bald Eagle Awareness Week in South Dakota. 2016-02-20 22:28:22 1KB www.washingtontimes.com 63 Tenants on public aid find some doors closed Tenants who scan Craigslist for rental homes find sharp disagreement among landlords - and not just about whether pets are great or gross. 2016-02-20 22:28:20 3KB www.washingtontimes.com 64 Russian Church Raises $30,000 for Charity at Embassy Student Ball The Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist collected some $30,000 for charitable needs during Tatiana Ball hosted by the Russian embassy in Washington, DC,, according to Archpriest Victor Potapov. ... 2016-02-20 22:28:14 870Bytes article.wn.com 65 Berlin film fest jury ponders who should get top honors BERLIN (AP) — After more than a week of red-carpet screenings, the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival is set to announce the winner of its Golden Bear award for best movie and other honors. ... 2016-02-20 22:27:30 836Bytes article.wn.com 66 High stakes as the world’s poorest nation heads to the polls The stakes are higher than ever as Niger, one of the world’s poorest nations, heads to the polls Sunday to pick a new leader. Whoever wins the ballot faces the dual challenge of fending off a food crisis alongside an imminent jihadist threat. ... 2016-02-20 22:26:52 930Bytes article.wn.com 67 Paul Daniels diagnosed with incurable brain tumour, family say The magician and entertainer's family have released a statement about his terminal cancer 2016-02-20 21:15:59 4KB www.telegraph.co.uk 68 'Tree man of Bangladesh' undergoes successful surgery to remove large growths on his hand A Bangladeshi father who was dubbed ‘Tree man’ due to large bark-like warts growing on his 2016-02-20 22:26:15 771Bytes article.wn.com 69 NASA Receives Record Number Of Applications For Astronauts The aspiration to become astronauts seems to have rocketed in the US as more than 18,300 people applied to join NASA's 2017 astronaut class, far surpassing the previous record of 8,000 in 1978. 2016-02-20 22:26:15 813Bytes article.wn.com 70 South Carolina primary: Donald Trump accused of supporting removal of Confederate flag by pro-Ted Cruz group Republicans in South Carolina hoped they’d make it to voting day without disturbing the state’s most gnarly scab, the proper place for the Confederate 2016-02-20 22:26:05 934Bytes article.wn.com

71 Gangster Kumar Pillai's detention: Mumbai Police sends extradition proposal to Singapore Police The Mumbai police on Saturday sent the dossier of Mumbai’s ‘most educated gangster’ Kumar Pillai, who is detained in Singapore, to cops over there 2016-02-20 22:21:46 2KB www.mid-day.com 72 Kanawha County school board cuts positions at career center The Kanawha County school board has agreed to end the contracts of four Garnet Career Center teachers and 24 full-time aides countywide as a result of expected funding cuts. 2016-02-20 22:17:24 1KB www.washingtontimes.com 73 Donald Trump goes for G rating on stump, drops profanity that irked supporters Real estate mogul Donald Trump has cleaned up his act, reassuring voters ahead of Saturday’s primary in South Carolina that he can tone down to a G rating if elected president of the United States. 2016-02-20 22:17:19 2KB www.washingtontimes.com 74 Got an A in Algebra? That’s Worth $120 Raise.me, a three-year-old start-up, allows students to accrue incremental scholarship credits by entering their high school achievements on a website. 2016-02-20 22:16:56 7KB www.nytimes.com 75 US air raid hits Islamic State in Libya, killing 43 US warplanes launched airstrikes against a suspected Islamic State training camp in western Libya on Friday, killing more than 40 people, likely including a militant connected to two deadly attacks last year in Tunisia. It was the second US airstrike in three months against Islamic State in Libya, where the hardline Islamist militants have exploited years of chaos following late Libyan leader’s Muammar Qaddafi’s 2011 overthrow to build up a presence on the southern shores of the Mediterranean 2016-02-20 22:16:16 1KB article.wn.com 76 Justice Antonin Scalia’s Faith and Values Inspired Many Mourners Lines formed hours before a funeral Mass at Washington’s huge Catholic church, where mourners shared the justice’s faith and conservatism. 2016-02-20 22:16:11 4KB www.nytimes.com 77 Three police killed in Pakistan attack, Islamic State suspected ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Three police officers were killed by unknown assailants in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad on Friday, police said on Saturday, in an incident that is being investigated as a possible attack by Islamic State. The three attackers, who escaped the scene, dropped copies of a pamphlet addressed 2016-02-20 22:16:10 1004Bytes article.wn.com 78 Three criticised over ad-blocker plans Image copyright 2016-02-20 22:16:06 2KB headlinenewstoday.net 79 South Seattle College accused of allowing discrimination Members of the local NAACP are calling the South Seattle College campus a toxic environment due to alleged harassment, discrimination and bullying. 2016-02-20 22:16:04 1KB www.washingtontimes.com

80 Nurse anesthetists play big role in medical field Carollynn Heath says there is no place a certified registered nurse anesthetist is more important than in rural locations. 2016-02-20 22:15:32 2KB www.washingtontimes.com 81 Ross positioned well among 4 Democrats seeking US Senate Four Democrats seeking to replace Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr believe they would bring viewpoints to Capitol Hill that focus more on the needs of everyday North Carolina residents than the two-term incumbent provides. They all believe they can win. 2016-02-20 22:15:29 4KB www.washingtontimes.com 82 No charges likely in SEC probe of Marlins stadium financing The Securities and Exchange Commission has notified the city of Miami that no charges are likely from its four-year investigation into the financing of the Miami Marlins’ stadium. 2016-02-20 22:14:41 1KB www.washingtontimes.com 83 Fire officials warn against starting burn pile with gas New Hampshire fire officials are warning people not to use accelerants when trying to light a brush pile fire, after a Goffstown man was severely burned Friday. 2016-02-20 22:14:38 1KB www.washingtontimes.com 84 Country star makes pit stop at BBQ restaurant in Alabama Customers and employees of a barbecue restaurant in Alabama did a double take when they noticed a famous face among them. 2016-02-20 22:14:35 2KB www.washingtontimes.com 85 Testing bill could provide Georgia schools some relief A bill proposed in the state Senate could decrease focus on standardized testing in Georgia. 2016-02-20 22:14:31 2KB www.washingtontimes.com 86 Early-morning fire destroys Fall River mill An early-morning fire has destroyed a mill in Fall River. 2016-02-20 22:14:28 926Bytes www.washingtontimes.com 87 Britain Stronger In Europe campaign launch EU referendum video exposing 'hypocrisy' of Brexit campaign A new campaign video which has been released by the Britain Stronger In Europe campaign suggests that many of David Cameron's reforms are ones that Brexit campaigners wanted 2016-02-20 21:00:51 2KB www.telegraph.co.uk 88 Supreme Court Quietly Denies North Carolina Redistricting Delay Late Friday night, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stay a ruling that ordered two North Carolina congressional districts to be redrawn. According to the Raleigh News & Observer, that means a lower court ruling issued earlier this month will be left intact and elections in the state's 1st and 12th districts, both majority black, will be paused until new maps are approved. 2016-02-20 21:00:34 4KB www.commondreams.org 89 Friend and aide to United Arab Emirates diplomat is sentenced Byron K. Fogan, head of UAE’s charity foundation in U.S., misspent over $1 million on casino binges. 2016-02-20 22:10:00 6KB www.washingtonpost.com 90 FEATURE: New Year visit masks village’s cold reality Sharing snacks with a ruddy-faced farming couple as a portrait of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong () presides from their mantel. Pounding rice into a doughy holiday treat with a giant wooden mallet. Warmly shaking hands with an elderly woman as an enthusiastic crowd gathers. Those were some of the images of Chinese President Xi Jinping () as he swept into this village for his annual Lunar New Year pilgrimage to meet with ordinary citizens. The bucolic scenes, shown on Chinese state 2016-02-20 21:59:21 1KB article.wn.com 91 Mumbai: BMC demolishes illegal restaurant in Lower Parel The BMC on Saturday demolished the illegal 'Wok Hei' restaurant opposite Lower Parel's Phoenix Mills after the Supreme Court ordered it to do so. The action was undertaken by the BMC's G/south ward 2016-02-20 21:56:59 1KB www.mid-day.com 92 All Properties - Nation Now All Properties - Nation Now 2016-02-20 16:57:50 2KB rssfeeds.usatoday.com 93 National love your pet day: Which pet should you really have? Think you're a cat person? Think again 2016-02-20 21:52:58 2KB www.telegraph.co.uk 94 Federally funded abortion clinics under fire as Republican hopefuls woo evangelical vote It is all part a strategy to appeal to the large and powerful evangelical voting bloc who will help determine the candidates' fates in South... 2016-02-20 21:51:47 825Bytes article.wn.com 95 Norwegian to fly New York to Paris nonstop with fares from $175 The Norway-based budget airline will start flying a nonstop Paris-New York route with introductory fares starting at $US175/€179 from July 29. Norwegian is also opening Paris- US routes connecting the French capital with Los Angeles 2016-02-20 20:46:19 1KB article.wn.com 96 Military Times - Adventure Military Times - Adventure 2016-02-20 20:42:11 4KB rssfeeds.militarytimes.com 97 News24.com | India pledges $250m for rebuilding quake-hit Nepal India has pledged $250m for post-earthquake reconstruction in Nepal as the two countries try to remove irritants in their ties following protests in Nepal over the country's new constitution ... 2016-02-20 21:49:12 813Bytes article.wn.com 98 Syria opposition says agrees to 'possibility' of temporary truce BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's opposition on Saturday said it had agreed to the "possibility" of a temporary truce, 2016-02-20 21:49:02 791Bytes article.wn.com 99 Europol chief warns 5,000 ISIS terrorists may be in Europe Up to 5,000 Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists may have returned to Europe after being trained in terror training camps in Syrian and other war zones as the continent faces its highest terror threat in over a decade, the head of EU's police agency has warned. Rob Wainwright, director of Europol - the European Union- wide 2016-02-20 20:46:41 1KB article.wn.com 100 EU summit: David Cameron fears 'ambush' as talks reach stalemate David Cameron’s attempts to choreograph a triumphant renegotiation deal in Brussels fell after more than 24 hours 2016-02-20 21:46:45 772Bytes article.wn.com Articles

100 articles, 2016-02-21 00:02

1 Justice Antonin Scalia Honored In Funeral Procession (4) WASHINGTON D. C. (CBSNewYork) — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was honored at a funeral procession held Saturday morning in Washington. Thousands of mourners have gathered at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington to pay their final respects to late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, 1010 WINS reported. One of Scalia’s nine children, the Reverend Paul Scalia, led the mass. “In the past week, many have recounted for what dad did for them, but here today, we recount what God did for dad,” Scalia said. PHOTOS: Justice Scalia Honored At Funeral In his remarks, Scalia talked of his father’s relationship with God — saying that Antonin “worshiped imperfectly,” with close ties to his Catholic faith. He also spoke of life growing up in the Scalia household; the strong bond his father had with his mother. “He was the father that God gave us for the great adventure of family life. Sure, he forgot our names sometimes or messed them up, but there were nine of us,” Scalia said, welcoming a laugh. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, were among those attending the funeral, held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. President Obama and his family were not in attendance. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were among thousands who paid their respects at a public viewing on Friday , with Scalia’s flag-draped casket placed in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court. The U. S. Marshal’s Service in Washington confirmed Scalia’s death at a private residence in the Big Bend area of South Texas last week. Scalia grew up in Elmhurst, Queens, and was the first Italian-American member of the Supreme Court. Watch the funeral live here. 2016-02-20 11:13:00 newyork.cbslocal.com

2 Ugandan President Wins 5th Term In Election Held Under 'Intimidating Atmosphere' (3) Dejected opposition supporters who work as motorbike taxi drivers hold their heads in their hands shortly after the election result was announced, in downtown Kampala on Saturday. Ben Curtis/AP hide caption Dejected opposition supporters who work as motorbike taxi drivers hold their heads in their hands shortly after the election result was announced, in downtown Kampala on Saturday. Longtime Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had won another 5-year term with more than 60 percent of the votes, Uganda's electoral commission says, following an election that observers say fell short of democratic. Museveni, a former guerilla leader, came to power 30 years ago when he toppled brutal dictator Idi Amin. This is the fourth election where Musevani has faced multiple candidates. Elections observers from the European Union say this vote took place in an "intimidating atmosphere for both voters and candidates. " The observers say they "received reports of intimidation and harassment of opposition parties by security agencies as well as arrests of supporters and voters from more than 20 districts. " The most prominent opposition candidate, Kizza Besigye, "was detained by police who burst into his election headquarters in the capital, Kampala, just as he was about to start a press conference to dispute the election process," as we reported. Now, Besigye is under house arrest, according to a statement he posted Saturday on Facebook. "The regime is baring its bloodied fangs and claws for all to see," Besigye says. "This has not been an electoral process. This is a creeping military coup. " He accused the government of fraud and called for the international community to reject the election results. The EU observed "markedly late delivery" of ballots to areas like the capital Kampala where opposition figures were likely to do well. As NPR's Gregory Warner tells our Newscast unit, "Young urbanites are more likely to be opposed to Museveni's rule — [which is] seen as deeply corrupt. " But "rural voters still hail him for bringing peace and security to Uganda. " NPR's Kevin Beesley says Musevani has been "has been praised for helping Uganda achieve economic growth and for leading a successful campaign against HIV/AIDS, but has been criticized over alleged human rights abuses by his security forces. " The EU monitors pointed to several bright spots in this election: Ugandans were willing to wait in long lines to cast their votes, and it was the first time Uganda has seen a presidential debate with all the candidates participating. Please keep your community civil. All comments must follow the NPR.org Community rules and terms of use , and will be moderated prior to posting. NPR reserves the right to use the comments we receive, in whole or in part, and to use the commenter's name and location, in any medium. See also the Terms of Use , Privacy Policy and Community FAQ. 2016-02-21 00:21:00 Merrit Kennedy

3 World news: breaking news and current events - powered by FeedBurner (3) More than a dozen drivers that stopped over at the Pennsylvania BZ-Bee gas station to fill their tanks said their cars stopped working soon after. Outraged, they went to have their vehicles checked and found out they had water in the tanks. One customer removed 15 gallons of water from her Jeep, after her mechanic helped tow away the car. 2016-02-20 16:56:55 feeds.feedburner.com

4 Antarctic penguins unable to return home due to iceberg grounding—study (2)

SYDNEY, Australia—Tens of thousands of Antarctic penguins are estimated to be unable to return to their colony after a massive iceberg grounded there, according to a newly published study. The B09B iceberg, measuring some 100 square kilometers (38.6 square miles), grounded in Commonwealth Bay in East Antarctica in December 2010, the researchers from Australia and New Zealand wrote in the Antarctic Science journal. READ: Ice around Antarctica shrank by almost 20 percent–study The Adelie penguin population at the bay’s Cape Denison was measured to be about 160,000 in February 2011 but by December 2013 it had plunged to an estimated 10,000, they said. The iceberg’s grounding meant the penguins had to walk more than 60 kilometers (37 miles) to find food, impeding their breeding attempts, said the researchers from the University of New South Wales’ (UNSW) Climate Change Research Centre and New Zealand’s West Coast Penguin Trust. READ: Penguins wander far, but come home to mates — study “The Cape Denison population could be extirpated within 20 years unless B09B relocates or the now perennial fast ice within the bay breaks out,” they wrote in the research published in February. Fast ice is sea ice that forms and stays fast along the coast. During their census in December 2013, the researchers said “hundreds of abandoned eggs were noted, and the ground was littered with the freeze-dried carcasses of previous season’s chicks.” “It’s eerily silent now,” UNSW’s Chris Turney, who led the 2013 expedition, told the Sydney Morning Herald. “The ones that we saw at Cape Denison were incredibly docile, lethargic, almost unaware of your existence. “The ones that are surviving are clearly struggling. They can barely survive themselves, let alone hatch the next generation. We saw lots of dead birds on the ground… it’s just heartbreaking to see.” In contrast, penguins living on the eastern fringe of the bay just eight kilometers from the fast ice edge were thriving, the scientists said. The researchers said the study had “important implications” for the wider East Antarctic if the current trend of increasing sea ice continued. Sea ice around Antarctica is increasing, in contrast to the Arctic where global warming is causing ice to melt and glaciers to shrink. Scientists believe the growth in Antarctic sea ice is largely driven by changes in wind and local conditions. 2016-02-21 00:57:00 Agence France-Presse

5 Nigeria: People Detained by Military Disappear in Northeast (2) First come the whispers, then accusations loud enough to raise alarms throughout Nigeria's northeastern villages ravaged by extremist violence. Next, people accused of being Boko Haram are rounded up, sometimes by the military, sometimes by a civilian self-defense force. Many are never seen again. The murmurs exploded into a rare open-throated protest recently when a teacher and two middle-aged farmers were taken away in Duhu village. Women who knew the men insisted they did not belong to the Islamic extremist group, and marched to a nearby military base to demand their release. Instead, the men were shot to death and their bodies were dumped outside town. Nigeria's military denied ever detaining elementary school teacher Habu Bello and farmers Idrisa Dele and Umaru Hammankadi last month. But several villagers told The Associated Press that they watched as the men were led away by uniformed soldiers who accused them of being Boko Haram fighters. Threats to civilians come from all sides and extrajudicial killings have not abated despite the president's declaration of victory over Boko Haram. The insurgents have shown no mercy, but many people are equally afraid of the soldiers and the self-defense Vigilante Group of Nigeria. Now, they are learning to fear their own neighbors as well. As refugees return home and try to rebuild lives from nothing — houses have been razed, wells poisoned, crops and livestock looted — some are capitalizing on the fear and insecurity to settle old scores, erase debts, win land disputes or otherwise get rid of enemies, human rights lawyer Sunday Joshua Wugira explained. "If you have a problem with someone, you can influence the military to pick them up and then you will never hear about them again," he told AP from his offices in the northeastern city of Yola, where police are investigating the January killings of three brothers from the Fulani tribe. Police have detained members of the civilian self-defense group, who said they took the suspected insurgents to the military barracks for detention, but were turned away and then a separate group of soldiers seized and killed the brothers, Deputy Superintendent Othman Abubakar said. Even unborn children are not free from allegations of terrorism. A teenager said she was captured last year by Boko Haram fighters who attacked her village and killed her father. Soldiers arrived to hunt down extremists, but interrogated her three brothers instead. Vigilantes then seized and killed them, she said. Kidnapped by Boko Haram at 16 and raped in captivity, she was freed in November when soldiers attacked the extremist camp where she was being held. She tried to return to her home village, but had to flee again because vigilantes threatened to kill her unborn child, calling it a "terrorist baby," she said. The AP does not identify victims of sexual assault. Duhu district leader Mustapha Sanusi said he has no official record of detainees being killed or disappeared, but has notified the military and legislators about complaints. "I don't have any figures, but I can confirm to you that there have been a series of complaints about extrajudicial killings," he told the AP. He called for a federal investigation and said "the military should always operate within the confines of the law. " Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari promised to end military abuses last year, pledging an investigation into Amnesty International's allegations that since 2011, the military has been responsible for the deaths of some 8,000 detainees who were shot, starved or tortured. That's more than a third of the estimated 20,000 people killed during the 6-year-old insurgency. Human rights groups also accuse the self-defense fighters of extrajudicial killings but no one has collated figures. Buhari's spokesman, Garba Shehu, referred requests for comment for this AP report to the military, but army spokesman Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman did not respond. However, the army on Thursday announced the establishment of a special office to "investigate all cases of human rights complaints brought before it. " And it said it has established a special court martial to try "all cases of indiscipline and related acts of misconduct, including human rights abuse. " Buhari told a delegation from the United States Institute of Peace this week that "mechanisms" have been put in place to ensure human rights are respected in the fight against terrorism. "We attach great importance to human rights," he said. "If there are breaches, they will be investigated and dealt with. " There's little evidence of this in the villages, and one of nine senior commanders that Amnesty International accused of possible war crimes — Maj. Gen. Ahmadu Mohammed — was reinstated last month without any investigation, ending an early retirement prompted by a mutiny among his men. Boko Haram, meanwhile, is attacking softer targets in remote villages, city markets and refugee camps. Poisoning the atmosphere in camps and villages, insurgents and suicide bombers have quietly joined the thousands of people freed by Nigerian troops. Soldiers have told AP that Boko Haram has infiltrated Nigeria's security forces as well, fighting with the army by day and against it by night. Refugees panicked last month when they found the trussed-up body of a refugee with his head bashed in at the Shettima Ali Monguno Teachers Village camp on the outskirts of Maiduguri. "We now fear more for our safety because we cannot tell who is good or bad among us," said one young refugee, insisting on anonymity for safety. "Our camp is well fenced and secured, yet one of us was murdered over the night. " Disappearances from villages also are increasing, bringing new waves of terror to people recently liberated from Boko Haram's "caliphate. " They include a woman and her five children who are being held for ransom by soldiers at a barracks in Yola, according to the woman's husband, a gardener in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial center, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he fears his family will never be freed. He said soldiers are demanding 25,000 naira ($125) for each family member, totaling about four months of his salary. He told AP he's sent 45,000 naira, but all are still held. In an indication of how many people are wrongly accused, Nigeria's army last week freed 267 detainees including dozens of children, some preschoolers, saying investigators had determined they had no links to Boko Haram. Only eight suspects were handed over to police for further investigation. Commanding officer Maj. Gen. Haruna Umaru said the releases should reassure Nigerians that "no individual will unjustly or unduly be incarcerated. " The many allegations of gross rights abuses have hampered the cooperation some allies including the United States can offer to Nigeria because of laws that prohibit arming and training troops that may be guilty of war crimes. Wugira, the lawyer, said he and others continue to work to uphold people's rights. He said he got two young men released from illegal military detention in December, and freed a group of 10 wrongly accused young men in November, after a soldier testified that they had actually fought against Boko Haram. But most disappearances go unchallenged, said Wugira, even though he offers his services for free. "People will say, at the end of the day we will never get justice," he said. "People are living in fear. " ——— Associated Press writer Ismail Alfa contributed to this report from Maiduguri, Nigeria. 2016-02-21 00:54:00 By michelle faul and ibrahim abdulaziz, associated press

