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Total 100 articles, created at 2016-06-22 00:03 1 Queen tweets 90th birthday thanks The Queen tweets her thanks to people who sent her 90th (1.28/2) birthday messages on social media. 2016-06-21 19:56 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 2 Zlatan Ibrahimovic to quit international duty after Euro 2016
(1.02/2) Sweden's superstar striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic announced on Tuesday he will retire from international football after Euro 2016 2016-06-21 21:57 2KB www.mid-day.com 3 Astronaut Tim Peake's Extraordinary View From Space Photos (1.02/2) This is a slideshow of photographs taken by British astronaut Tim Peake at the International Space Station. 2016-06-21 19:57 940Bytes abcnews.go.com 4 Yahoo Announces Editorial Plans for 2016 Summer Games
(1.02/2) --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ( : YHOO) today announced its full global editorial lineup for the 2016 in... 2016-06-21 19:57 2KB investor.yahoo.net 5 Yahoo to Participate at the J. P. Morgan Global Technology, Media & Telecom
(1.01/2) Conference --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (NASDAQ:YHOO) CFO will participate in a question-and-answer session at the J. P... 2016-06-21 19:57 1KB investor.yahoo.net 6 3 Abu Sayyaf members killed in Sulu clash with gov’t troops
(1.00/2) ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—Three Abu Sayyaf members were killed while 26 others combatants—16 of them government soldiers —were wounded in a clash in Sulu on Tuesday. Major Filemon Tan Jr., 2016-06-21 23:07 1KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 7 Jo Cox 'died for her views', her widower tells BBC (1.00/2) Jo Cox was killed because of her strong political views and her family must continue to fight for them, her widower Brendan tells the BBC. 2016-06-21 19:56 4KB www.bbc.co.uk
8 A buy-one-get-one-free can destroy your life "I support Remain": John Barnes rejects Michael Gove's claim that he is pro-Brexit (0.09/2) I rarely give any sort of present to anybody, because I am traumatised by the memory of the terrible damage a poorly thought-out present can cause. 2016-06-21 19:57 5KB www.newstatesman.com 9 David Cameron's surprise intervention shows just how worried Remain are Chinese loan sharks are using nudes as collateral. Is this (0.07/2) the grim future of revenge porn? Using the door of Downing Street in this way is a tactic borne out of desperation. 2016-06-21 19:55 6KB www.newstatesman.com 10 From Soap Street to the Arndale Centre: a disappearing act on the streets of Manchester Autism and gut bacteria – the surprising link (0.04/2) between the mind and the stomach While I’ve no truck with nirvana, I am a true believer in the power of deep absorption into the spirit of a place. 2016-06-21 19:55 11KB www.newstatesman.com 11 On International Yoga Day, Twitterati stretch their funny bones
(0.01/2) Tweeple took to Twitterverse to work out their funny bone and celebrate International Yoga Day in a hilarious way... 2016-06-21 21:32 1KB www.mid-day.com 12 Yahoo Reports First Quarter 2016 Results "I'm pleased that we delivered Q1 results in line with our expectations. Our 2016 plan is off to a solid start as... (0.01/2) 2016-06-21 19:57 23KB investor.yahoo.net 13 Of the People Americans share their hopes, fears and frustrations in interviews from the campaign trail. 2016-06-22 00:02 1KB www.nytimes.com 14 You'll have to zoom in A LOT to see a car in Bentley's ultra-high res Golden Gate Bridge ad Bentley has rolled out what it claims to be the largest ever car photograph to hit home the attention to detail paid in the design of the... 2016-06-22 00:02 1KB www.thedrum.com 15 Should undocumented be allowed to enlist in the U. S. Army? An amendment to the annual spending bill that could have prohibited young unauthorized immigrants from joining the military was defeated in the House on June 16, 2016. The House, which is led by 2016-06-22 00:02 4KB globalnation.inquirer.net 16 Nightingales serenade Fil-Canadians, diplomats in Toronto WATCH: The Nightingales singing “Habanera” by Georges Bizet. MARISA ROQUE TORONTO, Ontario – Singing duo The Nightingales entertained the Toronto-posted diplomatic corps of various 2016-06-22 00:02 2KB globalnation.inquirer.net 17 Gina Lopez spooks mining stocks Staunch antimining advocate Regina “Gina” Lopez has accepted the offer of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte to head the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), which 2016-06-22 00:02 7KB business.inquirer.net 18 Fil-Ams bid farewell to outgoing PH envoy to US SAN FRANCISCO – Members of the Filipino community bid a warm goodbye to outgoing Philippine Ambassador to the US Ambassador Jose L. Cuisia, Jr. at a farewell reception for him June 20 at the 2016-06-22 00:02 2KB globalnation.inquirer.net 19 I’ve got Duterte’s backing–Pimentel President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has expressed support for the incoming Senate leadership, and urged the lawmakers to work together in the 17th Congress, presumptive Senate President Aquilino 2016-06-22 00:02 3KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 20 Maceda: ‘Man for all seasons’ For colleagues, former Senate President Ernesto Maceda was more than just “Mr. Exposé,” he was also a hardworking legislator, a powerful writer, a generous adviser, and a “man for all 2016-06-22 00:02 5KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 21 Gloria Arroyo bill to give Duterte crisis power over traffic Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now a Pampanga representative, is poised to file the proposed “Metro Manila Traffic Crisis Act of 2016,” which seeks to grant President-elect Rodrigo 2016-06-22 00:02 7KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 22 Duterte to US Ambassador Goldberg: Are you with us or not? DAVAO CITY—“Are you with us or are you not with us?” That was the question raised by President-elect Rodrigo Duterte to US Ambassador Philip Goldberg during the envoy’s courtesy 2016-06-22 00:02 3KB globalnation.inquirer.net
23 ‘Don’t try to corrupt us’ DAVAO CITY, Philippines—If you don’t want us to be corrupt, you should do your part and not attempt to corrupt us. This was the message of the economic managers of the incoming Duterte 2016-06-22 00:02 2KB business.inquirer.net 24 PH deadly for environmentalists The Philippines is not only the second most dangerous place for journalists, it is also the second deadliest country for environmental activists. Global Witness said on Monday it had 2016-06-22 00:02 3KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 25 Veteran quarrels with pal over harsh work conditions Long before the raging debate on inhumane working conditions in show biz, Veteran Entertainer quarreled with Longtime Pal over the same issue. VE initially didn’t complain about the 2016-06-22 00:02 5KB entertainment.inquirer.net 26 ‘Hamog’ wins in Shanghai Ralston Jover’s “Hamog (Haze)” won the Outstanding Artistic Achievement Award at the 19th Shanghai International Film Festival held in China on Sunday. Jover attended the A-list festival 2016-06-22 00:02 1KB entertainment.inquirer.net 27 ‘Game of Thrones’ to get fan convention NEW YORK — Fans of HBO's "Game of Thrones" will have the chance to immerse themselves in their favorite show next summer. The show's fan site Watchers on the Wall said 2016-06-21 22:40 1KB entertainment.inquirer.net 28 Duterte asks for more time to address terrorism in Mindanao DAVAO CITY—Incoming President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday vowed to address the problem of terrorism in Mindanao but asked for more time. "This Abu Sayyaf (issue), just give me the 2016-06-21 21:57 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 29 Salman Khan in soup over 'rape' remarks; NCW activists demand apology The National Commission for Women, Shaina NC, Madhu Kishwar have slammed Salman Khan for allegedly comparing himself with a raped woman 2016-06-21 21:51 2KB www.mid-day.com
30 LeBron makes case for all-time best with historic Finals Love you so much!!! #StriveForGreatness #ThisOneIsForTheLand #RWTW A video posted by LeBron James (@kingjames) on Jun 20, 2016 at 1:42pm PDT LeBron James ensured his place among the 2016-06-21 21:48 5KB sports.inquirer.net 31 Duke med student aims for a second Olympic bid Four years ago, Duke student Abigail Johnston won a silver medal in synchronized diving at the 2012 London Games. Now, the medical student looks to earn another chance to compete in the Olympics, this time in the 3meter springboard event. 2016-06-21 20:06 2KB www.charlotteobserver.com 32 Nathan Deal on Vice President rumor: “Ha!” Gov. Nathan Deal had a rather non-political answer to the rumor that surfaced this week that Donald Trump was courting him as a running mate. He didn't dodge or duck the query, or give a cagey response. He laughed. Heartily. Politico reported... 2016-06-21 19:57 1KB politics.blog.myajc.com 33 The American Spectator Surely murder is a serious subject, which ought to be examined seriously. Instead, it is almost always examined politically in the context... 2016-06-21 06:45 4KB spectator.org 34 Job-Killing Red Tape for Thee, Not for Me If you think that all members of Congress have to comply with all of the laws that we common citizens have to obey, think... 2016-06-21 06:45 4KB spectator.org 35 Mega Millions jackpot rises. Will you win? Tuesday’s Mega Millions jackpot has reached $333 million. 2016-06-21 21:00 851Bytes www.ajc.com
36 This Week in Pictures Photos Find this week's top photos from around the globe in ABC News' This Week in Pictures slideshow 2016-06-21 19:57 760Bytes abcnews.go.com 37 Israel as a yoga canvas American art photographer Robert Sturman adds Israeli asanas to his portfolio 2016-06-21 21:00 5KB www.jpost.com
38 Kumble, Amre, Rajput make presentations to BCCI panel for coaching job BCCI's advisory committee comprising former star batsmen Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman on Tuesday afternoon interviewed the likes of Pravin Amre, Lalchand Rajput and Anil Kumble who are in the fray to be the national team's head coach 2016-06-21 20:57 1KB www.mid-day.com 39 Biblical sandals are once again in fashion for all walks of life “I remember how exciting it was as a girl to go, twice a year, to the Dizengoff store to buy shoes. There wasn’t a girl in Tel Aviv who didn’t wear those sandals with shorts,” she says. 2016-06-21 20:48 5KB www.jpost.com 40 Michael Oren advises Netanyahu not to sign US aid deal Oren has taken a risk by promoting a point of view opposed by his party leader, Moshe Kahlon. 2016-06-21 20:33 3KB www.jpost.com 41 Strawberry moon: Your pictures A strawberry moon occurs in June and marks the beginning of the strawberry season. Here's a selection of your pictures. 2016-06-21 19:56 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 42 BBC 'very sorry' Sir Cliff 'suffered distress' The BBC says it is "very sorry" that Sir Cliff Richard "suffered distress" over its coverage of the police raid on his home, adding it has a "responsibility" to report on stories in the public interest. 2016-06-21 19:56 5KB www.bbc.co.uk 43 Fear of extended uncertainty underlies Brexit concerns UK PM Cameron warns vote to leave EU would jeopardize Britain's economy, leaving fewer jobs and higher prices. 2016-06-21 20:26 5KB www.jpost.com 44 Funeral Held in Nebraska for Boy Killed by Gator at Disney Resort Video A funeral was held today in Nebraska for 2-year-old Lane Graves, who was killed in a gator attack at Disney World last week. 2016-06-21 20:25 1KB abcnews.go.com 45 Deaths of Twins Found in Truck Were Heat- Related, Police Say Video The 3-year-old twins had been found unresponsive in a parked truck. 2016-06-21 20:25 882Bytes abcnews.go.com
46 CMS: We'll honor transgender students' choices Principal, lawyer discuss new Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools regulation 2016-06-21 19:55 1KB www.charlotteobserver.com 47 Baltimore Community Outraged After Pregnant Woman Is Shot Video An 8-month pregnant woman was among the victims of a street shooting in East Baltimore. 2016-06-21 20:24 2KB abcnews.go.com 48 Nonprofit coffee shop opens in church Caldwell Presbyterian Church, at 1609 E. 5th. St. in Charlotte, is hosting The Third Place coffee shop. The coffee shop is a place where young people can learn about entrepreneurship and running a business. While they says that every cup is made with... 2016-06-21 19:55 2KB www.charlotteobserver.com 49 WBTV First Alert Weather forecast for 06.21.16 WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for June 21, 2016. 2016-06-21 19:55 1KB www.charlotteobserver.com 50 Gov't to open savings accounts for every child in 2017 "The 'savings account for every child' program is another step toward closing the social gaps in Israel, toward advancing equal opportunities for the middle class and weak segments. " 2016-06-21 20:20 3KB www.jpost.com 51 State Wildlife Action Plan Updated KMorgan 1290 posts 2016-06-21 20:06 4KB www.thetribunepapers.com
52 The Diary of Willis Fumbleton I started to keep this diary the day I realized I would be at the center — or, pending resolution of low-intensity office... 2016-06-21 19:56 3KB spectator.org 53 It's official: Aliya Day to be a national holiday The Knesset passed in a final reading a law instituting the holiday on the seventh of the Hebrew month Cheshvan. 2016-06-21 20:13 1KB www.jpost.com
54 Steps taken to provide security to doctors in Hospitals: Government to HC Maharashtra government informed the Bombay High Court that it has undertaken a series of measures to provide security to doctors in hospitals and ensure that they are not assaulted by relatives of patients 2016-06-21 20:12 2KB www.mid-day.com 55 4 injured in chemical parcel explosion at Aurangabad Four passengers were injured today when a chemical parcel exploded in a state transport bus here, police said. Rajesh K Zhambad, the owner of Aurangabad-based business firm Vishal Enterprises, had allegedly packed some chemical illegally in the parcel saying it was educational literature to be carried to a college 2016-06-21 20:12 1KB www.mid-day.com 56 China city holds dog-meat eating festival despite protests A city in southern China went ahead with an annual dog-meat eating festival despite heavy criticism and protests from animal rights activists 2016-06-21 20:11 5KB www.mid-day.com 57 Association of cabbies, automen seek inquiry against Ola, Uber An association of cabbies and auto drivers and owners staged a protest at Azad Maidan in South Mumbai seeking an inquiry and action against cab aggregators such as Uber and Ola over their pricing strategy to attract customers 2016-06-21 20:10 2KB www.mid- day.com 58 DR Congo warlord Bemba jailed over war crimes Congolese ex-rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba is jailed for 18 years after a landmark ICC conviction for war crimes and sexual violence. 2016-06-21 19:55 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 59 Nagpur, Jinan are sister cities; pact inked The city of Nagpur and Chinese city of Jinan have become sister cities after signing a pact which allows for exchange of ideas and technology in the field of education, sports, youth affairs, urban planning among other areas 2016-06-21 20:09 2KB www.mid-day.com 60 Dual Wildfires Cause Evacuations in California Video Firefighters attempt to contain the two blazes that are burning dangerously close to each other. 2016-06-21 20:08 1KB abcnews.go.com
61 Wilful defaulters: IT dept to use powers to arrest, detain Officials have been directed not to shy away from the rare provisions of arrest, detention and auctioning of attached assets of wilful income tax defaulters 2016-06-21 20:08 3KB www.mid-day.com 62 Man Plays Piano While Floating in the Arctic Ocean Video Acclaimed pianist Ludovico Einaudi performed on a floating platform to draw attention to conservation efforts in the Arctic. 2016-06-21 20:07 1KB abcnews.go.com 63 Jews in Maharashtra to get minority status Maharashtra government approved a proposal to grant minority status to Jews in the state. The decision was taken at a meeting of the state Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis 2016-06-21 20:07 2KB www.mid-day.com 64 In pictures: Jo Cox tributes Tributes are left and vigils held following the death of Labour MP Jo Cox in a gun and knife attack on Thursday. 2016-06-21 19:57 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 65 Community union's 'serious concerns' over Tata sale Unions say they have "serious concerns" about the ongoing sale of the Tata Steel UK business. 2016-06-21 19:57 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 66 Russia doping crisis: Wada president Craig Reedie faces more pressure World Anti-Doping Agency president Sir Craig Reedie is under increasing pressure over his approach towards Russian doping. 2016-06-21 19:57 7KB www.bbc.co.uk 67 EU referendum: Campaigns set for live BBC debate at Wembley Leading figures from the Leave and Remain campaigns prepare to go head to head in the BBC's biggest and last EU referendum live TV debate at Wembley Arena. 2016-06-21 19:57 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 68 US election: How safe are presidential candidates? As a British man is reported to have plotted to kill Donald Trump, the BBC's looks at security for presidential candidates. 2016-06-21 19:57 5KB www.bbc.co.uk
69 Why it's important to be yourself at work Qantas boss Alan Joyce explains why it's important to be yourself at work, and the benefits of having a diverse range of people at the top. 2016-06-21 19:57 5KB www.bbc.co.uk 70 Weymouth idling trains leave 'horrendous smell' Noise, fumes and the "horrendous smell" of diesel trains idling for up to five hours are blighting the lives of people in a Dorset seaside town. 2016-06-21 19:57 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 71 BBC News Channel Britain's most-watched news channel, delivering breaking news and analysis all day, every day. 2016-06-21 19:57 687Bytes www.bbc.co.uk 72 Barnbow Canaries: Telling the stories of WW1 munitions workers A century on from an explosion at a munitions factory, a new play tells the story of the UK's single largest loss of female life in World War One. 2016-06-21 19:57 6KB www.bbc.co.uk 73 In pictures: Tim Peake's journey home Pictures of Tim Peake's return journey and landing back on Earth 2016-06-21 19:57 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 74 Introducing Fair Play on Yahoo Sports Daily Fantasy Yahoo Launches Key Changes in Daily Fantasy to Help Level the Playing Field for Fans Including Entry Limits, Labeling of Veteran Players and No... 2016-06-21 19:57 2KB investor.yahoo.net 75 TUNE IN TODAY: Yahoo Hosts First-Ever Live Stream of Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting Live coverage begins at 10 a.m... 2016-06-21 19:57 2KB investor.yahoo.net 76 The UK's EU referendum: All you need to know A guide to the UK's referendum on 23 June on whether to stay in the European Union. Send us questions you want answered ahead of the vote. 2016-06-21 19:57 29KB www.bbc.co.uk
77 Orlando shooting: Mother of 11 killed at nightclub laid to rest A mother of 11 who saved her son's life in the Orlando nightclub shooting has been laid to rest at a service where all her children gave eulogies. 2016-06-21 19:57 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 78 Iraqi army only retook third of Falluja A US military commander contradicts an Iraqi army claim that it had liberated Falluja and driven out IS militants from most of the city. 2016-06-21 19:57 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 79 Trump suspect Michael Sandford was a 'very quiet lad' Neighbours and former classmates of a Briton arrested at a Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas describe 20-year-old Michael Stanford as "a very quiet lad". 2016-06-21 19:57 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 80 Could Australia swing the UK’s Brexit vote? Australians sending in postal votes for the upcoming UK referendum on European Union membership could have considerable influence on the result, writes Julian Lorkin. 2016-06-21 19:57 5KB www.bbc.co.uk 81 Jewish commentators on Brexit None of the major Jewish institutions of Anglo-Jewry have made any public comments on Brexit at all, and most Jewish leaders have also refrained from coming down in favor of one side or the other. 2016-06-21 20:03 3KB www.jpost.com 82 How Ray Parlour straddled a culture clash in English football Haystack in a haystack: travels around the human genome Although he won three Premier League titles and four FA Cups with Arsenal, Ray Parlour was capped only ten times for England. 2016-06-21 19:57 15KB www.newstatesman.com 83 Shocking! BJP MLA Ravindra Chavan stokes controversy by comparing Dalits with pigs BJP MLA from Dombivli, Ravindra Chavan, has landed in a huge controversy after comparing Dalits with pigs at an inaugural function by the Smart City Program in Thane 2016-06-21 19:59 1KB www.mid-day.com
84 BDS not so widespread, US Jews still maintain strong emotional connection to Israel Contrary to Israeli perception, the professors asserted, BDS is only present on certain campuses and is not deterring Jewish students' engagement with Israel. 2016-06-21 19:57 5KB www.jpost.com 85 Four MKs reveal family members, friends among missing in Yemenite Children Affair "If my siblings are still alive, it is important to me to meet them" 2016-06-21 19:54 2KB www.jpost.com 86 Saudis, Gulf states could all become nuclear threshold states, former PMO official says Syria jihadi expert: The project of Islamic State building a state structure is a failure, which could lead to members going back to al-Qaida 2016-06-21 19:47 4KB www.jpost.com 87 America's 9 favorite fast-food restaurants These chains offer more than the basic burger and fries as Americans look for more variety and fresher food 2016-06-21 19:57 7KB www.cbsnews.com 88 Cameron urges voters to 'think of children' before EU choice David Cameron urges people to think of the "hopes and dreams" of future generations as he makes a direct appeal to them to back staying in the EU. 2016-06-21 19:56 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 89 In pictures: Barnardo's ball boys remembered Images from the archive of Barnardo's capture Wimbledon ball boys preparing for the tennis tournament. 2016-06-21 19:56 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 90 how a mother's loss opened the conversation on baby death How a mother campaigns to get people talking about babies who die. 2016-06-21 19:56 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 91 Tacoma's Sluggo Brewing allows dog owners to bring pets, drink beer A shared love of brew and canines draws customers to Sluggo Brewing, one of the last establishments in Tacoma that hosts dogs because it serves beer in plastic cups and doesn't serve food. 2016-06-21 19:56 2KB www.thenewstribune.com
92 In Photos: Hillary Clinton's Private Email Scandal: A Timeline Hillary Clinton is the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee. But before the former Secretary of State can formally accept the nomination, she still has one major concern clouding those prospects: her private email scandal. 2016-06-21 19:55 854Bytes www.forbes.com 93 Man accused of kidnapping prosecutor's father found guilty RALEIGH, N. C. (AP) — A federal jury in North Carolina on Tuesday convicted a prisoner of directing a botched kidnapping attempt from his prison cell, in an i... 2016-06-21 18:13 2KB www.dailymail.co.uk 94 0-Tennis-Eastbourne International women's singles results June 21 (Gracenote) - Results from the Eastbourne International Women's Singles matches on Tuesday Round 2 Andrea Petkovic (Germany) beat 13-Sara Errani (Ita... 2016-06-21 18:12 2KB www.dailymail.co.uk 95 Watford reject £25million offer for Troy Deeney from Leicester Watford remain determined to keep Troy Deeney from joining Leicester and have reiterated the striker is not for sale. The Hornets have rejected two bids for... 2016-06-21 18:12 2KB www.dailymail.co.uk 96 The Latest: 8 states OK city's use of Lake Michigan water CHICAGO (AP) — The latest on a meeting of representatives of the eight Great Lakes states to determine whether the city of Waukesha, Wisconsin, will be allow... 2016-06-21 18:11 3KB www.dailymail.co.uk 97 Luis Hernandez switch will strengthen Leicester's defensive options Leicester have announced they will sign defender Luis Hernandez on a free transfer from Sporting Gijon. The 27-year-old will join the Premier League champion... 2016-06-21 18:11 2KB www.dailymail.co.uk 98 British Olympic Association gives backing to sanctions against Russia and Kenya The British Olympic Association has backed the sanctions taken against Russia and Kenya ahead of the Rio Olympics. Athletes from both countries will only be... 2016-06-21 18:11 3KB www.dailymail.co.uk 99 Chelsea Leaves Hospital After Son’s Birth Chelsea Clinton Leaves Hospital After Birth Of Her Son NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 20: (L to R) Chelsea Clinton... 2016-06-21 19:55 3KB newyork.cbslocal.com 100 Israeli troops 'mistakenly kill Palestinian bystander' Israeli troops have mistakenly shot dead a teenage Palestinian bystander and wounded several others in the occupied West Bank, the military says. 2016-06-21 19:55 2KB www.bbc.co.uk Articles
Total 100 articles, created at 2016-06-22 00:03
1 Queen tweets 90th birthday thanks (1.28/2) The Queen has tweeted her thanks to people who sent her 90th birthday messages on social media. "I am most grateful for the many digital messages of goodwill I have received and would like to thank you all for your kindness," she wrote. The monarch, whose milestone birthday was marked with numerous events, signed off the rare message "Elizabeth R" . The Queen sent her first ever tweet in 2014 when she opened a new exhibition at the Science Museum in London. Britain's longest-serving monarch celebrated her 90th birthday on 21 April, and a host of events were held over three months, from April to June. The Queen has two birthdays - her real birthday on 21 April, and her official birthday held on a Saturday in June - a tradition going back 250 years. It was introduced to try to ensure better weather for the monarch's official celebrations. Her official birthday this year was 11 June and the annual Trooping the Colour was held on Horse Guards Parade, followed by an RAF flypast which the Royal Family watched from the balcony of Buckingham Palace. The following day the Queen hosted the Patron's Lunch, a street party for some 10,000 people along The Mall which recognised her patronage of more than 600 organisations in the UK and around the Commonwealth. Queen Elizabeth II at 90 Find out more about Queen Elizabeth II on BBC iWonder Queen Elizabeth tweets her thanks to well-wishers after 90th birthday celebrations washingtontimes.com 2016-06-21 19:56 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
2 Zlatan Ibrahimovic to quit international duty after Euro 2016 (1.02/2) Wednesday's Belgium vs Sweden Group E game in Euro 2016 could be the last time star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is seen in his national colours after he announced that he will retire from international football after the ongoing tournament. The 34-year-old made the announcement at a press conference in Nice on Tuesday, a day ahead of Sweden's key game. Zlatan Ibrahimovic "The last game with Sweden in the Euro will be my last game with Sweden. So I hope it won't be tomorrow," Ibrahimovic, 34, told a press conference ahead of Wednesday's final Group E game against Belgium in Nice. He had been included in a provisional Sweden squad for the Olympic football tournament but has ruled out playing in Rio in August. The Olympics coincides with the start of major domestic football seasons in Europe. Ibrahimovic said: "I will not participate in the Olympics. Sweden's coach Erik Hamren said, "This will be a big loss. He is unique. " Sweden's record goalscorer with 62 goals, Ibrahimovic is looking to become the first player to score in four European Championship finals. Sweden must beat Belgium to stand a chance of advancing to the last 16. "I will not participate in the Olympics because my last game will be the last game Sweden does in this Euro. So let's hope it goes as long as possible," he said. Ibrahimovic, a record 10-time winner of the national Guldbollen award for player of the year, said he would go out with his head held high regardless of Wednesday's result. "To finish in a disappointment, never. Because I'm very proud to be the captain of Sweden and of what I've achieved. "I want to take this moment and thank all the supporters because they made it possible for me to achieve what I have achieved. Without them it would not have been possible. "So wherever I go, wherever I come, I'll allways bring the Swedish flag with me and stand with it. So for me disappointment doesn't exist, only proudness, and grateful. I'm very thankful. So thank you. " Ibrahimovic is out of contract with Paris Saint-Germain after four seasons in Ligue 1, but is yet to commit to a new club, although Manchester United are rumoured to be favourites to seal his signing. (With Agency Inputs)
Zlatan Ibrahimovic hopes his international career goes beyond Wednesday dailymail.co.uk 2016-06-21 21:57 By mid www.mid-day.com
3 Astronaut Tim Peake's Extraordinary View From Space Photos (1.02/2) European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake will return home after a six- month long mission on the International Space Station,on June 18, 2016. Peake was the first British ESA astronaut to visit the ISS and captured hundreds of photographs of the Earth during his mission. "Lots of sun-glint right now during our whole orbit - we haven't seen a sunset for over 3 days,” he wrote.
Peake: 'I would return to space in a heartbeat' bbc.co.uk 2016-06-21 19:57 ABC News abcnews.go.com
4 Yahoo Announces Editorial Plans for 2016 Summer Games (1.02/2) --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ( : YHOO) today announced its full global editorial lineup for the 2016 in , including Olympic gold medalists and. Yahoo will send more than 15 experts and writers to Rio, plus another 15 video producers and crew to cover the Games from every angle. Yahoo's focus for the 2016 will be to tell compelling stories and produce instant reactions across all content platforms. "We will use our world-class reporting to seek out the unscripted moments that make the so riveting," said , Vice President,. "We're poised to offer our most comprehensive coverage ever with a relentless emphasis on mobile- first content. We look forward to Shawn (gymnastics) and Summer (swimming, host) along with Canadian Olympian ( ) providing insider commentary on Yahoo's global stage. " Yahoo's experts will create unique content for Yahoo's global audience leading into the and throughout the. Content from Yahoo's talent will include video originals such as Instant Reactions, Power Rankings, Yahoo Sports Rio 101 and the Yahoo Sports , while Yahoo's award-winning writers like , , and will create in-depth features to tell the untold stories of Olympians and how medals were won or lost. Former Canadian national team and pro soccer goalkeeper will bring expert analysis to Yahoo Canada and host "Bring Your Eh Game" podcasts throughout the games. Finally, Yahoo's and based production teams will create three daily shows in Spanish and English, as well as documentary-style video content capturing the lively and colorful environment on the ground at the Games. Yahoo Summer Games coverage can be found across platforms from its custom destination page featuring medal counts and on the app. will also translate its coverage into a variety of languages to reach its over one billion unique users worldwide. Yahoo's editorial staff will work around the clock to make sure fans across the globe won't miss any piece of the action or unique story whether they're cheering for the , , , , , etc. is a guide focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining our users. By creating highly personalized experiences for our users, we keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the world. In turn, we create value for advertisers by connecting them with the audiences that build their businesses. is headquartered in , and has offices located throughout the , (APAC) and the , and (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the Company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com).
Yahoo Announces Board Changes and Agreement With Starboard investor.yahoo.net
Yahoo Expands Content Marketing Offerings with Yahoo Storytellers investor.yahoo.net
Yahoo Statement Regarding Starboard Announcement investor.yahoo.net 2016-06-21 19:57 investor.yahoo.net
5 Yahoo to Participate at the J. P. Morgan Global Technology, Media & Telecom Conference (1.01/2) --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (NASDAQ:YHOO) CFO will participate in a question-and-answer session at the J. P. Morgan Global in. The session is scheduled to begin on , at / . A live webcast of the session will be available on the Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/events.cfm? CalendarID=5. is a guide to digital information discovery, focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining users through its search, communications, and digital content products. By creating highly personalized experiences, helps users discover the information that matters most to them around the world -- on mobile or desktop. connects advertisers with target audiences through a streamlined advertising technology stack that combines the power of data, content, and technology. is headquartered in , and has offices located throughout the , (APAC) and the , and (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the Company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com). and Yahoo Finance are the trademarks and/or registered trademarks of All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Yahoo Announces Board Changes and Agreement With Starboard investor.yahoo.net
Yahoo Appoints IMS as Sales Partner in Spanish-Speaking Latin America investor.yahoo.net 2016-06-21 19:57 investor.yahoo.net
6 3 Abu Sayyaf members killed in Sulu clash with gov’t troops (1.00/2) ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—Three Abu Sayyaf members were killed while 26 others combatants —16 of them government soldiers—were wounded in a clash in Sulu on Tuesday. Major Filemon Tan Jr., the spokesperson of the Western Mindanao Command, said the clash started at 2:20 p.m. in Sitio Bud Duwa Bayho in Pansul village in Patikul town. “The firefight lasted for one hour and 30 minutes. The Abu Sayyaf bandits scampered toward different locations during the heavy gun battle,” Tan said. The wounded government troops had been evacuated to the Trauma Hospital in Jolo town, he added. TVJ
Military: 16 soldiers wounded, 3 Abus killed in Sulu encounter newsinfo.inquirer.net 2016-06-21 23:07 Julie Alipala newsinfo.inquirer.net
7 Jo Cox 'died for her views', her widower tells BBC (1.00/2) Jo Cox was killed because of her strong political views, her widower Brendan has told the BBC. The late Labour MP would want people to stand up for her beliefs "in death as much as she did in life", he told political editor Laura Kuenssberg. He said his late wife, who would have been 42 tomorrow, was concerned about "coarsening" of the referendum debate. He also spoke about the need to support their children to "make sure something good comes out of this". The MP for Batley and Spen died after she was shot and stabbed in Birstall, West Yorkshire, on Thursday. A fund set up in her memory has raised £1m in donations while a series of events will be held around the country on Wednesday to mark what would have been her 42nd birthday. Mr Cox said that his late wife - who was a passionate campaigner for human rights, international development and the plight of refugees during her parliamentary career and in her previous role working for Oxfam - "died for her views". "She was a politician and she had very strong political views and I believe was she killed because of those views," he said. "I think she died because of them and she would want to stand up for those in death as much as she did in life. "I don't want people ascribing views to her that she didn't have but I certainly want to continue to fight for the legacy and for the politics and the views she espoused. "Because they were what she was, she died for them and we definitely want to make sure that we continue to fight for them. " The Labour MP, who was a Remain supporter, was concerned about the conduct of the referendum on EU membership and the direction of political debate in general, he said. "She completely respected that people could disagree for very good reason. But more about the tone of whipping up fears and whipping up hatred potentially. "I think the EU referendum has created a more heightened environment for it but actually it also pre-existed that. It's something that's happened over the last few years I think and again not just in the UK but globally. " He also spoke about the grief of their two children, who were present in the Commons when MPs paid tribute to their mother on Monday, and how important public support had been. "The two things that I've been very focused on is how do we support and protect the children and how do we make sure that something good comes out of this. "And what the public support and outpouring of love around this does, is it also helps the children see that what they're feeling and other people are feeling, that the grief that they feel isn't abnormal, that they feel it more acutely and more painfully and more personally but that actually their mother was someone who was loved by lots of people and that therefore, it's ok to be upset and it's okay for them to cry and to be sad about it. " And Mr Cox said he would remember his wife as somebody who had "energy, a joy, about living life" and who would have no regrets about her life. "She cherished every moment... I remember so much about her but most of all I will remember that she met the world with love and both love for her children, love in her family and also love for people she didn't know. "She just approached things with a spirit, she wasn't perfect at all you know, but she just wanted to make the world a better place, to contribute, and we love her very much. " Mr Cox ruled out seeking the Labour nomination for her Batley and Spen constituency as a way of honouring his late wife's memory, saying his overriding priority was caring for his family and helping them through the ordeal. He said he hoped she would be replaced by a woman, saying it would be "a lovely symbolism" if they became Labour's 100th female MP. Brendan Cox: 'She met the world with love' bbc.co.uk 2016-06-21 19:56 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
8 A buy-one-get-one-free can destroy your life "I support Remain": John Barnes rejects Michael Gove's claim that he is pro-Brexit (0.09/2) I know someone who is very good at giving presents. She is assiduous about remembering when everybody’s birthday or anniversary occurs and then handing them the perfect gift, beautifully wrapped and with a nice little card containing a witty personalised message. I am not like that: I rarely give any sort of present to anybody, though this is not just because I’m mean or lack social grace: it is also because I am traumatised by the memory of the terrible damage a poorly thought-out present can cause. I once had two friends, a couple called Mike and Sue. On the occasion of their tenth wedding anniversary one of Mike’s old schoolfriends, now the manager of a successful rock band, gave them a very expensive gift. It was a book of vouchers that entitled them to dine at all kinds of smart restaurants, take trips to theme parks, go on sailing holidays, receive skiing lessons, undertake beauty treatments and have many more wonderful experiences of all kinds. The only catch was that it was basically a two-for- one offer, so if Mike and Sue dined at the Ritz, say, then Mike would eat for free but Sue would have to pay the full cost of everything she consumed; or if they took the best seats at the opera, again, one of them would pay nothing but the other would pay quite a lot. Nevertheless, the vouchers in this book still offered the couple an entrée to all kinds of places and experiences that they could not normally have dreamed of enjoying. However, Mike and Sue soon found that when they had a bit of free time they did not necessarily want to dine at the Ritz, or go rock climbing, even if accompanied by one of the world’s best instructors. The couple discovered that if they went out somewhere and the place was not in their book of vouchers they suffered a tremendous amount of guilt and anger because they were paying the maximum price. But if they did visit a place that was included in their book, they were consumed with a murderous rage at being forced into going somewhere they didn’t really want to go. Slowly the pair stopped going out altogether and after work remained in their flat. They began to get on each other’s nerves, and in time Sue came to blame Mike for having such a thoughtless friend who would give them this poisoned offering. They turned in on themselves, horizons narrowed, and it was only a short time before both of them fell into depression and despair. Finally, in an act of desperation, the couple took out the volume of vouchers, which had come to resemble a book of evil spells, and booked a hot-air balloon flight over the scenic Cotswolds. On a sunny Sunday morning, once the craft had reached a sufficient height, the couple threw themselves out of the basket. Well, one of them did. The former England footballer John Barnes has slapped Michael Gove down for claiming that he backs Brexit. During a desperate media tour this morning, following the news of David Beckham supporting Remain , the Justice Secretary claimed on Sky that, "there are lots of people like Sol Campbell and John Barnes" who want Out. A few hours later, Barnes called up the news network to contradict Gove. Michael Gove says John Barnes is for Brexit, John Barnes calls us up and says absolutely not Michael Gove https://t.co/adA3QXzjWt — Steve Gardner (@sgardner) June 21, 2016 Barnes told Sky News : "How this happened was I gave an interview stating that for English football it would be better off being out of the EU because of course we couldn't get all of these European players coming in as easily, so it would be better for English footballers. "That was then misinterpreted as I'm supporting the Leave campaign. "I got a call the very next day, this is about a month ago, saying 'oh thank you very much for your support' - and I made it categorically clear that speaking from the point of view of English footballers, it would be better off, but I don't support the Leave campaign because that's a very selfish view of me looking just at English football. "I've got to think about what I think is right for the country. I made it plain that I do not support them, I support Remain. "
"I support Remain": John Barnes rejects Michael Gove's claim that he is pro-Brexit Autism and gut bacteria – the surprising link between the mind and the stomach newstatesman.com
Nissan to take legal action against the Vote Leave campaign "I support Remain": John Barnes rejects Michael Gove's claim that he is pro-Brexit newstatesman.com Understanding anxiety – my inside view of a debilitating disorder and how to control it "I support Remain": John Barnes rejects Michael Gove's claim that he is pro-Brexit newstatesman.com
MPs pay tribute to Jo Cox: "She understood that rhetoric had consequences" "I support Remain": John Barnes rejects Michael Gove's claim that he is pro-Brexit newstatesman.com The latest Brexit betting: what are the odds for the EU referendum? "I support Remain": John Barnes rejects Michael Gove's claim that he is pro-Brexit newstatesman.com
The murder of Jo Cox is rallying Remain – but score political points at your peril "I support Remain": John Barnes rejects Michael Gove's claim that he is pro-Brexit newstatesman.com I suspect I'm a freak, but I feel emotional about the European Union "I support Remain": John Barnes rejects Michael Gove's claim that he is pro-Brexit newstatesman.com
Autism and gut bacteria – the surprising link between the mind and the stomach "I support Remain": John Barnes rejects Michael Gove's claim that he is pro-Brexit newstatesman.com 2016-06-21 19:57 Sarah Ditum www.newstatesman.com
9 David Cameron's surprise intervention shows just how worried Remain are Chinese loan sharks are using nudes as collateral. Is this the grim future of revenge porn? (0.07/2) In a statement designed to win over elderly voters and reinforce fears about the economic consequence of a Leave vote in Thursday’s referendum, Cameron spoke outside 10 Downing Street; the first example in modern times of a prime minister using the paraphernalia of his office in election time, though the podium appeared without Whitehall’s branding and was paid for by Britain Stronger in Europe, not the government. Although this latest warning may be enough to avert a Brexit vote on 23 June, it has dramatically brought forward his “use by” date – he hit his “Best Before” date the second he pre-announced his departure during the 2015 election campaign – as if Remain do go on to win from here, it will only further enflame the narrative among his Conservative critics that Cameron behaved dishonourably during the referendum campaign. But will it work? Cameron – and the people around him – are not naive. They know that by making this statement in front of Downing Street, they’ve foregone any slim hope of reuniting the party after a Remain vote. (One problem is that, rightly or wrongly, most Tory MPs believe that there are no circumstances under which Jeremy Corbyn can defeat them in 2020, making unity a low priority.) It attests to the worry in Downing Street and the Remain camp generally that, despite a series of slightly more favourable polls this week, things in the country are not going well. Although the message that Downing Street were looking at polls putting them ahead by ten points was well-briefed at the weekend, the message from out in the country – with the exception of England’s big cities and Scotland – is almost uniformly bleak for Remain. Privately, there is a feeling that the suspension of campaigning hurt Remain not Leave, as it meant that the campaign had to forego its biggest gun: a warning from Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, that a Brexit vote would mean an interest rate hike. Very few privately share the bullishness about the outcome that the betting markets – which still make Remain the overwhelming favourite – or the currency markets – which are rebounding following a series of good polls – indicate. Cameron’s fear is that this is only the first sombre statement about Britain’s relationship with Europe that he’ll need to make this week. He'll take a shortened political shelf-life after a Remain victory over going down in history as the PM who took Britain out of the European Union by accident. When female students in Guangdong, a southern province in China, applied for a small loan, they were met with a very specific demand. Send naked photos of yourself holding your ID cards, they were told – or you won’t get the money. If you don’t pay up, we’ll make the photos public. This is according to Nandu Daily , the area’s local newspaper, but has also been reported by the Associated Press and the Financial Times. The FT places the trend in the context of the Chinese economy, where peer to peer lending sites like Jiedaibao, the platform where the students allegedly contacted the lenders, are common. Thanks to the country’s slowing economy, the paper argues, lenders are increasingly intent on making sure they’ll be repaid. As a result, there have also been reports of property destruction and even beatings by loan sharks. Part of the problem is that these are unregulated lenders who operate through an online platform. In this case, Jiedaibao says the agreement about photos was made via different communication channels, and told the FT : “This is an illegal offline trade between victims and lenders who did it by making use of the platform.” This new use of naked photos in this case, though, plays to the ways that shame is now used as a weapon, especially online – and the fact that it can essentially be monetised. Revenge porn is a huge and growing problem. As Jon Ronson noted in his book, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed , the internet offers a unique space in which shamings (over a naked photo, or an unwise comment) can be transmitted all over the world almost instantly. For some, this threat is simply too much to cope with, as it was for the growing number teenagers who have committed suicide after being blackmailed with naked photos. It’s telling, too, that the students targeted with these demands were, reportedly at least, women. Most victims of revenge porn are also women. The shame brought down on women who appear in these photos is not so much about their nakedness, but the implication that they've behaved in a sexual way. In China, virginity is still highly valued in marriage, and your family and friends would likely take the spread of naked photos of you extremely seriously. In Behind the Red Door, Sex in China , Richard Burger notes: Every year, thousands of Chinese women pay for an operation to restore their hymens shortly before their wedding so that husbands can see blood on the sheets on their honeymoon night. The strange story of these students and their loans highlights two important points. First, as anti-loan shark campaigners have argued for decades, “free choice” in signing up to extortionate fees or demands when taking out a loan is a misnomer when you’re constrained by economic need and desperation. But second, we can’t allow the shame around female sexuality to become a commodity. We need to both protect women's rights and persecute those who share images without consent, but also fight the stigma that makes these shamings possible in the first place. It's not acceptable that the suggestion of sexual activity can still be used to ruin women's lives.