6 Lebanese Trade Accusations Over Saudi Aid Suspension (2) Lebanese politicians traded accusations Saturday over the decision by Saudi Arabia to halt deals worth $4 billion aimed at equipping and supporting Lebanese security forces, adding to tensions in the deeply divided country, which is struggling with the fallout from neighboring Syria's civil war. The decision was announced by Saudi officials Friday in retaliation for Lebanon's siding with Iran amid the Sunni kingdom's spat with the Shiite power. The Gulf Cooperation Council backed the Saudi decision, raising concerns it could have repercussions for thousands of Lebanese living in Gulf countries. The small Mediterranean country has a sectarian divide that reflects the wider regional split between Sunni and Shiite powerhouses Saudi Arabia and Iran, and has long been a battlefield where the region's proxy wars play out. The Saudi announcement immediately prompted sharp accusations among Lebanon's notoriously fractious party leaders. Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri , a key ally of Saudi Arabia, blamed the suspension on the Shiite group Hezbollah and its Christian ally, the Free Patriotic Movement. "Fiery statements offending the Kingdom are rejected and do not represent the policy of Lebanon," he said after a meeting with the Sunni grand mufti on Saturday. The foreign ministry, which is headed by FPM leader Gibran Bassil, shot back in a statement, calling such accusations "cheap attempts at political exploitation. " The Saudi decision came after Bassil declined to support Saudi resolutions against Iran during two meetings of Arab and Muslim foreign ministers. Bassil is the president of the FPM, which is one of the strongest allies of the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group. Saudi Arabia and Iran are longtime rivals who back opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Relations took a turn for the worse at the start of the year, when Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shiite cleric and protesters stormed Saudi diplomatic posts in Iran. That prompted Riyadh to cut diplomatic relations with Tehran. The Lebanese Foreign Ministry statement recalled its condemnation of the attack on Saudi diplomatic missions in Tehran and Lebanon's long-standing policy of remaining on the sidelines of regional conflicts. The suspended deals involve a four-year, $3 billion Saudi pledge to buy French arms for the Lebanese military and a $1 billion support deal for the Lebanese police. In a clear reference to non-Arab Iran, GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif Al Zayani said it was "deeply regretful that Lebanon's decision-making was now hostage to the interests of a regional power, contradicting Arab national security and the interests of the Arab nation. " The six-nation bloc includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Lebanon's daily As-Safir reported Saturday that the United Arab Emirates will deport more than twenty Lebanese nationals, giving them only 48-hour notice to leave the country. There was no immediate confirmation of the report, and it was not clear if it was related to the Saudi decision. 2016-02-21 00:52:00 By zeina karam, associated press

7 PP-Dem-Delg-All,100 (2) 0 of 1,714 precincts - 0 percent 0 of 35 Delegates allocated Hillary Clinton 0 - 0 percent Bernie Sanders 0 - 0 percent Uncommitted 0 - 0 percent Others 0 - 0 percent 2016-02-21 00:27:00 The Associated Press

8 Egypt author jailed for violating 'public modesty' (2) Egyptian author Ahmed Naji was sentenced to two years in jail on Saturday by a Cairo appeals court for publishing a sexually explicit excerpt of his novel that prosecutors said violated "public modesty. " It was the latest in a series of rulings against artistic works or speech deemed offensive to Islam or values in the overwhelmingly conservative country. The spike in such cases has taken place under the rule of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who overthrew an Islamist president and has called for religious reforms to combat extremism. Mahmoud Othman, a lawyer representing Naji, said his client was taken into police custody after the hearing. The court also ordered the editor-in-chief of Egypt's top literary magazine, Tarek el- Taher, to pay a 10,000-Egyptian pound ($1,277) fine for publishing the excerpt, according to Othman. The trial stems from a complaint filed by a private citizen and taken up by the prosecution after Akhbar al-Adab magazine published an excerpt from Naji's novel, "The Use of Life," in August 2014. The excerpt contains explicit descriptions of sexual acts and hashish use by the characters. Defense lawyers say the lawsuit was originally filed by a citizen who said his heartbeat fluctuated, his blood pressure dropped and he became severely ill upon reading the excerpt. The prosecution insisted the excerpt be treated as a work of journalism and not fiction. Naji was initially acquitted, but after the case garnered widespread media coverage, prosecutors appealed the verdict, and in the latest ruling he received the maximum penalty. He is not the first author to face legal troubles in Egypt. Fatma Naoot last month appealed a three-year sentence after she was found guilty of contempt for Islam over a Facebook post criticizing the slaughter of animals for the Muslim feast of Eid al- Adha. Last December, a court of appeals confirmed a prison term for a former TV host and researcher on Islamic heritage, Islam Behery, who was convicted of "defaming religious symbols" and Muslim scholars after he called for the removal of passages from religious texts which he said supported extremism. The court reduced his prison term to one year from an initial five-year sentence. Gamal Eid, a prominent human rights lawyer, said the current crackdown on expression, especially when it comes to religion and morals, is the worst he's seen in 30 years. "What is worse than an extremist is a state employee when he one-ups the extremist," he said. Egypt has carried out a sweeping crackdown on dissent expressed by both Islamists and secular activists since el-Sissi overthrew Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, amid massive protests against his yearlong rule. Thousands of mainly Islamist dissidents have been jailed, and all unauthorized protests have been banned. Authorities may be cracking down on artistic expression to insulate themselves from criticism by Islamists, according to rights lawyers and other experts. Egypt is a conservative country, and one where any perceived criticism of religion can ignite public outrage. Naji's defense team can appeal the verdict at the cassation court, which looks into the procedures of the case. His lawyers say they are still debating their next move. They have argued that the law in question, which prohibits publishing anything that "violates public modesty," is unconstitutional. Egypt's constitution states that artists, writers, and other creative individuals should not be imprisoned for their work. Naji said his book, which was printed in Beirut, was approved by Egyptian censors, and has been available in local bookstores. His lawyers also argued the individual who filed the case wasn't directly harmed by the excerpt and therefore didn't have the legal right to file the lawsuit. 2016-02-21 00:12:00 By MARAM MAZEN

9 Switzerland: Thieves Take Jewels, Cash Worth Over $1 Million (2) Police say three men have stolen jewelry and cash worth well over 1 million Swiss francs ($1 million) in a raid on a shop in downtown Zurich. Zurich police said in a statement that the men entered the jeweler's shop on Saturday lunchtime and threatened the two staff members who were present with a handgun, taking jewelry, precious stones and cash and then fleeing on foot. Police appealed for witnesses. They said two of the men spoke broken German but had no description for the third suspect. 2016-02-21 00:02:00 By The Associated Press

10 VIDEO: Richard Branson unveils new spaceship (2) Sir Richard Branson has denounced a new chronicle of his Virgin Galactic Spaceship. It will lift 6 passengers and is designed to transport some-more than 60 miles (100km) above Earth. James Cook reports from a Mojave desert. 2016-02-20 21:32:52 admin

11 Longtime leader Yoweri Museveni declared the winner of Uganda's disputed election (2) Long-time Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni was declared the winner of the country's disputed presidential election Saturday, but the main opposition party rejected the results as fraudulent and called for an independent audit of the count. 2016-02-20 22:25:35 article.wn.com

12 U. S. bombs IS training camp in Libya (2)

WASHINGTON — American F-15E fighter- bombers struck an Islamic State training camp in rural Libya near the Tunisian border Friday, killing dozens, probably including an IS operative considered responsible for deadly attacks in Tunisia last year, U. S. and local officials said. The strike did not appear to mark the beginning of a sustained U. S. campaign in Libya but a Pentagon spokesman said “it may not be the last.” The spokesman, Peter Cook, said the U. S. is determined to stop the Islamic State from “gaining traction” in Libya. Mr. Cook said the training camp was “relatively new,” and that the U. S. has identified similar Islamic State training camps elsewhere in Libya, suggesting potential future strikes in defense of regional and U. S. national security interests. In Libya, local officials estimated the attack killed more than 40 people with more wounded, some critically. Up to 60 people were believed to be at the camp, said a U. S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence-related information. Political chaos in Libya has allowed the Islamic State to expand across the northern coast of the oil-rich North African country, which is just across the Mediterranean from Italy and has also become a major conduit for African migrants heading to Europe. IS controls the central city of Sirte and a number of oil installations. Adding to the concern in Washington and Europe is evidence that the number of Islamic State fighters in Libya is increasing — now believed to be about 5,000 — even as the group’s numbers in Syria and Iraq are shrinking. The Obama administration has said it would approve of international military support for counter- Islamic State efforts in Libya once the country assembles a unity government. But it also has vowed to strike key targets when opportunities arise, such as Friday’s attack near the city of Sabratha. The Libyan parliament is close to endorsing a new unity government cabinet, which could eventually seek international military intervention against Islamic State extremists. Mr. Cook said the U. S. airstrikes targeted extremist Noureddine Chouchane, a Tunisian national. Mr. Cook called him “an ISIL senior facilitator in Libya associated with the training camp,” using another acronym for the Islamic State. Mr. Cook did not confirm that Chouchane had been killed but said “we feel good” about the effectiveness of the attack, which other officials said were conducted by F-15E strike aircraft based in Britain. Mr. Cook said unmanned aircraft, or drones, also were involved. Mr. Cook said Tunisian officials in May 2015 had named Chouchane as a suspect in a March 18, 2015, attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis in which 22 people died. “He facilitated the movement of potential ISIL-affiliated foreign fighters from Tunisia to Libya and onward to other countries,” Mr. Cook said. The Islamic State also claimed responsibility for a June 2015 attack at the Tunisian resort of Sousse in which 38 people were reported killed. After the Sousse resort attack, then-security chief for Tunisia, Rafik Chelli, told AP that the suspects killed in the Bardo and Sousse attacks had received military training in a camp in Sabratha. Mr. Cook said Friday’s airstrike was taken “with the knowledge of Libyan authorities,” but he would not be more specific about any coordination. 2016-02-20 21:55:40 By Robert Burns and Maggie Michael / Associated Press

13 Britain to hold historic referendum on European Union membership in June (2) A historic referendum on whether Britain should stay in the European Union will be held on June 23, Prime Minister David Cameron announced Saturday, even as he declared his belief that the U. K. would be "safer and stronger" if it remained in the 28-nation bloc. Cameron spoke in front of his 10...... 2016-02-20 21:56:53 article.wn.com

14 2 Plainclothes Police Officers Are Shot After a Brief Car Chase in Brooklyn (2) Two plainclothes New York City police officers were shot in Brooklyn early Saturday by a gunman who exchanged fire with officers after leading them on a brief car chase, officials said. The shooting happened around 3:20 a.m. after the suspect, Jamal Funes, 34, drove his car head-on into a marked patrol vehicle as he was driving the wrong way on Lexington Avenue near Malcolm X Boulevard in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the police said. Mr. Funes was shot and was in stable condition at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center. Officer Andrew Yurkiw, 29, was shot in the chest and suffered blunt-force trauma after the bullet was stopped by his bullet-resistant vest, the police said. Officer William Reddin, 33, was shot in the right hip. The officers were taken to Kings County Hospital Center, where they were listed in stable condition, the police said. Both officers were alert and talking, Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters at a news conference on Saturday at the hospital with the police commissioner, William J. Bratton. “This morning is a reminder of the important, dangerous and crucial work that our police officers do,” Mr. de Blasio said. Officer Reddin is a nine-year veteran who the mayor said had taken part in a gun-related arrest on Friday. “Here’s a guy in his hospital bed, obviously in some pain,” Mr. de Blasio said, “but very proud of the fact that just the day before, he got another gun off the street.” The officer, he added, is the father of two, and he and his wife are expecting a third child. Officer Yurkiw, Mr. de Blasio said, has been on the force for three years. His father, Paul Yurkiw, is a highly decorated retired police officer who was also shot and hit in his bullet-resistant vest in the line of duty almost 27 years ago. Police officers were not yet required to wear the vests when the elder Officer Yurkiw was shot in June 1989 on the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens by a driver who had stopped on the side of the road. Officer Yurkiw thought the driver needed help, but instead the man drew a gun and shot the officer three times, according to an account in the 2010 book “Seven Shots.” The gunman was later arrested. The confrontation on Saturday began when two uniformed housing officers patrolling near the intersection of Malcolm X Boulevard and Quincy Street heard a gunshot and headed in the direction of the sound, the police said. As they approached Mr. Funes, he pointed a revolver at them and drove away in a car, the police said. The officers called for help and chased the vehicle a short distance. Eight officers had surrounded Mr. Funes when he opened fire from inside the car, the police said. The officers returned fire, striking the suspect several times. A .357 Magnum revolver was recovered from Mr. Funes’s car, as well as five shell casings, Mr. Bratton said. It was not clear why the suspect fired the initial shot. Mr. Funes is believed to be from New Jersey and has several prior arrests, the police said. Two of the arrests were in New York for robbery in 2007, and assault in 2006. He also has prior arrests in Chicago and North Carolina, officials said. It was the second time this month that police officers were shot in the line of duty. On Feb. 4, two officers, Patrick Espeut, 29, and Diara E. Cruz, 24, were shot while conducting a patrol in a stairwell at a public housing complex in the South Bronx. The suspect, Malik Chavis, 24, ran into an apartment and fatally shot himself. Commissioner Stephen Davis, a spokesman for the Police Department, said it appeared that as many as six officers fired upward of 30 shots from their service weapons. He cautioned that officials were still investigating the crime scene. Commissioner Bratton said that all the shots had been picked up on ShotSpotter, a detection system that uses automatic sensors mounted on buildings, utility poles and other structures to pinpoint the location of gunfire and sends the information to law enforcement seconds after it occurs. Clyde Clercien, a 43-year-old auto mechanic, said he was sleeping in an apartment when he was awakened by what he described as five successive shots. At first, he said, he did not think much of it. “This is a nice neighborhood, don’t get me wrong, but when you hear shots, that’s not out of the ordinary,” Mr. Clercien said. “You just check on your family and move on.” But then he heard a helicopter overhead and sirens blaring. He went outside and saw two officers sprawled across the pavement, wounded but conscious. “When I saw that I realized it was something else,” he said. “I just pray for those officers.” “City Councilman Robert E. Cornegy Jr., who represents the neighborhood, said recent episodes of gun violence involved people from outside the area. “How is it that we have this breeding ground in Bedford-Stuyvesant for people who don’t live here to come in and perpetrate these heinous crimes?” he said. “It puts a black eye on the community, which is strengthening its police-community relationship.” 2016-02-20 22:11:24 By ASHLEY SOUTHALL

15 Comelec denies discrimination in choosing networks for presidential debates CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines– Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairperson Andres Bautista on Saturday denied there was undue benefit and discrimination in the choice of lead networks to air the presidential debates here. In an interview at the sidelines of a press briefing, Bautista said the Comelec did not give undue benefit to any party. He added that it is the lead networks which shelled out the costs and not the Comelec. “Hindi. Yun hindi ko maintindihan. That’s not true,” Bautista said when asked for his reaction on a Rappler statement that the Comelec committed graft. Graft is a criminal offense of giving undue benefit to any party causing undue injury to government. Bautista denied giving undue benefit to a party. “There’s no benefit. Ang nagbayad ng debate ay ang mga lead networks. Hindi ang Comelec ang naglaan ng kahit na anong pondo para sa mga debate,” Bautista said. (Those who paid for the debates are the lead networks. It’s not the Comelec that lend any funds for the debate.) In a statement on Friday, Rappler said the Comelec violated the news outfit’s constitutional right to equal protection and to free press. Rappler said it signed the memorandum of agreement for the coverage and live video streaming rights, but these rights were granted only to the television giants. It added that the grant of benefits to the lead networks without public bidding violate the Anti- Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Rappler also accused Comelec of violating the public’s right to information when it allowed the lead networks to choose profit over the public welfare. “By discriminating against Rappler, its constitutional right to equal protection has been violated. That the discrimination was aimed at restraining Rappler’s free press rights makes the violation all the more reprehensible,” its statement said. “We are convinced the benefits and advantages accorded the lead networks violate the Anti- Graft Law because they are unwarranted. They were granted to the lead networks without the benefit of any transparent or equitable process; certainly, no public bidding was conducted,” it added. Rappler also cited the complaint by the Cagayan De Oro Press Club that the local media was barred from covering the event. In the press briefing, Bautista clarified that 500 seats from the mini theater would be allotted for sectoral representatives from Mindanao, including the local media as observer status. “Since this is a Mindanao-based debate, we wanted the people of Mindanao to be inside the venue,” Bautista said. The local media would also be in the media center with the other reporters. There would also be a gymnasium outside set up with large monitors and that could house up to 2,000 people. The first debate would be held here on Sunday moderated by GMA-7 and the Philippine Daily Inquirer. TV5 and Philippine Star will host the debates in Visayas on March 20. ABS-CBN and Manila Bulletin will moderate the Luzon debates on April 24. Rappler meanwhile was chosen with CNN Philippines and Business Mirror for the vice presidential debate on April 10. TVJ 2016-02-21 12:40:00 Marc Jayson

16 Ex-WWE star Batista calls Pacquiao ‘idiot’ over gay remarks Former World Wrestling Entertainment star and Filipino-American Dave Bautista slammed Manny Pacquiao for his controversial remarks against homosexuals and same-sex marriage. Bautista, who is popularly known as Batista during his years in professional wrestling, didn’t hold anything back, calling Pacquiao a “f*****g idiot” after the eight-division boxing champion described gay couples as “worse than animals” in a recent TV interview. READ: Pacquiao skips workout, goes on early run “My mom happens to be a lesbian so I don’t f*****g take that s**t. I don’t think it’s funny,” said Bautista in an interview with TMZ Sports. “If anyone called my mother an animal I’d stick my foot in his ass.” READ: Manny Pacquiao needs to be helped Bautista, who has appeared in several films including Guardians of the Galaxy and Spectre, is also known to be a supporter of Pacquiao and was once part of the former WBO welterweight champion’s ring walk during his fight with Ricky Hatton in 2009. The 47-year-old Bautista also said he still respects Pacquiao, who plans to retire after his third fight with Timothy Bradley on April 9 in Las Vegas, as a fighter. 2016-02-21 01:06:00 Mark Giongco

17 17 Lost Tapes Reveal Apollo Astronauts Heard Unexplained ‘Music’ On Far Side Of The Moon The crew of an Apollo mission to the moon were so startled when they encountered strange music- like radio transmissions coming through their headsets, they didn't know whether or not to report it to NASA, it's been revealed. It was 1969, two months before Apollo 11's historic first manned landing on the moon , when Apollo 10 entered lunar orbit, which included traversing the far side of the moon when all spacecraft are out of radio contact with Earth for about an hour and nobody on Earth can see or hear them. As far as the public knew, everything about the mission went smoothly. Almost four decades went by before lost recordings emerged that revealed something unsettling that the three Apollo astronauts had experienced while flying above the far side of the moon. The taped recordings contained "strange, otherworldly music coming through the Apollo module's radio," according to the upcoming Science Channel series, "NASA's Unexplained Files. " The conversation between the three astronauts indicated they heard sounds like they had never heard before: The unexplained "music" transmission lasted almost an hour, and just before the astronauts regained radio contact with Earth, they discussed whether or not to tell Mission Control what they had experienced: "The Apollo 10 crew was very used to the kind of noise that they should be hearing. Logic tells me that if there was something recorded on there, then there was something there," Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden says on the Science Channel program. "NASA would withhold information from the public if they thought it was in the public's best interest. " The transcripts of the Apollo 10 mission were classified and untouched in NASA's archives until 2008, producing an ongoing debate as to the nature and origin of the strange sounds heard by the astronauts. "You don't hear about anything like that until years after the incident occurs, and then you kind of wonder, because it's such an old memory of those things that you get concerned about if they were making something up or was there something really there? Because you never really know," Worden told The Huffington Post. "If you're behind the moon and hear some weird noise on your radio, and you know you're blocked from the Earth, then what could you possibly think? " Worden said. "We'd had a lot of incidents where guys who flew in space saw and heard things that they didn't recognize, and you wonder about all of that. I have a very open mind about what could've happened. It's somebody's hearsay evidence -- it's only a visual or audio event, which is hard to pin down. Recollection is one thing, but actual proof is something entirely different. " Watch this entire incident unfold on Science Channel's "NASA's Unexplained Files. " A sneak preview of the third season premieres Sunday, Feb. 21 at 10 p.m. and the regular season returns Feb. 23. Check your local listings. 2016-02-21 00:52:00 Lee Speigel