Tea Leavers and Champagne for Remain: what your shopping basket says about your EU stance Chinese loan sharks are using nudes as collateral. Is this the grim future of revenge porn? newstatesman.com
What the story of the niqab-wearing Welsh speaker tells us about what we want to hear Chinese loan sharks are using nudes as collateral. Is this the grim future of revenge porn? newstatesman.com As storm clouds gather over the Hovel and Europe, I ask myself: what would Dirk Bogarde do? Chinese loan sharks are using nudes as collateral. Is this the grim future of revenge porn? newstatesman.com
Churchill’s grandson Nicholas Soames warns Brexit will change Britain “beyond all recognition” Chinese loan sharks are using nudes as collateral. Is this the grim future of revenge porn? newstatesman.com Labour MPs record a video in honour of Jo Cox Chinese loan sharks are using nudes as collateral. Is this the grim future of revenge porn? newstatesman.com
Chinese loan sharks are using nudes as collateral. Is this the grim future of revenge porn? Labour MPs record a video in honour of Jo Cox newstatesman.com Pinocchio watch: the Ukip MP Douglas Carswell and Tory minister Penny Mordaunt's outright lies about the EU Chinese loan sharks are using nudes as collateral. Is this the grim future of revenge porn? newstatesman.com 2016-06-21 19:55 Peter Kellner www.newstatesman.com
10 From Soap Street to the Arndale Centre: a disappearing act on the streets of Manchester Autism and gut bacteria – the surprising link between the mind and the stomach (0.04/2) Soap Street in Manchester is filthy. A thick, decades-old deposit of soot and grime coats the old warehouse buildings, while underfoot there’s rotten fruit, discarded takeaway cups, broken glass: all the casual droppings of the urban herd. At its westerly end, the street – which is really little more than an alley – dog-legs right, and in the crook of this bricky elbow, beside bulging wheelie-bins, This & That resides. A local institution for rising thirty years, it offers a selection of three curries and rice, for a modest prix fixe , either to take away, or to eat in on melamine-topped tables. Or at least the tables were melamine when I was last in Manchester; now, horror of horrors, This & That has had a refurb, such that through its gloomy windows I see clean white-and-blond-wood surfaces. A shiver runs down my neck: Soap Street is in the increasingly hip Northern Quarter, where new- builds and conversions continue apace. True, it’s surpassing difficult to imagine this great, raddled old Victorian city being given a complete, luxury- apartment-and-barcode-façade-office-block makeover – but New Labour began it in the late Nineties and, ever since, the wild horses of speculation they unleashed have been snorting up and down the Mancunian streets. You could be forgiven for thinking they won’t rest until all Salford looks like Media-bloody-City. People such as myself, who loosely style ourselves psychogeographers, can often appear as insensitive voyeurs on the urban scene. We seem to valorise in particular locations such as Soap Street, which for us are productive of reveries we prize. Surely, our desire to maintain these zones of desuetude and dereliction is proof positive of our disconnection from economic realities – while our ecstatic embrace of the buddleia bursting from the perished brickwork is surely nothing but nostalgie de la bou ; in this case, a bou we ourselves will never have to touch. Well, I understand it may appear this way, but in what follows I hope to convince you that the lather Soap Street provokes in me is a rather more interesting phenomenon – a state of mind accessible to all, one that both liberates and empowers. I stand enfolded by the crook of Soap Street’s elbow, looking up past peeling posters to the fire escapes. The ones to the right are ornate, decorative, the last gasp of the vegetative in the airless, anthropic world, as Walter Benjamin characterised the Belle Époque. But the fire escapes to the left are more angular, with a smoothly kinking and curving balustrade: these are streamlined, interwar flights, for hurrying on down towards the Modern. I hold myself in this declivity between decades and façades, eyes roaming window frames and brickwork. I sense the relationship between the two buildings as longer and more intense than any I’ve ever had. I may have been penetrated and penetrated in turn for – oh, moments, these two have knitted together over the years in a mucilage of mortar...... and all at once I’m no longer in the city as prosaically conceived – no longer in Soap Street, in the Northern Quarter, no longer in Manchester. These purely human designations have no currency as I sense the city as a strange sort of biota : a layer of stuff that includes sewer systems and cabling ducts, canals and railway tunnels, stuffy office units and basement Chinese laundries. And the entire colloidal mass heaves and ripples down the ages as it interacts with the morphology of the land in which it is implanted and the fantasies of the myriad species – human, canine, insect, avian, feline – that infest it. This sense of being disjointed from place and time sustains as whoever-I- am wanders distractedly around the corner, past an estate agent’s selling blond-wood-and-white surfaces by the square metre, across the road and into the Arndale Centre. You can’t blame Tony Blair for everything; the unreal IRA has to take some responsibility for the weird atmosphere in the Arndale: for the massacre of innocent fish and fowl going on in the food court, the jitterbugging along the central concourse. The sites of terrorist outrages bear their psychic scars – the bomb that demolished the adjacent Marks & Spencer in 1996 is still sending its shock wave howling down the years; I see it in the faces of the shoppers as they stream past me, feel it in the slow and clammy shudder of my own skin. Not that I’m that embodied yet; it will take me another half-mile or so of my own streaming before I re-coalesce in my social identity. For now, I remain a flux, a shadow in sunlight, a smirch on a shop window. I pause by the wall alongside the Quaker Meeting House on Bootle Street. Every time it fools me: the venerable tree spreading its boughs over the ancient brickwork seems to beckon to some secluded garden, but there’s only a scrap of car park behind the wall. Or is there? H G Wells wrote a story about mystical experience that takes its title from a nondescript green door off the Cromwell Road which acts as a portal for his protagonist’s trip to the Other Side, and while I’ve no truck with nirvana, I am a true believer in the power of deep absorption into the spirit of a place; it liberates, imaginatively empowers, and can make of a half-mile’s walk across Manchester a journey deep into inner space. Autism – a developmental disorder that causes impediments to social interactions and behaviour – is usually linked by scientists to abnormalities in brain structure and function, caused by a mix of genetic and environmental factors. Scientists have almost always attempted to understand the way autistic people process the world around them by looking to the mind. According to the National Autistic Society , “There is strong evidence to suggest that autism can be caused by a variety of physical factors, all of which affect brain development; it is not due to emotional deprivation or the way a person has been brought up.” Recently, however, a lesser-known link to autism has gained traction. This time, the link is not found in the brain but in the gut. Reporting their findings in the journal Cell , researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, found that the presence of a single species of gut bacteria in mice could reverse many behavioural characteristics related to autism. In the digestive tracts of humans and other animals, there exists a complex, symbiotically integrated network of trillions of microorganisms known as the “gut flora” or “microflora”. The idea that all these bacteria and microorganisms have taken up a home in our gut may initially seem startling, but they serve a number of beneficial purposes, such as aiding digestion and offering immunity from infection. The potential link between gut flora and autism arose as researchers identified the increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism, among children born from mothers who were obese during pregnancy. The microflora of obese people is demonstrably different from those who are not obese, and as a result, connections have been made to the gut issues often reported in autistic people. The senior author of the study and neuroscientist Mauro Costa-Mattioli said : “Other research groups are trying to use drugs or electrical brain stimulation as a way to reverse some of the behavioural symptoms associated with neurodevelopmental disorders – but here we have, perhaps, a new approach.” To determine what the differences in gut bacteria were, the researchers fed 60 female mice a high-fat diet, with the aim of replicating the type of gut flora that would be found among people consuming a high-fat diet which would contribute to obesity. A control group of mice was fed a normal diet to serve as comparison. The mice in each group then mated, and their eventual offspring then spent three weeks with their mothers while being observed to see how behaviour and microflora was affected. It was found that the offspring from the mice laden with high-fat foods exhibited social impairments, including very little engagement with peers. Meanwhile, a test called ribosomal RNA gene sequencing found that the offspring of the mice that were fed a high-fat diet housed a very different bacterial gut environment to the offspring of mice fed a normal diet. Discussing the result, co-author Shelly Buffington was keen to stress just how significant the findings were: “By looking at the microbiome of an individual mouse we could predict whether its behaviour would be impaired.” In an effort to understand whether the variation in microbiome was the reason for differences in social behaviour, the researchers paired up control group mice with high-fat diet mice. Peculiarly, mice eat each other’s faeces, which is why researchers kept them together for four weeks. The high-fat diet mice would eat the faeces of the normal mice and gain any microflora they held. Astonishingly, the high-fat diet mice showed improvements in behaviour and changes to the microbiome, hinting that there may be a species of bacteria making all the difference. After careful examination using a technique called whole-genome shotgun sequencing , it was found that one type of bacteria – Lactobacillus reuteri – was far less prevalent in the offspring of high-fat diet mice than the offspring of normal-diet mice. Discussing the method and finding, Buffington said: “We culture a strain of Lactobacillus reuteri originally isolated from human breast milk and introduced it into the water of the high-fat diet offspring. We found that treatment with this single bacterial strain was able to rescue their social behaviour.” What the Lactobacillus reuteri seemed to be doing was increasing production of oxytocin , a hormone which is known by various other names such as the “trust hormone”, or the “love hormone”, because of its role in social interactions. The results of the experiment showing that Lactobacillus reuteri can influence social behaviour are profound findings. Though the work would need to be transferred from mice studies to full human clinical trials to see if this could be applied to autistic people, the impact of adding Lactobacillus reuteri to the gut flora of mice can’t be underestimated. It seems then, for now, that research will go with the gut.
The NS Podcast #154: Referendum special Autism and gut bacteria – the surprising link between the mind and the stomach newstatesman.com "I support Remain": John Barnes rejects Michael Gove's claim that he is pro-Brexit Autism and gut bacteria – the surprising link between the mind and the stomach newstatesman.com
What happened to the rifle emoji? Autism and gut bacteria – the surprising link between the mind and the stomach newstatesman.com Autism and gut bacteria – the surprising link between the mind and the stomach "I support Remain": John Barnes rejects Michael Gove's claim that he is pro-Brexit newstatesman.com 2016-06-21 19:55 Sarah Ditum www.newstatesman.com
11 On International Yoga Day, Twitterati stretch their funny bones (0.01/2) From Siachen to Mexico City, the entire world was gripped by 'Yoga fever' on Tuesday. International Yoga Day was celebrated today with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers panning out across India to celebrate and promote this most traditional of Indian exercises. But Twitterverse is an alternate universe where fun is the name of the game and every trending topic is open for -- object of derision, a bit of fun, or witticism -- depending on one's perception. Here are some examples of Twitterati working out their funny bone on #Yogaday: International Yoga Day: The man who made yoga popular in the West mid-day.com 2016-06-21 21:32 By mid www.mid-day.com
12 Yahoo Reports First Quarter 2016 Results (0.01/2) "I'm pleased that we delivered Q1 results in line with our expectations. Our 2016 plan is off to a solid start as we continue to focus on driving efficiency, lowering costs, and improving long-term growth," said , CEO of. "In tandem, we made substantial progress towards potential strategic alternatives for. Our board, our management team, and I are completely aligned on this top priority for shareholders. " Mavens revenue represented 33 percent of traffic-driven revenue in the first quarter of 2015, and increased to 38 percent in the first quarter of 2016. Mobile revenue represented 21 percent of traffic-driven revenue in the first quarter of 2015, and increased to 25 percent in the first quarter of 2016. Gross mobile revenue for the first quarter of 2015 and 2016 was and , respectively. "We delivered financial results at the high end or above our guidance ranges. We also achieved free cash flow of through improved working capital efficiencies, excellent cost controls, reduced capital expenditures and a large tax refund," said , CFO of. "While we remain focused on the strategic alternatives process as a top priority, our employees showed their determination and commitment to by executing on our operating plan. " will live stream a video broadcast of the Company's first quarter 2016 financial results at / today. The live stream will be broadcast from Yahoo's studio and will be available exclusively on Yahoo Finance at finance.yahoo.com. The Company will provide its business outlook for the second quarter and full year of 2016 during the presentation. Supplemental financial information can be accessed through the Company's Investor Relations website at investor.yahoo.net. The video will be archived after the event at investor.yahoo.net and will be available for 90 days following the broadcast. This press release and its attachments include the following financial measures defined as non-GAAP financial measures by the ("SEC"): gross mobile revenue; gross search revenue; revenue ex-TAC; adjusted EBITDA; non-GAAP income from operations; non-GAAP net earnings; non-GAAP net earnings per share - diluted; and free cash flow. Gross mobile revenue is GAAP mobile revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. Gross search revenue is GAAP search revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. Revenue ex-TAC is GAAP revenue less cost of revenue - TAC. Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP income from operations, non-GAAP net earnings and non-GAAP net earnings per share - diluted, exclude from the most comparable GAAP financial measures certain gains, losses, and expenses that we do not believe are indicative of ongoing results, and exclude stock-based compensation expense. Adjusted EBITDA also excludes taxes, depreciation, amortization of intangible assets, other expense, net (which includes interest), earnings in equity interests, and net income attributable to noncontrolling interests. Free cash flow is GAAP net cash provided by operating activities (adjusted to include excess tax benefits from stock-based awards), less acquisition of property and equipment, net (i.e., acquisition of property and equipment less proceeds received from disposition of property and equipment) and dividends received from equity investees. These measures may be different than non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. The presentation of this financial information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). Explanations of the Company's non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations of these financial measures to the GAAP financial measures the Company considers most comparable are included in the accompanying "Note to Supplemental Financial Data and GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliations," "Supplemental Financial Data and GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliations," and "GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliations. " is a guide to digital information discovery, focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining users through its search, communications, and digital content products. By creating highly personalized experiences, helps users discover the information that matters most to them around the world -- on mobile or desktop. creates value for advertisers with a streamlined, simple advertising technology stack that leverages Yahoo's data, content, and technology to connect advertisers with their target audiences. is headquartered in , and has offices located throughout the , (APAC) and the , and (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the Company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com). "Ads Sold" consist of display ad impressions for paying advertisers on and Affiliate sites. "Affiliates" refers to the third-party entities that have integrated Yahoo's advertising offerings into their websites or other offerings (those websites and other offerings, "Affiliate sites"). "Alibaba Group" means Alibaba Group Holding Limited. In , Alibaba Group completed its initial public offering of American Depositary Shares ("ADS"), in which was a selling shareholder. "Desktop computer" means a desktop or laptop computer, and "desktop revenue" is revenue generated from search and display ads served on desktop computers and also includes leads, listings and fees revenue and ecommerce revenue allocated to user activity on desktop computers. "Gross mobile revenue," a non-GAAP measure, is GAAP mobile revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. "Gross search revenue," a non-GAAP measure, is GAAP search revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. "Mavens revenue" is revenue generated from, without duplication: (i) mobile (as defined below), (ii) video ads and video ad packages, (iii) native ads, and (iv) and Polyvore ads and fees. "Mobile revenue" is revenue generated in connection with user activity on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, regardless of whether the device is accessing a mobile-optimized service. Mobile revenue is generated primarily from search and display ads. Mobile revenue also includes leads, listings and fees revenue and ecommerce revenue allocated to user activity on mobile devices. "Native revenue" is revenue generated from native ads (search and display) on as well as third-party partner publisher sites and mobile apps. Native ads are visually rich, are positioned as a seamless part of the users' experience, and come in a variety of formats, like text, image, and video. offers native ads through Yahoo Gemini and the BrightRoll Demand-Side Platform (DSP). "Net earnings" means net income (loss) attributable to , and "net earnings per diluted share" means net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders per share - diluted. "Non-Mavens revenue" is revenue generated from search ads and traditional (i.e., non-native, non-video, non- , non-Polyvore) display ads served on desktop computers and also includes leads, listings and fees revenue and ecommerce revenue allocated to user activity on desktop computers. "Non-traffic-driven revenue" is revenue not arising from user activity on or Affiliate sites, and includes royalty revenue, license fee revenue, amortization under the technology and intellectual property license agreement with Alibaba Group through the third quarter of 2015, and all other revenue that is not traffic-driven. "Paid Clicks" are clicks by end-users on sponsored search listings (excluding native ads) on and Affiliate sites. "Price-per-Ad" is defined as display revenue divided by our total number of Ads Sold. "Price-per-Click" is defined as Search click-driven revenue divided by our total number of Paid Clicks. "Search Agreement" refers to the Search and Advertising Services and Sales Agreement between and Microsoft Corporation, as amended. "Search click-driven revenue" is gross search revenue excluding the Microsoft RPS guarantee and search revenue from Yahoo Japan. "TAC" refers to traffic acquisition costs. TAC consists of payments to Affiliates and payments made to companies that direct consumer and business traffic to. "Yahoo," "Company," and "we" refer to and its consolidated subsidiaries. "Yahoo Properties" refers to the online properties and services that provides to users. We periodically review, refine and update our methodologies for monitoring, gathering, and counting number of Ads Sold and Paid Clicks, and for calculating Search click-driven revenue, Price-per-Ad, and Price- per-Click. Additional information about how "Ads Sold," "Paid Clicks," "Price-per-Ad," "Price-per-Click," and "Search click-driven revenue" are defined and calculated is included under the caption "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended , which is on file with the and available on the website at www.sec.gov. This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning expected financial performance and strategic and operational plans (including, without limitation, the quotations from management). Risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, risks related to Yahoo's ability to continue to attract and maintain mobile users and grow its mobile revenue; risks related to Yahoo's ability to continue to grow the Mavens revenue; risks related to Yahoo's ability to grow users, user engagement and pageviews; risks related to growing advertiser engagement; risk of potential reduction in spending by, or loss of, advertising customers; risks associated with the Search Agreement with Microsoft Corporation and the Services Agreement with ; risks related to Yahoo's ability to provide innovative search experiences and other products and services that differentiate its services and generate significant traffic; risks associated with Yahoo's ability to manage its operating expenses effectively and improve profitability; risks related to acceptance by users of new products and services; risks related to Yahoo's ability to compete with new or existing competitors; dependence on third parties for technology, services, content, and distribution; risks related to acquiring or developing compelling content; security breaches; interruptions or delays in the provision of Yahoo's services; adverse results in litigation; risks related to Yahoo's ability to recruit and retain key personnel; risks related to possible impairment of goodwill or other assets; risks related to Yahoo's ability to protect its intellectual property and the value of its brands; risks related to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; risks related to joint ventures and the integration of acquisitions; risks related to Yahoo's regulatory environment; risks related to international operations; risks related to the calculation of our key operational metrics; and general economic conditions. With respect to Yahoo's exploration of strategic alternatives, there is no assurance any transaction will be consummated, and the process of exploring strategic alternatives will involve the dedication of significant resources and the incurrence of significant costs and expenses. All information set forth in this press release and its attachments is as of. does not intend, and undertakes no duty, to update this information to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. More information about potential factors that could affect the Company's business and financial results is included under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended , which is on file with the and available on the website at www.sec.gov. Additional information will also be set forth in those sections in Yahoo's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended , which will be filed with the in the second quarter of 2016. !, the family of marks, Flurry and Flurry Analytics, and the associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of is a registered trademark of Other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Note to Supplemental Financial Data and GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliations This press release and its attachments include the non-GAAP financial measures of revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs ("revenue ex-TAC"); gross mobile revenue; gross search revenue; adjusted EBITDA; non-GAAP income from operations; non-GAAP net earnings; non-GAAP net earnings per diluted share; and free cash flow, which are reconciled to revenue (in the case of revenue ex-TAC, gross mobile revenue, and gross search revenue); net income (loss) attributable to (in the case of adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP net earnings); income (loss) from operations; net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders per share - diluted; and net cash provided by (used in) operating activities, which we believe are the most comparable GAAP measures. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, "Yahoo," the "Company," or "we") uses these non-GAAP financial measures for internal managerial purposes and to facilitate period-to- period comparisons. We describe limitations specific to each non-GAAP financial measure below. Management generally compensates for limitations in the use of non-GAAP financial measures by relying on comparable GAAP financial measures and providing investors with a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure or measures. Further, management uses non-GAAP financial measures only in addition to and in conjunction with results presented in accordance with GAAP. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures reflect additional ways of viewing aspects of our operations that, when viewed with our GAAP results, provide a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting our business. These non-GAAP measures should be considered as a supplement to, and not as a substitute for, or superior to, revenue, net income (loss) attributable to , income (loss) from operations, net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders per share - diluted, and net cash provided by (used in) operating activities calculated in accordance with GAAP. Revenue ex-TAC is a non-GAAP financial measure defined as GAAP revenue less TAC that has been recorded as a cost of revenue. TAC consists of payments made to Affiliates, and payments made to companies that direct consumer and business traffic to. TAC is recorded either as a reduction of revenue or as cost of revenue. We present revenue ex-TAC to provide investors a metric used by the Company for evaluation and decision-making purposes and to provide investors with comparable revenue numbers when comparing to our historical reported financial information. A limitation of revenue ex-TAC is that it is a measure we defined for internal and investor purposes that may be unique to the Company, and therefore it may not enhance the comparability of our results to those of other companies in our industry who have similar business arrangements but address the impact of TAC differently. Management compensates for these limitations by also relying on the comparable GAAP financial measures of revenue and cost of revenue—TAC. Each of gross mobile revenue and gross search revenue is a non-GAAP financial measure. Gross mobile revenue is defined as GAAP mobile revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. Gross search revenue is defined as GAAP search revenue plus the related revenue share with third parties. We present these amounts to provide investors with additional metrics used by the Company for evaluation and decision- making purposes and as an indicator of the size of our presence in the relevant business. To this end, gross mobile revenue and gross search revenue report the total receipts generated on and Affiliate sites by the specified relevant business (i.e., mobile or search), before any TAC or other revenue share is paid to the Affiliates and before any revenue share is allocated to Microsoft or other parties. A limitation of these non-GAAP measures is that they include revenue that is recognized by one or more third parties and not by Yahoo; furthermore, they are measures we defined for internal and investor purposes that may be unique to us, and therefore may not enhance the comparability of our results to those of other companies in our industry who have similar business arrangements but address the impact of TAC and revenue sharing differently. Management compensates for these limitations by also relying on the comparable financial measure GAAP revenue. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income (loss) attributable to before taxes, depreciation, amortization of intangible assets, stock-based compensation expense, other expense, net (which includes interest), earnings in equity interests, net income attributable to noncontrolling interests and other gains, losses, and expenses that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing results. We present adjusted EBITDA because the exclusion of certain gains, losses, and expenses facilitates comparisons of the operating performance of the Company on a period to period basis. Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results reported under GAAP. These limitations include: adjusted EBITDA does not reflect tax payments and such payments reflect a reduction in cash available to us; adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the periodic costs of certain capitalized tangible and intangible assets used in generating revenues in our businesses; adjusted EBITDA does not include stock-based compensation expense related to the Company's workforce; adjusted EBITDA also excludes other expense, net (which includes interest), earnings in equity interests, net income attributable to noncontrolling interests and other gains, losses, and expenses that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing results, and these items may represent a reduction or increase in cash available to us; and adjusted EBITDA is a measure that may be unique to the Company, and therefore it may not enhance the comparability of our results to other companies in our industry. Management compensates for these limitations by also relying on the comparable GAAP financial measure of net income (loss) attributable to , which includes taxes, depreciation, amortization, stock-based compensation expense, other expense, net (which includes interest), earnings in equity interests, net income attributable to noncontrolling interests and the other gains, losses and expenses that are excluded from adjusted EBITDA. Non-GAAP income from operations is defined as income (loss) from operations excluding certain gains, losses, and expenses that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing operating results and further adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation expense. Because of the variety of equity awards used by companies, the varying methodologies for determining stock-based compensation expense, and the subjective assumptions involved in those determinations, we believe excluding stock- based compensation expense enhances the ability of management and investors to understand the impact of stock-based compensation expense on income (loss) from operations. We consider non-GAAP income from operations to be a profitability measure which facilitates the forecasting of our operating results for future periods and allows for the comparison of our results to historical periods. A limitation of non-GAAP income from operations is that it does not include all items that impact our income from operations for the period. Management compensates for this limitation by also relying on the comparable GAAP financial measure of income (loss) from operations which includes the gains, losses, and expenses that are excluded from non-GAAP income from operations. Non-GAAP net earnings is defined as net income (loss) attributable to (which we sometimes refer to as net earnings) excluding certain gains, losses, expenses, and their related tax effects that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing results and further adjusted to exclude stock- based compensation expense and its related tax effects. Because of the variety of equity awards used by companies, the varying methodologies for determining stock-based compensation expense, and the subjective assumptions involved in those determinations, we believe excluding stock- based compensation expense enhances the ability of management and investors to understand the impact of stock-based compensation expense on net income and net income per share. We consider non-GAAP net earnings and non-GAAP net earnings per diluted share to be profitability measures which facilitate the forecasting of our results for future periods and allow for the comparison of our results to historical periods. A limitation of non-GAAP net earnings and non-GAAP net earnings per diluted share is that they do not include all items that impact our net income and net income per diluted share for the period. Management compensates for this limitation by also relying on the comparable GAAP financial measures of net income (loss) attributable to and net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders per share - diluted, both of which include the gains, losses, expenses and related tax effects that are excluded from non-GAAP net earnings and non-GAAP net earnings per diluted share. Free cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure defined as net cash provided by (used in) operating activities (adjusted to include excess tax benefits from stock-based awards), less acquisition of property and equipment, net (i.e., acquisition of property and equipment less proceeds received from disposition of property and equipment) and dividends received from equity investees. We consider free cash flow to be a liquidity measure which provides useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated by business operations, after deducting our net payments for acquisitions and dispositions of property and equipment, which cash can then be used for strategic opportunities or other business purposes including, among others, investing in the Company's business, making strategic acquisitions, strengthening the balance sheet, and repurchasing stock. A limitation of free cash flow is that it does not represent the total increase or decrease in the cash balance for the period. Management compensates for this limitation by also relying on the net change in cash and cash equivalents as presented in the Company's unaudited condensed consolidated statements of cash flows prepared in accordance with GAAP which incorporates all cash movements during the period.
Yahoo to Live Stream Video of First Quarter 2016 Earnings on Yahoo Finance on April 19, 2016 investor.yahoo.net 2016-06-21 19:57 investor.yahoo.net
13 Of the People Mayor Shirley Franklin started a program in the city of Atlanta in which every single student who graduated from a public school, she’d find a way to pay for their first year of college. And, after hearing my story, she took an interest in me. She gave me a job in her office and she helped me get into college. Summer came, and I didn’t go to work because I didn’t have a suit. I got a call saying, “You need to get to work,” and she had someone take me suit shopping. They took me and bought me like five different suits and said, “This is how you invest in your kids.” I’m the first person in my family to graduate from college. That is the kind of local politics I grew to love in Atlanta. National politics is more messy. But I have hope that is going to change. Photograph by Ryan Stone for The New York Times
2016-06-22 00:02 The New www.nytimes.com
14 You'll have to zoom in A LOT to see a car in Bentley's ultra-high res Golden Gate Bridge ad Bentley has rolled out what it claims to be the largest ever car photograph to hit home the attention to detail paid in the design of the Mulsanne Extended Wheelbase. Using Nasa technology photographer Simon Stock captured an image, from afar, of the car crossing the Golden Gate bridge, tallying an impressive 53.1bn pixels. The scene saw 700 photos stitched together to make the scene as part of Keko’s 'Be Extraordinary' campaign. Users can study the image on a dedicated website , understandably The Drum was in no position to host a 53.1 billion-pixel image which is 425- times larger than a high-end smartphone image. However, you can also view a quick teaser of the image from the campaign below. Ben Whattam, managing partner, Keko London said: "Keko London was tasked to engage Bentley’s future consumers and tell the brand’s story in a contemporary and compelling way, reflecting the level of technology and craftsmanship that goes into Bentley cars. "This truly amazing image combined with intelligent media planning will engage these future buyers on their first step to purchase.”
2016-06-22 00:02 John McCarthy www.thedrum.com
15 Should undocumented be allowed to enlist in the U. S. Army? An amendment to the annual spending bill that could have prohibited young unauthorized immigrants from joining the military was defeated in the House on June 16, 2016. The House, which is led by majority Republicans, sent a strong message that not all Republicans are in support of anti-immigrant policies. In 2008, a recruitment program called the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest or MAVNI was established, which enabled non-U. S. citizens to join the U. S. Military. The program has been reauthorized until September 2016. Under the MAVNI program, non-immigrants in certain categories except visitor visa holders may apply for enlistment with the U. S. Army. The nonimmigrants who are allowed to enlist under MAVNI are those in E, F, H, I, J, K, L, M, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U or V visa categories. It requires the applicant to be legally residing in the United States for a minimum of two years prior to joining the Army without a single absence from the country lasting longer than 90 days. In addition, the applicant must have a high school diploma and a qualifying score on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AQFT). DACA recipients qualified to enlist Generally, those who are with legal status, even if with nonimmigrant status, are the only individuals allowed to enlist in the U. S. Army. In 2014, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients were allowed to enlist under the MAVNI program. They must have employment authorization document when they apply for enlistment. Right now the U. S. Army through the MAVNI program allows DACA recipients only with “in demand” skills to apply. Specifically, those who may enlist are individuals who are licensed health care professionals and those who can speak one or more critical language on the MAVNI list. For Filipino DACA recipients, they qualify if they speak Tagalog, Cebuano, and Moro (Tausug Maranao and Maguindanao). Once DACA recipients enlist, expedited U. S. citizenship processing is afforded to them after they graduate from 10 weeks of Basic Combat Training. Once they are U. S. citizens, they may enjoy additional benefits for their family including the ability to petition their parents who have no legal status. There are only limited numbers of recruits that are allowed under the MAVNI program for each fiscal year and those interested may contact their local Army recruiter. Since DACA recipients incurred unlawful status prior to being granted deferred action and being issued employment authorization document, their ability to enlist in the military maybe perceived by some as a “backdoor amnesty.” Perhaps, not all unauthorized immigrants should be given a chance to enlist. But DACA recipients came to the U. S. at a very young age and did not make the decision to remain as unauthorized immigrants. Now, they are able to make their own decision to risk their lives, to serve and defend the country they learned to love and have embraced as their own, they should be supported. The legislators made the right decision to defeat the bill that would have prevented them from expressing their patriotism. (Atty. Lourdes Santos Tancinco is a San Francisco based immigration attorney and may be reached at [email protected] , www.tancinco.com , facebook/tancincolaw, 1-888-930-0808 .
2016-06-22 00:02 Lourdes Santos globalnation.inquirer.net
16 Nightingales serenade Fil-Canadians, diplomats in Toronto WATCH: The Nightingales singing “Habanera” by Georges Bizet. MARISA ROQUE TORONTO, Ontario – Singing duo The Nightingales entertained the Toronto-posted diplomatic corps of various countries and Filipino Canadian community leaders at the Theatre Alliance Francaise June 10 as part of the celebration of the 118th anniversary of Philippine independence. The Consulate General of the Philippines in Toronto presented Bianca Camille Lopez and Aizel Izza Prietos-Livioco who make up the powerful vocal duo, whose talents were honed at the Philippine High School of the Arts as voice scholars and at the University of the Philippines’ College of Music as scholars in vocal performance. The pair has had the honor of representing the Philippines at the 5th Nanyang International Festival in Xiamen, China in April 2016. The Nightingales’ two-hour repertoire ranged from operatic arias to Broadway tunes and pop hits to a medley of well-known Filipino folk melodies. Bianca and Aizel (who prefers to be called Twinkle) are former members of the Philippine Madrigal Singers, one of the Philippines’ foremost choral groups and internationally acclaimed ensembles. Toward the end of their program, the duo paid tribute to their musical roots by singing selections from works by Filipino composers both classical (Nicanor Abelardo) and modern (Ernani Cuenco and Ryan Cayabyab). On June 16, they performed at Ottawa’s Sens House, coordinated by the office of Philippine Ambassador to Canada Petronila Garcia. They then performed at the Maranatha Church in Belleville, Ontario on June 18. Jane Robinson coordinated the Belleville concert. Copies of their self-named CD were available for purchase at these events. Those interested to know more about The Nightingales may check out their facebook page, www.facebook.com/The-Nightingales-235782853434414/ and email them at [email protected] .
2016-06-22 00:02 Marisa Roque globalnation.inquirer.net
17 Gina Lopez spooks mining stocks Staunch antimining advocate Regina “Gina” Lopez has accepted the offer of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte to head the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), which oversees the country’s mining industry. “After much introspection, I decided to accept it. Let’s see what happens,” Lopez told reporters after talking to Duterte over the phone at the sidelines of the 4th Excellence in Educational Transformation Awards held at the ABS-CBN compound in Quezon City. READ: Gina Lopez accepts DENR post A day after she was offered the post, Lopez told Duterte she was deeply honored since it’s a controversial decision—that he has decided to trust her. “I give you my firm commitment that I will do everything that I can and it’s not only to protect the environment [but also] to eradicate poverty,” she told the incoming President. News of Duterte’s offer to Lopez sent share prices of mining and oil stocks plunging by 4.09 percent at the end of trading on Tuesday. While the key Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 1.33 percent and reached a new high for 2016, the mining and oil index slumped. Among the top losers were Philex Mining, Philex Petroleum Corp., Lepanto Consolidated Mining, Apex Mining and Manila Mining Corp. Analysts said investors dumped mining stocks on Tuesday on expectations that the regulatory environment for mining might become more challenging under the Duterte administration. Lopez, who described herself as “not the usual choice” for environment secretary because of her antimining stance, said she was open to meeting promining advocates so she could make “suggestions” on how to address concerns in the industry. Lopez also warned corrupt officials at the DENR that their days are numbered. “We’ll clean the ranks of the DENR. Those accepting bribes, your days are over. Stop it. No corruption is acceptable,” she said. She blamed corruption within the department for the deterioration of the environment. Lopez, 61, chair of ABS-CBN Lingkod Kapamilya Foundation, studied at Assumption College and Newton College of the Sacred Heart in Boston. She has a master’s degree in development management from the Asian Institute of Management and a doctorate degree in humanities from Ateneo de Naga University. Environmental champions and activists hailed Duterte’s appointment of Lopez as the next environment secretary. Sen. Loren Legarda, a known pro-environment advocate, welcomed Lopez’s appointment. “Gina’s track record on various environmental causes cannot be questioned, ” said former Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward Hagedorn. ‘Right choice’ “President Duterte picked the right person to fight for what is right as she has proven with La Mesa Dam, Pasig River and her antimining stance that is consistent with what the President wants to happen,” Hagedorn said. Environmentalist Tony Oposa Jr. sent a message from Norway: “President- elect Duterte made the right choice. We will support her all the way!” Sonia Mendoza, president of Mother Earth Foundation, welcomed the appointment of Lopez. “We thank the President for his choice as we promise to support His Excellency’s environmental programs,” she said. Environmental activists also hailed the choice of Lopez as DENR chief. “That’s a breakthrough in executive policy because in the past all executive departments have favored large-scale mining and had little support for small-scale mining,” Ban Toxics executive director Richard Gutierrez said. Proven track record EcoWaste Coalition president Noli Abinales said: “We know that Gina is a fighter in protecting the environment from destructive industries like mining.” Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of the militant Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, said Lopez had a “proven track record” against mining. Greenpeace Philippines country director Amalie Obusan said she hoped Lopez would be consistent and reject all environmentally destructive projects, including those pushed by her family. As head of the DENR, Lopez will also oversee the operations of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, which regulates the country’s mining industry. “Mining counters fell on market concerns that Duterte’s potential appointee to the DENR post would pursue policies that are pro-environment and that may cap the extraction of natural resources in the country by mining companies,” said Michaelangelo Oyson, president of BPI Securities. “Given the high dependence of the mining industry on future production, the market has apparently reacted negatively to the invitation of the Duterte administration to Ms Gina Lopez as DENR secretary due to possible increased regulations and restrictions that could affect future earnings should she accept the position,” said Marvin Fausto, a fund expert at COL Financial and president of IFE Management Advisers Inc. Philex Mining, controlled by businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan, fell by 12.17 percent while its oil exploration arm Philex Petroleum likewise slumped by 10.94 percent. Lepanto Mining slid by 7.78 percent and affiliate Manila Mining by 6.7 percent. Heated exchange The only mining stock that was unscathed on Tuesday was Semirara Mining, which gained by a modest 0.23 percent. Market participants were reminded on Tuesday of a heated exchange between First Pacific’s Pangilinan and Lopez during a mining forum in 2012. Lopez had supported Duterte’s presidential run because the Davao City mayor had banned mining in his city. At a business forum in Davao City on Tuesday, Duterte again warned the country’s mining companies to do it right or get out of mining, saying he would not allow the destruction of the environment. “There will be a comprehensive review of the mining claims and concessions given. And you must endeavor, if you are into it, be sure that you have enough resources,” Duterte told businessmen. He advised mining companies to go to Australia and Canada, learn from their best practices in mining precious metals and do it here. The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP), however, assured that large-scale miners would continue to advocate responsible mining to benefit not just host communities but the entire country. COMP executive vice president Nelia Halcion said that its members were prepared to fulfill the mining industry’s crucial role of helping sustain a strong economic growth and spreading this to the countryside. With reports from Ben de Vera, Riza Olchondra, Leila Salaverria and Ronnel Domingo/TVJ RELATED STORIES Duterte offers DENR post to Gina Lopez of ABS-CBN Foundation Group urges Gina Lopez to accept environment seat
2016-06-22 00:02 Dona Z business.inquirer.net
18 Fil-Ams bid farewell to outgoing PH envoy to US SAN FRANCISCO – Members of the Filipino community bid a warm goodbye to outgoing Philippine Ambassador to the US Ambassador Jose L. Cuisia, Jr. at a farewell reception for him June 20 at the Kalayaan Hall, Philippince Center here. A similar farewell last week feted the popular Cuisia in Washington, DC, where he reportedly has been dubbed a “rock star” by colleagues in the international diplomatic corps and by “Philippinists” in the US capital. Consul General in San Francisco Henry S. Bensurto called Cuisia the “hardest working Philippine ambassador to the US” in memory. The envoy reportedly visited Filipino communities in 44 states while seeking trade resources for the Philippines. Cuisia, Bensurto said, was the day-to-day face of Philippine interests in the US Congress where the envoy would go “office by (congressional) office to explain the Philippines’ views on key issues. “That’s what it takes to win allies for the Philippines” among US lawmakers, he said. “Next to Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, Ambassador Cuisia was responsible for making the US more active in the West Philippine Sea issue,” said Bensurto, the country’s foremost legal expert on the territorial conflict with China.
2016-06-22 00:02 INQUIRER.net globalnation.inquirer.net
19 I’ve got Duterte’s backing–Pimentel President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has expressed support for the incoming Senate leadership, and urged the lawmakers to work together in the 17th Congress, presumptive Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said on Tuesday. Pimentel, president of the PDP-Laban, Duterte’s party, said he met with Duterte Monday night in Davao City and showed him the draft resolution signed by 14 senators that backed Pimentel as the Senate leader. “He supports me as Senate President, and he appreciates the fact the majority was organized and the committees were assigned pursuant to principles and not transactions,” Pimentel said of Duterte in a phone interview. Duterte agreed when informed that majority of the senators had decided to unite based on principles and not on expected trade-offs, said Pimentel, who added that committee chairmanships were based on the members’ expertise. “So if we liken the Senate to a machine, it is an efficient machine,” he said. Pimentel said any changes would be based on the Senate’s “collective decision.” As for any differences he and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano—who was Duterte’s running mate—may have, Pimentel laid them to rest. “What he [Duterte] said was that Alan and I must be together,” he said. Cayetano had also aspired for the Senate leadership. Pimentel earlier invited Cayetano to join the Senate majority. Pimentel said he did not take much of Duterte’s time on Monday in deference to the long line of visitors waiting to meet with him. But in their brief 15-minute meeting, Duterte invited him and other senators to join him when he is briefed by security experts on the West Philippine Sea, Pimentel said. Pimentel said he was also able to mention his desire for a tax reform package, which would be discussed at length at a future date. While the Senate leadership appears to have been ironed out, outgoing Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said some Duterte allies wished to further reduce the Liberal Party (LP) members in the House of Representatives to only 20. The figure is “way below” the membership of other political parties that have joined a coalition with Duterte’s PDP-Laban party, Belmonte said, adding that in such a scenario, “I cannot be a member of that group.” The outgoing leader of the lower chamber said the LP, the country’s biggest political party before the May elections, had not yet formally signed any agreement with PDP-Laban to join the emerging majority coalition in the House. More than 100 Liberals are poised to join the 17th Congress, which will consist of 297 House members, but a good number of them had defected to PDP-Laban in exchange for choice committee chairmanships or for a place in the majority. RELATED STORIES Drilon: Koko is next Senate president 17 senators back Koko for Senate presidency
2016-06-22 00:02 DJ Yap newsinfo.inquirer.net
20 Maceda: ‘Man for all seasons’ For colleagues, former Senate President Ernesto Maceda was more than just “Mr. Exposé,” he was also a hardworking legislator, a powerful writer, a generous adviser, and a “man for all seasons.” Maceda died on Monday night after undergoing gallbladder surgery. He was 81. The Senate is scheduled to hold a necrological service for Maceda on Thursday afternoon and will provide an honor guard for his wake. The flag at the Senate compound has also been lowered to half-staff. When he led the Senate, Maceda had been hands-on in his task and served as inspiration to his colleagues, Senate President Franklin Drilon said yesterday. Drilon said Maceda, who became a Cabinet member in the Ferdinand Marcos administration at the age of 29, was an effective bureaucrat and principled lawmaker who acted based on the people’s interest. “In the time that we shared in the Senate floor, I have known him as a tireless worker and a very ‘hands-on’ Senate President, whose unique zeal and work ethic had led to many important laws that benefited our people,” Drilon said in a statement. Former Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. said many thought of Maceda as the “epitome of adaptability in the complex world of politics.” “He probably was,” said Pimentel. “For he showed how one could work with ruthless political figures without being merciless, himself. Or, with the compassionate without being consumed by tearful tenderness,” he said. He also hailed Maceda, who wrote a newspaper column, for his way with words. Way with words “At the same time, he wielded a trenchant pen that brought down would-be angels from their imagined pedestals to stark reality. But, on the birthdays or some such happy occasions of some lucky few, he did wish them well in the opinion pieces that he wrote,” he said. Maceda was a “man for all seasons,” in a manner of speaking, Pimentel said. Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. described Maceda as “among the best and brightest” in his father’s Cabinet. “His entire life’s record of public service is a testament not only to his brilliance but dedication to his calling. But most of all, he was a true friend and a second father to many of us,” Marcos said. Sen. Nancy Binay, who ran with Maceda for the Senate during the 2013 elections, said: “His devotion in serving our countrymen was marked by the outstanding performance in the various capacities he had served as well as the numerous scams he exposed during his terms as a senator. He was also recognized as an advocate of women’s rights, and continued to give the poor and the marginalized a voice in his columns.” ‘Colorful’ House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. remembered Maceda as a “colorful politician with an equally colorful personality.” “I remember fondly how I willingly offered my salary for a month to fully support his campaign and entry into politics when he ran for councilor of Manila,” Belmonte said in a tribute to the late senator. “He was eventually hailed as the No. 1 councilor there at the age of 23,” Belmonte recalled. “Ernie was known to many as ‘Mr. Exposé’ as he was always an outspoken and staunch politician.” Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said that Maceda “distinguished himself as a legislator, Cabinet member and ambassador for more than five decades of dedicated public service.” ‘Political mentor’ Former President Joseph Estrada, now Manila mayor, said he was “greatly saddened” by the death of his “political mentor.” Estrada said Maceda was set to receive the Gawad Gat Andres Bonifacio Award on Thursday, June 23, as part of the 445th Araw ng Maynila celebration, the highest recognition the city government confers to outstanding Manileños. “I still remember [Maceda’s] face brightening up when we told him we would be giving him Manila’s highest award for one of its greatest sons,” Estrada said. “It saddens me that he will no longer be able to personally receive it.” Former Speaker Jose de Venecia said: “Senate President Ernesto Maceda and I as Speaker of the House worked relentlessly to address the causes of the nation. The Filipino people will miss him,” he said. With reports from DJ Yap, Nikko Dizon and Annelle Tayao-Juego RELATED STORIES Senate to hold necrological services for Maceda Maceda family: We thought he’s good for 10 years or more Palace, Binay mourn Ernesto Maceda’s death
2016-06-22 00:02 Leila B newsinfo.inquirer.net
21 Gloria Arroyo bill to give Duterte crisis power over traffic Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now a Pampanga representative, is poised to file the proposed “Metro Manila Traffic Crisis Act of 2016,” which seeks to grant President-elect Rodrigo Duterte special powers to address the humongous traffic problem in Metro Manila. In a draft of the bill sent to the Inquirer, Arroyo proposed a number of measures authorizing Duterte to enter negotiated contracts for traffic and transportation projects without bidding, and to reorganize the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), among other powers. The special authority will be effective for two years unless sooner withdrawn by Congress, according to the bill. On Monday, designated Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade announced plans of the Duterte administration to declare a traffic crisis in Mega Manila and seek emergency powers to deal with the problem in two years, citing a study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency that P2.4 billion is lost to the capital’s monster gridlock daily. READ: Edsa traffic jams: Rody exec eyes extra powers “Our quality of life has been bastardized,” Tugade said. Transport and traffic problems have deteriorated, shaming Filipinos here and abroad, he said. “If our life has been bastardized and this is not a crisis, what is a crisis?” he said. Explanatory note In an explanatory note, Arroyo, who is under hospital arrest on a plunder charge, said traffic congestion in the nation’s capital “impedes progress and leads to a situation where billions are lost daily in fuel cost, man hours and opportunities.” “The Duterte government aims for an annual growth rate of at least 7 percent to make a significant dent on poverty. One of the ways to speed up growth is to get infrastructure moving, either by government or by build- operate-transfer (BOT) or any of its variants,” she said. “Contractors would have to accelerate the implementation and completion of infrastructure projects in Metro Manila in order to decongest it. Drastic traffic reduction measures also need to be undertaken through traffic management reforms,” Arroyo said. Under her proposal, the President may enter into negotiated contracts for the construction, repair, rehabilitation, improvement or maintenance of critical infrastructure, projects and facilities, subject to certain conditions. The conditions include the publication of the list of projects to be undertaken, including budgetary estimates, and the winning contractors having “proven competence and experience in similar projects, competent key personnel and sufficient and reliable equipment, and sound financial capacity.” “All the awarded projects shall be subject to existing government auditing rules and regulations governing negotiated contracts,” according to the bill. MMDA revamp The President shall also be authorized to set a maximum internal rate of return of not more than 12 percent of the house-estimated project cost, “provided that any infrastructure project that has the capacity to yield said internal rate of return under commercial conditions” may be undertaken on a BOT basis or any of its variants under the law. The toll fees in the case of projects undertaken as BOT or any of its variants shall be set by the Toll Regulatory Board, the measure adds. The bill also empowers the President to reorganize the MMDA “to make it more effective, innovative and responsive to the traffic crisis in Metro Manila.” The President “may abolish or create offices; split, group or merge positions; transfer functions, equipment, properties, records and personnel; institute drastic traffic reduction measures and take such other related actions necessary to carry out the purpose herein declared.” The bill states further that state-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) shall set aside 10 percent of its annual aggregate gross earnings for the next five years as subsidy to MMDA. Be specific “Let’s give him the emergency powers but let us be very specific on what emergency powers consist of,” said outgoing Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. “I think Metro Manilans are very aware of what’s going on. Perhaps we can dispense with some of the bidding processes as long as it’s public, and it’s not behind the scenes,” he said. Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo, chair of the House committee on Metro Manila development, said he agreed “100 percent” to the proposal. “We know there are a lot of problems. There’s huge corruption in LTO (Land Transportation Office), LTFRB (Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board), PNP (Philippine National Police) and all government agencies,” he said. Incoming House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez told reporters the Duterte administration was also seeking to expand the planned declaration of a traffic crisis to include Metro Cebu. “I don’t see any reason why we will not support it. Everyone of us knows Metro Manila is traffic hell,” Alvarez said. Senate President Franklin Drilon said he was open to the grant of emergency powers. “I would like to see, however, the specific powers that are being requested to be granted and the safeguards,” Drilon said in a text message. Senator-elect Sherwin Gatchalian said: “If we could solve it without emergency powers, that would be better, because if you shortcut the bidding process, definitely there would be a cloud of doubt in the minds of the people and we don’t want that. We have to make it as transparent as possible.” MBC backs move According to the Makati Business Club (MBC), the emergency powers must be anchored on a “solid national policy and complemented by a strong system of accountability.” “MBC believes that the nation does face a transportation crisis, which needs urgent action and solutions. The MBC stands ready to assist and be an active participant in a highly thorough process of consultation, debate, and analysis between government and the private sector. If the solutions to address the transport crisis require emergency powers, MBC will be prepared to support the consideration of well-defined emergency powers for the transport sector,” the group explained. In Davao City yesterday, Tugade said the powers being sought would not do away with public bidding or shortcut procurement. “It will merely impose disciplined participation among the bidders and maybe modify certain laws,” he said, refusing to go into specifics. Incoming Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said: “Without the emergency powers, it would be difficult because whatever move that Secretary Tugade will do will end in courts.” With reports from Ben. O. de Vera, Leila B. Salaverria, Amy R. Remo and Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao RELATED STORIES ‘Give Duterte emergency powers to solve Metro traffic’ Belmonte backs emergency powers for Duterte to ease traffic woes Sandiganbayan OKs Mike Arroyo’s travel abroad amid graft rap Mendoza: Anti-graft court poised to convict Arroyo over PCSO funds
2016-06-22 00:02 DJ Yap newsinfo.inquirer.net
22 Duterte to US Ambassador Goldberg: Are you with us or not? DAVAO CITY—“Are you with us or are you not with us?” That was the question raised by President-elect Rodrigo Duterte to US Ambassador Philip Goldberg during the envoy’s courtesy visit on June 13 here, he revealed on Tuesday. Speaking before business executives at the SMX Convention Center, Duterte disclosed that he has asked Goldberg about this concern amid our maritime dispute with China. “Because I told Goldberg, are you with us or are you not with us?,” he said, adding that he was ready to claim the West Philippine Sea once the United Nation’s tribunal favored the Philippine diplomatic protest. Duterte mentioned the 1952 Mutual Defense Agreement between the Philippine government and the United States “desiring to declare publicly and formally their sense of unity and their common determination to defend themselves against external armed attack.” This was agreed upon “so that no potential aggressor could be under the illusion that either of them stands alone in the Pacific area.” But the incoming President said the agreement is somewhat vague. “I’ll give you an example. The law of the sea of nations gives us the exclusive right over 200 nautical miles. If I go there using that privilege of mine, would that be an attack against China or an offense against China?” he said. He reiterated his earlier pronouncements that the Philippines would not go to war with China. “I will not go to war because of the Scarborough Shoal lang,” he said. The Scarborough shoal is one of the disputed areas over the gas-rich West Philippine Sea. “Kung magpadala ako ang navy diyan, a kalokohan yan. We are not in a position. That’s a massacre,” he said. (If I am going to send the navy there, that would be baloney.) Duterte said he would wait for the decision of the United Nations International Tribunal on the Law of the Seas (itlos) before finalizing the government’s move. “I’ve repeatedly said we will wait for the arbitral judgement. Then I will decide,” he said. During the campaign period, Duterte has already questioned the loyalty of the US amid our territorial dispute. He said the US would not die defending the Philippines.