18 18 Deadpool Slams 'SNL' With Perfect Kanye West Impression This is the greatest response to a petition of all time. The Internet has been pushing for the character Deadpool to host " SNL ," but Ryan Reynolds just shut that down in the best way possible. In response to a petition (with around 70,000 signatures) to have the Merc with a Mouth helm the show, Reynolds revealed that Deadpool was apparently going to host the show in the 1990s. The actor released a video with a Kanye West- level meltdown to explain why he didn't. And he's straight up heartless. Instead of calling out Taylor Swift like Kanye, Reynolds/ Deadpool just goes off on "SNL," saying that the show stole his "Life of Pablo" album. He adds that he's "50 percent more influential than M. C. Hammer" and "60 percent more influential than the iPhone 5. " It's hard to argue with numbers like that. Even though Kanye had his rant, he still did the show, so there's hope that we could see everyone's favorite antihero hosting. You know, as long as "SNL" doesn't try to play like old iPhones have anything on Deadpool... because they don't. You can run and FaceTime that. Also on HuffPost: 2016-02-21 00:33:00 Bill Bradley

19 John Legend Kissing Chrissy Teigen's Stomach Is Peak Them In case you haven't been paying attention , John Legend and Chrissy Teigen are a celeb couple of the moment. The most recent reminder of their untouchable A- list love comes in the form of an Instagram photo, which Teigen's mom shared , of Legend kissing Teigen's pregnant stomach (also featuring a cute dog). The couple announced news of the pregnancy in an October Instagram post featuring Legend's hand on Teigen's stomach. "John and I are so happy to announce we are pregnant :)," Teigen wrote. "As many of you know, we've been trying to have a baby for a while now. It hasn't been easy, but we kept trying because we can't wait to bring our first child into the world and grow our family. " "We're so excited that it's finally happening," she added. "Thank you all for your love and well wishes. I look forward to all the belly touching! " Also on HuffPost: 2016-02-21 00:28:00 Lily Karlin

20 Supreme Court Scuffle Triggers Constitutional Clash It only took one man's death to give Congress an opening to extend its dysfunction to the rest of government. Republican opposition to letting President Barack Obama replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia quickly sparked a constitutional clash over the president's right to fill Supreme Court vacancies. Democrats, who have their own history of boxing out Republicans over court nominees, are up in arms, but begrudgingly concede that Obama's pick is unlikely to be confirmed. So as both parties prepare for political brawling, the eight remaining justices could spend the next year hearing critical cases alongside an empty seat, unable to break a tie in the event of a 4-4 split. The standoff raises a scenario that Washington long has dreaded: that bitter partisanship in Congress, mixed with the tactics of obstruction such as the filibuster, would eventually jeopardize another branch's basic ability to function. "If Republicans do what they suggest, I think we're headed not only for a constitutional crisis but also for big problems for the legislative process," said Jim Manley, a former aide to Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "This is the natural reaction to the continued Senate breakdown we've seen for years. " Supreme Court nominees have been rejected before. Yet Democrats accuse Republicans of taking obstructionism to a new level by insisting Obama not even name a nominee with 11 months left in his term — and refusing to hold a confirmation vote if he does. Though the Constitution is clear that it is the president who nominates, Republicans say the Founding Fathers never required the Senate to give a vote. With a vast majority of Americans already disillusioned by Congress, the White House hopes the GOP gambit will backfire. "It's a little bit like saying, God forbid something happen to the president and the vice president, 'We're not going to fill the presidency for another year and a half,'" Vice President Joe Biden said this past week. Republicans are unimpressed by those appeals to the Constitution. After all, many of the leading cases now before the Supreme Court question Obama's unilateral actions. Opponents argue Obama exceeded his legal authority with climate change and immigration policies that he tried, but failed, to persuade Congress to enact. "There is a significant portion of the country that watches the pretty egregious constitutional liberties the president has taken over the years and views with a sense of humor his newfound respect for the document," said Josh Holmes, former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The prospect of a protracted Supreme Court vacancy sounded alarms for those who worry that congressional gridlock will ultimately grind government to a halt. Three years ago, a quarrel over Obama's health care law led to a partial 16-day government shutdown. Obama has faced repeated nail-biting moments in which it appeared Congress might allow the U. S. to default on its debt or refuse to fund the government. Obama acknowledges that he and his party aren't blameless. The White House says Obama regrets that when he was a senator, he joined a filibuster against Samuel Alito's nomination to the high court. Alito was confirmed anyway. Less than three years ago, when Democrats ran the Senate, they changed practices so that the minority party couldn't use a filibuster to block presidential nominees for key appellate judgeships. The change, which did not apply to Supreme Court picks, was accomplished without a single GOP vote. Infuriated Republicans warned that Democrats would lose Senate control sometime and regret that they had trampled on the minority's rights. Obama and his aides have said he will nominate a qualified candidate who can win GOP support. But to defeat a threatened filibuster, Obama would have to peel away 14 Republicans, and that feat looks impossible now. Former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., said that in past confirmation tussles, power was concentrated in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the Republican and Democrat leaders worked closely together. Since then, power has shifted to Senate leaders, he said, making the process more ideological and conflicts harder to resolve. "For the next president, it will be, 'Well, is it 11 months? Fifteen months? Eighteen months?' If someone announces they're going to leave the Senate, do they lose the right to vote? " Kerrey said. "You can argue, 'Well, let's let the people decide.'" But Sara Fagen, President George W. Bush's former political director, said Senate Republicans would pay no political penalty. "The Republican base doesn't want a liberal justice, and they're completely fine with the court having a vacancy for as long as is required to get a justice they believe is right," Fagen said. ——— Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/author/josh-lederman 2016-02-21 00:19:00 By josh lederman, associated press

21 15 Science-Backed Ways To Make Any Workout Feel Easier Some days, working out really does feel like work. Your legs are heavy, every breath feels more like a gasp and you have the uncanny suspicion that your next rep is going to be your last. But here's the research-backed fact: Exercising doesn't have to feel so hard. Here are 15 tips to make every workout – from running and weight lifting to yoga and cycling – feel so much easier. Plus, the easier your workouts become, the more benefits you'll reap – and without any extra sweat. And invest in a smartphone armband if you don't already have one. In a 2015 study from McMaster University in Canada, when researchers had people perform high-intensity interval workouts they didn't feel their workout getting any harder when they were also listening to their favorite songs. When they went sans tunes, they had no such illusions. In a previous Northwestern University study, researchers found that more bass equals more feelings of power and control. Workout buddies and classes are about way more than accountability. It turns out, people have double the pain tolerance (and double the endorphin boost!) when they perform workouts together versus solo, according to Oxford University research. On runs, walks and bike rides, it can be tempting to look around and take in the sights, but according to one 2014 New York University study of walkers, it's in your best interest to narrow your gaze. In the study, researchers found that people who looked straight ahead while walking a course thought the finish line was 28 percent closer and walked 23 percent faster than those who let their eyes wander. They also said the workout felt easier. Caffeine can do more than get you through a 3 p.m. slump. In one Appetite study, cyclists who downed caffeine an hour before taking the saddle ranked their workouts as being less difficult and more pleasurable compared to the non-caffeinated riders. No pain, no gain? Not quite. In a 2015 PLoS One study, researchers found that changing how you think about side stitches and muscle fatigue changes how much they hurt. For instance, by thinking "this is the feeling of my body changing," your workout will feel less, well, painful than if you just think, "this is hard! " It's about more than vanity: If you watch yourself as you bop along on the treadmill, you'll do a better job at sticking to your own gait pattern, expend less mental energy and feel like every step is just a little bit easier than if you look at other things like a weight stack or fitness poster, per one Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise experiment. Whether whole or in juice form, beets contain nitrates to help more blood and oxygen reach your muscles with every breath. In one study from the University of Exeter in the U. K., when people drank half a liter of the red stuff two and a half hours before a workout, they needed less oxygen to power their workouts and were able to run or bike 15 to 20 percent longer before tuckering out. What gives? Downing an icy beverage before you work out can boost how long and hard you can exercise before hitting "the wall," especially when you're sweating it out in hot and humid temps, per 2016 research in Gait Posture. A previous study in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports found wearing frozen undies also does the trick. Yikes! Sports drinks are part physical, part mental. While in one 2015 Nutrients study the carbs and electrolytes in sports drinks fueled people to help them run 16 percent longer before they zonked out, a previous Psychology of Sport and Exercise study found that just looking at a sports drink or water bottle made people feel like they could exercise longer. Waking up to bright light does more than help you drag yourself out of bed in the morning. According to 2014 research from the University College London, exposing your eyes to light 30 minutes before your alarm goes off and throughout the morning hours helps increase oxygen flow to your muscles, boosting physical performance big time. Some of us are morning people. Others, not so much. Know which one you are. You'll perceive any workout to be easier if you perform it during your own peak hours, suggests 2014 research from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Have you decided you're a morning workout person? Don't leave your front door before you've eaten something. Exercising in a fasted state (not having eaten within a couple of hours) makes workouts feel so much tougher, per 2014 research in Sport Sciences for Health. Plus, it makes you get less out of every rep. Forget the ice baths. Soaking in a hot bath after each workout isn't just more enjoyable, it makes subsequent workouts, especially in the heat, feel easier, per 2015 research from Bangor University in the U. K. Iron does the body good. In one University of Melbourne study looking at women of reproductive age, those who increased their iron intake were able to exercise more efficiently and with a lower heart rate. That was especially true when it came to women who had been iron-deficient or anemic. Exercise makes it easier to sleep, sure. But sleep makes exercise even easier. It turns out, the longer it takes you to fall asleep and the less time you spend snoozing tonight, the less time you’ll spend at the gym before you’ve just got to call it quits, according to research in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. 15 Science-Backed Ways To Make Any Workout Feel Easier was originally published on U. S. News & World Report. More from U. S. News: 7 Diet Mistakes Sabotaging Your Weight Loss Dietary Guidelines Do-Over 7 Exercises That Trainers Wouldn't Be Caught Dead Doing Also on HuffPost: 2016-02-21 00:18:00 K Aleisha Fetters

22 Donald Trump wades into US privacy battle calling for Apple boycott GOP frontrunner Donald Trump has called for a boycott of Apple, despite its iPhone being the most widely used mobile handset in the US. Speaking in the aftermath of a of high profile privacy conflict between the FBI and US tech giants like Apple, Facebook and Google over the release of a software to void their privacy protocols. Trump said during a South Carolina rally: “I think what you ought to do is boycott Apple until such time as they give that security number. How do you like that? I just thought of that, Boycott Apple!” He later tweeted the sentiment. One reporter called out Trump who often tweets from an iPhone. He replied. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic there’s a very popular petition calling to ban Trump from the country, sparked by his call to ban all Muslims form the US. It has reached almost 580k signatories. 2016-02-21 00:17:00 John McCarthy

23 Migrant island documentary "Fire at Sea" wins at Berlin fest BERLIN (AP) -- "Fire at Sea," a documentary about the Italian island of Lampedusa -- many migrants' first destination on risky journeys toward safety and a better life in Europe -- won the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday. A jury headed by Meryl Streep chose director Gianfranco Rosi's movie from a field of 18 contenders at the first of the year's major European film festivals. In "a year of thrillingly diverse films, the jury was swept away by the compassionate outrage of one in particular," Streep said. "It's a daring hybrid of captured footage and deliberate storytelling that allows us to consider what documentary can do," she said. "It demands its place in front of our eyes, compels our engagement and action. It is urgent, imaginative and necessary filmmaking. " Rosi contrasts the native islanders' everyday life, particularly that of a 12-year-old boy,with the arrival of the many men, women and children making the dangerous trip from Africa across the Mediterranean Sea on decrepit smugglers' boats. Many migrants drown on the perilous passage to Europe, their bodies often pulled out of the waters around Lampedusa, a small island located between Sicily and Libya. "At this moment, my deeper thought goes to all the people that (do) not arrive at Lampedusa on these journeys of hope," Rosi said. "And I want to dedicate this award to the people of Lampedusa, who are always extremely open to accept people arriving there over all these years. " "It's not acceptable that people die crossing the sea to escape from tragedies," he said. Danis Tanovic's "Death in Sarajevo," set at a hotel in the Bosnian capital as it prepares to host VIPs on the 100th anniversary of the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian crown prince that helped ignite World War I, won the festival's grand jury prize, which comes with a Silver Bear statuette. Mia Hansen-Loeve of France was named best director for "Things to Come," a drama starring Isabelle Huppert as a woman in her 50s reassessing her life. The best actor prize went to Majd Mastoura for his role as a young Tunisian discovering love in a society in upheaval in director Mohamed Ben Attia's feature film debut "Hedi. " Trine Dyrholm was honored as best actress for her part in Danish director Thomas Vinterberg's "The Commune" as a television newsreader shaking up her and her husband's life by inviting their friends to live with them. The festival's honor for a film that opens new perspectives went to Filipino director Lav Diaz's eight-hour black-and-white historical drama "A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery. " The best script prize went to Tomasz Wasilewski for "United States of Love," which he also directed, a movie portraying four women in provincial Poland in the early 1990s following the end of communist rule. Cameraman Mark Lee Ping-Bing took the award for an outstanding artistic contribution for his work in Chinese director Yang Chao's "Crosscurrent. " Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 2016-02-21 00:17:00 Associated Press

24 The Latest: Hundreds line up to see Kasich in Massachusetts The Latest on the 2016 presidential election and two crucial contests Saturday: South Carolina's Republican primary and Nevada's Democratic caucuses (all times are Eastern Standard Time): 2:45 p.m. Hundreds of voters are lining up to see Ohio Gov. John Kasich — in Massachusetts, not South Carolina. Kasich is spending the day of the South Carolina Republican primary campaigning in Massachusetts and Vermont, states that vote on March 1. He's about to kick off an afternoon town hall in Worcester, Mass., following a morning meeting with in Burlington, Vermont. He'll watch the South Carolina primary results with supporters in Boston. A cultural center in Worcester is packed with a standing-room only crowd waiting for Kasich and a line of voters is still waiting outside to enter the venue. --- 2:30 p.m. A major Muslim civil rights group says Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's telling of a discredited story about a U. S. general shooting Muslims with bullets dipped in pigs' blood could incite violence. The Council on American-Islamic Relations National Executive Director Nihad Awad says in a statement that Trump's "inflammatory rhetoric has crossed the line from spreading hatred to inciting violence. " Trump was defending his support of waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques at a rally in South Carolina Friday night when he told the largely unsubstantiated tale of Gen. John Pershing allegedly halting Muslim attacks in the Philippines in the early 1900s by shooting them with bullets dipped in pigs' blood. Pigs are considered unclean by Muslims and some other religious groups. --- 2:15 p.m. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is questioning whether President Barack Obama would have attended Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's funeral Mass "if it were held in a mosque. " Trump says on Twitter that it's "very sad" that Obama didn't attend Saturday's service in Washington. Vice President Joe Biden represented the administration. Obama visited the court on Friday to view Scalia's flag-draped casket. The White House says Obama's decision about the Mass was a "respectful arrangement" that took into account his large security detail. Trump has raised questions about Obama's birthplace and religion, falsely suggesting that Obama was born outside the United States and is a Muslim. Trump's tweet came as South Carolina was holding its GOP primary. --- 2 p.m. Close call. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders almost crossed paths just before Nevada's Democratic caucuses get underway. First it was Sanders who stopped by an employee cafeteria at Harrah's casino in Las Vegas. Just minutes after he left, Hillary Clinton came in and was greeted with cheers. Unionized casino workers are an important constituency in the caucuses. Their union has ensured that a room at each casino is open for employees to caucus in during special, two-hour paid breaks. --- 1 p.m. Bernie Sanders is kicking off his caucus day in Nevada with culinary workers at the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas. Sanders tells reporters that "if there's a large turnout I think we're going to do just fine. If it's a low turnout, that may be another story. " Sanders drew cheers from union workers at the casino hotel's cafeteria. He shook hands and posed for photos and asked workers if they planned to attend the caucuses. --- 11:40 a.m. John Kasich's presidential campaign is already claiming a victory of sorts in South Carolina. A top strategist, John Weaver, tells reporters that however the Republican candidate does in Saturday's primary, Kasich's showing will be enough to "drive somebody else out of the race. " Weaver says he's expecting two candidates to drop out over the next week — including Jeb Bush. Weaver says that "for all practical purposes, there's no path forward" for the former Florida governor. Kasich finished second in the New Hampshire primary, but the expectations are lower for his performance in South Carolina. The Ohio governor hasn't ignored South Carolina, but he has focused resources on states in the Midwest and Northeast that host contests in March. --- 10:45 a.m. Ted Cruz has taken time away from campaigning in South Carolina to attend the funeral Mass in Washington for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The Republican presidential candidate plans to be back in South Carolina later Saturday to await the results. Voting ends at 7 p.m. The Texas senator has a personal connection to the high court: In the late 1990s, he served as a law clerk for a year to then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist. --- 10:10 a.m. Jeb Bush says he's "excited where we stand" as he faces a critically important test in South Carolina's Republican presidential primary. Bush says he's going to "work hard for the day" and await results after the polls close at 7 p.m. He says "it's interesting that a lot of people claim they're undecided this late. " The former Florida governor entered the 2016 presidential race as an early favorite. But he may need a third-place finish — if not better — in South Carolina in order to remain a viable candidate. Bush tells reporters outside a polling location in Greenville that "to be able to beat expectations would be helpful. I think we'll do that. " And his take on the prospects of a President Donald Trump? Bush says the billionaire businessman "can't win, plain and simple. " --- 9:15 a.m. Will there by a "Haley effect" in South Carolina' Republican presidential primary? Jason Sims — a teacher from Mount Pleasant — says he made a last-minute decision to vote for Marco Rubio, and that Gov. Nikki Haley's endorsement was "a big deal. " Sims say he was "kind of riding the fence" until Haley said she was backing the Florida senator. Rubio is trying to rebound after a disappointing fifth-place finish in New Hampshire — and he's hoping the popular governor's endorsement will be a big boost. Rubio wants to emerge as the go-to candidate for mainstream Republicans — and the chief alternative to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in the race. --- 8:40 a.m. There's a lot of attention on Jeb Bush as South Carolina Republican vote in their presidential primary. The former Florida governor entered the 2016 presidential race as an early favorite. But he may need a third-place finish — if not better — on Saturday in order to remain viable in the race. Bush finished sixth in Iowa's leadoff caucuses and fourth in New Hampshire. He's trying to break out as the establishment alternative to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. But Bush has competition on that front, chiefly from Marco Rubio and John Kasich. Without a strong showing in South Carolina, the Bush campaign may have a hard time competing in Nevada next week and then in the large number of states voting on March 1. 2016-02-21 00:02:00 The Associated Press

25 Apple-Justice Department Battle Pits Privacy Against National Security Weekend Edition Saturday Apple and the Department of Justice are in a battle of wills over access to a San Bernardino shooter's cell phone. LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Scott Simon is off today. I'm Linda Wertheimer. A faceoff this week between the federal government and one of the world's biggest companies, a federal judge has ordered Apple to assist the FBI in breaking into the phone of one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple has refused. Yesterday, the Justice Department filed a motion to compel Apple to assist them. Laura Sydell is NPR's digital cultural correspondent. Hi, Laura. LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE: Hello. WERTHEIMER: So could you talk about what led up to this, where we now have a federal judge ordering Apple to assist the FBI in getting into Syed Farook's telephone? SYDELL: All right, little back story here, so Farook and his wife, who's also a suspect in the shooting died, in a police shootout. And Farook had a phone that was actually owned by his employer. Farook, however, as many of us do, created the password on the phone. And Apple has a feature on its phones that can be enabled basically to erase all the data after 10 guesses as to what the password is. So you could see the federal government, if they tried to guess, they could lose everything on the phone. So the DOJ asked Apple to help them break through the encryption, and Apple said no. The DOJ went to a court, got a judge's order to compel Apple to help. WERTHEIMER: So why doesn't Apple help? SYDELL: In a very strongly worded post on Apple's website, CEO Tim Cook said that helping the government in this case would make millions of other iPhones less secure. And he meant that in two ways. One is that to break into Farook's phone, Apple would have to develop a special software to disable the security feature. And if it does this, once it enables that, it will make all phones less secure because somebody could get a hold of that special software, and hackers could use it. His second reason is a legal one. If you set a precedent here, if you allow the government to come in and let - force you to do it in this one case, it could force you to do it in many other cases. WERTHEIMER: Has the government responded to Mr. Cook? SYDELL: Yes, the government is not buying that Apple can't develop a software key that's specific to this device. And I have to say, I've heard conflicting opinions on that from experts. Some think it's possible. Some don't. Secondly, the government said there's a precedent for asking a private company to assist in helping it get data for an investigation. In the motion that it filed on Friday, the DOJ pointed to a case from 1977, U. S. versus New York Telephone, in which the court directed New York Telephone to help the government tap phones and said that is a precedent for what it's asking Apple to do. WERTHEIMER: So tell us about the filing from the government yesterday. Didn't the court already order Apple to help the government, so here they go again? SYDELL: Yeah, I know. It's - I actually am going to quote UC Hastings law professor, Ahmed Ghappour, who said the reason the government did this is pure PR. There actually isn't a legal reason that the government needed to file this motion. It laid out everything that's already been said in the motion. But Apple got a lot of attention when Tim Cook publicly posted his reasons for not complying with the government's order on its website. And Ghappour thinks the government filed this on Friday because it didn't want Apple to have the last word this week. And in many ways, this particular situation is a PR war. The public opinion is going to matter. How do we feel about the government being able to compel a company to write code to help it out? Is there enough to be gotten from this phone that we're willing to jeopardize our privacy in the long run? In the past, when most things were in the physical world, if you created a key for one door, chances are it wouldn't affect all the other doors. But in the digital age, things are different. And it looks like, in this case, Tim Cook is saying, we need spaces where no one, not the government, not a hacker or even a private company, that makes the device can get in. WERTHEIMER: So what's next? SYDELL: Appeals, appeals unless Congress, in its wisdom, decides to do something. But Congress hasn't been doing a lot lately, so I don't know. WERTHEIMER: That's NPR's Laura Sydell. Laura, thank you. SYDELL: You're welcome. Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio. Please keep your community civil. All comments must follow the NPR.org Community rules and terms of use , and will be moderated prior to posting. NPR reserves the right to use the comments we receive, in whole or in part, and to use the commenter's name and location, in any medium. See also the Terms of Use , Privacy Policy and Community FAQ. 2016-02-20 23:58:43 Weekend Edition Saturday