2016-06-22 00:02 Nestor Corrales globalnation.inquirer.net
23 ‘Don’t try to corrupt us’ DAVAO CITY, Philippines— If you don’t want us to be corrupt, you should do your part and not attempt to corrupt us. This was the message of the economic managers of the incoming Duterte administration to the country’s business leaders at the end of their two-day consultative meeting on Tuesday. “You expect us not to be corrupt. Can we expect you not to corrupt us?” incoming Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said, earning the applause of the hundreds of businessmen who attended the “Sulong Pilipinas: Hakbang Tungo sa Kaunlaran” consultative workshop between businessmen and Duterte’s economic managers. In response to one of the businessmen’s 10 recommendations, Tugade also assured them that the incoming administration would respect the sanctity of contracts. During the first day of consultations on Monday, the incoming economic team fleshed out the 10-point economic agenda of the Duterte administration aimed at slashing poverty and inequality while fostering inclusive growth. Businessmen, for their part, unveiled yesterday 10 recommendations for the new administration. They are: Duterte assured the businessmen that his administration would study and review the recommendations while focusing on what could be done earlier in his administration. TVJ RELATED STORIES Tax reform, infra top Duterte economic plan Businessmen press Duterte on economic team, investment policy, ‘socialism’
2016-06-22 00:02 Ben O business.inquirer.net
24 PH deadly for environmentalists The Philippines is not only the second most dangerous place for journalists, it is also the second deadliest country for environmental activists. Global Witness said on Monday it had documented 185 killings of environmental activists around the world last year, nearly 60 percent more than in 2014 and the highest since it began collecting data dating back to 2002. In a newly released report, the London-based advocacy group said Brazil topped the 16-country list with 50 environmental defenders slain in 2015, followed by the Philippines with 33 and Colombia with 26. The group says 116 were slain worldwide in 2014. Last year “was the deadliest year on record for killings of land and environmental defenders people struggling to protect their land, forests and rivers,” the report said. Conflicts involving mining, agribusiness, hydroelectric dams and logging are behind most of the killings, which average more than three a week, it added. Those who oppose such projects are “finding themselves in the firing line of private security companies, state forces and a thriving market for contract killers,” Global Witness said. Firefights and killings around land disputes are common, it said. Reacting to the report, Jose Luis Martin Gascon, chair of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, said: “The CHR views with concern the fact that extrajudicial killings involving human rights defenders—such as environmental activists—have occurred. We call on law enforcement agencies to investigate these cases fully and ensure that the perpetrators are held accountable.” Gascon blamed the extrajudicial executions in the country to “the problem of impunity” across the past administrations. Gascon said it was important to “resolve these cases expeditiously in order to stop impunity, even as we prepare ourselves to perhaps address a possible spike in similar incidences that may occur.” The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), in a report in January, said that the Philippines was the world’s second most dangerous place for journalists after war-torn Iraq, specifically citing the killings of 32 media people among 58 civilians massacred in Maguindanao province in 2009. The IFJ report said that in the past 25 years, at least 2,297 journalists and media staff had been killed for “doing nothing more than trying to inform the world on war, revolution, crime and corruption.” Iraq topped the list with 309 killings, the Philippines followed with 146 killings. Incoming President Rodrigo Duterte, in a statement seen as justifying the assassinations of media people, said last month journalists had been killed because they were corrupt and were overly critical. With reports from AP, DJ Yap and Inquirer Research RELATED STORIES Global rallies urge action on climate Killing of environmental activists rises globally
2016-06-22 00:02 Philippine Daily newsinfo.inquirer.net
25 25 Veteran quarrels with pal over harsh work conditions Long before the raging debate on inhumane working conditions in show biz, Veteran Entertainer quarreled with Longtime Pal over the same issue. VE initially didn’t complain about the interminable work hours and deplorable venue for the shoot. But when LP asked VE to wade in floodwaters after two sleepless nights, the crap hit the proverbial fan. VE refused—citing health concerns. Grizzled Colleague goaded VE to mention the squabble to the bosses. With a heavy heart, VE sacrificed friendship, to uphold long-held principles. Although VE and LP eventually patched things up, their relationship was never the same again. The vanishing If Promising Neophyte is missing in action these days, blame the newbie’s lousy attitude. PN is a holy terror, according to insiders. PN made life difficult for clueless coworkers. No one was spared, not even Saccharine Star who tried to remain supportive in spite of PN’s rude behavior. One fine day, however, SS reached the point of no return. SS abandoned PN, who had gone berserk again, in the middle of a meeting. No wonder, PN’s career swiftly went pfft. And more cooperative contemporaries overtook PN. Tension in the air It was supposed to be a festive occasion. Amid the revelry, a frowning face stood out in the crowd. Glib Celebrity seemed uncomfortable when Flamboyant Personality entered frame. It’s because FP had a nasty falling-out with GC’s Assertive Benefactor. Unable to remain neutral, GC seemed disturbed by FP’s presence. FP was oblivious, however. Still, one can cut the tension in the air with a butter knife. When FP approached and greeted GC… well, let’s just say FP could make halo-halo with the icy reception. Good riddance Pushy Insider is notorious for bullying newcomers. Well, PI didn’t stand a chance against Seasoned Celeb. PI kept pestering SC to disrobe for a scorching sequence in a doomed venture. SC adamantly refused—fully aware of the exploitative and gratuitous nature of the “request.” PI was insistent, but SC was just as unyielding. PI threatened never to collaborate with SC again. SC was unperturbed—deleting and blocking PI and company from Facebook and other contacts’ lists. They agreed to disagree … forever. Good riddance. Diva, interrupted From the Inquirer tabloid Bandera: Beleaguered Impresario vows never to hire Powerhouse Performer again. Concerned friends had warned BI of PP’s unsavory reputation. For a gig, PP demanded to be chauffeured to and from the venue in a luxury van. BI gladly followed PP’s directive. Alas, PP’s handler told BI’s staffers that they were prohibited from riding the same vehicle. Worse, PP refused to meet with fans and other well-heeled sponsors in an event. PP stayed in the air-conditioned car the whole time—wasting precious gasoline and incurring the ire of BI and other VIP guests in the process. Epic fail! Top of talk shows For those who missed last weekend’s gabfests on TV. (And why we are moved, if we are moved.) Vice Ganda on trying to meet the September deadline of this year’s MMFF: “Naging parte na ako ng film fest … Sana, makasali ako.” (No pressure.) Jake Cuenca on MMFF keeping a level playing field for mainstream and indie films: “Dapat fair … ’yung ibang indie, mas mahuhusay pa sa mainstream.” (Ouch!) Janice de Belen on taking risks in filmmaking: “Once mag-widen ’yung market natin, mas maraming magandang mangyayari.” (Hope springs…) Jessy Mendiola on loving her body despite some people saying that her hips are too wide: “Who’s going to love it kung ’di ako?” (It’s the greatest love of all.) Charo Santos on working with John Lloyd Cruz in a Lav Diaz movie: “I feel very grateful that he accepted… he’s very good and focused.” (Applause, applause.) Liza Soberano, asked if she and Enrique Gil are already in a relationship: “We’re getting there …” (No need to rush.) Gerald Anderson on Bea Alonzo, whom he’ll be working with in a movie: “Natulala ako … she’s beautiful inside and out.” (Uuuy!) Dingdong Dantes on his daughter Baby Zia: “Minu-minuto talaga dapat andoon ka para makita mo lahat ng nangyayari sa kanya.” (Can’t blame him; she’s adorable.) Mark Herras on being a dad: “Kapag tinatawag kang ‘daddy’ … ’yun ang pinakamasarap na feeling.” (Awww…) Aljur Abrenica on getting to know soap costar Janine Gutierrez : “Ume-effort ako … talagang kinulit at kinuwentuhan ko siya.” (Moving on.) TV Patrol, Bandila, 24 Oras
2016-06-22 00:02 By the entertainment.inquirer.net
26 ‘Hamog’ wins in Shanghai Ralston Jover’s “Hamog (Haze)” won the Outstanding Artistic Achievement Award at the 19th Shanghai International Film Festival held in China on Sunday. Jover attended the A-list festival with lead actress Therese Malvar. Jover told the Inquirer that he was “surprised” by the win. “It was the first award to be handed out that evening,” he recalled. “I was very happy, but it also felt weird because the Chinese audience members, after congratulating me, would ask to hold the trophy—as if they were awardees, too.” The jury, led by Serbian director Emir Kusturica, commended the Filipino film which tells the story of street children. Kusturica explained that “the documentary style fits the subject matter … authentic.” Juror and Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan praised certain scenes as “expressive and moving” and the young actors as “real and natural.” Mauritanian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako said “Hamog” was “unforgettable.” Italian director Daniele Luchetti agreed: “Very interesting.” “Hamog” previously won four awards at the Cinema One Originals: Special Jury Prize, best actress (Malvar), supporting actor (Bor Lentejas) and editing (Charliebebs Gohetia). Next stop for the gritty drama is the Moscow International Film Festival, June 23-30. Bayani San Diego Jr.
2016-06-22 00:02 Philippine Daily entertainment.inquirer.net
27 ‘Game of Thrones’ to get fan convention NEW YORK — Fans of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” will have the chance to immerse themselves in their favorite show next summer. The show’s fan site Watchers on the Wall said Tuesday it will host a three- day convention in Nashville, Tennessee, from June 30 to July 2, 2017. The agenda will include panels, performances, workshops, speeches and a chance to get autographs from and photos with people connected to the show. Zack Luye, co-director of the fan site, said no detail will go unnoticed. The book series from George R. R. Martin began in 1996 and the TV adaptation is HBO’s most popular program. Organizers haven’t announced who from the show will participate. TVJ RELATED STORIES ‘ Game of Thrones’ Season 6, Episode 9 recap ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6, Episode 8 recap
2016-06-21 22:40 Associated Press entertainment.inquirer.net
28 Duterte asks for more time to address terrorism in Mindanao DAVAO CITY—Incoming President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday vowed to address the problem of terrorism in Mindanao but asked for more time. “This Abu Sayyaf (issue), just give me the luxury of time. I cannot do it just immediately. There are things which I need, which we don’t have now,” Duterte told business executives during a consultative workshop with his incoming Cabinet members here. He said solving terrorism in Mindanao would attract more investors in the Philippines. The tough-talking local executive said he needs to jumpstart the peace talks with the Moros before confronting the Abu Sayyaf bandits. “I have to have a firm commitment from our Moro brothers about the continuity of the (peace) talks. As soon as I get that guarantee na talagang peaceful, that you are not protecting terrorists, when I have it in my hands, I will be ready to confront the Abu Sayyaf,” he said. He shared his dream of having a unified Filipinos living in a peaceful Philippines. “My dream really is one day, all Filipinos would just say Filipinos and we do not at all mention if he’s left or right, he’s a Moro rebel or a Moro terrorist, and he can live in peace,” he said. “I have six years to do it. I do not know how many concessions God can (give), but he made me a President, so I hope He helps me,” he said. TVJ
2016-06-21 21:57 Nestor Corrales newsinfo.inquirer.net
29 Salman Khan in soup over 'rape' remarks; NCW activists demand apology The National Commission for Women, Shaina NC, Madhu Kishwar have slammed Salman Khan for allegedly comparing himself with a raped woman. Salman Khan The NCW has demanded a public apology saying his statement was extremely 'reprehensible' and showed his 'regressive mindset'. Shaina NC, Madhu Kishwar and others also echoed the same sentiment. Taking suo moto cognisance of the issue, the commision also asked the 50-year-old actor to submit an explanation within seven days. "The commission has taken suo moto cognisance. We have sent him a letter asking for explanation in seven days. We have said that he should give a public apology," NCW Chief Lalitha Kumaramangalam said. In an interview to an online entertainment portal, Salman allegedly said that after shooting a scene for the wrestling-themed movie Sultan, he used to feel like a 'raped woman'. "It's not only a wrong statement, it's very irresponsible and callous for a man whose fame and wealth is based on the adoration of his female fans... He has extrapolated patriarchal mindset. I think this is not the first time that he has made statements that the public gets angry about," the NCW chief said. Kumaramangalam said if the actor did not give a satisfactory response, he would have to appear before the commission. "We have also said that if we are not satisfied with his explanation we will summon him before the commission. It is extremely, reprehensible, very condemnable it seems to be very regressive mindset. Its like a joke he has made and rape is not a joke. He should not have said it," she said. NCW later also staged a protest in front of the actor's house in Bandra.
2016-06-21 21:51 By mid www.mid-day.com
30 30 LeBron makes case for all-time best with historic Finals LeBron James ensured his place among the NBA’s all- time legends by leading the Cleveland Cavaliers in the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history and has made a solid case for being the greatest player ever. The 31-year-old forward scored 27 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and passed out 11 assists to power Cleveland’s 93-89 victory over defending champion Golden State in game seven of the NBA Finals. With size, strength and speed that enable him to muscle his way to the hoop and finesse as a passer to make teammates a threat from anywhere on the court, James has made himself the dominant player of his era, reaching the NBA Finals six years in a row. Michael Jordan pushed the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles in the 1990s with remarkable athletic skill and determination, setting the “best ever” standard for many fans over such icons as Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul- Jabbar. Boston Celtics 1960s big man Bill Russell won a record 11 NBA titles in an era of domination no team is likely to repeat, while Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal both excelled but often with help, sometimes from each other. But James unleashed a magical comeback in the past week unseen in the NBA’s 70-year history. No team had ever rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win the best-of-seven NBA Finals until he lifted the Cavaliers to deliver the NBA’s greatest shocker, ending his city’s 52-year wait for a major sports champion. James matched Johnson, O’Neal and Tim Duncan as three-time NBA Finals most valuable players. Only Jordan with six has more. Calling that group “the greatest to ever do it,” James was tearful about his place in the conversation with them. “I’m going to be in awe,” he said. “It’s going to be like being at a Beyonce concert. I’m going to be like this,” he added, adopting a starstruck expression. Having unleashed back-to-back 41-point performances at the Warriors to lift the Cavaliers from a 3-1 deficit in the best-of-seven series, James delivered perhaps the greatest clutch effort in NBA Finals history, joining Jerry West and James Worthy with the only game seven “triple doubles” in NBA Finals history. “You put everything into the game. The game always gives back to people that are true to the game,” James said. “I know the history of the game and I was just confident and calm.” The Cavaliers ousted an ultimate foe that won a record 73 regular-season games and boasted the NBA’s top scorer and two-time most valuable player in Stephen Curry. James was an unprecedented leader in every major finals statistical area, averaging 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 2.6 steals and 2.3 blocked shots a game. LeBron greeted by 20,000 James touched off jubilation that continued on Monday when he and the team landed at the Cleveland airport, displaying the championship trophy to more than 20,000 wellwishers. The party is set to continue Wednesday with a victory parade for the ages. Crying tears of joy in the moments after the title was decided revived memories of Jordan’s tearful finish of the 1996 final. Both came on Father’s Day and for Jordan it was the first title since the 1993 death of his dad. Comparisons with Jordan are apt as he and James may be the central players in the “greatest ever” argument for their versatility and success. Both made spectacular dunks and stunning shots in younger days before learning to trust teammates as they got older, spreading the ball among talented role players to make their teams even more dangerous. There’s a statue of Jordan outside the Bulls’ arena and Jim Brown, the star rusher who led the 1964 NFL title run of the Cleveland Browns, says James needs one in front of the Cavaliers’ arena as well. While James was only seconds away from becoming the first NBA most valuable player to lose five finals, he instead improved to 3-4 in the championship series, having gone 2-2 during four seasons with the Miami Heat. Naysayers not his business James had the last laugh on naysayers who nagged him all along his quest, posting an Instagram statement Monday beside a photo of him holding the trophy. “They said u lost a step, wasn’t explosive as once was, the best days was in the rear view, questioned your drive, your leadership, your commitment, you don’t have killer instinct, going back home is the worst mistake in your career, he got the coach fired, players traded, won’t work between him and Kyrie (Irving), Him and Kev (Kevin Love) won’t work, love your teammates to much, there’s no way he can deliver a championship in his hometown, etc etc etc.. But guess what THATS NONE OF MY BUSINESS Hahahaha!!! Yes sir,” he posted.
2016-06-21 21:48 INQUIRER.net sports.inquirer.net
31 Duke med student aims for a second Olympic bid N. C. Progress uses a limo to object to what it calls the "Millionaire Protection Act" Caldwell Presbyterian Church, at 1609 E. 5th. St. in Charlotte, is hosting The Third Place coffee shop. The coffee shop is a place where young people can learn about entrepreneurship and running a business. While they says that every cup is made with love they're really selling a sense of community. North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper met with Charlotte teachers Monday. WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for June 20, 2016. Virginia guard discusses Sunday's workout with the Hornets. Shelby WR Jayden Border spoke out at the Cam Newton 7-on-7 High School Football Tournament about his recruitment and upcoming senior season. From Darth Vader to Spiderman an entire universe of heroines, heroes and the occasional villain flooded the Charlotte Convention Center to check out comic books, pose for photos and have a good time. Mallard Creek is looking to win its fourth straight state championship, and WR Ryan Jones figures to be a big part of the team. The 6-foot-2 UNC commit will have to adjust to a new quarterback and new role on the team in 2016. Kids learn to float and swim at a YMCA water safety program Thursday at The Highlands apartments on Archdale Drive. The program was launched by the YMCA last year and has been expanded to keep immigrant and minority kids from drowning in pools at apartment communities, which often do not have lifeguards. Dan Paustian, 27, introduces himself to the rest of the competitors and the 3.81 million U. S. viewers during the show's first episode.
2016-06-21 20:06 www.charlotteobserver.com
32 Nathan Deal on Vice President rumor: “Ha!” Still like to read the newspaper in the familiar page-by-page format? Great news! Digital versions of today’s paper are available on your computer or tablet. And it’s included in your subscription. Traveling brings us joy. In fact, just planning a vacation can relieve stress and make us happy. Wondering where to go? Our special digital presentation will inspire that next journey, whether you’re staying close to home or traveling across the globe.
2016-06-21 19:57 Powered by politics.blog.myajc.com
33 The American Spectator Surely murder is a serious subject, which ought to be examined seriously. Instead, it is almost always examined politically in the context of gun control controversies, with stock arguments on both sides that have remained the same for decades. And most of those arguments are irrelevant to the central question: Do tighter gun control laws reduce the murder rate? That is not an esoteric question, nor one for which no empirical evidence is available. Think about it. We have 50 states, each with its own gun control laws, and many of those laws have gotten either tighter or looser over the years. There must be tons of data that could indicate whether murder rates went up or down when either of these things happened. But have you ever heard any gun control advocate cite any such data? Tragically, gun control has become one of those fact-free issues that spawn outbursts of emotional rhetoric and mutual recriminations about the National Rifle Association or the Second Amendment. If restrictions on gun ownership do reduce murders, we can repeal the Second Amendment, as other Constitutional Amendments have been repealed. Laws exist to protect people. People do not exist to perpetuate laws. But if tighter restrictions on gun ownership do not reduce murders, what is the point of tighter gun control laws — and what is the point of demonizing the National Rifle Association? There are data not only from our 50 states but also from other countries around the world. Professor Joyce Lee Malcolm’s empirical study, Guns and Violence: The English Experience, should be eye-opening for all those who want their eyes opened, however small that number of people might be. Professor Malcolm’s book also illustrates the difference between isolated, cherry-picked facts and relevant empirical evidence. Many gun control advocates have cited the much higher murder rates in the United States than in England as due to tighter gun control laws in England. But Professor Malcolm’s study points out that the murder rate in New York has been some multiple of the murder rate in London for two centuries — and, during most of that time, neither city had serious restrictions on gun ownership. As late as 1954, “there were no controls on shotguns” in England, Professor Malcolm reported, but only 12 cases of armed robbery in London. Of these only 4 had real guns. But in the remainder of the 20th century, gun control laws became ever more severe — and armed robberies in London soared to 1,400 by 1974. “As the numbers of legal firearms have dwindled, the numbers of armed crimes have risen” is her summary of that history in England. Conversely, in the United States the number of handguns in American homes more than doubled between 1973 and 1992, while the murder rate went down. There are relevant facts available, but you are not likely to hear about them from politicians currently pushing for tighter gun control laws, or from the mainstream media, when those facts go against the claims of gun control advocates. Despite hundreds of thousands of times a year when Americans use firearms defensively, none of those incidents is likely to be reported in the mainstream media, even when lives are saved as a result. But one accidental firearm death in a home will be broadcast and rebroadcast from coast to coast. Virtually all empirical studies in the United States show that tightening gun control laws has not reduced crime rates in general or murder rates in particular. Is this because only people opposed to gun control do empirical studies? Or is it because the facts uncovered in empirical studies make the arguments of gun control zealots untenable? In both England and the United States, those people most zealous for tighter gun control laws tend also to be most lenient toward criminals and most restrictive on police. The net result is that law-abiding citizens become more vulnerable when they are disarmed and criminals disobey gun control laws, as they disobey other laws. The facts are too plain to be ignored. Moreover, the consequences are too dangerous to law-abiding citizens, whose lives are put in jeopardy on the basis of fact-free assumptions and unexamined dogmas. Such arguments are a farce, but not the least bit funny.
2016-06-21 06:45 Thomas Sowell spectator.org
34 Job-Killing Red Tape for Thee, Not for Me If you think that all members of Congress have to comply with all of the laws that we common citizens have to obey, think again. Over the years, Congress has passed thousands of bills and statutes that dictate how we should or shouldn’t live our lives, but its members often fail to comply with these rules. In many instances, they actually exempt themselves from those burdensome constraints. To state an obvious example: Taking other people’s money via force and spending it will land everyone but a politician in jail. Or, remember a few years ago when we found out that members of Congress weren’t prohibited from trading stocks using nonpublic information? For most of us, this type of insider trading is a serious crime that carries a high probability of prison time for regular Joes. The outrage over this scandal led to a reform bill (the STOCK Act) to right the injustice. But then Congress eliminated a key reporting requirement for members of Congress, which gutted the law enough to guarantee more corruption going forward. Just to name another few: Congress is also exempt from investigatory subpoenas to obtain information for safety and health probes and from prosecution for retaliating against employees who report safety and health hazards. In an age of federal agencies’ overreach and bogus prosecutions, I bet private businesses would like to be exempt, too. Sarbanes-Oxley rules, which can throw chief executives of publicly traded companies in prison for up to 20 years and cost them $5 million in fines if they fail to certify their accounts, don’t apply to Congress. The Department of Defense has failed to comply with auditing requirements for several decades without consequences. In other examples, we see that it takes decades for Congress to subject itself to laws that apply to us. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 established overtime pay, record keeping and youth employment standards, affecting full-time and part-time workers. For all its good intentions, many companies consider this act to be the bane of their existence, the source of a constant stream of regulations and enormous costs with small benefits. Congress, in spite of its large workforce, exempted itself from it. That lasted until 1995 — almost 60 years later — when the House and Senate finally passed the Congressional Accountability Act, requiring that Congress comply with many of the standards established under the FLS Act. Among other things, the act applied many labor and workplace safety and civil rights statutes to the legislative branch, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 and the American with Disabilities Act of 1990. But don’t let this fool you. Just because it’s the law doesn’t mean that Congress actually complies with it. Consider overtime rules. Again, under the CAA of 1995, Congress has to comply with the rules, but in order to do so, both the House and the Senate must issue a resolution that they will adopt the rules. In 1996, all those procedural boxes were checked, and Congress subjected itself to overtime pay rules. It never complied again. In August 2004, the Department of Labor issued new and costly overtime pay regulations — which once again changed the standard compensation levels and overtime exemptions for full-time employees, from a weekly salary level of $155 (the threshold varies based on duties) to a new standard of $455. However, Congress has not yet adopted the regulations to replace the 1996 overtime pay standards with the updated ones. And what do you think is going to happen now that the DOL changed the overtime pay rule to apply to full-time employees making up to $913 a week? Based on their past behaviors, I predict that members of Congress will exempt themselves again, even though many lawmakers forcefully lobbied for the rule to be pushed down the private sector’s throat. As Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Bill Frezza noted when he heard of the exemption, “job-killing red tape for thee. Exemption for me.” In Federalist No. 57, James Madison wrote that the House of Representatives “can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of the society.” How far we have fallen.