26 26 Nevada Caucuses: What You Need to Know Join us for live coverage and analysis of the Republican South Carolina primary and Democratic Nevada caucuses. _____ Nevada voters caucus on Saturday to choose the Democratic candidate for president. Here is a look at the contest: Delegates and Rules The caucuses are open, which means that any eligible voter may participate and that voters can register or change their party affiliation on the caucus day. The results of Saturday’s vote are not binding. Twenty-three of the 35 delegates to the county conventions will be chosen on Saturday based on presidential preference in each of the state’s congressional districts. Results Nevada caucus precincts open at 11 a.m. Pacific time (2 p.m. Eastern time), and voting will start about noon, with initial results coming within the hour. Polling There has been very little public polling, and because Nevada has a caucus system, which means a lower turnout, a surprising outcome is possible. What to Watch For Patrick Healy, a national political correspondent for The New York Times, looks at six dynamics that could alter the 2016 race, and Nate Cohn of The Upshot offers some ways to look at the results as they roll in. 2016-02-20 23:54:44 By THE NEW YORK TIMES

27 3 Lake Wylie restaurants part of River Week Dining out Feb. 21-27 can help protect the Catawba River Basin, including three restaurants in Lake Wylie. The Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation is partnering with 10 restaurants for River Week with a protion of the week’s proceeds going to the foundation. Some restaurants will display educational information about the basin and foundation. Three Lake Wylie restaurants participating are Bagel Boat, Sweetwater Sports Bar & Grill and T-Bones on the Lake. Other restaurants are Aria Tuscan Grill, Mezzanotte, Carpe Diem, Heirloom, Dressler’s - Metropolitan, The String Bean and Glenway Premium Pub. For more information, visit catawbariverkeeper.org/riverweek . 2016-02-20 22:36:51 www.heraldonline.com

28 Apple Sees Value in Its Stand to Protect Security SAN FRANCISCO — It took six years for Apple to persuade China’s largest wireless carrier, China Mobile, to sell the iPhone. Apple ’s chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, made repeated trips to China to meet with top government officials and executives to woo them personally. The persistence paid off. In 2013, China Mobile relented , a moment Mr. Cook later described as “a watershed day” for Apple. Today, China is Apple’s second-largest market after the United States — Chinese consumers spent $59 billion on Apple products in the last fiscal year — and the iPhone , the company’s top seller, has become both a status symbol and a form of personal security, given how difficult the device is to break into in a country where people increasingly worry about hacking and cybercrime. Apple’s success in China helps explain why it is now in a standoff with the United States government over whether to help officials gain access to the encrypted iPhone of one of the attackers in the San Bernardino, Calif., mass shooting last December. The company is playing the long game with its business. Privacy and security have become part of its brand, especially internationally, where it reaps almost two-thirds of its almost $234 billion a year in sales. And if it cooperates with one government, the thinking goes, it will have to cooperate with all of them. “Tim Cook is leveraging his personal brand and Apple’s to stand on the side of consumer privacy in this environment,” said Mark Bartholomew, a law professor at the University at Buffalo who studies encryption and cyberlaw. “He is taking the long view.” Mr. Cook, who has called privacy a civic duty , said as much in a letter to Apple customers on Tuesday. He described how the United States government was asking for a special tool to break into the San Bernardino attacker’s iPhone and said, “The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that’s simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices.” An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the remarks in Mr. Cook’s letter. The business advantage Apple may get from privacy has given critics an opening to attack the company. In a court filing on Friday , the Justice Department said Apple’s opposition to helping law enforcement appeared “to be based on its concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy.” Apple senior executives responded that their defiance was not a business choice. They added that there had not been any business fallout and that Mr. Cook had received supportive emails from customers across the country. In fact, Apple has not made a point of advertising data security and privacy. The company has quietly built privacy features into its mobile operating system, known as iOS, over time. By late 2013, when Apple released its iOS 7 system, the company was encrypting by default all third- party data stored on customers’ phones. And iOS8, which became available in 2014, made it basically impossible for the company’s engineers to extract any data from mobile phones and tablets. Mr. Cook has also been vocal about how Apple is pro-privacy, a message that he discussed more widely after revelations from the former intelligence contractor Edward J. Snowden about government surveillance. Mr. Cook argued that the company sold hardware — phones, tablets and laptops — and did not depend on the mass collection of consumer data as some Silicon Valley behemoths, such as Google and Facebook, do for their advertising-oriented businesses. At a conference in October, Mr. Cook called privacy a “key value” at Apple and said, “We think that it will become increasingly important to more and more people over time as they realize that intimate parts of their lives are sort of in the open and being used for all sorts of things.” For Apple, cooperating with the United States government now could quickly lead to murkier situations internationally. In China, for example, Apple — like any other foreign company selling smartphones — hands over devices for import checks by Chinese regulators. Apple also maintains server computers in China, but Apple has previously said that Beijing cannot view the data and that the keys to the servers are not stored in China. In practice and according to Chinese law, Beijing typically has access to any data stored in China. If Apple accedes to American law enforcement demands for opening the iPhone in the San Bernardino case and Beijing asks for a similar tool, it is unlikely Apple would be able to control China’s use of it. Yet if Apple were to refuse Beijing, it would potentially face a battery of penalties. Analysts said Chinese officials were pushing for greater control over the encryption and security of computers and phones sold in the country, though Beijing last year backed off on some proposals that would have required foreign companies to provide encryption keys for devices sold in the country after facing pressure from foreign trade groups. “People tend to forget the global impact of this,” said Raman Jit Singh Chima, policy director at Access Now, a nonprofit that works for Internet freedoms. “The reality is the damage done when a democratic government does something like this is massive. It’s even more negative in places where there are fewer freedoms.” Governments in Russia, Britain and Israel also have robust surveillance operations. Some governments have tried to use technology to gather intelligence on citizens at home and abroad. Apple’s resistance to the United States government’s demand has been polarizing. Apple supporters have held protests in cities like San Francisco in recent days to show their support of the company and have used hashtags on social media like #freeapple and #beatthecase. “We’re fighting to maintain even the assumption that companies should protect us,” said Evan Greer, the campaign director at Fight for the Future, a civil liberties group that is organizing protests nationwide on Tuesday to support Apple. “Apple is doing what every company should be doing.” Others, including the Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump , have criticized Apple, and Mr. Trump has suggested boycotting its products. Around the world, people are aware of the impasse but many say it does not affect their decision to buy iPhones and the company’s other products. In Rome on Friday, Simone Farelli, a 34-year-old history teacher who was browsing for a new iPhone at an Apple Store, said she “didn’t see why” the company’s standoff with the Federal Bureau of Investigation “would change my mind about buying a new phone.” In China, the iPhone continues to hold a special place as a symbol of middle-class status. Wen Shuyue, a 35-year-old consultant, who on Friday was waiting outside the Apple Store in Beijing’s upscale Sanlitun district, is one of Apple’s millions of Chinese users. He said he liked the iPhone because it was simply better than models made by Chinese companies such as Xiaomi and Huawei. “I’ve never used Xiaomi or Huawei, because I think their designs are rough and not all that personal,” he said. Apple’s shareholders have so far been quiet. In the past, investors who complained that some of Apple’s socially driven initiatives were superfluous to the company’s core business were quickly subdued. At a 2014 shareholders’ meeting, Mr. Cook told investors that if they wanted him to make decisions based only on the bottom line, “then you should get out of the stock.” But data privacy may eventually motivate investors — and ultimately more customers — to vote with their wallets because “it’s an issue that speaks directly to the business,” said Michael Cusumano, a professor at the M. I. T. Sloan School of Management. “Right now people buy phones regardless of encryption issues, but we have to wait and see how bloody this fight gets.” 2016-02-20 23:48:44 By KATIE BENNER and PAUL MOZUR

29 AMBER Alert still active for 4-year-old Savannah Walker in Detroit DETROIT (WXYZ) - An AMBER Alert is still active for 4-year-old Savannah Walker, and police are also looking for 33-year-old Marcus Hightower as a person of interest. Two bodies were found in an abandoned home around 5 a.m. Saturday and it is believed that they are the bodies of Savannah and her mother, Heidi. Though police found the bodies, they are making sure the public knows the AMBER Alert is still active. The alert was issued just after 2 a.m. Saturday, and police recovered the back Ford Explorer Hightower was believed to be driving. Detroit Police Chief James Craig said the investigation started Tuesday when the family of the mother and Savannah reported them missing in Livingston County. It is believed the two were taken from Howell to Detroit. According to Craig, there were indications that something more should have been done by Livingston County and there was a communication delay. The woman's other daughter went to the Brighton Michigan State Police post on Friday afternoon to get more help. With the information given, and a history of domestic violence with Hightower, they put out an AMBER Alert around 2 a.m. Saturday. Craig said the bodies were found in an abandoned home on a lower level. Fire crews received the call around 5 a.m. Hightower has a criminal history, and is currently out on parole for Assault with Intent to Commit Murder. He is described as a black male, 5-feet-9-inches tall weighing about 250 pounds. Anyone with information should call 911 as he is considered to be armed and dangerous. 2016-02-20 23:47:43 www.wxyz.com

30 6 dead in protests for caste benefits in northern NEW DELHI (AP) Hundreds of army and paramilitary soldiers on Saturday tried to quell protests by angry mobs demanding government benefits in a northern Indian state , with at least six people killed in clashes between security forces and 2016-02-20 22:32:23 article.wn.com

31 S Koreans alarmed as North fires shots Sounds of explosions caused South Korean residents of a frontline island to prepare to evacuate early yesterday, but it was later determined that the noise came from a North Korean artillery drill across the rivals’ disputed maritime 2016-02-20 21:38:51 article.wn.com

32 As Nevada and South Carolina Vote, Six Dynamics Could Alter 2016 Race

Nevada Democrats and South Carolina Republicans will start resolving the most pressing political questions about the presidential race on Saturday when their parties hold the next round of what have become unexpectedly fierce nominating contests. The Nevada Democratic caucuses are poised to reveal the breadth of support for Bernie Sanders among minority voters — or confirm that the Vermont senator’s popularity is largely limited to whites, as some Sanders advisers fear. For Hillary Clinton , who won the popular vote in the 2008 Nevada caucuses, a poor outcome would be an embarrassment that underscores her vulnerabilities as a candidate. A victory could be a reassuring sign that she remains popular among her base of minorities, women, union members, and middle-income Americans. In South Carolina’s Republican primary, Donald J. Trump could prove that he has a credible path to his party’s nomination by demonstrating that Deep South conservatives will support a brash New Yorker who once held liberal views. Mr. Trump needs only to beat his five opponents to win the state, but if he takes far less than a majority of votes – 30 percent, say – then South Carolina will have sent a clear message to Republicans: The best way to stop Mr. Trump is to coalesce around one alternative candidate, or perhaps two, because Mr. Trump thrives when the vote is split among the crowded Republican field. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, and Senator Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush, both of Florida, will all face a reckoning if they cannot draw support from a sizable coalition of evangelicals, social conservatives, and establishment Republicans. Nevada caucus precincts open at 11 a.m. (2 p.m. Eastern) and voting will start around noon, with initial results coming within the hour. The South Carolina polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern time. Here are six key dynamics that could alter the presidential race by Saturday night. After a nine-month campaign, the moment has come for Mr. Sanders to show if his political message attracts the Hispanic and black voters who made up about 30 percent of Democratic caucusgoers in Nevada in 2008. Sanders advisers acknowledge that the senator cannot win the Democratic nomination unless he expands his predominantly white base of voters, and they worry he may not be gaining much ground among African-Americans so far. Mr. Sanders has campaigned aggressively in Nevada, attacking Wall Street and promising a $15 minimum wage and a free public college education in remarks to racially diverse audiences. Mrs. Clinton has also worked hard, courting Hispanic and black casino workers in Las Vegas in recent days. A Sanders victory, coming after his big win in the New Hampshire primary last week, would give him momentum heading into the Democrats’ primary in South Carolina next Saturday – especially if black voters turn out for him in large numbers. African-Americans are expected to make up half of the Democratic electorate in South Carolina. “If he gets a lot of support in Nevada from Hispanics but not African-Americans, that may be a great sign for him in Western states, but a great sign for Clinton in Southern states,” said Michael Green, an associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Mrs. Clinton lost big in New Hampshire. She lost among women, working-class white voters, young people, liberals and moderates. Nevada, in turn, appears custom-made for a Clinton victory. She is popular with minority voters, more widely recognized than Mr. Sanders, and has a strong political organization that prevailed in Nevada eight years ago. But the lead she held for months in Nevada polls has narrowed, and Clinton advisers say she could win by a lot or a little – or even lose to Mr. Sanders, which would be a big upset. Nevada will show if Mrs. Clinton’s pragmatic message of building on President Obama’s legacy is enough to rally voters to her side, and whether her political vulnerabilities were merely a New Hampshire phenomenon or could threaten her in South Carolina and beyond. “If Clinton can win Nevada by five, six, seven points, she’ll do fine in South Carolina, and most Democrats will conclude that she will be the nominee,” said Robert Shrum, a longtime Democratic strategist on presidential campaigns. “But if she loses Nevada, South Carolina becomes her firewall and the stakes go way up. And if Sanders can make it a close race in South Carolina, then he shows he can keep picking up delegates and the campaign goes on for a very long time – even into June and the California primary.” Still, even if Mrs. Clinton loses the popular vote in Nevada, Clinton advisers believe that she and Mr. Sanders will closely split the 23 pledged delegates up for grabs in the state’s four congressional districts, based on the mathematical formula used by Nevada Democrats. She might even lose the vote but come out ahead in pledged delegates, as Barack Obama did in 2008. Mrs. Clinton has focused on the concerns of African-Americans recently while her campaign has questioned Mr. Sanders’s commitment to fighting for black people. She has taken advantage of the fact that he is less well known among black voters than she is, even though he has been one of Congress’s most liberal members for a quarter-century. Mr. Sanders has continued to assail Mrs. Clinton for taking six-figure speaking fees from Wall Street banks and firms. If Mr. Sanders wins Nevada and a good share of black voters, some allies of Mrs. Clinton say her campaign surrogates – including former President Bill Clinton – could turn sharply negative against Mr. Sanders and try out a stronger message to galvanize black support for Mrs. Clinton in South Carolina and the Southern states that vote on Super Tuesday, March 1. If Mr. Sanders loses Nevada, he may increase his own attacks in the days ahead because his path to the Democratic nomination will be narrower without a win in the caucuses. Mr. Trump is a thrice-married Democrat-turned-Republican who once supported abortion rights, a billionaire casino owner who, he says, has never asked God forgiveness. Yet some national polls show him leading among evangelical voters. If Mr. Trump wins a healthy share of the religious vote in the South Carolina Republican primary, as he thinks he can, it would be a stunning triumph that shows he could compete vigorously across the South on Super Tuesday. Evangelical voters made up 65 percent of the voters in South Carolina’s Republican primary in 2012. Solid evangelical support would also increase Mr. Trump’s chances of capturing most or all of South Carolina’s 50 delegates. The winner of the primary will receive 29 delegates; the other 21 will be allocated among the candidates who win in each of the state’s seven congressional districts. Mr. Trump simply needs to get a plurality of the vote in every district to win all the delegates, a task made easier by having five other Republicans competing in the state. While some South Carolina polls have shown a tightening race, Mr. Trump said in a recent interview that he is confident of a strong victory, which political analysts believe could put the nomination within his grasp. “If Trump proves the pollsters wrong and gets over 30 percent of the vote, I think he’s unstoppable. He’ll bulldoze his way through the South on Super Tuesday and start cleaning up winner-take-all states in mid-March,” said Brent F. Nelsen, a political scientist at Furman University in South Carolina. “But if he falters and loses to Cruz—or wins by 2 or 3 percent—this will be a tight race going forward.” Mr. Cruz’s path to the Republican nomination is through the South and America’s heartland. He won a narrow victory over Mr. Trump in the Iowa caucuses, but he has been trailing in South Carolina and trying to beat back Mr. Rubio, who is aiming for a second-place finish. If Mr. Cruz loses the primary and a good number of evangelical voters turn to Mr. Trump, he could leave with few if any delegates and shaky prospects in several Super Tuesday states where the electorate is similar to South Carolina. Mr. Cruz needs to pick up sizable numbers of delegates in the South because his opportunities may be more limited in delegate-rich states in the Northeast, the Midwest and the West Coast where many Republican voters are more moderate than he is. “The signs are that Cruz’s organizational advantage among evangelicals is not likely to produce the same results in this primary as they did in the Iowa caucuses,” said Jim Guth, a political scientist at Furman. “If this pattern carries beyond South Carolina, his base is too small to sustain an effective candidacy.” Mr. Bush is running out of money and, it appears, out of time. After losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, he has been campaigning to win in South Carolina. If he does not finish well, he will face a chorus of supporters and other Republicans urging him to drop out of the race. Another establishment Republican, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, has been campaigning there but appears prepared for a modest-to-poor result. He could also face pressure to drop out, but after his strong second-place finish in New Hampshire he has sounded determined about continuing to hunt for delegates in some of big primary states in March. Mr. Rubio looks capable of stitching together portions of major Republican voting blocs: evangelicals, business people, supporters of the military and mainstream conservatives. He will also put the political power of South Carolina Republican leaders to the test, given that several prominent officials – Gov. Nikki R. Haley, Senator Tim Scott, and Representative Trey Gowdy – have endorsed him. With evangelical voters split among several candidates, Mr. Rubio is counting on voters who respect Governor Haley and the others to support him in hopes of thwarting Mr. Trump and increasing Mr. Rubio’s chances in the other Southern contests to come. “These are powerful endorsements that will likely influence the decisions of some voters in the state in favor of Rubio,” said Kenny J. Whitby, a professor of political science at the University of South Carolina. “The candidate with a strong showing will have the momentum going into the Super Tuesday contests in a couple of weeks.” The Republicans and Democrats will switch places next week, with the Nevada Republican caucuses on Tuesday followed by the South Carolina Democratic primary on Saturday. 2016-02-20 21:44:29 By PATRICK HEALY

33 Ugandan protesters beaten amid vote counting As election returns showed a strong, early lead on Friday for incumbent Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni , the longtime leader’s security forces briefly detained the main opposition candidate and cracked down on protesters with beatings, 2016-02-20 21:38:41 article.wn.com

34 Virginia Tech community copes with latest violent incident

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - As two Virginia Tech students face charges in the slaying of a 13-year- old girl, their classmates are repeating what they have said following other violent debacles in the last decade: The community is defined not by the horrific crimes themselves, but by the way its people pull together afterward. Seventh-grader Nicole Madison Lovell’s stabbing death last month marks the latest in what seems a disproportionate number of high-profile slayings in a bucolic region anchored by a university known for its engineering and veterinary programs and its Hokies football team. Tech freshman David Eisenhauer is charged with abducting and killing Nicole, and classmate Natalie Keepers is charged with helping plan the crime and illegally disposing of the victim’s body. “A lot of people are saying these students weren’t real Hokies,” said Arlena Nickle, a freshman marketing and hospitality major from Blacksburg. “This is not how we want Virginia Tech portrayed.” Malik Harmon, a materials science and engineering major from Roanoke who works with Nickle at a small convenience store in the Tech student center, said the incident “doesn’t define our community at all.” Violent crime happens everywhere, he said, but it just seems to get more attention when it happens on campus or involves college students. The spotlight on Virginia Tech was brightest in 2007 when a mentally disturbed student shot and killed 32 people on campus before killing himself - the deadliest mass shooting in U. S. history. But there have been other tragedies. The year before the mass shooting, an armed robbery suspect shot and killed a hospital security guard and a Montgomery County deputy sheriff near the campus, which was locked down during a manhunt. The gunman, William Morva, is now on Virginia’s death row. Two years after the massacre, a 22-year-old student was decapitated by a classmate who was carrying the woman’s head when confronted by police in a campus cafe. That was followed by the 2011 shooting death of a Virginia Tech police officer who was ambushed during a traffic stop by a Radford University student, who then took his own life, and the 2014 strangulation of one Virginia Tech student by another during a date. “I don’t think it has anything to do with Virginia Tech or Blacksburg,” sophomore human development major Emily Kilpatrick of Fredericksburg said of the string of violent incidents. “Some people will look at Virginia Tech in a bad way, but it’s not like Virginia Tech taught them to do these things.” Students organized a vigil in Nicole’s memory - the latest example of how they respond in times of trouble, Harmon said. “The community kind of came together a bit,” he said. “I have a friend who sang at the vigil. I think everybody had some sort of role in trying to make things better.” Danny Purcell, a freshman biology major from Fredericksburg, said students have drawn closer in less public ways as well. “It’s human nature,” he said. “We seek the comfort of another person.” Montgomery County chief prosecutor Mary Pettitt said most students fall in the age range for people most likely to commit murder and to be first diagnosed with mental health issues. Many also are away from family support systems for the first time. “However, the fact that this community is shocked by each of these murders tells you more about the community than the murders do,” she said in an email. She said the region is “a place where people not only know their neighbors but they look out for them.” Tech spokeswoman Tracy Vosburgh acknowledged in an email that the community has had “more than its share of tragic events.” But she also noted that with 40,000 students, faculty and staff, Virginia Tech is essentially a small city and “must face all the issues, both good and bad, every community must face.” Story Continues → 2016-02-20 23:36:41 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