2016-06-21 06:45 Veronique de spectator.org
35 Mega Millions jackpot rises. Will you win? 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. Close
2016-06-21 21:00 Asia Burns www.ajc.com
36 This Week in Pictures Photos A home builder works at sunrise, June 20, 2016, in Gilbert, Ariz., in an effort to beat the rising temperatures. The National Weather Service is expecting another day of triple-digit temperatures in Phoenix and across much of the Southwest.
2016-06-21 19:57 ABC News abcnews.go.com
37 37 Israel as a yoga canvas American art photographer Robert Sturman recently added Israel to his acclaimed portraits repertoire of yoga practitioners posing in asanas at different locations around the world. The 46-year-old artist from Santa Monica, California, has made a name for himself in capturing the beauty of yoga with his camera. From Africa to North America, Asia to the Middle East, Sturman photographs yogis on beaches, on streets, in prisons, at orphanages and in nature. “I wanted to see it, celebrate it and honor it,” Sturman says about why he decided to add Israel to his body of work. “I go all over the world to photograph, and what it does with the yoga poses integrated into the composition is it creates a beautiful story. It creates something sacred and I wanted to do that with Israel.” While fellow American art photographer Spencer Tunick trumpeted his arrival to Israel in 2011 for his Naked Sea project, Sturman’s visit here stayed pretty much under the mainstream media radar despite his being one of the world’s most renowned yoga photographers. But the yoga communities in Israel and the Palestinian Authority area were abuzz with excitement for his April visit. Like everywhere else he shoots, upon announcing his arrival, local practitioners contacted him to be part of the shoots. The models in his photos are a mix of people who sign up to meet him for a private photo shoot and others he meets randomly or through contacts. The 40 works from his Middle East trip feature a prenatal yoga instructor, a child trying yoga for his first time, Israeli and Palestinian yoga instructors, a fitness guru, a runner, a Rastafarian, a Hassid and an IDF soldier. “Humanity is beautiful. It’s just human beings, the poetry of us, that tell a story of humanity striving for excellence,” Sturman says about the message he’d like people to take from his works. “That’s a clear language in yoga: No matter what people you are, you’re doing your best. The soldier is in the same pose as the Hassidic man I photographed.” Sturman’s 46,000-plus followers on Instagram and nearly 60,000 followers on Facebook are posting favorable comments and emojis with every photo he shares from the shoots here. “Sturman ventures near and far to share his passion. His extraordinary expression of yoga makes him one of the most celebrated and adventurous yogis of our time,” Yoga Digest wrote about his works. And while most artists scout locations before setting up a portrait, Sturman – who has been twice featured by The New York Times – says he had an idea of the people he wanted in the background of his pictures but didn’t pre-organize locations. “This was not a tourist book where I had to hit everything. I was only there for two weeks. It was an exploration of what I could make happen while I was there,” he says of his visit to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Caesarea and Bethlehem. “The models and I just figure it out together.” Sturman never intended to dedicate his life’s work to yoga. After graduating with a BA in art from University of California-Santa Cruz, this artist- photographer continued his studies under Italian master painter John Torina. But then in 2000, Sturman set off for a trip to India and Nepal. According to his biography, he was “greatly moved by Osho, the Indian mystic poet and painter, and his principles of creativity, which soon affected his life as an artist and the responsibility that comes with it.” Three years later, a visit to the site of the Auschwitz- Birkenau concentration camp in Poland would change his life again. Sturman writes that this experience “reaffirmed the importance of assuming responsibility” for his life. And so, in 2003, he began to practice yoga to “make a personal transformation,” he told the Times, “but I noticed everything around me was so beautiful, and I started to make art of it. Yoga offered me an opportunity to change my life, but it was also something that was so beautiful to study, the poetry of asana. It started growing from being able to photograph people on the beach to being invited to a penitentiary with yoga programs to do yoga asana imagery there.” Sturman has shot portraits in different countries and among poor and affluent people. “There’s a lot of variations of yoga but I haven’t found much of a difference in poses,” he says. “Yoga tells the story of the heart, love, sincerity; it makes for beautiful art.” Sturman says Israel was on his radar for a long time, especially as he’s Jewish and hadn’t visited since the age of seven. He says the visit was profound and left him wanting to come back for more. “When it comes to just being an artist, who celebrates the poetry of yoga throughout the world, there’s no cultural divide. There’s no political talk. It’s very pure,” Sturman says of his April visit. “It was a lot of fun.” www.israel21c.org
2016-06-21 21:00 Viva Sarah www.jpost.com
38 Kumble, Amre, Rajput make presentations to BCCI panel for coaching job Kolkata: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)'s advisory committee comprising former star batsmen Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman on Tuesday afternoon interviewed the likes of Pravin Amre, Lalchand Rajput and Anil Kumble who are in the fray to be the national team's head coach. Anil Kumble and Pravin Amre Tendulkar, who could not be present here attended the meeting via video conference. "I have made my presentation already. Let's see what happens. Sachin was not here but we had a word via video conference," Ambre told reporters here. Australian Stuart Law, former India team director Ravi Shastri and ex Australia all-rounder Tom Moody are also scheduled to be interviewed by the panel via teleconference. Current chairman of selectors Sandeep Patil was reportedly not called for the interview. The BCCI had received a total of 57 responses to its advertisement for the job, and 21 of them were shortlisted for the advisory committee to review. 2016-06-21 20:57 By Agencies www.mid-day.com
39 Biblical sandals are once again in fashion for all walks of life Over the past several months, something interesting has started to happen in the Israeli fashion world. Whereas for years, local style experts focused their energies on imported trends, faraway runway shows and Hollywood dos, these days it seems that the local fashion community is falling back in love with itself. More specifically, with Israel’s esthetic roots and particular essence. This love fest has brought back long-lost labels, starting with the reinvigoration of legendary brand Maskit, then on to famed textile staple Ata, and now to the redesign and reopening of the flagship Nimrod store on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv. The last of the three was championed by Dana Rosenbluth, wife of Oren Rosenbluth, owner and co-CEO of Nimrod Shoes. Rosenbluth has been a member of the Nimrod family for 30 years. Oren, her husband, experienced the brand in a very personal way. For him, stopping by the Dizengoff location was synonymous with dropping in on Saba and Safta at home. Their apartment occupied the second floor, with windows overlooking the building’s facade. Like most Israeli women, Rosenbluth’s memories of the classic biblical sandals that Nimrod is known for go back to childhood. “I remember how exciting it was as a girl to go, twice a year, to the Dizengoff store to buy shoes. There wasn’t a girl in Tel Aviv who didn’t wear those sandals with shorts,” she says. “If you look at Israeli fashion,” she explains, “we were closed until the 1990s.” Rosenbluth goes on to explain how the company changed and shifted as the local market became flooded with outside fashions. “All the fashion from before that change is coming back now, bringing Israeli fashion back to something that is rooted here,” she observes. One such trend, which has taken strong hold in the past seasons, is the biblical sandal. Everyone, from Marc Jacobs to the Gap, have put out their own version of the classic strappy leather sandal. “It started with the release of Tamar El Or’s book Sandals: An Anthropology of Israeli Style, which named us prominently. All the designers in the world are dealing with the biblical sandal, which is ours. Nimrod sandals are an icon of Israeliness. I felt this need, because of all these factors, to make this vision a reality,” she says. Today, the first floor of 185 Dizengoff Street hosts a pop-up shop of retro- inspired Nimrod sandals, which will be open through the end of the summer. Judging from the enthusiastic response, Rosenbluth says that the company is considering taking the idea from pop-up to permanent. “The shoes that we brought back were the bestsellers of the 1960s. We crafted as exact replicas as possible, with the same colors and patterns. This nostalgic collection says so much about our society and our history. The pop-up is just like the store was in the 1960s – 20 percent kids, 60% women, and the rest is men. We wanted to test it out first. We didn’t do a lot of research as to whether this would work or not. We had a gut feeling and we went with it,” she explains. While Rosenbluth avoided getting into heavy market research, reviving retro Nimrod required a huge foray into family albums and long-forgotten toolboxes. “We have a factory in Beersheba that is our assembly line. I went to see what there was there. I had to see what knives, what patterns we had,” she says. Throughout the journey, although she was asking her employees to stray from their everyday activities, Rosenbluth was met with excitement. “There were people who told me that we could do it. They searched for months in the archive to see if a certain stamp was there, and they found it. In the production, we found tools and molds. In the redesign of the store, there was a lot of work with pictures. It was a very moving,” she says. On the day of the opening, many passers-by wandered in, drawn by a blast from the past. “The longtime manager of Nimrod happened to pass by. She’s an older lady now. She couldn’t believe how much we had recaptured of what once was,” smiles Rosenbluth. “The store was mythological. We decided to reopen it in the image of what once was. We had only pictures to go on, so it isn’t one for one but a close representation. I feel that we managed to bring it back at the right time in the right way, to give people back a piece of their past.” Nimrod’s retro pop-up shop is located at 185 Dizengoff Street. For more information, visit www.nimrod.co.il
2016-06-21 20:48 Ori J www.jpost.com
40 Michael Oren advises Netanyahu not to sign US aid deal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should hold off on signing a new defense pact with the United States, Kulanu MK Michael Oren said Tuesday, in advice that reached the prime minister and other Israeli leaders. Oren has taken a risk by promoting a point of view opposed by his party leader, Moshe Kahlon. When Kahlon urged Netanyahu to sign a deal as soon as possible at Monday's Kulanu faction meeting with cameras rolling and Oren by his side, the former ambassador raised eyebrows by leaving the room. It was not the first time Kahlon has undermined Oren on diplomatic issues, even though Oren was supposed to be in charge of deciding the party's diplomatic platform. Kahlon also distanced himself from criticism of US President Barack Obama in Oren's 2015 book, Ally. "Israel requires addition funding and capabilities to handle the challenges it is facing in the Middle East," Oren said in closed conversations. "A number of specific challenges and circumstances should caution Netanyahu to go slow. " A new Memorandum of Understanding worth billions is “very close” to completion, senior Israeli officials in Washington have said. The officials said Israel hopes to wrap up negotiations as quickly as possible – and brushed off reports that Netanyahu and his aides are waiting until after the US presidential elections to close the deal. Oren has said the first reason not to hurry to sign a deal is that the US administration wants Israel to pledge that it will not seek additional funding from Congress, as it has in the past for missile defense. Oren said such a pledge would undermine Israel's relationship with Congress, which is an equal branch of government and could cause problems if circumstances in the Middle East change at any point in the next decade. The second problem with the deal, according to Oren, is that the Obama administration wants all military aid spent in the US, unlike the past when 25 percent could be spent in Israel. He warned that removing a billion dollars from Israel's defense industry would lose thousands of jobs. The third problem is that with an election upcoming, Republicans can accuse Israel of interfering if a deal is signed now with a Democratic administration. Oren has also warned that signing a deal now could lose Israeli leverage ahead of a possible peace initiative that could be advanced by the US administration, part of which Israel could oppose. Israeli officials have said they are not conflating talks over the new Memorandum of Understanding with their concerns that the Obama administration may support international initiatives on Middle East peace.
2016-06-21 20:33 GIL HOFFMAN www.jpost.com
41 Strawberry moon: Your pictures The summer solstice is the longest day of the year and in 2016 it coincided with the strawberry moon, a once-in- a-lifetime occurrence, so- called because it marks the beginning of the strawberry season. Gabriel Jiménez captured the moon over the Round Tower of Windsor Castle, UK. It last happened nearly 50 years ago in 1967. Ryan Christopher Rosas snapped this shot over the bay in San Diego, US. Here it is rising behind Mount Baker in Canada. Credit: Instagram/ckristo Gerhard Geldenhuys took this picture in Long Stratton, near Norwich, UK. A night-time walker on Zuma Beach pretends to hold the strawberry moon in Malibu in the US state of California. Credit: Instagram/_sarahendipity_ Here it is peeking through clouds in Vancouver, Canada. The photo was taken from the Lions Gate Bridge. Credit: Instagram/paulcollinsfilm Tim Wetherell, of Exmoor StarGazers, took this picture in Exmoor National Park, UK. Lorna Powell took this picture of the strawberry moon at Stonehenge, UK, where she was celebrating the summer solstice. You can share your pictures via @BBC_HaveYourSay or [email protected]
2016-06-21 19:56 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
42 BBC 'very sorry' Sir Cliff 'suffered distress' The BBC has said it is "very sorry" Sir Cliff Richard "suffered distress" after its coverage of the 2014 police raid on his home, over historic allegations of sex abuse. The corporation said it "reported Sir Cliff's full denial of the allegations... at every stage". It said it "stands by the decision to report the investigation... and the search of his property". Last week prosecutors said the singer would face no charges . Sir Cliff told Tuesday's Daily Mail he is considering suing the BBC. The singer said in the interview that the BBC "have a lot to answer for" for broadcasting the raid live on TV. "Somebody has to teach them a lesson and if it's done by suing, let's do it," he said. "And the same with South Yorkshire Police. They have damaged me in a great way," he added. "The BBC is very sorry that Sir Cliff Richard, who has worked as a musician and performer for so many years with the organisation, has suffered distress. The BBC's responsibility is to report fully stories that are in the public interest. Police investigations into prominent figures in public life are, of course, squarely in the public interest, which is why they have been reported by all news organisations in this country. Once the South Yorkshire Police had confirmed the investigation and Sir Cliff Richard's identity and informed the BBC of the timing and details of the search of his property, it would neither have been editorially responsible nor in the public interest to choose not to report fully the investigation into Sir Cliff Richard because of his public profile. The BBC, at every stage, reported Sir Cliff's full denial of the allegations. The BBC, therefore, stands by the decision to report the investigation undertaken by the South Yorkshire Police and the search of his property. Sir Cliff has made the argument that the identity of people under investigation into historic allegations should not be made public until they are charged. This view raises significant questions about the scrutiny of the Police and public confidence that allegations are investigated. That said, we respect the fact that he is making an important statement in the debate over balancing privacy rights with the public interest. Ultimately, though, deciding whether people should remain anonymous while the subject of a Police investigation is a matter for Parliament. The Home Affairs Select Committee reviewed the editorial decisions made by the BBC and concluded 'we see nothing wrong in their decision to run the story'. " The raid was part of an investigation into claims made by four men who alleged offences took place between 1958 and 1983. The Crown Prosecution Service said it had decided there was "insufficient evidence to prosecute". Sir Cliff said he was "obviously thrilled that the vile accusations and the resulting investigation have finally been brought to a close". BBC cameras and a reporter were outside the gates to Sir Cliff's property in Sunningdale, Berkshire when police officers arrived to search his home in August 2014. A cameraman in a helicopter also filmed it. In his first interview since the investigation ended Sir Cliff said the BBC's filming of the raid was an "unforgiveable" invasion into his privacy. "They must be thinking I will sue them. Once, I would have been reluctant. It's tempting to forget the whole thing, but people like myself are in a very privileged position to possibly change things so it doesn't happen to anyone else," he told The Mail. Last year, an independent investigation concluded that South Yorkshire Police should not have released "highly confidential" information to the BBC about a planned search of Sir Cliff Richard's home. In a statement, South Yorkshire Police apologised "wholeheartedly for the additional anxiety caused" to Sir Cliff by the force's "initial handling of the media interest" in its investigation. "The police have apologised, but the BBC hasn't, and it owes me that," Sir Cliff told the newspaper. "What it did to me was shameful. No one should have to go through what I did. "My name was plastered everywhere before I was even questioned. When they broke into the apartment, I had no idea why. None at all. Later, they [the BBC] even boasted that the raid on my home was the news scoop of the year. " But Sir Cliff said he does not want "heads to roll" or "revenge". "I want to be able to say: 'The BBC should never have done this'," he said. Sir Cliff's friend of 45 years, broadcaster Gloria Hunniford, told BBC Radio 5 live's Nicky Campbell he has "never really been back" to the apartment. She said he has been affected both mentally and physically by the two-year investigation. Sir Cliff found that "when he started playing tennis again, which he loves and that's his way of keeping fit, all the strength had gone from his body completely". Hunniford encouraged him to "live his life and be joyous" now the investigation is over, but said he still feels "angry with (South) Yorkshire Police and the BBC".
2016-06-21 19:56 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
43 Fear of extended uncertainty underlies Brexit concerns Israeli businesses are not just concerned about the immediate economic repercussions of a possible British Exit from the EU, or Brexit, vote Thursday. If the UK referendum tips toward leaving the EU, many see years of uncertainty throwing a wrench in some economic dealings. Most economists predict that the immediate aftermath of a Brexit vote would be sharp, cutting into economic growth and weakening the British pound. "If I speak to colleagues involved in property at the moment they'll tell you absolutely nothing is happening, because they're worried the pound will plunge, the stock market will tumble, so nobody wants them to leave," said Simon Jaffa, a partner at Barnea and Co law firm. The day after the vote, however, would open a two-year process of the UK renegotiating its trade terms with the EU, not to mention all the countries that trade with the UK under current EU arrangements. "What I think is clear is that you will have a period of time, possibly two years, of uncertainty, and any environment of uncertainty is not good for business. People don't like investment if they don't know what, for example, the currency will be," he said. Some analysts believe that it will take even longer than two years to renegotiate trade deals. One major point of concern is for financial institutions. Under the current arrangements, financial institutions that base themselves in London and comport with the local regulations are able to “passport” their regulatory approval, allowing them to easily set up shop in other parts of Europe. "Israeli companies with European headquarters in London will have to start giving consideration as to whether they want to stay there after a Brexit," Jaffa said. “To pinpoint exactly what the consequences are is impossible, because nobody knows what the terms will be. " Ronen Menachem, an economist at Mizrahi Bank agrees. “The banks and part of the capital markets here in Israel will be influenced should there be a Brexit because of the hesitation of economic and financial investors when they don’t know where the economy is going,” he said. Few of his fellow economists, he added, were hoping for a Brexit “because almost every section of the economy will have something to lose. People are looking for stability right now.” Some, however, see the Israeli-British relationship as too strong to be seriously affected in the long-term. “Most Israeli business are doing business with the UK because of the UK, and not because of the European Union,” said Anita Leviant, President of the Israel-Britain Chamber of Commerce. “I’m confident that the relations between the UK and Israel would continue growing.” Even unfortunate economic events can produce some opportunities, Jaffa added. If the pound plummets and stocks fall along with it, it could prove a good buying opportunity. “This could be a potential time to come to the UK, which is normally perceived as expensive, and now it will be cheaper," he said. On Tuesday, as polls indicated the outcome was too close to call, British Prime Minister David Cameron made a dramatic last-minute appeal to voters to back staying in the European Union. In a rare televised address outside his Downing Street office, Cameron repeated his message that leaving the EU would jeopardise Britain's economy and its national security, with fewer jobs and higher prices. "Brits don't quit," he said, using the official backdrop to make a direct pitch to older voters considered more Eurosceptic and more likely to vote. Arron Banks, a multi-millionaire insurance tycoon who is funding one of the Leave campaigns, said on Twitter: "Cameron is panicked, it's out of his hands now. " As each side sought to play its last trump cards, the pro-EU "Britain Stronger in Europe" campaign issued a final poster of a door leading into a dark void with the slogan: "Leave and there's no going back. " The "Out" campaign says it is the anti-establishment choice, and its message that EU membership has handed political control to Brussels and fueled mass immigration appears to have struck a chord with many Britons. That issue again gained prominence when Cameron's former close aide Steve Hilton said civil servants had explicitly told the prime minister four years ago that his target to cut net immigration to the tens of thousands was unachievable because of the free movement demanded by the EU. "There are good ways of controlling immigration ... but pulling out of the single market, wrecking our economy, that is a bad way," Cameron earlier told ITV's "Lorraine" program. The Remain camp has focused mostly on the economic benefits of EU membership and the risks posed by leaving. Pro-EU leaders, including former prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major, have warned that an exit could also trigger the break-up of the United Kingdom by prompting another Scottish independence vote if England pulled Scotland out of the EU.
2016-06-21 20:26 NIV ELIS www.jpost.com
44 Funeral Held in Nebraska for Boy Killed by Gator at Disney Resort Video Transcript for Funeral Held in Nebraska for Boy Killed by Gator at Disney Resort Funeral is scheduled for today for the two year old boy who was killed in an alligator attack her Walt Disney world services for lane graves will take place in Nebraska. Where people have been doing all they can to show the family love and support take a look blue blows are in place all over almost caught in his honor a local florist says they've sold more than a thousand. Homemade Bos since Friday all of the profits are being donated to the boy's family. Meanwhile Disney the parent company of WABC has placed new signs around the lagoon where the boy was attacked. This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
2016-06-21 20:25 ABC News abcnews.go.com
45 Deaths of Twins Found in Truck Were Heat- Related, Police Say Video Transcript for Deaths of Twins Found in Truck Were Heat-Related, Police Say You could only imagine. What the families going through now you know the extended family. The first responders having to deal with a situation like this that stuff you know a lot of lot of our first responders have children children this age. This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
2016-06-21 20:25 ABC News abcnews.go.com
46 CMS: We'll honor transgender students' choices Visit was part of donation presentation from BJ’s Membership Club According to Shannon Stein, superintendent, while compensation is important keeping teachers is about more than pay. Angel McDuffie graduated with an associate's degree as well as a diploma ONE Charlotte urges Mecklenburg County commissioners to put school bonds on the November ballot CMS board holds a public hearing on guiding principals for student assignment Wednesday night at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center. English as a Second Language students at South Meck have put out a book, "My America," to tell their stories of immigration. A group of protesters disrupted and were escorted out of a UNC Board of Governors meeting relocated from UNC-Asheville to Chapel Hill due to security concerns Friday, April 15, 2016. Protesters continued to chant from outside the building during the meeting. A group of protesters gathered at the UNC Board of Governors meeting relocated from UNC-Asheville to Chapel Hill due to security concerns Friday, April 15, 2016. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Ann Clark explains why better magnet transportation matters. Hough High senior Isabella Frommelt started a movement urging her fellow students to go without makeup for a week. In February, Frommelt and more than 50 girls from Hough High, and surrounding schools participated in no makeup week.