35 Rubio Tries To Sell The New Face Of The GOP Establishment To S. C. Voters Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., raises his arm with Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S. C., during a town hall Thursday in Greenville, S. C. Paul Sancya/AP hide caption Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., raises his arm with Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S. C., during a town hall Thursday in Greenville, S. C. The photo op at the end of Marco Rubio's Greenville rally Thursday morning was the stuff GOP dreams are made of. The young Latino presidential candidate many top party leaders believe would be their best standard-bearer smiled and cheered, flanked by South Carolina's Indian-American female governor, the state's young black Republican senator and the congressman who's led the investigation into the Benghazi attacks and Hillary Clinton's involvement. "Take a picture of this, because this new group of conservatives taking over America looks like a Benetton commercial," Gov. Nikki Haley crowed, standing alongside Sen. Tim Scott and Rep. Trey Gowdy on stage in a CrossFit gym re-purposed for Rubio's rally. That image of a diverse, young Republican Party is one the Rubio campaign wants people to remember. His staff was even making sure press knew the quartet would be on stage together at the end of the event. Is "Marco-mentum" back? Observers in the state think Rubio is the one who is on the rise in the closing hours. And he badly needs a strong finish here, too, to recapture the narrative that he is the establishment's best hope to take down Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. "This is a great day in South Carolina," Scott boasted as he introduced Rubio. "The cavalry is coming. " The Florida senator has certainly needed some help to get to this point. While his stronger-than- expected third-place finish in Iowa gave him new mojo, last week's disappointing fifth-place finish in New Hampshire after a disastrous debate took some of the luster off the rising star, who at 44, is the youngest candidate in the race. But he's found new vigor in the Palmetto State. Buoyed this week by Haley's coveted endorsement, the quartet crisscrossed the state together in the final days. And while Cruz is fighting for the evangelical vote, Rubio could build a cross-section of the state's top voting blocs. Plus, if Rubio pulls off a strong showing in the state, the biggest thing it could do for him is possibly drive former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush out of the contest, further clearing the so-called establishment lane for him heading into Super Tuesday. It's Rubio who has the backing of the state's top elected officials — the "new establishment" of sorts, hoping that their chosen candidate can be the one to right the Republican ship. Riding the wave Rubio, Haley, Scott and Gowdy were all elected in the 2010 GOP wave, buoyed by the tea party, and none of them were then the party's preferred candidates. As the Florida senator often says on the stump, the national party wanted then-Republican Gov. Charlie Crist instead. Crist ran as an independent and lost — and is now a Democrat. Gowdy knocked off Upstate Rep. Bob Inglis in a primary, and Scott first won a congressional seat over several better-known political scions, who had the surnames Thurmond and Campbell. Haley was also the underdog tea party candidate when she first ran six years ago, besting a better funded rivals that included the sitting attorney general and lieutenant governor. As Gowdy argued to NPR, the group is far from "the establishment. " "I don't know what the word ' establishment ' means," Gowdy said. "Can you tell me what the word 'establishment' means? I was just on stage with an African-American, an Indian-American and a Hispanic-American, so I don't know what 'establishment' means. " So what message should the solidarity of support for Rubio mean? "He's a principled conservative who can win in November," Gowdy said. For Don Pendleton of Greenville who was at the Thursday morning event, the new endorsements only validated his decision to vote for Rubio. "I'm very proud to be from South Carolina and have Nikki Haley out for him," Pendleton said. "It made me feel like I made the right decision. I feel like it's an All-Star team. " Larry McGriff of Greenville was undecided when he came to the rally, but he left leaning strongly toward Rubio over Cruz. To him, the trio of endorsements for Rubio carried some weight. "I'm very much a fan of Trey Gowdy, Tim Scott and the governor," McGriff said. "She's been a great governor. I wouldn't say that it had pushed me strongly in one direction for Gov. Haley to give an endorsement, but it certainly didn't hurt. " South Carolina Republican strategist Chip Felkel said there's no question Rubio has momentum going into Saturday's vote, but will it be enough? "Endorsements are overrated at this point, but there's no question that the picture of the Indian- American governor and the African-American senator and the Latin-American senator is something that seems to have some appeal," said Felkel, who is unaligned in the race. "I just don't know if it's enough. If anybody's got momentum, you've certainly got to think it's Rubio. " Please keep your community civil. All comments must follow the NPR.org Community rules and terms of use , and will be moderated prior to posting. NPR reserves the right to use the comments we receive, in whole or in part, and to use the commenter's name and location, in any medium. See also the Terms of Use , Privacy Policy and Community FAQ. 2016-02-20 23:35:23 Jessica Taylor

36 Ex-‘CEO’ killed at southwest Atlanta motorcycle club Just One More Thing... We have sent you a verification email. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your profile. If you do not receive the verification message within a few minutes of signing up, please check your Spam or Junk folder. 2016-02-20 22:25:19 Tyler Estep

37 Leaders of Nepal and India mend fences after friction NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The leaders of Nepal and India have overcome mutual misgivings, India's foreign secretary said on Saturday, after talks to ease tensions over Nepal's recently-adopted constitution. 2016-02-20 23:34:57 article.wn.com

38 Serbia: 2 hostages killed in US airstrikes in Libya Two Serbian embassy staffers held hostage since November died in Friday's U. S. airstrikes on an Islamic State camp in western Libya that killed dozens, Serbian officials said Saturday. 2016-02-20 23:34:51 article.wn.com

39 Zootly is a New York moving app with a Canadian connection

Canadian-designed moving app Zootly has been compared to Uber, but unlike the ride-sharing app, Zootly doesn't bypass existing companies but collects them under one umbrella, much like a dispatch or booking service for movers. ... 2016-02-20 23:34:03 article.wn.com

40 Top Rhode Island lawmaker signs on to legalizing pot PROVIDENCE, R. I. (AP) - A push to legalize recreational marijuana in Rhode Island has won the support of a top lawmaker. Senate Majority Leader Dominick Ruggerio, a North Providence Democrat, has signed on as co-sponsor of a bill to treat marijuana like alcohol by legalizing, regulating and taxing it. “It is an important conversation to have,” Ruggerio said in a statement. “I have listened to the debate regarding legalization of marijuana over the years and watched the experience in states such as Colorado,” which legalized the commercial sale of the drug. The bill’s main sponsor in the Senate, Democratic Sen. Joshua Miller, of Cranston, had introduced his long-shot legislation for several years without success but said there is more momentum this year. Other lawmakers might take the legislation more seriously when there’s support from people in leadership positions, Miller said. “It’s not outlier legislation,” he said Friday. Miller said he also thinks the push for similar legislation in other New England states will help. He points to Vermont, where lawmakers are advancing a bill, and Massachusetts, which might ask voters in the November election. Ruggerio did not co-sponsor the bill last year. It stalled in the judiciary committee. “I believe that removing marijuana from the black market may make our communities safer,” Ruggerio said. He said Miller’s bill includes important safeguards and will bring money to the state. A companion bill is being introduced in the Rhode Island House. Democratic House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello told the Providence Journal that while legalizing marijuana is not currently on his agenda for the session, he’ll keep an open mind. Miller was guardedly optimistic that the legislation could pass. “Every year we get more and more support,” he said. “Whether we have enough support this year is something that remains to be seen as we go forward and make our case. I’m optimistic.” Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo has separately unveiled a plan to tax medical marijuana plants. Medical marijuana advocates are opposing the proposed annual fee, and Miller said Raimondo’s plan would make more sense for plants not used as medicine. 2016-02-20 22:23:29 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

41 Watch now: Scalia’s Mass begins in hallowed place where popes have prayed In a hallowed place where popes have prayed and pilgrims have flocked, Washington is capping two days of official mourning for Antonin Scalia with a funeral Mass for the late Supreme Court justice. Watch it live here. 2016-02-20 22:05:15 article.wn.com

42 Posner family gives $5 million to CMU for scholarships Officials hope a $5 million gift announced Friday to Carnegie Mellon University from the Posner family of Pittsburgh will help the school broaden and diversify its student population by providing additional undergraduate scholarships. At least five scholarships a year are to be created from the gift announced by family members, including school trustee Anne Molloy and her husband, Henry Posner III. These latest Presidential Scholarships at Carnegie Mellon will be awarded based on degree of academic success and future potential. “I’ve been moved by the stories of students who receive these scholarships. As someone who benefited from a scholarship myself, it’s exciting to have the opportunity to pay it forward to a future generation of CMU students,” said Ms. Molloy, the Posners’ daughter-in-law who also serves as executive director of the Posner Fine Arts Foundation. “We’re very pleased to dedicate this gift in memory of Helen and Henry Posner Jr., who were great believers in higher education and especially Carnegie Mellon.” University president Subra Suresh expressed gratitude and said the money will contribute to ongoing efforts at CMU to create a more diverse student body from all walks of life globally. 2016-02-20 21:55:50 By Bill Schackner / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

43 Russian bid at UN to halt Turkey fails Western powers on Friday rejected a Russian bid at the UN to halt Turkey ’s military actions in Syria , as France warned of a dangerous escalation in the nearly five-year conflict. 2016-02-20 21:55:37 article.wn.com

44 UK to hold referendum on whether to stay in the EU

Cameron Sets Out EU Deal To Cabinet UPDATE: 7:39 a.m. EST — British Prime Minister David Cameron said Saturday that the U. K. will hold a historic referendum on whether to stay in the European Union on June 23, according to reports. Original story: British Prime Minister David Cameron held a meeting... 2016-02-20 21:56:46 article.wn.com

45 6 held in Spain court probe into China's ICBC bank in Madrid A Spanish judge has ruled that six executives of China's state-owned ICBC bank in Madrid should be detained pending a judicial probe into money laundering and tax fraud. ... 2016-02-20 21:57:06 article.wn.com

46 Black Lives Matter Activist-Professor Threatens Ben Shapiro and Conservative Students at CSULA A Black Lives Matter activist who is also a professor at California State University Los Angeles (CSULA) is threatening Breitbart News senior editor-at-large Ben Shapiro and the conservative Young America’s Foundation (YAF) in advance of Shapiro’s lecture at the school on February 25. ... 2016-02-20 23:21:51 article.wn.com

47 Fashion’s Newest Trend: Silence in the Front Row It’s a tried-and-true ritual of New York Fashion Week. Designers hold shows and invite a few celebrities to sit in the front row: perhaps the star of a new hit television series or a rising ingénue or even someone who has recently won an Oscar or who may be nominated for one. Sometimes money is exchanged or clothes given or old favors called in. Said celebrity arrives a few minutes before the show, poses fetchingly for the scrum of photographers gathered in front of her, and answers a few questions from the fashion press, largely along the lines of, “Oh, I just love his clothes” or “We’ve been friends for years and I wanted to come to show my support.” Not this year. Lady Gaga, when asked to say something about her stylist-turned-fashion-designer Brandon Maxwell, after having flown directly from the Grammys so she could be at his show Tuesday night, just silently shook her head. (Also taking a “no interviews” stance were her front-row seatmates Carine Roitfeld, the French magazine editor, and Terry Richardson, the fashion photographer.) Katie Holmes at Zac Posen? No press. Zoë Kravitz and Kylie Jenner at Alexander Wang? Not talking. Jennifer Hudson at Jason Wu, Michael Kors and DKNY? No, no and no. What gives? The publicists and celebrity wranglers at the shows weren’t talking, either. A top public relations executive, when approached at one of the fashion shows where Ms. Hudson sat mutely in the front row, was asked if he would discuss the no-interview policy. He shook his head vigorously, laughed mirthlessly and walked away. Another said: “Oh, is that happening? Gosh, I hadn’t noticed,” before quickly ending the conversation. Of course, not everyone was keeping the press at bay. The actress Kate Bosworth — who turned out to be the Zelig of fashion week, with appearances at Carolina Herrera, Altuzarra, Tory Burch, Rebecca Minkoff and other shows — cheerfully answered every question lobbed her way. Cannily, she also used the time to plug her newest project. “I’ve just wrapped up shooting a project in London for the BBC called ‘SS-GB,’” she told a reporter before the Tory Burch show Tuesday morning. “It’s set in 1941 and envisages what might have happened if the Nazis had invaded Great Britain,” she said, adding, “Fashion week has been providing me with some light relief.” And Sienna Miller, seated front row at Ralph Lauren between David Lauren and Anna Wintour, was a designer’s dream date, not only talking to a WWD reporter at length about her love for the designer’s work, but also singling out two specific looks on the runway that she already was contemplating wearing. “That black velvet jumpsuit is so beautiful,” she said. “And that red V- neck gown, the color of that fabric was breathtaking.” Then there was Blake Lively at Michael Kors, who not only introduced her mother to a reporter (“She used to make all of our clothes as we were growing up, so I jumped at the chance to bring her along”), but also was bracingly honest about one of the reasons she had ventured out on a chilly Wednesday morning to see a fashion show. She hoped to see the designer after the show, she said, adding: “Then it’s back to the hotel to order a lot of room service. Because it’s Michael who will be paying.” 2016-02-20 22:12:16 By ELIZABETH PATON

48 Police: Man who shot officer kills himself during standoff BAY CITY, Mich. (AP) - Authorities say a man they accuse of shooting and injuring an officer and sparking a nearly 24-hour standoff fatally shot himself. The Bay City Times reports (http://bit.ly/1OlLHLv ) Saturday that Bay City police identified the body as that of 38-year-old Leroi Kocsis. Police said they lost contact with Kocsis Saturday morning. He ran into his east side home around noon Friday after authorities say he fired at officers trying to serve an arrest warrant and the bullet grazed one in the back. The officer is expected to fully recover. Authorities used a battering ram to take down parts of the home and used tear gas and flash grenades. Kocsis was arraigned last month on two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person between the ages of 13 and 16. ___ Information from: The Bay City Times, http://www.mlive.com/bay-city 2016-02-20 22:15:30 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

49 Discover resort treasures in Costa Rica "There he is," said Juan Jose, pointing to the young sloth on a tree near the entrance to Nayara Springs. Not to want to see a sloth is akin to not wanting to go zip lining in Costa Rica. ... 2016-02-20 21:54:42 article.wn.com

50 AMERICA/BRAZIL - 11 years after the death of Sister Dorothy Stang,... Many families of Anapu farmers in the south of Para , met on February 12 and in the following days to commemorate the murder of Sister Dorothy Stang, which occurred 11 years ago. She was a loyal friend and close to their problems, as well as a religious known for her courage and availability. ... 2016-02-20 21:55:44 article.wn.com

51 Video: Newly Appointed Deputy Sheriff Gets Engaged on Same Day As Her Graduation

Transcript for Newly Appointed Deputy Sheriff Gets Engaged on Same Day As Her Graduation Right. Okay. Yeah. I am not mark McCorkle and literature department when you can't entered my son who graduated last for a night about a month ago this close it is girlfriend of three years. How old graduating class work and so not only gradually and he got it needed anything she was proposed the idea. But not only her family. How many members of the Buchanan actually part of the law enforcement and later Rowley gut tell myself and my wife and mom my brother lines my son here. Time now cry. Into the dollar total family care about him park. Well. It. Yeah. Yeah how long did it again yeah. Body. Yeah. Well over. And it will have. Yeah. But that. Oh yeah. Yeah yeah. It yeah. I just a beautiful day grateful for this wonderful career the accounting department. Truly a family and it's a perfect example Bleiler. Could not work out. This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate. 2016-02-20 22:33:40 ABC News

52 Chinese Securities Regulator Is Out, but Little May Change HONG KONG — As China ’s economic woes intensified, the nation’s top securities regulator appeared to have the support of the Communist Party leadership, even when his efforts to stabilize the stock markets faltered and in some cases made matters worse. Just weeks ago, he issued a lengthy defense of his record and the securities agency aggressively denied reports he had offered to resign. But on Saturday, Beijing abruptly fired the securities chief, bowing to criticism of the country’s bungled attempts to stem a market rout that started last summer. The dismissal of Xiao Gang , coming in the form of a terse statement from state-run news media, represents a rare public reversal for the Communist Party — and a gamble by its leader, Xi Jinping , whose management of the economy has come under growing scrutiny. Underperforming officials in China often get shuffled to less-influential jobs or are allowed to resign quietly. Most officials who have been fired of late have been ensnared by the broad crackdown on corruption by Mr. Xi. Mr. Xi appears to be betting now that in heeding public opinion and replacing Mr. Xiao in such a high-profile fashion he can buy time to limit damage to the party’s reputation from the stock market mess and the broader economic slowdown. But if the problems continue, he risks further undermining faith in his leadership and his government’s ability to navigate a difficult economic transition. For decades, the party oversaw spectacular growth, buttressing its authoritarian rule and cementing China’s role in the global economic hierarchy. Now growth has fallen to its slowest pace in a quarter-century and the party’s failed attempts to control the markets and the currency are unnerving investors around the world. Mr. Xiao’s dismissal came days before global finance ministers are to meet in Shanghai, expecting answers from China’s leaders on how they will restore confidence in their ability to competently manage the economy. Replacing Mr. Xiao is only a first step to cleaning up the mess in the markets. His successor will need to follow up with swift action, to improve the functioning of China’s equity markets and wean them off state intervention, without doing further damage to the economy “This will be a positive for the stock market, but the key will be the economic policies issued by the government in the next few months,” said Chen Bo, an Beijing-based investor and independent political scholar. Without them, he said, the “short-term gains in the stock market in the next couple of months could be followed by another serious slump.” But Mr. Xiao’s replacement, Liu Shiyu, may not necessarily offer the bold change the markets need. Mr. Liu, chairman of the Agriculture Bank of China, has little experience in equity markets. The shake-up also does little to solve the underlying problem: a government increasingly under the control of one man, President Xi, who is trying to subdue economic turbulence. It is this penchant for control, investors and analysts say, that is driving talent away from the technocratic bureaucracy and rewarding officials who fall in line. “That’s the problem of a very top-down policy style that’s emerging in China now,” said Victor Shih, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, who studies the confluence of finance and politics in China. “No one dares to challenge whatever preconceived notion the top leadership has.” China has a wealth of talented financial professionals, many educated at top universities in the United States, who are now entering the prime of their careers. But unlike in the United States, where talented people rotate in and out of government, few of them may be willing to take jobs in the China Securities Regulatory Commission, China’s equivalent of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The pay is too low and the risks are too high. Mr. Xi’s anticorruption drive in recent months has focused on the financial sector and the securities regulator itself, making it a difficult environment even for officials free of graft, said Mr. Chen, the investor. “The professional makeup of the C. S. R. C. is really not even up close to that of the big brokerages,” Mr. Chen said. “This problem isn’t found only in the equities sector. It’s much more widespread than that.” Mr. Liu is typical for a top financial official. He spent his career working in government committees and at the central bank. Fred Hu, the chairman of Primavera Capital Group and the former chairman of Goldman Sachs for China, called Mr. Liu a “highly experienced and results-oriented financial official,” but said he would “find himself in a challenging position,” like his predecessor. “Over and time again the regulators have struggled to meet some of the difficult tasks — modernizing securities markets, engineering rising equity prices, while protecting investors and ensuring market stability,” Mr. Hu said in an email. While Mr. Liu has little experience with markets, he does have connections. In the mid-1990s, he worked the state-owned China Construction Bank. The bank, at the time, was headed by Wang Qishan, who is now overseeing the anticorruption campaign as one of seven members of the Communist Party’s ruling Politburo Standing Committee. “He’s definitely not a bold reformer,” Mr. Shih said of Mr. Liu. The new securities chief may be in an impossible position, expected to control inherently uncontrollable markets and take the blame if the efforts fail. The push by Mr. Xi’s to assert state control over the markets and the economy go against the philosophy of China’s early reformers under Deng Xiaoping, the paramount leader who sought to give more space to the market. “The approach that they took toward the stock market is telling me that they are not willing to let go control,” Yasheng Huang, a professor of political economy and international Management at M. I. T., said of China’s current leaders in a December interview. One former Chinese financial official, who requested anonymity so he could freely discuss personnel issues, said Mr. Xiao, the former securities chief, might be heading to a new post to help oversee economic policy under China’s cabinet. The influential magazine Caijing also reported that Mr. Xiao may be moving to a new government position. The shake-up at the securities regulator is also likely to result in renewed questions about the eventual retirement of Zhou Xiaochuan, the head of China’s central bank since 2002. When Prime Minister Li Keqiang criticized the government’s handling of financial markets at a meeting last Monday of the State Council, China’s cabinet, he cited management of the currency. The currency falls under the direct purview of the People’s Bank of China. Mr. Zhou, 68, was widely revered as the man who spearheaded considerable financial deregulation. He also led the country’s currency, the renminbi, to recognition by the International Monetary Fund last November as one of the world’s main reserve currencies. But Mr. Zhou’s stature suffered after an abrupt 4 percent currency devaluation last August. The currency situation greatly alarmed financial markets. Economists and monetary specialists around the world, including Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, called for the Chinese central bank to communicate better with financial markets. Three years ago, said Minxin Pei, a specialist in Chinese politics at Claremont McKenna College, it would have been “unthinkable” for anyone to suggest that Mr. Zhou retire. “He would be a good scapegoat now,” he said. 2016-02-20 22:02:29 By MICHAEL FORSYTHE , KEITH BRADSHER and CHRIS BUCKLEY