2016-06-21 19:55 www.charlotteobserver.com
47 Baltimore Community Outraged After Pregnant Woman Is Shot Video Disgust and outrage at east Baltimore operators as neighborhood everyday there's no caution tape or crime scene but people are talking about the violent shooting early Monday morning is at the ball in the Senora main element think the people do with great. A Baltimore city police patrol officer heard gunshots around midnight and then here to east north avenue where he found two people on the ground with bullet wounds investigators say a thirty year old man was hit multiple times at a 21 year old pregnant woman was shot in the lower abdomen. We're told the baby was also hit with a bullet. The victims are rushed to the hospital the man is in critical condition and the woman had an emergency delivery. Both the female and the Dave you are in critical but stable condition. We hope wearing hoping that they recover. Police tell us a 25 year old man was also pick in the cross fire. Officers found him nearly a quarter mile away. He had been hit multiple times in the left arm. And is expected to be okay that's the worse than by everybody wherever nobody nobody cover detectives don't think the pregnant woman and her baby were the intended target of the shooting. We're told she may have just been out the wrong place at the wrong time but investigators don't have many leads at this. What we don't have any information about us suspects. On the remains a mystery all three people reported hearing the shots. Realize and it was shot but don't really know who shot them. Police say the community needs to stand up against the violence so far this year there have been 289. Non fatal shootings. That's 31 more compared to the same time last year. I'm praying for the fan and it's. You have created a pregnant lady had previously. I don't think it was a random things up it was a ramping up it was a mistake. And who overdid it. Tell yourself. Let me tell us open the utility has killed capability is that love is getting crazy out normally that would equate. Catherine Hawley ABC two news. This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
2016-06-21 20:24 ABC News abcnews.go.com
48 Nonprofit coffee shop opens in church Kids learn to float and swim at a YMCA water safety program Thursday at The Highlands apartments on Archdale Drive. The program was launched by the YMCA last year and has been expanded to keep immigrant and minority kids from drowning in pools at apartment communities, which often do not have lifeguards. Rich Cho, Charlotte Hornets executive vice president and general manager, talked about the team's pre-draft workouts and what they might do in the upcoming draft. Former UNC star Marcus Paige sees himself as a "point guard first" in the NBA. He and five other NBA hopefuls took part in a pre-draft workout for the Charlotte Hornets on Friday. Students from St. Gabriel Catholic School recently presented biography books to residents at Plantation Estates retirement community. The books were the result of a year-long project. Graham's sister, Cynthia Hurd, was one of nine victims murdered by Dylann Roof in the basement of Emanuel AME Church one year ago. One person was killed following a violent crash on West Sugar Creek Rd. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police investigate the aftermath of a reported carjacking on Sugar Creek Road near I-85. Chef Paul Verica and his son, Assistant Chef Alex Verica, work in the kitchen together at Paul Verica's Heritage Food and Drink restaurant in Waxhaw WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for June 16, 2016. The scene of an overnight accident where a car knocked down a power pole on Atando Avenue at North Graham Street.
2016-06-21 19:55 www.charlotteobserver.com
49 WBTV First Alert Weather forecast for 06.21.16 WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for June 14, 2016. WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for June 13, 2016. WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for June 8, 2016. WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for June 7, 2016. WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for May 18, 2016. WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for May 17, 2016. WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for May 11, 2016. WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for May 10, 2016. WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for May 9, 2016. WBTV meteorologist Al Conklin with The Charlotte Observer weather forecast for May 4, 2016.
2016-06-21 19:55 www.charlotteobserver.com
50 Gov't to open savings accounts for every child in 2017 Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon may have just one- upped Oprah Winfrey. Whereas Oprah famously gave away great gifts on her show, most memorably on the episode where everyone was gifted their own automobile ("You get a car! And you get a car! And you get a car! "), Kahlon on Tuesday signed a regulation establishing a government- backed savings account for every Israeli child ("You get a savings account! And you get a savings account! ") "The 'savings account for every child' program is another step toward closing the social gaps in Israel, toward advancing equal opportunities for the middle class and weak segments, and even raise awareness about saving," Kahlon said. "The program will allow anyone who reaches the age of 18 to begin their adult lives with NIS 20,000 in their hands and open new opportunities for themselves," he added. Kahlon negotiated the idea for the savings account last July when hammering out the 2015-2016 budget, approved in November, as an alternative to fully reinstating child welfare cuts. The regulation signed Tuesday will put the accounts into effect starting in January, 2017. The idea behind the program is that instead of simply paying out benefits to parents, the government will open a savings account for each child and set aside money each year in every account until the child turns 18, at an estimated cost of NIS 2.65 billion a year. The National Insurance Institute will contribute NIS 50 a month, plus an extra NIS 500 when they turn 18. If the child delays withdrawing the funds until she is 21, the NII will contribute an addition NIS 500. Parents will have the option of diverting an additional NIS 50 of their child allotments toward the account each month, and have some options as to how and where the money will be held. The provision of a large, lump-sum of cash to every child upon entering adulthood is meant to help level the playing field, giving young adults the option to overcome early financial hurdles. "Providing an initial sum for every child at the beginning of their adult life, without regard to their parents' financial status, will expand the range of options before them, such as education, opening a business, or professional training," said Deputy Finance Minister Yitzhak Cohen. The funds could also form the basis of a retirement account or the seeds of a down-payment for an apartment. Because the government will only start putting funds aside next year, the sums made available to people turning 18 in the coming years will be lower than those for children who will continue to accrue monies over longer periods of time.
2016-06-21 20:20 NIV ELIS www.jpost.com
51 State Wildlife Action Plan Updated By Don Mallicoat- The N. C. Wildlife Resources Commission recently received approval from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the 10-year update of the North Carolina Wildlife Action Plan, a comprehensive document that identifies the state’s Species of Greatest Conservation Need and conservation priorities for fish and wildlife species and their habitats through the next decade. The Wildlife Action Plan is posted on the Commission’s website (www.ncwildlife.org/plan). I have looked at the plan. It is very comprehensive, to the point that you need to look for particular areas of interest to you. I don’t recommend trying to read the entire document. Over the last three years the Commission led a comprehensive review and revision of the 2005 Wildlife Action Plan with partners from state and federal agencies, conservation organizations and citizen stakeholders. The current version describes the threats facing Species of Greatest Conservation Need and their habitats and recommends measures to address current and emerging threats through 2025, when the plan will be revised. Implementation of these recommendations will help prevent the need to list species for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. The plan also catalogs ongoing efforts to protect and conserve the state’s fish and wildlife species and their habitats — from mammals and birds to fish, crustaceans, reptiles and amphibians. The Wildlife Action Plan was created in response to a 2002 congressional requirement that each state must have a comprehensive conservation strategy to be eligible for federal matching funds under the State Wildlife Grants Program. Each year, North Carolina receives approximately $1.3 million to support implementation of conservation actions recommended in the plan. Projects include survey and monitoring efforts that help fish and wildlife biologists understand the conservation status of nongame species in the state. State Wildlife Grants also support enhancement and restoration efforts such as propagation and release of rare species into native habitats or conservation of existing populations of rare species and their habitats. I want to follow up on a couple of items from a previous column. First is House Bill 1125, introduced by Representative Brian Turner to prohibit hunting from public Right-of-Ways in Buncombe County. For the life of me I don’t know why this is getting so much press time other than it’s a slow news cycle. There should be no controversy here (which is what local news is usually about). Both the Asheville Citizen-Times and local ABC affiliate WLOS have done stories on it and I got interviewed for both. So let me state this clearly: This is a good bill that will assist WRC enforcement officers in stopping illegal taking of game, i.e. poaching. All counties surrounding Buncombe already have this law: Madison, Haywood, Henderson, and Mitchell. Buncombe is just the late-comer to the party. The Bill has been referred to the House Wildlife Resources Committee and should pass without objection. Second, is Senate Bill 889, calling for a NC Constitutional Amendment to protect the right to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife. Why does it need to go into the constitution? Because the constitution deals with rights and regular laws have more to do with privileges. The animal rights groups know they cannot attack hunting at the national level so they plan on chipping away at the local level. Last year they got an initiative on the ballot in Maine to stop bear hunting. Fortunately the good people of Maine defeated it. They tried the same thing in nearby Kentucky but it never made it to the ballot initiative. Another thing SB 889 does is establish public hunting and fishing as the preferred means of managing and controlling wildlife. Again, why is this important? Not two weeks ago, Mayor DeBlasio of New York City, tried to set up a program to give male deer on Long Island vasectomies to reduce the deer population and stop the damage they are doing in local neighborhoods; to the tune of $2.5 million. Urban archery deer hunting has proven effective in managing deer populations while benefitting those in need. Look no further than our local program, Backyard Bow Pro. They do management hunts in subdivisions and donate the venison to local food pantries. So far they have contributed thousand s of pounds of meat and fed hundreds of thousands of meals through this program. This and hunting in general will be protected by this Bill. If it passes both houses, it will have to be voted on by the general populous in the 2016 election in November.
2016-06-21 20:06 By Don www.thetribunepapers.com
52 The Diary of Willis Fumbleton I started to keep this diary the day I realized I would be at the center — or, pending resolution of low-intensity office conflict, at the edge — of the wildest campaign of the century. Any century. I’m a campaign guy. I’ve run campaigns and covered campaigns and funded campaigns and subverted campaigns. I can’t stay away. It’s the great American pastime, baseball without the tedium, and it comes with a rare binary satisfaction in a world full of nonjudgmental umps and the global warming of fudged result. Over the years, I’ve played about every position on the campaign team but candidate. No, I’d never go that far. When campaign guys run across each other along the trail, they always ask each other the same question, along about the second drink at the airport bar: “What’s your candidate like?” And they always get the same answer: “Well, he’ll never need Preparation H.” By which they mean, of course, that their candidate is a perfect asshole. It takes a special kind of guy to run for office these days. A guy who has no business winning. Take your top two candidates today, H and D, both of them manifestly unqualified to hold the office they seek, the one by character, the other by temperament. This should be a great contest, with the two candidates so evenly matched and so widely despised. I have gone all in for D. He may get distracted. H will steal with both hands. I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Willis Fumbleton. Yeah, I’m almost as WASPy as I sound. My folks came over in the bow of the first rowboat from the Mayflower. That lineage and four bucks will get you a nonfat grande latte, and admission to a fusty club you have no interest in joining, but it can also give you an edge when pitching a political campaign. Most campaign guys are ethnically, sexually or sartorially colorful, politics being the last refuge of the unlettered but financially ravenous amateur. Most campaign guys are scary, their rapacity imperfectly disguised. Candidates look at me and see solid and sober and smart. Compared to some of the ding-a-lings in the campaign business, I guess I am. The archetypal figure here is my friend Mike Murphy. Nobody plays the Irish scamp better than Mike. When dogged by rumors that he had ripped off the Bush campaign, Mike — who no doubt was the genius who put the exclamation point in Jeb! — told the press that he had taken less than a million dollars for his services, the implication being that if he had been paid a grown-up’s fee he would have stirred himself to drive Jeb! up to, say, an eleventh-place finish. You gotta like Mike. I have to go now. We’ve set up a briefing for D with one of our 24K foreign policy experts, who’s been promised ten minutes to make his case. I love these briefings. In the office pool I’m up $1200 so far on the standing bet that Mr. Expert, whoever he might be on any given day, will not hit the three- minute mark before an intervention by D. It’s classic stuff. As D vents about his superficial experience with some more-or-less related subject, he persuades all hands that he’s the dumbest guy in the room. If D’s agenda is to lull the cognoscenti into underestimation, it’s working like a charm. I know I’m underestimating him. Willis Fumbleton may or may not be a Senior Adviser to the Donald J. Trump campaign.
2016-06-21 19:56 Willis Fumbleton spectator.org
53 It's official: Aliya Day to be a national holiday There's going to be a new holiday on the calendar: Aliya Day. The Knesset passed in a final reading a law instituting the holiday on the seventh of the Hebrew month Cheshvan, coinciding with the reading of the Torah portion in which Abraham is told to leave his home to go to what is now Israel. The bill was proposed by MKs Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beytenu), Avraham Naguise (Likud), Miki Zohar (Likud), Hilik Bar (Zionist Union) and others. On Aliya Day, schools will teach about the contributions immigrants made to Israel, the cabinet will hold a special meeting and ceremonies will be held by Beit Hanassi, the IDF and police. Naguise said "the law is declarative but is very important to ensure the recognition of the importance of Aliya and encouraging it, and improving the treatment of new immigrants, so that we recognize every new oleh brings a significant contribution to the country. " Jay Shultz, Founder of TLV Internationals and President of the Am Yisrael Foundation, which helped conceive of the bill, said: " We have tremendous gratitude to the members of Knesset that chose to adopt and champion our young Olim grassroots community movement celebrating Yom HaAliyah... It is incredibly meaningful that we as young Jews can connect the Biblical historical truth of Joshua crossing the Jordan to our modern practical reality. It is the ideal of Aliyah and the pioneering contributions of Olim in each generation that make this the easiest time in history to be a Jew living in the Land of Israel. "
2016-06-21 20:13 LAHAV HARKOV www.jpost.com
54 Steps taken to provide security to doctors in Hospitals: Government to HC Maharashtra government on Tuesday informed the Bombay High Court that it has undertaken a series of measures to provide security to doctors in hospitals and ensure that they are not assaulted by relatives of patients. Such measures include posting of additional policemen in hospitals and handing over the responsibility of monitoring CCTV cameras installed there to the nearest police stations. Other measures include recruitment of security guards by Maharashtra State Security Corporation at hospitals. Like policemen, the security guards have powers to arrest any person who is in possession of arms or weapon while entering hospitals, state Advocate General Rohit Deo told a division bench. The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by social activist Afaq Mandviya, challenging the strike undertaken recently by resident doctors of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD). During the hearing, MARD had urged that the government has not taken any security measures to protect them from physical assaults by relatives of ailing patients, who are not satisfied with the treatment provided to their kith and kin. The court thereupon asked the government to immediately go into the issue of providing security to the doctors. The AG today informed that CCTV cameras in hospitals would be connected to nearest police station so that the policemen can monitor the situation and take steps in case of emergency. He also informed that restrictions would be imposed on the number of visitors entering the hospitals and on the timings of their visit. MARD lawyer also informed that an incident had occurred in Gondia area of Nagpur in which a doctor was assaulted on June 18. The AG said that this matter was currently being heard by Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court. He also informed that a meeting of the Commission, appointed to look into the grievances of MARD members, had been held recently. Another meeting has been fixed on July 4. The bench today asked the government to inform how many policemen have been posted at hospitals in Mumbai. The court posted the next hearing on June 28 for directions.
2016-06-21 20:12 By PTI www.mid-day.com
55 4 injured in chemical parcel explosion at Aurangabad Aurangabad (Maha) : Four passengers were injured today when a chemical parcel exploded in a state transport bus here, police said. Rajesh K Zhambad, the owner of Aurangabad-based business firm Vishal Enterprises, had allegedly packed some chemical illegally in the parcel saying it was educational literature to be carried to a college. His employee Amol Sonawane was carrying the chemical parcel. As he was placing it in the Aurangabad-Paithan MSRTC bus, the parcel exploded, injuring four passengers, including Amol, police said. The injured persons were admitted to the Government Medical College and Hospital here, they said. The Kranti Chowk Police have registered a case in this connection and further investigation is on.
2016-06-21 20:12 By PTI www.mid-day.com
56 China city holds dog-meat eating festival despite protests Yulin (China) : A city in southern China went ahead with an annual dog-meat eating festival on Tuesday despite heavy criticism and protests from animal rights activists. Vendors slaughtered dogs and cooked their meat in dozens of restaurants across the city of Yulin, in an event that has come to symbolize the cruelty and potential for spreading disease associated with the largely unregulated industry. Activists bought dogs from dealers who had been planning to slaughter them, while local residents complained that outsiders were ruining what they consider a local tradition. "We came to Yulin to tell people here dogs are our friends. They should not kill dogs in such a cruel way and many of the dogs they killed are pet dogs," said Yang Yuhua, a volunteer from the central city of Chongqing. An estimated 10 million to 20 million dogs are killed for their meat each year in China, and the Yulin event has become a lightning rod for criticism. Many of the dogs are believed to have been pets stolen from their owners or simply picked up off the street. They are stuffed in cages, and trucked to the city about 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) south of Beijing in the province of Guangxi, often without food or water. Cats eaten at the festival are subjected to similar ill treatment. The local government has in recent years sought to disassociate itself from the event, forbidding its employees from attending and limiting its size by shutting down some dog markets and slaughter houses. "The so-called dog-meat eating festival has never been officially recognised by government or by any regulations or laws," said an official reached by telephone at the city government's general office. "We hold meetings every time before the so-called festival, discussing counter measures such as deploying local police, business and sanitary authorities to inspect and deal with those who sell dogs," said the official, who like many Chinese bureaucrats would give only his surname, Liu, because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. Opponents this year expanded their campaign to the United States, petitioning politicians in San Francisco to pressure their Chinese colleagues into calling for an end to the slaughter. As many as 10,000 dogs are believed to be killed during the event, which falls around the summer solstice that arrived yesterday this year. Promoters say eating dog meat during the summer helps ward off the heat and maintain a healthy metabolism. "It's been a tradition for years for us to celebrate the festival. We can't change it simply because they (animal lovers) love dogs," a local resident, who gave only his surname, Huang, told The Associated Press. "They don't want us to eat dog meat. We eat dog meat to celebrate the festival, but since they've come here, they've ruined our mood completely," Huang said. As the dog eating festival neared, Chinese social media is full of alerts to the pet owners asking them to protect their pet from dog thieves. However, even in the official media, the event had its supporters as the state-run Global Times carried an article saying that "Dog meat festival shouldn't be canceled forcefully". "It is understandable that many Westerners oppose eating dog meat. Muslims and Hindus have their own taboos against eating some particular kind of meat, and in their eyes, some Western-style eating habits might be insulting," it said. "Unfortunately, now westerners are demanding non- westerners change their eating habits, because they think their cultures and feelings deserve more respect than others. Such a condescending attitude is not comfortable," it said. However, the support for a ban is growing. "An unprecedented 8 million Chinese voted online in support of lawmaker Zheng Xiaohe's legislative proposal during the National People's Congress in March to ban the illegal dog and cat meat trade," Xinhua report said. Last week, a petition to ban the dog slaughter, signed by 11 million people from China and abroad, was presented to the Chinese embassy in London. A draft law to prohibit and punish cruelty to animals was submitted to China's highest legislature in 2009. Since then, Tenger, a famous Mongolia singer and political adviser, has been presenting his proposal to implement the law at the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference annual meeting. His proposal has topped online opinion polls, backed by a growing number of Chinese animal lovers.
2016-06-21 20:11 By PTI www.mid-day.com
57 Association of cabbies, automen seek inquiry against Ola, Uber An association of cabbies and auto drivers and owners staged a protest at Azad Maidan in South Mumbai on Tuesday seeking an inquiry and action against cab aggregators such as Uber and Ola over their pricing strategy to attract customers. Taxi drivers from Jai Bhagwan Mahasangh during a rally at Azad Maidan. Pic/ PTI Scores of taxi-rickshaw owners and drivers under the aegis of newly-formed "Jai Bhagwan Taxi Rickshaw Sanghatana" protested over the transport charge of Rs 6 per km being offered by the aggregators to ferry commuters. "We are forced to gather here to raise our voice against the cab aggregators Ola and Uber. We want to know how they offer service at just Rs 6 per km when the fixed rate is Rs 8 per km for taxis," said the Sanghatna president Bala Sanap. Alleging that the government was in collusion with the taxi hailing service providers, he said, "We feel that there is conspiracy to wipe out our taxis and rickshaws from the roads. But we will not let this happen whatever it may take". He threatened to take taxis off roads from July 26 if government failed to order an inquiry against the aggregators. "We have written a letter to Chief Minister and have urged him that the Uber and Ola services should be treated as taxis," Sanap added. One of the largest unions in city, the Mumbai Taximen's Union, however, did not participate in the protest.
2016-06-21 20:10 By PTI www.mid-day.com
58 DR Congo warlord Bemba jailed over war crimes Congolese ex-rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba has been jailed for 18 years following a landmark conviction at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and sexual violence. Bemba, a former vice-president of DR Congo, was convicted in March of crimes committed in the neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR) in 2002-2003. He was accused of failing to stop his rebels from killing and raping people. Bemba's lawyers have already said they will appeal against his conviction. Judges announced sentences of between 16 and 18 years for five counts of rape, murder and pillaging, with the jail terms running concurrently. The eight years Bemba has already spent in custody will be deducted from his term. His conviction was the first time the ICC had focused on rape as a weapon of war, and the first time a suspect had been convicted for crimes committed by others under his command. Passing sentence at the ICC in The Hague, Judge Sylvia Steiner said Bemba had failed to exercise control over his private militia sent into CAR, where they carried out "sadistic" rapes, murders and pillaging of "particular cruelty". The BBC's Anna Holligan, who is in The Hague, says two key issues remain - where Bemba will serve his sentence and the amount of compensation to be awarded to his victims. Who is Jean-Pierre Bemba? Profile: Jean-Pierre Bemba More about DR Congo Bemba was "extremely disappointed" with the sentence, his lawyer, Kate Gibson, told AFP news agency. "Today's sentence is by no means the end of the road for Mr Bemba, it merely signals that we are now moving to the next phase of the process which is the appeal," she said. In 2002 Bemba had sent more than 1,000 fighters to the CAR to help then president Ange Felix Patasse put down an attempted coup. The court heard that his troops committed acts of extreme violence against civilians - crimes which the judge said Bemba was made aware of but did nothing to stop. He had led the MLC (Movement for the Liberation of Congo) rebel group during DR Congo's brutal civil war and after a 2003 peace deal he laid down his arms and joined an interim government. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the sentence offered "a measure of justice" for the victims. "Other commanders should take notice that they, too, can be held accountable for rapes and other serious abuses committed by troops under their control," said Geraldine Mattioli-Zeltner, HRW's international justice advocacy director. The MLC is now a major opposition party in DR Congo and Secretary General Eve Bazaiba criticised the ICC ruling and sentence. "We will never cease denouncing the selective justice of the ICC," she told supporters in the capital Kinshasa.
2016-06-21 19:55 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
59 Nagpur, Jinan are sister cities; pact inked Nagpur : The city of Nagpur and Chinese city of Jinan have become sister cities after signing a pact which allows for exchange of ideas and technology in the field of education, sports, youth affairs, urban planning among other areas. The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Jinan, in a historic move, entered into an agreement yesterday to develop sister-city relationship. Nagpur civic commissioner Shravan Hardikar and Director of Jinan Municipal People's Congress, Xu Changyu, signed the pact here in the presence of Nagpur mayor Pravin Datke and officials from the visiting Chinese delegation. Jinan is capital of Eastern China's Shandong province with a population of about 30 lakh and is know for its beautiful lakes. The move is a part of an agreement signed between Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peoples Republic of China, for facilitating co-operation and linkages between cities and states or provinces of India and China in May 2013. Hardikar gave a presentation on NMC's developmental projects. Xu Changyu spoke in detail about Jinan and its expertise in fields of education, culture, development of rivers, urban planning etc. He also suggested that NMC send students from the city to Jinan for seeking knowledge about various technologies. Datke said Jinan's assistance could be taken for improvement of education, production of various orange products and mining activities. NMC may also seek Jinan's cooperation in the field of sports, youth affairs, urban planning, waste water management, infrastructure, environment, public health and exchange of trade and commercial delegations, an official release said. Also, financial assistant can be sought from Jinan for executing of few developmental projects in the orange city. The agreement has been executed for five years and can be extended by another five years, it said. This is for the first time a city from Vidarbha has developed sister city concept with any foreign city, the release added.