53 Turkey to take additional security measures after bombing: PM Davutoglu ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey is to tighten security across the country, and especially the capital, following a car bombing that killed 28 people in Ankara this week, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Saturday. 2016-02-20 20:56:14 article.wn.com

54 Clinton vs Sanders in Nevada: Urban vs rural Seeking an edge, Hillary Clinton courted voters throughout Las Vegas ’ sprawling population centers on Friday while rival Bernie Sanders barnstormed across northern Nevada in search of delegates in the state’s high-stakes Democratic 2016-02-20 20:53:32 article.wn.com

55 55 A hole in one: Fairmont holds annual disc golf tournament FAIRMONT, W. Va. (AP) - As a boy, Joshua Smith played disc golf before he even knew what disc golf was. “Growing up, I liked to throw Frisbees,” Smith said. “I used to play Frisbee golf that my dad taught me. We would pick a spot where we would throw from, and we would pick a place that would be a hole, like a tree or a garbage can, and use those Wham-O Frisbees.” These days, Smith, who is president of the West Virginia Disc Golf Association and a sponsored professional disc golf player, uses a selection of different-sized discs with names similar to golf clubs, such as drivers, midrangers and putters, instead of Wham-O Frisbees. In lieu of a tree or a garbage can, he and his fellow disc golfers aim to toss their drivers, midrangers and putters into baskets in as few throws as possible. And in February, even if the snow might be a foot deep, Smith and his fellow players prepared to participate in the 12th annual Fairmont Ice Bowl & Chili Cook-Off on Feb. 20. “We like to say, ‘No wimps and no whiners,’” Smith said. “We played in a storm once. I was playing in 2 feet of snow. It was one of the most snowy Ice Bowls. It was a state of emergency, and we still played. f we can get there, we play.” “No wimps, no whiners” is the slogan of the national Ice Bowl (icebowlhq.com), an organization that encourages disc golf events to be held in January or February with the specific goal of raising funds and awareness to combat hunger issues. The Fairmont Ice Bowl always has been played to support the Soup Opera, an organization in Fairmont that offers a hot meal and other daily necessities to homeless people. In 2015, there were 238 Ice Bowl events around the country - the most that ever had been held, according to the website. A total of 44,184 was raised. In 2015, $2,408 of that came from the West Virginia Disc Golf Association’s event. Smith estimates that during the course of 12 years, about $16,000 has been raised for the Soup Opera. Disc golf is a fast-growing sport nationwide. According to the Professional Disc Golf Association’s website, www.pdga.com/, although instances of people playing informally - as Smith did in his youth - can be found throughout the 20th century, disc golf seemed to get its start as an organized sport in the late 1960s and 1970s. The sport has become popular in the region in part because of the Seth Burton Memorial Disc Golf Complex, which features two 18-hole courses - the Seth Burton Memorial Disc Golf Course and Orange Crush, the latter of which is in a more wooded area to make for a more challenging game. The complex and the first course were named for Seth Burton, a Fairmont Senior High School cross country runner, said his father, Phil Burton. Seth was killed in a car accident in 1998 on the day of a cross country meet when he was nearly 18 years old. Seth actually did not play disc golf, but he was a fan of Ultimate Frisbee, kind of a non-contact Frisbee type of football, his dad said. The idea took shape because Phil and his wife, Rebecca, wanted to do something to memorialize their son but realized that a teen center, their first choice, was out of reach financially. Story Continues → 2016-02-20 22:35:18 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

56 After devastating fire, Huntington restaurants rise again HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (AP) - Drew and Megan Hetzer were running errands when they got a most unwanted call on the Sunday morning of July 27, 2014. The historic Morris Building, at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street in downtown Huntington, was on fire. This was especially bad news for the young couple, whose two restaurants, Backyard Pizza and Raw Bar and The Peddler, were located on the ground floor of the seven-story building. “We hurried up and got downtown,” Drew Hetzer recalled. “When we truly saw how severe it was, it was really heartbreaking.” The fire ended up shuttering both restaurants and several people lost apartments in the building. As employees gathered at the site, the first thing the couple did was to reassure them. “Our main concern was them,” Hetzer said. “No matter what happens that’s what we wanted to try and do is rebuild - and we didn’t know how it was going to play out.” They would have to rebuild not just one business but two, while relying on a third - The Wedge at the Silo Golf Course in Lavalette - to keep things going. They decided to keep paying employee salaries, moving some of their workers to The Wedge. Others helped with the revival of Backyard Pizza and The Peddler after the Hetzers found a new place for them both. Backyard Pizza reopened Oct. 17 at 833 Third Avenue, in another historic old place, the former H. L. Green building. There the restaurant has resumed its offerings of gourmet pizzas cooked in an Italian wood-fired oven. Meanwhile, work continues apace on reopening The Peddler later this summer, as a game-filled brewery and gourmet burger restaurant, with an ambitious plan to showcase home-brew beer recipes. It has been quite a ride for the Hetzers, who first opened Backyard Pizza in June 2012. “When we opened up I was 26 and she was 27,” Hetzer said. Restaurants have been in Hetzer’s blood since he was a child. The couple opened the gourmet pizza and seafood bar in the old location of Chili Willi’s restaurant, where Hetzer’s mother had worked for eight years while he was growing up. Hetzer also worked for many years at 21, a restaurant located on the ground floor of the Frederick Building in downtown Huntington. But it was while pursuing a degree in public relations at Marshall University that he learned skills that would spark the idea for Backyard Pizza. “One of my internships, I did content analysis and research. That was sort of something I put to use as far as developing a concept,” he said. The couple did surveys around town, trying to decide what sort of restaurant niche to fill. Story Continues → 2016-02-20 22:35:04 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

57 Fire hits Phoenix oil depot in Batangas LOS BAÑOS,Laguna-At least 16 firetrucks from different parts of the region were already deployed to contain the big fire that hit an oil depot in Calaca,Batangas. In a phone interview, Batangas police director Sr. Supt. Arcadio Ronquillo, who himself is on the way to the scene, said the fire bureau has already raised to a “general alarm” the fire that engulfs Phoenix Petroterminals and Industrial Park in Barangay Salong. The fire, he said, started at around 4 pm Saturday at the liquefied petroleum gas depot owned by Asia Pacific Inc. The depot is registered Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers Association Partylist Representative Arnel Ty. “Sixteen fire truck(s) (have) assisted but still cannot contain the fire. (A) command post has been established,” Ronquilllo in a text message said. He said there are no reported casualties, so far. 2016-02-20 22:34:00 Maricar Cinco

58 Venezuela's decline fuelled by plunging oil prices Venezuela is a country of superlatives. Many of them, alas, are not particularly desirable: the world's largest proven oil reserves; the world's highest rate of inflation; the world's worst performing economy etc. 2016-02-20 22:32:48 article.wn.com

59 OPEC Is Out of Business, But Dollar Crash Will Save the Oil Price

The OPEC oil cartel is finished because its members don't trust each other, but a severe weakening in the US dollar will cause oil prices to rise later in the year, investment expert Michael Pento told Sputnik. ... 2016-02-20 22:32:24 article.wn.com

60 Israel harnesses skills of soldiers on the autism spectrum TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) - Pvt. E never thought he’d join the army. As someone on the autism spectrum, he struggled with certain social situations and would get easily distracted. Now, at 19, he is serving in a sensitive intelligence unit in the Israeli military, working in software quality assurance and defying what he and many of those around him thought he could accomplish. Israel has for decades exempted people on the spectrum from joining the military, a compulsory duty for most Israeli Jews. But in recent years it is increasingly enlisting them, harnessing their special capabilities for certain meticulous tasks and including them in an Israeli rite of passage that can boost their independence and open professional doors. “It gives me a chance. It gives me education, on- the-job education,” said Pvt. E, whose name could not be published and whose face could not be photographed because he serves in a classified intelligence unit. “It’s a beginning. It’s a very solid beginning.” Pvt. E. is part of a program called Roim Rachok, or “seeing into the distance,” which provides training and assistance to Israelis on the autism spectrum who wish to enlist in the military. The program’s founders saw the inclusion of people on the spectrum as a way to help usher them into a self-sufficient life once they are discharged. Until recently, people on the spectrum were largely sidelined from the military, allowed to volunteer but without a proper framework to ease them into the challenges of military life. Roim Rachok, and at least one other program that has sprouted up, is doing just that. The Israeli military serves as a great equalizer where youth from all walks intersect and those who do not enlist can find themselves at a handicap once they hit the job market. One’s military career can often be a key determinant for employers and soldiers who served in intelligence units often land coveted jobs in Israel’s booming tech sector. People on the spectrum are dealt another challenge once they reach 21, the age when state- funded programs and assistance are mostly cut off, leaving them to fend for themselves or depend on their parents for support. Roim Rachok hopes to provide its graduates with a softer landing through inclusion in the military. “Many sit at their parents’ home and don’t do anything. That is the painful reality,” said Tal Vardi, a retired security official who is co-founder of the program. “This program gives every adult on the spectrum the opportunity to realize his full potential. And the moment we give them opportunity it puts them and us as a society in a different place.” Dozens of people on the spectrum have participated in the program since 2013. They undergo a three-month training session at the Ono Academic College outside Tel Aviv that tests their skills and determines whether they could handle the military’s rigid nature. They then serve in a civilian capacity in a military unit for another three months before they officially enlist. The program seizes on the participants’ perceptive capabilities and their knack for precision or repetition and places them in the military’s most elite and sensitive intelligence units, where they pour over satellite imagery or, like Pvt. E., serve in quality assurance roles, verifying that the software the military develops is flawless. The program is expanding to address people with skills other than heightened perception, training soldiers for roles in combat support as well. Once in the army, the soldiers are accompanied by an occupational therapist and a psychologist, lending support both to the people on the spectrum and their commanders and colleagues who may need guidance in their relationship with the soldiers. Unlike typical recruits, who serve close to three years, these soldiers have a basic, voluntary, service of one year. But they are allowed to extend their service and volunteer for an additional two years if they choose. Roim Rachok also provides guidance once they leave the military. Autism is a developmental disorder that can involve language and social impairments, affecting people to varying degrees. Many of the participants in Roim Rachom are considered “high functioning,” meaning they have above-average intelligence but may have difficulties with social interaction and communication. Not all soldiers on the spectrum qualify for the program and of those who do, not all have gone on to serve in the military, Vardi said. He said that much of the soldiers’ success depends on how tolerant and accepting the people they work with can be, which is why support staff are deployed to help. “Often the operational difficulty brings with it some sort of emotional difficulty,” said Capt. Y., who commands six soldiers who are on the spectrum. “There may be a soldier who really struggles with the work and he isn’t succeeding and you need to know how to deal with it.” Story Continues → 2016-02-20 22:28:35 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

61 Recreational trail program grants available for projects PIERRE, S. D. (AP) - State Parks Director Doug Hofer says there are grants available for trail projects. The funding is available for projects sponsored by municipalities, counties and tribal governments, among other government entities. Hofer says trails are key to promoting healthy communities. He says they are safe corridors for recreation and exercise that give families the opportunity to spend time together. The grants are from the Recreation Trails Program. The program offers partial reimbursement for trail projects that are approved. Potential projects eligible for the grant program include constructing new public trails and rehabilitating trails that exist now. The application deadline is April 15. 2016-02-20 22:28:33 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

62 Daugaard proclaims Bald Eagle Awareness Week in South Dakota PIERRE, S. D. (AP) - Gov. Dennis Daugaard has proclaimed next week as Bald Eagle Awareness Week in South Dakota. A number of free events have been scheduled between Feb. 22 and 27 that will allow people across the state to learn more about birds of prey. Educators from the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center will host an event featuring live birds of prey on Thursday at the Outdoor Campus of the Game, Fish and Parks Department in Sioux Falls. The Outdoor Campus in Rapid City will also host a free raptor-themed event, which is planned for Feb. 27. Bald Eagle Awareness Week is an annual event sponsored by conservation and outdoor recreation organizations, merchants and other conservation agencies. ___ Online: http://1.usa.gov/1zY4Z7n 2016-02-20 22:28:22 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

63 Tenants on public aid find some doors closed TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - Tenants who scan Craigslist for rental homes find sharp disagreement among landlords - and not just about whether pets are great or gross. Some advise: “Section 8 welcome.” Others warn: “No Section 8.” Those are references to federal rent vouchers for poor, elderly and disabled tenants. “We do not accept felonies, misdemeanors of a violent nature, or evictions and we do not participate in the Section 8 program,” one Tacoma apartment complex says, while the ad for a Lakewood apartment cautions: “Sorry, we are not able to accept Section 8 or dogs.” An initial welcome might not last, either. In August, the new owners of John Hannaman’s Kent apartment complex sent him a notice to move out on the last day of his lease. “We are no longer participating in the Section 8 Housing Program,” the letter says. Seattle, unincorporated King County, Tumwater and other communities treat users of federal housing aid as a protected class similar to people who face discrimination because of race, religion, disability, sexual orientation and other characteristics. Olympia is drafting a proposal that could come before the City Council within weeks. Some states have similar protections, but not Washington. Statewide regulation has been proposed off and on for at least a decade in the Legislature but has run into opposition from landlords. Now a bipartisan proposal to forbid landlords from rejecting tenants who have Section 8 vouchers or other forms of government aid is drawing attention in lawmakers’ ongoing 60-day session, but has an uphill climb. In theory, rejecting Section 8 could already open a landlord to liability if racial minorities or other protected groups are disproportionately represented among voucher holders. But federal courts have split over whether that kind of indirect liability, known as “disparate impact,” should be a consideration for rejection of housing aid. LANDLORDS DECIDE The lack of a state mandate leaves the decisions in the hands of thousands of landlords, often based on their own or others’ personal experiences. Section 8 recipients are some of Jim Adrian’s best-behaved tenants, the Bremerton landlord said, in part because if they break the program’s rules they can lose their vouchers. “They’ve actually got more at stake,” Adrian said. A worse track record by tenants of Todd Monohon drove the Olympia landlord - “unfortunately” - to stop taking new Section 8 tenants. Monohon said a common fear among landlords is that since tenants with vouchers have often fallen on hard times, they will be less ready to take care of homes and will cause more wear and tear on the properties. “If their financial household’s in order, that’s the best predictor of how they’ll be able to manage their physical household,” Monohon said. Story Continues → 2016-02-20 22:28:20 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

64 Russian Church Raises $30,000 for Charity at Embassy Student Ball The Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist collected some $30,000 for charitable needs during Tatiana Ball hosted by the Russian embassy in Washington, DC,, according to Archpriest Victor Potapov. ... 2016-02-20 22:28:14 article.wn.com

65 65 Berlin film fest jury ponders who should get top honors

BERLIN (AP) — After more than a week of red- carpet screenings, the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival is set to announce the winner of its Golden Bear award for best movie and other honors. ... 2016-02-20 22:27:30 article.wn.com

66 High stakes as the world’s poorest nation heads to the polls The stakes are higher than ever as Niger, one of the world’s poorest nations, heads to the polls Sunday to pick a new leader. Whoever wins the ballot faces the dual challenge of fending off a food crisis alongside an imminent jihadist threat. ... 2016-02-20 22:26:52 article.wn.com

67 Paul Daniels diagnosed with incurable brain tumour, family say

Magician and entertainer Paul Daniels, 77, has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, his family has said in a statement. A statement on his website says: "We can confirm that one of our greatest magicians and entertainers of all times, Paul Daniels, has sadly been diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour. "On behalf of Paul, Debbie and their families, we thank you for your kind concerns and support at this sad time and ask that their privacy continues to be respected. There will be no further comments at this time. " A link to the statement has been tweeted out from Paul Daniels' official Twitter account. Born in Middlesbrough in 1938, Paul Daniels is one of Britain's best-loved magicians. He discovered magic at the age of 11, when he read a book about entertaining at parties, and went on to perform at seaside shows. After his National Service, Daniels developed his magic skills in working men's clubs. Paul Daniels Photo: Rex In 1969, he was offered a summer season at Newquay and decided to become a full-time performer. The following year, Daniels made his TV debut on talent series Opportunity Knocks, and came second. • Paul Daniels has tetanus jab after bite from stage rabbit He was seen by TV producer Johnnie Hamp, who gave him a regular slot on The Wheeltappers And Shunters Social Club, a variety show on ITV hosted by the late Bernard Manning. Magician and entertainer Paul Daniels who has been diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour, his family said in a statement. Photo: Ian West/PA In 1979, Daniels began his long run on BBC One's The Paul Daniels Magic Show, which lasted until 1994. • Fame & Fortune: Paul Daniels In addition to performing magic, Daniels also hosted popular quiz shows for the BBC including Every Second Counts, Odd One Out and Wipeout. He also narrated the children's TV show Wizbit. Daniels married his first wife, Jacqueline, in 1960. They have three sons together. In 1988 he married his on-stage television assistant, Debbie McGee, and the couple live together in Berkshire. Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee at their Thames side home in Wargrave Photo: Andrew Crowley/The Telegraph A Royal Ballet-trained dancer, McGee had a solo part with the Iranian National Ballet in Tehran and was forced to flee when the 1979 Islamic Revolution broke out. She auditioned as a dancer on Daniels’s show and l ove blossomed after his 18 years as a divorcee , during which time he allegedly slept with 300 women, detailed in his 2000 autobiography Under No Illusion. Daniels is also well known for his "You'll like this ... not a lot, but you'll like it" catchphrase. He said he first came up with the line at a club in Bradford as a way to deal with a heckler. • Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee interview: 'We don’t mind when people make jokes about us’ In later years, Daniels and McGee participated in various TV shows including Channel 5's The Farm, ITV's The X Factor: Battle Of The Stars and Channel 4's Celebrity Wife Swap, in which Daniels tried living with Vanessa Feltz. Daniels also took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2010. In an interview with The Telegraph's Fame and Fortune, Daniels said his best ever business decision was to take his own theatre tour out rather than work for promoters, and become completely self-employed. "I believe that the self-employed work far harder than the employed do," he said. He courted controversy in recent years, with his candid admission that he could never have been entirely sure whether any of his groupies were schoolgirls or not. “You’re talking to someone who spent decades saying that paedophiles should be castrated,” he told The Telegraph following the furore. “But I really still don’t understand the Rolf Harris thing.” Daniels said of Harris, 84, who was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison for a string of indecent assaults dating back to the Sixties: “I only know Rolf as an older man, in the past six years. And you couldn’t wish to meet a nicer guy; he’s tactile and he cuddled Debbie, but he cuddled me, too. " 2016-02-20 21:15:59 Camilla Turner

68 'Tree man of Bangladesh' undergoes successful surgery to remove large growths on his hand A Bangladeshi father who was dubbed ‘ Tree man ’ due to large bark-like warts growing on his hands and feet underwent successful surgery on Saturday in order to remove the growths. 2016-02-20 22:26:15 article.wn.com

69 NASA Receives Record Number Of Applications For Astronauts

The aspiration to become astronauts seems to have rocketed in the US as more than 18,300 people applied to join NASA's 2017 astronaut class, far surpassing the previous record of 8,000 in 1978. 2016-02-20 22:26:15 article.wn.com

70 South Carolina primary: Donald Trump accused of supporting removal of Confederate flag by pro-Ted Cruz group Republicans in South Carolina hoped they’d make it to voting day without disturbing the state’s most gnarly scab, the proper place for the Confederate flag. After a mass shooting in a black church in Charleston in June it was removed from 2016-02-20 22:26:05 article.wn.com

71 Gangster Kumar Pillai's detention: Mumbai Police sends extradition proposal to Singapore Police The Mumbai police on Saturday sent the dossier of Mumbai’s ‘most educated gangster’ Kumar Pillai, who is detained in Singapore, to cops over there. A total of five cases are registered against Pillai, and documents and proofs on him have been sent to Singapore. The Mumbai Police is hoping to get custody of Pillai as they have an extradition treaty with Singapore. A senior police officer said, "Pillai was detained by the officials in Singapore several weeks ago. We were aware of the matter long back. However, due to media hype and several questions raised, we are disclosing the facts only now. We are in contact with CBI and Interpol, who will help us in the extradition process. He may be interrogated by central agencies too or directly handed over to the Mumbai police once in India. " A Mumbai Police spokesperson said, “We have sent out extradition proposal to them, and we are fulfilling all their requirements. It is a protracted process, which will take time to reach some definite stage. " According to officials, cases registered against Pillai include those of murder, extortion and firearm ones. After he was detained in Singapore, the Mumbai Police compiled all the documents and records related to Pillai, which has been sent to Singapore police on Saturday. Pillai's background Mumbai’s most educated don, Kumar Pillai is an engineer by profession, and stepped into crime world allegedly to avenge his father’s death. Pillai joined the underworld to take revenge against then MLA, Lal Singh Chavan, who killed Pillai’s father. He succeeded in killing Chavan, a suspected D-gang member, when he stepped out of Borivli railway station in the late 90s. He was initially recruited by Amar Naik, and eventually became the right hand man of Naik’s younger brother, Ashwin Naik. Pillai’s stronghold is Vikhroli, where he mostly operates in the construction industry. Pillai has been named in several extortion cases in north Mumbai. He is also suspected in the murder of an estate agent in Vikhroli. Police sources revealed that prior to his detention, Pillai constantly shifted his base between UK, Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka or Singapore, which has a sizeable Tamil population. 2016-02-20 22:21:46 By A Correspondent | Posted 1 hour

72 Kanawha County school board cuts positions at career center CHARLESTON, W. Va. (AP) - The Kanawha County school board has agreed to end the contracts of four Garnet Career Center teachers and 24 full-time aides countywide as a result of expected funding cuts. School board Human Resources Director Carol Hamric tells The Charleston Gazette-Mail (http://bit.ly/20IHBUS ) that the board voted unanimously Thursday to make the cuts, which include teachers in auto tech, business education and nursing. All of the layoffs are effective at the end of the school year. Hamric says there will be 325 aides remaining at the adult career center after the cuts. County Assistant Superintendent Mark Milam says state funding for the county’s career centers has been decreasing for the last five years, with a current $1.9 million appropriation expected to drop to $1.8 million next school year. ___ Information from: The Charleston Gazette-Mail, http://wvgazettemail.com. 2016-02-20 22:17:24 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

73 Donald Trump goes for G rating on stump, drops profanity that irked supporters Real estate mogul Donald Trump has cleaned up his act, reassuring voters ahead of Saturday’s primary in South Carolina that he can tone down to a G rating if elected president of the United States. The front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination’ use of profanity on the stump, including dropping F-bombs and calling rival Sen. Ted Cruz a “p****,” repulsed even some of his die-hard fans and appeared to be costing him votes. Mr. Trump acknowledged the need to censor himself when describing how he will crack down on Ford Motor Company for moving manufacturing plants to Mexico. He vowed to slap heavy import taxes on its cars and stand up to Ford executive and lobbyists who try to dissuade him. “I’ll say, ‘Nope. Every time you sell a lousy truck. Every time you —,’ You see how I’ve cleaned up my act. I don’t use bad language anymore,” the billionaire businessman and realty TV star said at a rally Friday in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He apparently stopped himself from saying something more colorful than “lousy.” “I won’t. I won’t,” Mr. Trump said. “Because I don’t even have to use bad words, and I get in trouble.” The demonstration of restraint becomes increasingly important for Mr. Trump as he looks to shore up support to score a key win in South Carolina, where a decisive victory likely puts him on a fast track toward the GOP nomination. Mr. Trump continued to talk tough about negotiating better trade deals and confronting foreign foes, but he did it without the occasional profanity that threatened to give supporters second thought and turn off general election voters. Still, Mr. Trump did not put the profanity issue to rest without assigning some of the blame to the news media. He said the TV news sometimes make it look as if he is cussing when he doesn’t. “You know that I did one a week ago in New Hampshire where I said, ‘Ahhh.’ I just went, ‘Ahhh.’ I didn’t say it,” Mr. Trump said. “In other words, I refused to say the words. And these guys bleeped it on television and everybody thought I said the word. They said, ‘His language is terrible.’ I never said the word! You can check it. I never said the word.” 2016-02-20 22:17:19 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

74 Got an A in Algebra? That’s Worth $120 As the first person in her family to apply to college, Ashley Ayala-Perez was completely new to the undergraduate admissions process. Even more daunting, she had to figure out how she was going to pay for college — and navigate the scholarship bureaucracy. Then, when she was a senior last year at Northeast High School in Philadelphia, her school’s lead counselor posted an announcement about a new program called Raise.me. Unlike other scholarships, it did not require student essays or teacher recommendations. Students simply had to enter details on the site about their high school achievements and they would immediately accrue incremental scholarship credits — contingent on admission — from certain colleges. For Ms. Ayala-Perez, who was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Philadelphia with her family when she was 13, the program sounded almost too easy to be true. She quickly used Raise.me to calculate the amount she could amass if Pennsylvania State University, her first choice, accepted her. She instantly picked up a $100 scholarship credit just for having taken her high school pre- algebra class, she said, and an additional $1,500 for getting A’s in more than a dozen courses. She added an additional $250 for having visited a local Penn State campus. “It was kind of addicting. You kept adding in things and you could see how much money you kept making,” Ms. Ayala-Perez told me recently. “It made it more concrete.” For first-generation college students like Ms. Ayala-Perez, the undergraduate application and financial aid process can seem like a black box running on sluggish, opaque mechanisms. High school students typically learn the specifics of the aid packages colleges are prepared to offer them only in the spring of their senior year, after they have been admitted. But many students in low-income families never learn about the scholarships and grants at all — because they decide not to apply to college, figuring they will never be able to afford it. Raise.me, a three-year-old start-up in San Francisco, aims to make the admissions criteria clearer and the costs a bit more feasible, particularly for first-generation collegegoers. High school students may sign up on the free site to accrue incremental scholarships from about 100 participating institutions, including Oberlin, Temple University and soon, the University of Iowa. Amassing scholarship points from a college does not constitute an offer of admission. But if students are accepted and attend one of the schools, they receive the Raise.me credits — on top of federal or state grants for which they might be eligible. On average, participating colleges have awarded scholarships to incoming students of nearly $5,000 a year for four years. In the past, those institutions may have offered students similar scholarship amounts upon acceptance; by apprising students of their eligibility earlier, administrators hope students can make more informed choices. “It allows them to set immediate goals,” says Preston Silverman, chief executive and co-founder of Raise.me, “and we give them feedback that lets them see their progress as they go.” The start-up’s approach is a mash-up of two popular economic concepts. One is “nudging,” that is designing systems to influence the choices people make, ideally for their own good. The other is microfinance — incremental loans for entrepreneurs who would not otherwise have access to funding. Mr. Silverman calls Raise.me’s tuition grants microscholarships. Raise.me charges participating institutions annual fees of $4,000 to $20,000 based on a college’s size and scholarship program. Each college sets its own criteria. Penn State has made its Raise.me program available to students at five high schools in Philadelphia, as well as six rural Pennsylvania high schools. Those students may earn scholarships of up to $4,000 a year for four years. Among other awards, the university offers them $120 for each A grade in a core course, $400 for each advanced placement course, $100 for each year of perfect attendance, $100 for a leadership role in a sport or extracurricular activity and $5 for each hour of community service, up to $500. Jacqueline Edmondson, Penn State’s associate dean for undergraduate education, says the scholarship program is intended to motivate high school students to default to choices that better prepare them to succeed in college. “We’ll be following to see if the criteria we set up made a difference,” Ms. Edmondson said. Since many high school students take jobs to help with their family’s household expenses, she said Penn State may soon recognize them for working as well: “Maybe we change the criteria to fit the students.” The hope is that, by highlighting and rewarding certain academic and extracurricular activities, Raise.me helps level the college playing — and paying — field for low-income students who may not receive the same kind of parental advice at home as their higher-income peers. The potential risk is that introducing monetary rewards could curb students’ intrinsic motivation to succeed in school, or their innate enjoyment of activities like reading, in favor of striving for scholarship dollars. “Hinging dollar amounts on individual microachievements probably creates a bunch of kids running around thinking, ‘How can I get the next 250 bucks?’ instead of focusing on what’s really important — which is learning,” said Suzanne Gurland , the dean of curriculum at Middlebury College in Vermont, who has studied processes that help children thrive in school. Rather than using microscholarships to micromanage students’ educational pathways, Professor Gurland said, colleges could simply pledge lump sums to promising ninth graders if they agreed to work diligently during high school on whichever subjects or projects interested them most. “If a kid is interested and hard-working,” Professor Gurland said, “they will take that calculus course anyway.” Mr. Silverman of Raise.me said that the scholarship program did not displace students’ inner enthusiasm, but rather enhanced their motivation by showing them additional ways they could prepare for college. Ms. Ayala-Perez says using Raise.me did alter her approach in high school. She had wanted to drop an advanced placement literature course last year, she told me; then she saw she was eligible for a $400 scholarship from Penn State for the class. “I decided I should not drop it because I will lose all that money,” she said. She noted that she found the financial reward structure empowering because it focused solely on her own actions — not on her family’s income or job titles. “My achievement, my studying, it was all me,” Ms. Ayala-Perez says. “It’s a confidence booster.” Ms. Ayala-Perez is now a first-year pre-med student at Penn State’s Abington campus, where in-state tuition costs about $13,600 this year. The university ultimately awarded her about $2,500 a year in Raise.me scholarships. She also received federal and state education grants. Ms. Ayala-Perez said she was just relieved she could focus on her studies and not have to take on extra jobs. “Mostly it’s peace of mind,” said the first-generation college student, now 18. “It was the first time I heard my grandfather cry.” 2016-02-20 22:16:56 By NATASHA SINGER

75 US air raid hits Islamic State in Libya, killing 43 US warplanes launched airstrikes against a suspected Islamic State training camp in western Libya on Friday, killing more than 40 people, likely including a militant connected to two deadly attacks last year in Tunisia. 2016-02-20 22:16:16 article.wn.com

76 Justice Antonin Scalia’s Faith and Values Inspired Many Mourners WASHINGTON — Lines began forming outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, this city’s giant Catholic monument, three hours before the funeral Mass began for Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court. On a chilly but slowly brightening morning, young and old alike dressed up to pay their last respects to a man who died unexpectedly in his sleep last weekend in a year with momentous court decisions hanging in the balance. Priests with their black and white collars and aging nuns wearing coifs filed into the church when the doors opened at 9 a.m. Among the throng were three teenagers from nearby Catholic University who, scrubbed and fresh in coats and ties, had been told by their parents that they simply could not miss the service. “My mom is like, ‘You have to go. You have to,’” said Andrew Morgan, 18. “She said this may not ever happen again.” Mr. Morgan was joined by Joseph Vasalla and Alex Cranstoun, both 19. All members of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization that counted Justice Scalia as a member. The three stood in line for nearly three hours on Friday evening to see Justice Scalia’s coffin in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court. Last year, they had waited for hours to see Pope Francis. The three said they felt fortunate to have been part of such major events for Catholics in the United States. Mr. Vasalla said the day was historic not only because of the funeral but because he was wearing a tie by 7 a.m. on a Saturday. Mr. Morgan said he appreciated the bipartisan respect shown for Justice Scalia. “There will be disagreement about things, but when it comes to his death and funeral, things have calmed down, and everyone seemed to agree about what a great man he was,” Mr. Morgan said. Jane Palladino, 91, of Springfield, Va., also came to pay her respects. One of Justice Scalia’s sons, the Rev. Paul D. Scalia, the episcopal vicar for clergy in the Diocese of Arlington, Va., had offered Mass at Ms. Palladino’s church, so she felt connected to the family. She said she admired how Justice Scalia had managed to remain friends with those, such as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with whom he disagreed passionately. “I’ve come to pay respects, pray for the repose of his soul and pray for consoling graces for the family,” Ms. Palladino said. And just as she headed into the church, Ms. Palladino said she would also pray for liberal newspaper editors to reconsider their views. A hush settled over those gathered outside the church about five minutes before the funeral was scheduled to begin, as pallbearers assembled at the bottom of the front steps. Passers-by, out for a morning walk with their dog or a yoga mat slung over their shoulder, paused on the sidewalk, camera phones poised to capture the next arrivals. Three members of Westboro Baptist Church held signs, sang and called out to mourners from the street corner in front of the church. Sam Phelps-Roper said they objected to the fact that Justice Scalia had been part of a court that had helped legalize abortion and same-sex marriage. “He bears some responsibility there,” he said. But Mr. Phelps-Roper conceded that Justice Scalia had been a better standard-bearer for such conservative social values than many. “The fact of the matter is practically he’s about as good as this nation’s had in a long while as far as righteous judgments,” he said. 2016-02-20 22:16:11 By GARDINER HARRIS and EMMARIE HUETTEMAN

77 Three police killed in Pakistan attack, Islamic State suspected ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Three police officers were killed by unknown assailants in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad on Friday, police said on Saturday, in an incident that is being investigated as a possible attack by Islamic State. 2016-02-20 22:16:10 article.wn.com

78 Three criticised over ad-blocker plans Proposals by a mobile phone provider Three to offer ad-blockers could have a disastrous impact on internet access, an promotion physique has warned. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) pronounced restraint ads could lead to consumers “having to compensate for calm they now get for free”. Three pronounced a ad-blocker it is formulation to use can retard 95% of ensign and pop-up ads. The use will hurl out “this year” though might not be giveaway to use. The mobile phone provider pronounced a 8.8 million business would be means to select either to activate a service, and Three told a BBC that it had not motionless either to assign a price for it. In a statement, a IAB pronounced a offer could impact a proceed web platforms are funded. “The IAB believes that an ad-funded internet is essential in providing income to publishers so they can continue to make their content, services and applications widely accessible during little, or no cost,” it said. “We trust ad-blocking undermines this proceed and could meant consumers have to compensate for calm they now get for free.” Ad annoyance Three explained that a aim was to urge a customers’ practice of receiving ads on mobile devices. “Our objective… is not to discharge mobile advertising, that is mostly engaging and profitable to a customers, though to give business some-more control, choice and larger clarity over what they receive,” a organisation pronounced in a matter that announced a partnership with ad- blocker association Shine. “Customers should not have to compensate information charges since of advertising, mobile ads should not entrance handset information but pithy consent, and phone owners should usually see promotion that is applicable and engaging to them rather than overt and untargeted information, it added. Advertising such as pre-roll video ads, sponsored articles and a in-feed promotions that seem inside amicable networks such as Twitter and Facebook will not be blocked. “Irrelevant and extreme mobile ads provoke business and impact their altogether network experience,” pronounced arch Marketing officer Tom Malleschitz. “The attention has to work together to give business mobile ads they wish and advantage from.” 2016-02-20 22:16:06 admin

79 South Seattle College accused of allowing discrimination SEATTLE (AP) - Members of the local NAACP are calling the South Seattle College campus a toxic environment due to alleged harassment, discrimination and bullying. Seattle King County NAACP President Gerald Hankerson said Friday at a news conference that people truly don’t feel safe at the West Seattle school. The conference was held jointly with the Washington Federation of State Employees, the union that represents some college employees. The Seattle Times reports (http://goo.gl/Uhxe1t) in a written response Friday, South Seattle College officials disputed that the college environment is discriminatory to people of color and touted its diverse enrollment, which is nearly 60 percent minority. The college said it hired an independent law firm last year to assess the work environment after the NAACP raised concerns, and said the firm found no evidence of discrimination or bullying. ___ Information from: The Seattle Times, http://www.seattletimes.com 2016-02-20 22:16:04 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

80 Nurse anesthetists play big role in medical field COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - Carollynn Heath says there is no place a certified registered nurse anesthetist is more important than in rural locations. “There are 30 Georgia counties where a CRNA is the only provider of anesthesia care,” she said. And CRNAs are the sole anesthesia provider in the majority of 34 Georgia critical access hospitals where anesthesia is provided. Both Heath and her friend Shannon Stansell are Georgia CRNAs who say many people do not know about their work, though nurse anesthetists have been around for more than 100 years. Meeting at the Surgery Center on Weems Road in Columbus, the women, affiliated with Southern Crescent Anesthesiology, talked about the job they both describe as rewarding and stressful. Neither can imagine doing anything else. Stansell has been in the field for 15 years. Much of her work is done at West Georgia Medical Center in LaGrange, Ga. “We provide the same drugs, use the same tools as an anesthesiologist, and studies have shown the care to be as good,” Stansell said. “In Georgia, we can work without the supervision of a doctor,” added Heath, a six-year veteran who works in Columbus. They say using a CRNA can be cost-effective for a patient. A CRNA can administer every type of anesthetic and provide care for all surgeries, including an open-heart procedure or cataract surgery. You can also find them at a colonoscopy. They deliver the epidural providing relief from childbirth pain. Both Heath and Stansell worked in an intensive care unit before deciding to move to a new challenge. “I always wanted to be a nurse,” Stansell said. As a youth, Heath also knew her future was in the medical field. Founded in 1931, the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists is the professional organization for more than 49,000 nurse anesthetists. Story Continues → 2016-02-20 22:15:32 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

81 Ross positioned well among 4 Democrats seeking US Senate RALEIGH, N. C. (AP) - Four Democrats seeking to replace Republican U. S. Sen. Richard Burr believe they would bring viewpoints to Capitol Hill that focus more on the needs of everyday North Carolina residents than the two-term incumbent provides. They all believe they can win. Yet only one of the candidates so far has translated that promised empathy into significant support in fundraising and weighty endorsements heading into the primary campaign’s final weeks. Former state Rep. Deborah Ross of Raleigh entered the new year with $452,000 in campaign money, many times over the campaign cash of Durham business owner Kevin Griffin, Army veteran Ernest Reeves of Greenville and Spring Lake Mayor Chris Rey. Ross secured the backing of the state AFL-CIO and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, comprised of Democratic senators aiming to win the majority in the chamber in November. “I feel good but I take nothing for granted and we’re working very, very hard,” Ross said in a recent interview, pressing the message that Burr “has not put the people of North Carolina first in his voting and his policies.” Rey, however, has collected endorsements from dozens of local government leaders like himself and some key community groups. He believes outreach to young voters and others gives him an advantage in the March 15 primary. “I’m an Army guy. Army guys work on the ground,” said Rey, a former active-duty soldier and now a National Guard major. During the primary, he added, “folks are more interested really in the candidate and what they bring to the table, than really about the amount of money that they raise.” Griffin, a newcomer to elected politics, has been in the employment staffing placement industry for decades. Griffin said he understands the challenges of small businesses. “I’ve just focused on putting people to work - it’s been my entire career,” Griffin said at his Durham office. “So taking that outside perspective, the understanding of a true North Carolinian, somebody that has worked in a warehouse, that’s waited tables, that’s lived a full life of the normal middle-class American - that exposure isn’t in Washington.” Reeves, who received 9 percent of the vote in the 2014 Senate Democratic primary won by then-Sen. Kay Hagan, said he’s running again because he’s “just not happy with Richard Burr,” citing Burr’s lack of support for gender-equity legislation on pay and for raising the minimum wage. Burr is considered the front-runner in his own primary against three other candidates. Sean Haugh is the Libertarian nominee. The Democratic campaign, like other state races truncated when the General Assembly moved the primary from May for more influence in choosing presidential nominees, has been marked by Griffin, Reeves and Rey seeking to knock down Ross a notch. Those three candidates have been critical of the DSCC injecting itself into the campaign, accusing Ross of being the establishment’s favorite during a year when voters are choosing outsiders. DSCC leaders “put their thumb on the scale of influence,” Rey said. Griffin also has questioned Ross’ past work as a lobbyist for the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, saying Republicans will use it against her in general election commercials. There’s “all the baggage that she brings to the table,” Griffin said. Ross said she had no preconceived idea the DSCC would endorse her when she ran but said it was aware of her plans and wanted proof of her candidacy’s viability. As for her ACLU history, Ross said her civil rights and constitutional law experience “helps me reflect the values of all Americans … at this time, when we’re dealing with many important constitutional issues in the public sphere.” Whoever wins the primary is likely to be considered an underdog if running against Burr, whose campaign had more than $5 million in cash entering 2016. Story Continues → 2016-02-20 22:15:29 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

82 No charges likely in SEC probe of Marlins stadium financing MIAMI (AP) - The Securities and Exchange Commission has notified the city of Miami that no charges are likely from its four-year investigation into the financing of the Miami Marlins’ stadium. The SEC told city officials in a recent letter that no enforcement action would be recommended. The Miami Herald reported (http://hrld.us/1PLAtEg ) that the agency’s investigation focused on whether bond investors were misled in the financing of the $634 million, retractable-roof ballpark. Some SEC subpoenas also dealt with whether officials were unduly swayed by political campaign contributions. The financing of the 37,000-seat stadium has long been controversial because the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County took on large debts to pay for its construction. The funding issue led voters to recall former Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez in 2011. 2016-02-20 22:14:41 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

83 Fire officials warn against starting burn pile with gas GOFFSTOWN, N. H. (AP) - New Hampshire fire officials are warning people not to use accelerants when trying to light a brush pile fire, after a Goffstown man was severely burned Friday. The 27-year-old victim, who was airlifted to a Boston hospital, was not identified. Officials say he was listed in critical condition Friday. Goffstown Fire Chief Richard O’Brien tells WMUR-TV (bit.ly/1SXcCWf) the man suffered extreme burns to his face, chest, hands and legs. O’Brien said the man was using gasoline while attempting to start a fire to burn debris off Blue Jay Lane. O’Brien says igniting paper is the safest way to start a fire and accelerants should never be used. 2016-02-20 22:14:38 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

84 Country star makes pit stop at BBQ restaurant in Alabama HOMEWOOD, Ala. (AP) - Customers and employees of a barbecue restaurant in Alabama did a double take when they noticed a famous face among them. Country music star Lyle Lovett made a pit stop at Saw’s BBQ in Homewood and posted the picture of his visit on social media, the Al.com (http://bit.ly/1PLzPXr) reported. The Grammy- winning singer is strolling through Alabama’s major cities for his and Vince Gill’s “Songs and Stories Tour,” which kicked off Tuesday night in Montgomery. Nick Bennati was working in the back when he heard there was a celebrity present. When he checked on it, he said everyone was leaning over to glance. Bennati couldn’t recall any other celebrities who have unexpectedly dropped by Saw’s. “He’s on a short list of them,” he said. Bennati said everyone seemed to know who he was but were too timid to approach. Two customers, Brian and Brad Simmons, did ask to meet the star. That photo ended up on Lovett’s Facebook and Instagram pages. “I enjoyed meeting Brian and Brad and getting to visit with them. They said they were in the food business and were driving to Houston to attend the True Value Spring Reunion,” Lovett wrote. Lovett’s visit was a welcomed one for Saw’s BBQ. The restaurant won top rookie honor in the Alabama Tourism Department’s Alabama Barbecue Battle last year. In his post, Lovett wrote that had collard greens and cornbread with my coleslaw and sampler plate.” He also posted a photo of Saw’s employees Kendall Banks and Annette Nealey, who were behind the counter when he placed his order. As for his thoughts on Saw’s BBQ, Lovett wrote, “The barbecue at SAW’s was excellent Southern-style barbecue, chicken with white sauce and pork—no beef. Sides were also Southern-style. I had collard greens and cornbread with my coleslaw and sampler plate. The service was fast and friendly.” 2016-02-20 22:14:35 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

85 Testing bill could provide Georgia schools some relief MACON, Ga. (AP) - A bill proposed in the state Senate could decrease focus on standardized testing in Georgia. The Senate Bill 364, authored by Sen. Lindsey Tippins, would reduce the number of tests that Georgia students take from 32 to 24, the Telegraph reports (http://bit.ly/1RRGG4h) reported. It would also decrease the role of test results in teacher and administrator evaluations. “The goal is to raise the efficiency and effectiveness of education in the state of Georgia,” Tippins said. State school Superintendent Richard Woods was among many who are backing the bill. It was also approved by Michelle Gowan, who taught for 30 years in Bibb County elementary schools before taking a role as curriculum director at the Academy for Classical Education. Gowan lauded the proposal as a return to “common sense” and said that while educators see the value in testing as a tool, assessments have become overemphasized. “What we have done is swing the pendulum so far that we do more testing than instructing, it seems,” Gowan said. Under the current system, students take Georgia Milestones assessments in all core content areas from the third grade on. If Tippins’ bill passes, it would eliminate science and social studies exams in the third, fourth, sixth and seventh grades while adding a different form of reading and math assessment for younger students. Also, the weight of student test scores would be reduced from 50 percent to 30 percent in teacher evaluations. The move would allow teachers to focus their energy more on the yearlong education of students than the “snapshot” of testing day, said Tony Jones, director of research, evaluation, assessment and accountability for Bibb County schools. “It eliminates the pressure of a single event,” Jones said. The Georgia legislative session is expected to run through late March. Jones noted the importance of testing as a measure for student growth that can shape future instruction. He said the proposed changes would lead to more “purposeful tests” that could, in turn, provide more useful and meaningful data while relieving the burden of educators. “This bill reflects my best efforts to try to further the interests of education,” he said. ___ Information from: The Macon Telegraph, http://www.macontelegraph.com 2016-02-20 22:14:31 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

86 Early-morning fire destroys Fall River mill FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) - An early-morning fire has destroyed a mill in Fall River. Fire officials say the blaze started around 3 a.m. Saturday at the Sagamore Mill. The building collapsed shortly after firefighters arrived at the scene. Fall River Fire Chief Robert Viveiros told WPRI-TV (http://bit.ly/1PZWVYi) that the building was vacant and nobody was injured. Viveiros says the cause of the fire appears suspicious. The investigation is ongoing. 2016-02-20 22:14:28 The Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com

87 Britain Stronger In Europe campaign launch EU referendum video exposing 'hypocrisy' of Brexit campaign As David Cameron fired the starting gun for the EU referendum , the Britain Stronger In Europe group released an official video attacking the leave campaign. The video shows that key demands made by the campaign group Vote Leave have already been delivered by Mr Cameron's deal. It claimed Matthew Elliott, of Vote Leave, said: "The change we need.. an end to ever closer union", before saying that Mr Cameron had delivered that. It added that Vote Leave had called for a restriction to the access to welfare benefits for EU citizens, something which it says Mr Cameron has also delivered. The video also picks up on cutting EU red tape and protecting non-Eurozone states, ending with this criticism of the leave campaigns: "You can't trust a word they say on Europe. " Damian Green, Conservative MP for Ashford and board member of Britain Stronger In Europe, said: “This video is a light way of making a very serious point – David Cameron has been out in Brussels delivering on the demands that Leave campaigners have been making for years. “It’s utter hypocrisy for Leave campaigners to rubbish substantial reforms they have long campaigned for.” Neil Carmichael, Conservative MP for Stroud and political champion of Britain Stronger In Europe, said: “When our Prime Minister has been fighting to get a better deal for Britain in Europe, the last thing he needs is to be attacked for securing changes that Leave campaigners themselves have long wanted. “Their behaviour shows that they do not want a Europe that works better for Britain – they just want us to leave no matter the cost.” Who can vote in the EU referendum? At a glance 2016-02-20 21:00:51 Michael Wilkinson

88 Supreme Court Quietly Denies North Carolina Redistricting Delay Congressional districts must be redrawn, delaying elections for months. 'What a mess in North Carolina,' writes voting rights expert. A lower court ruling issued earlier this month will be left intact and elections in the state's 1st and 12th districts, both majority black, will be paused until new maps are approved. (Photo: Matt Wade /flickr/cc) Late Friday night, the U. S. Supreme Court declined to stay a ruling that ordered two North Carolina congressional districts to be redrawn. According to the Raleigh News & Observer , that means a lower court ruling issued earlier this month will be left intact and elections in the state's 1st and 12th districts, both majority black, will be paused until new maps are approved. The order, which is one of the first significant actions the court has taken since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia last week, was issued in a one-line ruling with little explanation. Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSBlog reports : With the Justices’ denial of the state’s challenge, the new map will be in effect for the primary election in the state — now set for June 7 under a separate law, also passed by the legislature Friday, setting aside an earlier plan for the primary on March 15. The approaching date of the March primary was one factor that had led state officials to ask the Supreme Court to delay the district court ruling. The panel had given the lawmakers just two weeks — that is, until Friday — to come up with a remedy for the constitutional violation in the two districts. The two districts in question for years have been electing black representatives. Three voters in 2013 took legal action to invalidate the districts, which are currently represented by G. K. Butterfield in the 1st, and Alma Adams in the 12th, both black Democrats. It is unclear what kind of impact the ruling will have on voters. Republican legislators in the state House on Friday approved contentious, newly-drafted congressional maps ahead of the Court's decision—which, as voting rights expert and University of California at Irvine law professor Richard Hasen wrote on his blog , "not only changes all of the congressional districts; it also changes the timing of elections and eliminates a runoff primary. " As State Senator Josh Stein, a Democratic candidate for attorney general, told the New York Times , "North Carolina is a 50-50 state, and yet this map all but guarantees 10 out of our 13 congressional delegations will be Republican. " "We live in North Carolina, not North Korea," Stein said. "The voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around. " Hasen continued on his blog: "And it is quite possible that there could be a Voting Rights Act violation now. The problem with the last plan was that North Carolina took race too much into account. But now perhaps NC did not take race enough into account to assure that the districts comply with Section 2 of the Act, which requires the creation of minority opportunity districts under certain circumstances. " "What a mess in North Carolina," he wrote. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License The Conundrums of Justice Scalia Adelante! El Dia Sin Latinos en Wisconsin What’s at Stake with the Supreme Court What Republicans Risk By Obstructing Obama’s Supreme Court Nomination 2016-02-20 21:00:34 www.commondreams.org

89 Friend and aide to United Arab Emirates diplomat is sentenced An American aide to the United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to the United States and head of his personal U. S. charity was sentenced to 21 months in prison Friday after admitting to misspending more than $1 million in foundation funds at casinos and adult entertainment businesses. Byron K. Fogan, 43, of Columbia, Md., pleaded guilty in November in federal court in Washington to one count of money laundering as executive director of the Oasis Foundation of D. C. The foundation was established by UAE Ambassador Yousef al Otaiba in 2008 to work with the embassy and advance positive relations with his nation, which is a key U. S. ally in the Persian Gulf, court files state. Through various channels, the UAE has given hundreds of millions of dollars to U. S. causes including recovery efforts from hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, as well as the Joplin, Mo., tornado. Its gifts to U. S. hospitals, schools and ballfields have ranged across the country, including New York, Los Angeles and Miami, and include $150 million in 2009 to Children’s National Medical Center in Washington for a new pediatric surgery research center. [ United Arab Emirates helps Joplin ‘think big’ in rebuilding ] The UAE Embassy in Washington, where Otaiba has emerged as one of the capital’s most influential ambassadors, declined to comment. In a letter to the court, the foundation’s current executive director spoke in support of ​Fogan. Hamilton Loeb, an attorney with the Paul Hastings law firm who led Oasis after Fogan and who is counsel to the embassy and Oasis’s founder and sponsor, asked in their behalf as victims that Fogan receive leniency so that he could repay the funds. “Mr. Fogan had a record of accomplishment, professionalism, reliability and loyalty prior to the events in this case,” Loeb wrote the court. “The interests of the Foundation will best be served by a sentence that gives him a chance to demonstrate that he can resume making positive contributions to the community.” [ In the UAE, the United States has a potent ally nicknamed ‘Little Sparta’ ] Fogan was a close friend of Otaiba since their undergraduate days at Georgetown University, Fogan’s attorney said in court papers. Fogan also has worked for the embassy and Otaiba as vice president at the Harbour Group public relations firm, as a registered U. S. agent, and as legal counsel through his personal law office. Both sides said the amount misspent by Fogan from 2011 to 2013 while he enjoyed exclusive control of the foundation’s funds exceeded $1 million but was not precisely known. Fogan at one point transferred $7.4 million from the foundation to accounts under his control before spending some properly and repaying some money before he was caught by law enforcement, according to court files. Loeb said in a statement after sentencing that Fogan’s conduct “had no impact” on Oasis- funded programs, and that the foundation disbursed $6 million and “fulfilled all of its obligations” related to programs, including a new neonatal unit at Joplin Mercy Hospital, child educational programs in Washington and Chicago, and a Baltimore homeless shelter. Fogan said he sought to make amends and took “full responsibility” for his conduct, which he said occurred “while in the throes of a vicious gambling and alcohol addiction.” “The consequences of my addictions are significant, and I am ashamed for the damage I have caused to my former employer, the community, my friends, and my family,” Fogan said in a written statement before sentencing by U. S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer. Fogan’s attorney, Preston Burton, of the Poe & Burton law firm of Washington had asked that Fogan be spared prison and granted treatment or home confinement with a minimal fine. Fogan remains in contact with Otaiba and advises the embassy when requested, Burton wrote. “What led to Mr. Fogan’s gambling and alcohol addiction and downward spiral is, of course, difficult for friends and colleagues to know and understand,” Loeb said. “He hid it successfully from those who were closest to him, until it was forced into the open by the investigation in this case.” Federal prosecutors sought a 27-month prison sentence. Collyer imposed the shorter term and ordered restitution to the foundation of $223,569 in illegally laundered money traced in bank transactions in excess of $10,000. “The total amount fraudulently obtained was not determined, in part due to the defendant’s early acceptance of responsibility,” Assistant U. S. Attorney Zia M. Faruqui of the District wrote in seeking prison time. “In a sense, the victims of the defendant’s conduct are . . . people whose lives could have been changed for the better, had the defendant not spent the charity’s funds on his personal vices.” 2016-02-20 22:10:00 Spencer S. Hsu

90 FEATURE: New Year visit masks village’s cold reality Sharing snacks with a ruddy-faced farming couple as a portrait of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong ( ) presides from their mantel. Pounding rice into a doughy holiday treat with a giant wooden mallet. Warmly shaking hands with an elderly 2016-02-20 21:59:21 article.wn.com

91 Mumbai: BMC demolishes illegal restaurant in Lower Parel The BMC on Saturday demolished the illegal 'Wok Hei' restaurant opposite Lower Parel's Phoenix Mills after the Supreme Court ordered it to do so. The action was undertaken by the BMC's G/south ward. According to a statement released by the civic body, the restaurant was running illegally on Senapati Bapat road for many years. After the BMC issued it a notice, the owner of the restaurant challenged it in court. The matter eventually went up to the Supreme Court which ruled against the restaurant in the matter. Following the ruling, the court had given the restaurant owner 4 weeks to demolish the structure. The owner had submitted an affidavit promising the same. But, after he failed to do so until Friday, when one month was complete, the BMC demolished the restaurant on Saturday. Around 4 JCBs, 8 dumpers and 40 labourers were used for the action. 2016-02-20 21:56:59 By Tanvi Deshpande | Posted 20-Feb-2016

92 All Properties - Nation Now 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. Latest updates on the South Carolina GOP primary and Nevada Democratic caucuses. Clinton hopes to build big leads among minority voters in the first-in-the-West contest PM David Cameron faces skepticism about the merits of retaining Britain’s ties with EU. Trump looks to 'run the table'; rivals seek momentum The pop diva is marrying the star of 'Galavant.' Mississippi law enforcement agency says officer dead after shooting standoff; three officers wounded. Temperatures 15 to 20 degrees above normal were expected for most of the Mid-Atlantic. "Fair and honest feedback is not the issue here. " That's what a pet-sitting company has to say after suing a customer who wrote a negative Yelp review. Drama gets impressive star turns from Stephan James and Jason Sudeikis. Believe it or not, the average household should be able to hit its savings goals. Michigan lawmakers helped lead the effort to move $2 billion in Treasury money into the Hardest Hit Fund that helps Detroit and other cities tear down decrepit, abandoned buildings.77473676 It hasn’t gotten any easier, Patti Colbath said, no matter what people say about time healing all wounds. Trump has repeated throughout his presidential campaign that he opposed the Iraq war before the March 19, 2003 invasion, often taking credit for his judgment and vision — claiming he knew it would destabilize the Middle East. Here's one more reason to be grateful to the literary icon. New York Fashion Week, told from an outsider's perspective. Columnist Mike Feibus presents the mobile industry with his to-do list. The super-premium SUV wars are heating up again, with Maserati showing off the look of its entry, the Levante, ahead of the Geneva Motor Show. How did Apple become responsible for our security? Crushed by student debt, facing a different world with different values, Millennials are ready for revolution. A court order that compels the iPhone-maker to write and then sign new code may violate the First Amendment. Republicans have won Hispanic support in the past. Even in the Trump era, they still can. 2016-02-20 16:57:50 rssfeeds.usatoday.com

93 National love your pet day: Which pet should you really have? It's national love your pet day today, so we've made a quiz to tell you which pet best suits you. A lot of people characterise themselves as dog or cat people - but it's a lot more complex than that. Some people even have a strong affinity to the goldfish. This doesn't mean you should rush out and buy a dog if you get 'dog'. Getting a pet to love is a big responsibility. The Dogs Trust say : “National Love Your Pet Day is all about celebrating the furry friend in your life, but it’s also. a timely reminder that owning a dog is a big responsibility, and it’s so vital to think carefully before getting one as they are a lifelong commitment.. ” Still, take our quiz below to find out what pet you should really have. Recently, there was news which may upset cat lovers. Dog owners are apparently happier than cat owners. In a new study, Is Happiness a Warm Puppy? Examining the Relationship between Pets and Well-Being, academics surveyed 263 people in order to investigate the relationship between pet ownership and subjective well-being, The results indicated that pet owners did not significantly differ from non-pet owners when it came to levels of happiness, positive emotions, negative emotions or major personality traits. However, pet owners were found to be more satisfied with life than non-owners - and dog owners scored higher than cat owners on all measures of well-being. Researchers said: "It’s unclear whether the lack of differences between pet owners and non owners are due to adaptation to pet ownership or if pets do not have a strong effect on well- being. "Dog owners were happier than cat owners, which can be partially explained by personality, emotion regulation style, and need satisfaction. " Schrödinger’s Cat explained 2016-02-20 21:52:58 Helena Horton

94 Federally funded abortion clinics under fire as Republican hopefuls woo evangelical vote It is all part a strategy to appeal to the large and powerful evangelical voting bloc who will help determine the candidates' fates in South Carolina's primary election, writes Ruth Sherlock 2016-02-20 21:51:47 article.wn.com

95 Norwegian to fly New York to Paris nonstop with fares from $175 The Norway-based budget airline will start flying a nonstop Paris-New York route with introductory fares starting at $US175/€ 179 from July 29. Norwegian is also opening Paris-US routes connecting the French capital with Los Angeles and Fort 2016-02-20 20:46:19 article.wn.com

96 Military Times - Adventure

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. Active-duty members traveling on Spirit Airlines will no longer have to pay baggage fees on up to two checked bags and one free carry-on, officials said. Seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. These Marine captains took the top spots, and set a new world record. It’s interesting to introduce experienced hunters and shooters to a new, unfamiliar rifle and, after they inspect it, ask, “So what do you think this would cost?” Three inaugural crewmates in Military Times’ new travel club are headed for the Caribbean. Obstacle course racing is hitting the big leagues with major prize money, a growing roster of world championship competitions, and now even prime-time TV coverage. But as 2015 Spartan Race champ Capt. Until a few months ago, Army Capt. Robert Killian hadn’t given much thought to obstacle course racing. Of course, the increasingly popular sport hadn’t given him much thought, either. Hours after getting the news that his NFL dreams would have to wait, former Staff Sgt. Nate Boyer found a new direction: Up, about 19,300 feet. Many of us may be dreaming of a white Christmas, but chances are good visions of warm, sandy beaches will be dancing in our heads soon enough, if winter winds haven’t pushed them there already. New Military Waypoint members are giving us some great travel ideas in hopes of winning one of three cruises — and to help launch this exclusive online community for military travelers. Read on to see what they’re posting, and go to MilitaryTimes. Most bass anglers today probably wouldn’t recall when the black bass was considered a second-class citizen and tournaments, if any, were usually local, small-money events. New Military Waypoint members are giving us some great travel ideas in hopes of winning one of three cruises — and to help launch this exclusive online community for military travelers. Centuries of rainfall and punishing Texas sunshine are slowly doing what cannon fire and barrages of Mexican bullets couldn’t back in 1836 — disintegrating the Alamo. Tuesday’s launch of the ORS-4 went awry when the experimental Super Strypi launch vehicle failed midflight. If there’s one thing the military community knows better than most, it’s how to travel. When it comes to hiring veterans, U. S. Customs and Border Protection has a great track record: Of its 21,000 agents, 28.8 percent are prior military. Ever since the Willys Jeep drove off the battlefields of World War II to become one of America’s favorite off-roaders, military gear has been crossing over into the off-duty pursuits of outdoors enthusiasts. Sgt. 1st Class Shawn Riley knows exactly what he’s going to do when he retires from his full- time job in the West Virginia Army National Guard. It’s the little things that can get you. A. J. Schurr came off the bench to run for two touchdowns and threw for the winning score to help Army beat Bucknell 21-14 on Saturday. If you really want to get your seasonal scare on, it’s time to head to the Gauley River. The heavy metal fanatics at Wargaming.net have put together a killer video of a World War II tank battle. Summer is over, but you can still get your outdoor fitness fun on at a slew of fun runs coming your way this fall. "Let’s face it, if you agree that a greater-than-300-yard, offhand shot borders on unethical, then we all need a rest," says Wayne Correia, longtime benchrest shooter. Three Army marksmen and one pentathlete are among the first 10 Americans to earn Team USA spots for the 2016 Rio games Defense Secretary Ash Carter told troops and veterans Tuesday that he's looking at some large-scale reforms for the military's personnel system, but that careers in uniform should remain distinct because not all civilian-sector solutions will fit the Whoa. Just one look at the rig we'd be using to fish for goliath grouper warned of the potential battle ahead. The term “game changer” generates simultaneous interest and revulsion among many outdoors new-product junkies. 2016-02-20 20:42:11 rssfeeds.militarytimes.com

97 News24.com | India pledges $250m for rebuilding quake-hit Nepal India has pledged $250m for post-earthquake reconstruction in Nepal as the two countries try to remove irritants in their ties following protests in Nepal over the country's new constitution... 2016-02-20 21:49:12 article.wn.com

98 Syria opposition says agrees to 'possibility' of temporary truce

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria 's opposition on Saturday said it had agreed to the "possibility" of a temporary truce, provided there were guarantees Damascus 's allies including Russia would cease fire, sieges were lifted and aid deliveries 2016-02-20 21:49:02 article.wn.com

99 Europol chief warns 5,000 ISIS terrorists may be in Europe Up to 5, 000 Islamic State ( ISIS ) terrorists may have returned to Europe after being trained in terror training camps in Syrian and other war zones as the continent faces its highest terror threat in over a decade, the head of EU's police 2016-02-20 20:46:41 article.wn.com

100 EU summit: David Cameron fears 'ambush' as talks reach stalemate David Cameron ’s attempts to choreograph a triumphant renegotiation deal in Brussels fell after more than 24 hours of talks failed to reach agreement on a new deal for Britain’s membership. 2016-02-20 21:46:45 article.wn.com

Total 100 articles. Created at 2016-02-21 00:02