2016-06-21 20:09 By PTI www.mid-day.com
60 Dual Wildfires Cause Evacuations in California Video Overnight just north of Los Angeles to separate fires forced hundreds to leave. More than 3500. Acres torched in two separate fires burning dangerously close to each other. There reservoir fire difficult for crews to fight over steep terrain and the fish fire approaching people's homes in little bit different. Now backing people picking up garden hoses to quench hot spots in their backyard it's just. My home mom and a I'm one of beit Oren. Temperatures are in the winds are now kicking out it's the perfect storm a total of seventeen large wildfires are burning in eight western states including Alaska. High winds remain a concern today four states California you Todd Nevada and Arizona. Have an excessive heat warning. Arizona also had at least five people died due to the heat. Paramedics making over a hundred calls in 116. Degree temperatures. The scorching heat is moving east with 100 degree temperatures expected from Colorado to Kansas. As for the California wildfire actors are hoping that these two blazes. Don't merged into one huge inferno. In New York Adrian bankers ABC news. This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
2016-06-21 20:08 ABC News abcnews.go.com
61 Wilful defaulters: IT dept to use powers to arrest, detain New Delhi : Officials have been directed not to shy away from the rare provisions of arrest, detention and auctioning of attached assets of wilful income tax defaulters. The Central Board of Direct Taxes, in a strategy paper for the current fiscal, has directed officials in the tax department to use the rarely-used in this regard. For wilful evasion of taxes, Section 276 C (2) of the IT Act provides for rigorous imprisonment for a period between three months and three years which may be accompanied by a fine. The IT department has a designated official to execute these rare powers, called the Tax Recovery Officer (TRO), in its establishment. "The machinery of the TRO should be strengthened by providing more infrastructure and manpower. The TROs should be further trained specifically for their work in order to increase their effectiveness. "In respect of non-compliant defaulters, the provisions of arrest and detention as per the provisions of Rules 73 to 81 of Schedule II should be invoked by the TRO. "Stringent action can be taken in suitable cases including use of the provision for prosecution under section 276C(2) of the Act," said the strategy paper which acts as a guiding light for the taxman during the financial year. The department has also asked the supervising authority of the TROs (Principal Commissioner of IT) to "monitor" their work "especially in the area of attachment and sale of property to ensure that the attached properties are sold within one year. " "The role of a TRO comes at the fag end in a tax evasion case when the demand raised by the department gets converted into wilful default. A TRO executes his power of arrest and detention when there is a chronic default. That is why we see these provisions have been rarely invoked in the past. But now, more action on this front will be undertaken as defaults are becoming a menace now," an IT official explained. The instructions also make it clear to the TRO that in case of liquidation of assets there should be "prompt lodging of the claim" with the official liquidator and constant monitoring of the case in order to guard the interest of the revenue or the department. It has also been directed, as per the strategy paper, that supervisory officers 'may instruct' the TRO or the Assessing Officer of a case to monitor cases which are being heard in the Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs). They (TRO) should, it said, consider lodging of claims of outstanding demand in such cases before the DRT. "At any level of a default case, the department's interest of getting taxes is supreme and hence the TRO is being directed to pursue the cases upto the level of DRTs too. "Getting revenue and due taxes from an entity is the ultimate aim of the IT department. By using these new strategies, the department also ensures that a strong message goes to all such people that the taxman will not let it go easily," the official said.
2016-06-21 20:08 By PTI www.mid-day.com
62 Man Plays Piano While Floating in the Arctic Ocean Video Transcript for Man Plays Piano While Floating in the Arctic Ocean Beautiful shot out of the plane to eat Italian composer. And pianist. Living though and not need performing a floating platform. Are on a floating platform in the Arctic Ocean off nor wedding the piece here is titled elegy for the Arctic. It's part of the Greenpeace campaign to encourage conservation efforts flabby part. This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
2016-06-21 20:07 ABC News abcnews.go.com
63 Jews in Maharashtra to get minority status Maharashtra government on Tuesday approved a proposal to grant minority status to Jews in the state. The decision was taken at a meeting of the state Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. "Maharashtra Cabinet approves minority status to Jew community. This decision will benefit students from these communities to avail scholarships from the state government and setting up of educational institutions," Fadnavis said. The move, which was announced by then Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister Eknath Khadse, is expected to make life easier for members of the community in the state. After being officially recognised as a minority community, the Jews would enjoy several privileges like other minority communities. It would become easier for them to register their marriages. They would also be able to set up their own educational institutes and practice and promote their culture. Jews have been a part of the Indian society for over 2,300 years now. According to 2001 Census, the number of Jews living in India was 4,650 with 2,466 of them residing in Maharashtra. However, Principal Secretary of Minority department, Jayashree Mukherjee said the state government has no official record of the number of people from the community in Maharashtra. She also said that there will not be an additional burden on the state exchequer with their inclusion in minorities. "The Jews should have been given (minority status) long back, but somehow they weren't given. The government has no official records of the number of people in the community as their population is too less. But, according to them (community members), their population in the state is 2,466," she told PTI. When asked why the community was given the minority status now, she said, "They asked for it now so we gave it. " "As far as financial aspects are concerned, their inclusion will not have any effect on the state exchequer and the burden will borne from the existing budget itself," Mukherjee said. The Jews of Manipur and Mizoram identify themselves as Beni Menashe. There are also some in Andhra Pradesh who call themselves Bene Ephraim Jews. India is one of the few countries in the world where Jews have never faced any harassment or persecution.
2016-06-21 20:07 By PTI www.mid-day.com
64 In pictures: Jo Cox tributes People have been paying tribute to MP Jo Cox, who died after being shot and stabbed in her West Yorkshire constituency on Thursday, at various locations around UK The large village of Birstall - where the 41-year-old was killed - played host to Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Friday who paid a special tribute to Mrs Cox After laying flowers the two party leaders gave speeches praising Mrs Cox's abilities as an MP. Mr Cameron called her "one of our most compassionate campaigners", while Mr Corbyn described her as an "exceptional, wonderful, very talented woman" Birstall has become one of the focal points for tributes to the mother of two, who was widely regarded as a popular and dedicated MP Labour MPs Lucy Powell, Jeff Smith and Paula Sheriff and former Labour councillor Karen Rowling were also among the politicians to head to Birstall to pay their respects In Parliament Square in Westminster mourners left messages of support for Jo and her family. One note said: "You can't kill democracy" Vigils have been held in various places, including London, Glasgow and Aberavon First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and leader of the Scottish Labour Party Kezia Dugdale lit candles at the Glasgow vigil Former Labour leader Ed Miliband joined members of the public during two minutes of silence in Parliament Square UKIP leader and prominent Leave campaigner Nigel Farage was among those who left tributes in London Mrs Cox was the Labour MP for Batley and Spen, and a vigil was held at the Indian Muslim Welfare Society's Al-Hikmah Centre in Batley. A book of condolence has been set up in Batley Town Hall Flowers and messages adorn the houseboat which Mrs Cox and her family used as their London home The flag was at half mast at Buckingham Palace on Friday morning. A palace spokesman said the Queen would write privately to Mrs Cox's husband On Thursday, a service was held at St Peters Church in Birstall. Among the mourners was Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who said Mrs Cox was "one of liveliest, bravest and most passionate" MPs Mrs Cox's husband Brendan said his wife "believed in a better world and she fought for it everyday of her life" Meanwhile, Canadian MP Nathan Cullen, who was a friend of Jo Cox, broke down with emotion as he paid tribute to the late MP in Canada's House of Commons Among the messages left in Birstall, one said: "Rest in peace. An inspirational lady"
2016-06-21 19:57 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
65 Community union's 'serious concerns' over Tata sale Unions have said they have "serious concerns" about the ongoing sale of the Tata Steel UK business. There are seven bidders for the businesses , involving more than 11,000 jobs and the Port Talbot steel works. But Community union members, who met in London on Tuesday, said steelworkers were "less certain of their future than ever" as three months had passed since the sale announcement. Tata UK said the company was committed to an urgent sale process. A spokesman added: "Negotiations about various aspects of the sales process continue with interested parties. " The union said employees, customers and suppliers deserved to know Tata's intentions. It said: "Since that first announcement, the trust and good will of Tata's loyal workforce has been pushed to the limit. "If Tata do indeed intend to retain the business, then they need not only to make this clear to their loyal workforce, but also lay out their long term plan for investment in steelmaking. " It is understood three bidders could be shortlisted: steel and energy firm Liberty; management-led Excalibur; and Yorkshire-based equity and turnaround specialists Endless LLP with the support of American tycoon Wilbur Ross.
2016-06-21 19:57 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
66 Russia doping crisis: Wada president Craig Reedie faces more pressure The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) and its president, Sir Craig Reedie, are under increasing pressure over the handling of the Russian doping crisis. Russian athletes are banned from international competition after the country was accused of orchestrating a state-sponsored doping programme. Wada has already been criticised for being slow to investigate the claims. Now the BBC has seen documents that suggest Briton Reedie may have failed to act with due speed and rigour. A Wada spokesman said all decisions taken by its president "are in the interest of the agency and the clean sport movement". The BBC has obtained a copy of a hand-written note by Reedie, apparently passed to Sergey Bubka, the vice-president of athletics' world governing body the IAAF, on 1 August, 2015. Both men, who are members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), were attending an IOC session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The note, written on Wada-headed paper, appears to tip off Bubka that trouble was brewing for athletics in the shape of a new documentary by the German anti-doping journalist Hajo Seppelt. It signs off with the message: "Hope no more damage will be done. Craig. " The ARD documentary made allegations of widespread blood doping. The BBC showed the note to Jack Robertson, Wada's chief investigator from 2011 to 2016 and a key figure in the organisation's independent commission into Russian doping and corruption allegations. "Considering this note is in fact penned by Craig Reedie, it is extremely disappointing but not surprising," said Robertson. "If he wrote these words then, to me, this further illustrates his overall loyalties clearly rest with the national and international federations - in this case the IAAF - and not the protection of clean athletes' rights. "His mindset should have been an eagerness to learn if any further revelations were unearthed… showing further potentially valuable evidence of systematic doping and criminal misconduct. "Instead, this note shows he is more concerned about further embarrassment to an IAAF vice-president than discovering and seeking the truth. " Robertson also questioned Sir Craig's rigour. "Craig has been very public that his management style is an avoidance of conflict, which would be wonderful if he were president of his homeowners' association, but certainly not as leader of Wada and the global anti-doping community," he added. "Clean athletes need a defender, not an ostrich. " Also critical of Sir Craig was Seppelt, the man behind the ARD documentary. "It is so embarrassing for the president of the world body who is fighting at the top against doping," he said. "He is more interested to avoid any damage for sports instead of doing the opposite - to fight against corruption and doping in sports. " Wada spokesman Ben Nichols said Bubka wanted to "discuss the likelihood of further revelations" from the German television documentary with Sir Craig. Nichols added: "This certainly was not meant to imply in any way that the Wada president wouldn't want doping issues to be exposed. "However, it is always disappointing to learn that anti-doping organisations that are entrusted to protect athletes may have failed to do so. "The August allegations related to the blood database were submitted to the independent commission, which ultimately determined that the IAAF had not failed in its duty in this regard. " On Monday, Wada was criticised by the US Senate. In a letter to Sir Craig, Senator John Thune wanted the 75-year-old Scot to explain why Wada had taken years to investigate claims of a government- run doping programme in Russia. "These recent allegations, and Wada's subsequent response, have called the organisation's strength and credibility into question," Thune said. The BBC has also been made aware of an email sent by Sir Craig to Wada staff a few days after a Seppelt documentary broadcast in December 2014. The documentary exposed widespread Russian doping, and corruption with anti-doping processes, allegations an independent Wada report verified, leading to all the country's track and field athletes being banned from Rio this week. That decision was ratified by the IOC. The email, sent on 9 December, 2014, came while Wada was planning its reaction to the claims of doping and corruption. It suggests, by some interpretations, that Sir Craig wanted his staff to assess how the story was playing out in the media before deciding whether to initiate an investigation. Part of the email reads: "Things are changing here by the minute. How many press comments and Twitter? And are the sources serious? "I need to think this through and will be back to you tomorrow. One day is not significant. Let me know the stats. " The day before this email from Sir Craig, a strongly worded email from the United States Anti-Doping Agency chief Travis Tygart implored Wada to act quickly. The BBC has obtained a copy of the email, sent directly to Sir Craig. Tygart wrote: "In the past, Wada has not shrunk from its responsibility to lead the fight against doping… yet in the brief few days since these allegations were reported there seem to be indications that Wada has… deviated from its traditional leadership role. "Moreover… Wada's initial statements in response to the allegations of Russian doping have been disappointing and unfortunately equivocal and insufficient. " A week later, Wada announced it was forming an independent commission, led by Dick Pound, that ultimately confirmed the ARD documentary's allegations. In response, Nichols said Wada had needed time to analyse the claims made in the ARD documentary as well as seek "advice from management, input from stakeholders, its impact on stakeholders and in the international media". He added: "It was important to review as much information as possible before quickly taking the significant step of launching the investigation. " However, British MP Damian Collins said the BBC's disclosures did not suggest Sir Craig was "a man who has a big appetite to get to the truth and get to the bottom of things". Collins hinted that Sir Craig may also be asked to give evidence to a future meeting of the Culture, Media and Sport committee. Sir Craig, a close ally of IAAF president Lord Coe, who this week announced that Russian athletes would be banned from Rio, is due to step down as IOC vice-president in August when his term of office ends. Nichols said Sir Craig acknowledged that his role as vice-president could lead to "perceived split loyalties" and "some suggestions of bias", but said the "perceived conflict" should come to an end when he steps down from the IOC executive committee.
2016-06-21 19:57 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
67 EU referendum: Campaigns set for live BBC debate at Wembley Leading figures in the Leave and Remain campaigns are preparing to go head to head in the biggest live TV debate of the UK's EU referendum. Boris Johnson, for Leave, and his successor as London Mayor Sadiq Khan, for Remain, are among six panellists taking part in the two-hour BBC debate at Wembley Arena on Tuesday evening. Each side will make opening and closing statements then take questions from members of the 6,000-strong audience. The debate is at 20:00 BST on BBC One. The event, which is the BBC's final live TV debate before the vote on Thursday, will be hosted by David Dimbleby. The Leave campaign has put forward the same line-up as a previous TV debate: Boris Johnson, Labour MP Gisela Stuart and energy minister Andrea Leadsom. The argument for remaining in the EU will be put by Mr Khan, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, and Frances O'Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress. There will be contributions by campaigners from other political parties, business and journalism on a second, smaller stage. Among them will be former Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King, who backs remaining in the EU, and founder and chairman of Wetherspoons Tim Martin, who supports Brexit. The BBC also expects 200 reporters and spokespeople in the so-called "spin room". EU Referendum: The Great Debate will be broadcast on Tuesday 21 June from 20:00 - 22:00 BST (19:00 - 21:00 GMT) on BBC One, on BBC Online and BBC World News. It will be available to watch afterwards on the BBC iPlayer.
2016-06-21 19:57 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
68 US election: How safe are presidential candidates? There is renewed focus on US presidential candidates' security after a British man was reported to have tried to grab a US police officer's gun to shoot Donald Trump. The charge he faces - committing an act of violence in a restricted area - relates specifically to breaches of an area where someone protected by the Secret Service is visiting, Here, we look at the threats candidates face and their security response. Modern-day levels of presidential protection began in 1963 after John Kennedy's assassination in Dallas. That prompted a major review of security methods. The protection of presidential candidates was authorised after Robert Kennedy, who was running for president, was assassinated in 1968. The US government says such protection is designed to maintain the integrity of the democratic process and continuity of government. In 1972, former Alabama governor George Wallace - who campaigned for racial segregation - was shot in Maryland while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. The gunman, Arthur Bremer, had originally planned to shoot then president Richard Nixon but was put off by the president's security detail. Mr Wallace was left paralysed from the waist down and a secret service officer was also wounded. In 1979, Edward Kennedy - younger brother of President John Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy, who were both assassinated in the 1960s - was the target of a plot by a woman with mental health problems, Suzanne Osgood, who was arrested outside Mr Kennedy's Senate office with a hunting knife. In addition, plots have been reported against the lives of every US president since Richard Nixon, who took office in 1969. The US presidential election campaign of 2016 has been fringed with violence. Almost everywhere Donald Trump goes he attracts protests. The tycoon often mocks the demonstrators and there have been clashes with his supporters, both inside and outside of his packed, emotionally charged rallies. For some, the violence has stirred dark memories of 1968 when Democratic presidential contender Robert Kennedy was assassinated and riots broke out at the party's convention in Chicago. This year events have not descended to those awful depths but still, the country feels edgy and the Secret Service, which guards candidates as well as presidents, has been on high alert. In March in Ohio agents swarmed around Mr Trump after a man apparently attempted to climb on to the stage where he was speaking. Other events have been cancelled because of security concerns. With five months to go, many Americans are worried about where this election is heading. Presidential candidates get Secret Service protection when they become a major-party nominee or beforehand - if they request it or there appears to be a credible threat. This time around, Donald Trump and Ben Carson got protection on the Republican side and Hillary Clinton, who always had it as a presidential spouse, and Bernie Sanders received it on the Democratic side. They are protected by special agents on temporary assignment from field offices. However, while protection for the president and vice-president is mandatory, others can decline it if they choose. Measures include securing a location ahead of time and sweeping it with bomb-sniffing dogs, setting up metal detector checkpoints for crowds entering the venue, police-protected motorcades when the candidate travels and 24-hour bodyguards. The Secret Service says its security operations "deter, minimise and decisively respond to identified threats and vulnerabilities" and draw on specialised resources including airspace security, snipers, counter surveillance and hazardous chemical teams. However Secret Service agents do not get involved in preventing or dispersing protests unless there is a genuine threat to the candidate, security experts say. I was staying down the hall from Mr Trump's hotel room in New Hampshire and there was always an agent outside his door. Whenever he was in the room someone stopped me at the elevator to check my name on the hotel's registry. Beyond the on-site security, the Secret Service also conducts background checks of people near the candidates and investigates any reports of threats against a protected politician's life. Write a letter or make a social media post saying you're going to kill the president, and chances are men in dark suits are going to be knocking on your door soon. Mr Trump has created a privately funded security and intelligence force with a larger remit than the security operations in other campaigns, an investigation by Politico found. Its duties include finding and ejecting protesters, patrolling campaign events as well as supplementing Secret Service protection for Mr Trump, Politico reported. Private security firm XMark says on its website that it provided personal security for Mr Trump across the US until last November, when it was relieved by the Secret Service. Some protesters say they were assaulted by Mr Trump's security team in New York last September. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton relies on the Secret Service for security and has paid local police departments and security firms to patrol her events, Politico reported.
2016-06-21 19:57 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
69 Why it's important to be yourself at work When Alan Joyce, the chief executive of Australian airline Qantas, was asked by a young indigenous woman whether she could ever head up the firm his answer was unequivocal. "I said, 'Well if a gay Irishman can become the CEO of Qantas then an indigenous lady can.'" The fact that Mr Joyce makes no secret of his sexuality, makes him a relative rarity among top ranking bosses. Among the chief executives of the 500 biggest US companies only one, Tim Cook of Apple, is openly gay. Similarly, in the UK's 100 largest firms listed on the stock exchange, Burberry boss Christopher Bailey is the only well- known gay chief executive. Of course you could argue that the sexuality of those at the helm is not really anyone else's business but their own, but Mr Joyce believes being open about it allows him to be himself at work and demonstrates to others that it hasn't hindered his career. During his tenure, he has steered the airline through huge difficulties caused by tough competition and soaring fuel costs, including a 2011 union dispute over restructuring which led him to take the unprecedented step of grounding all flights . He subsequently led the firm through a massive cost-cutting programme that involved some 5,000 job losses , in the midst of which the national carrier announced the biggest annual loss in its near 100-year history , leading to calls for Mr Joyce to be sacked. Critics accused him of ruining a national icon, yet earlier this year, helped by the drop in fuel costs, the firm reported its best ever first-half profit. Mr Joyce credits the airline's diverse senior leadership team for its successful turnaround, saying it meant they came up with more varied ideas for addressing the firm's problems. "We've got three Brits, an American, an Irishman, a Kiwi. So all different type of backgrounds. We've got three women, three gay men, people that were mathematicians, people that were business consultants, people that were flight attendants. "I can say categorically that we wouldn't have gotten through the transformation and the tough times of this business as well as we did without having that diversity in the top leadership team. At the end of the day, it makes you a better business. " Recent research suggests Mr Joyce's conclusion is spot on. Firms in the top quartile for gender or racial and ethnic diversity are more likely to have financial returns above their national industry medians, according to management consultancy McKinsey , which looked at 366 public companies across a range of industries. A separate study by accountancy firm Grant Thornton estimated that publicly traded companies in India, the UK and US with male-only executive directors missed out on £430bn of investment returns last year. "The research clearly shows what we have been talking about for a while: that diversity leads to better decision-making. Those businesses stuck in the past are not fully unlocking their growth potential," says Francesca Lagerberg, global leader for tax services at Grant Thornton. Yet while recognising it is the right thing to do, embracing diversity can be tough in a firm that has traditionally employed a particular type of person. One of Australia's biggest firms, Westfield, which owns shopping centres around the world, has been listed publicly for over half a century and has its roots in real estate and construction, both sectors which have historically been male-dominated. The firm's global spread means that it is already very diverse culturally, says co-chief executive Steven Lowy, but he admits it still has "some way to go" on gender diversity. "The gender issue is a challenging issue for companies to come to grips with, but I would suggest that we're very focused on it," he says. Often it is business needs that drive a firm to become more diverse. Jayne Hrdlicka, chief executive of Qantas' subsidiary Jetstar, grew up in the US. As a female CEO who was brought up abroad, she sees herself as a great testament to the firm's diversity. Over half of Jetstar's revenues are generated outside Australia, meaning a diverse workforce is an absolute necessity. The airline has invested significantly in educating people in working cross- cultures "because it's such a fundamental part of the way we need to operate," she says. One exercise it has carried out with external experts is a nationality swap, where for one day Australian staff pretended to be Japanese and the Japanese staff pretended to be Australian. While an exercise like this could seem superficial, Ms Hrdlicka says it taught staff to respect each other's roots. "We were able to appreciate the different ways of working, and the importance of building on the best of all those different ways of working rather than trying to force one over another," she says. In the end, though, she says embracing a more diverse workforce requires a broad shift in how those at the top think about things, meaning that it's time that will make the biggest difference. "It's the right thing to do, but it's a smart thing to do. You get the best outcomes for your shareholders and you get the best outcomes for all the stakeholders involved in your business when you really do create an environment that brings the best out of everyone. " This feature is based on interviews by CEO coach and author Steve Tappin for the BBC's CEO Guru series, produced by Neil Koenig.
2016-06-21 19:57 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
70 Weymouth idling trains leave 'horrendous smell' Noise, fumes and the "horrendous smell" of idling diesel trains are blighting the lives of people in a seaside town. Residents of Princes Drive in Weymouth, whose gardens back on to the mainline to London Waterloo, said trains stop with their engines running for up to five hours on Saturdays. They said their weekend noise nightmare started last year. Great Western Railway (GWR) said new procedures had now been put in place to minimise the time engines run. Peter Yarwood, who has lived on Princes Drive for 15 years, said: "We quite enjoy the trains passing but to have one parked outside your house for five hours on a Saturday is not very nice. " As well as the "constant droning noise" he said he could not open his windows or sit in the garden because of the fumes. Resident Wayne Wilcox agreed: "The noise is bad enough but the smell is horrendous. " The trains wait outside Weymouth Station from about midday on Saturdays until 17:00 on some occasions, residents said. In a letter to GWR in May, Mark Whitchelo said the fumes were "filling" his garden. He said he and his wife Diane were concerned about pollution caused by the fumes. The couple contacted MP Richard Drax, who said GWR was "doing all they can to solve the problem". A GWR spokesman said: "Generally engines need to run to provide and maintain the air supply for the doors and brakes systems to work. "Safety checks need to be carried out before the train can go in to service and these checks require the engine to be running. " But he admitted it should not happen for five hours and said new procedures had since been introduced at Weymouth which involved both engines being shut down once checks had been carried out.
2016-06-21 19:57 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
71 BBC News Channel Britain's most-watched news channel, delivering breaking news and analysis all day, every day. The BBC News Channel is available in the UK only. Don't forget, to watch TV online as it's being broadcast, you still need a TV licence. You can send comments and pictures to the BBC News Channel by texting 61124, or emailing [email protected] 2016-06-21 19:57 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
72 Barnbow Canaries: Telling the stories of WW1 munitions workers In 1916, an explosion in a Leeds munitions factory caused what is claimed to be the UK's single largest loss of female life in World War One, yet wartime conditions meant the deaths of 35 women were barely reported. A century on and the story of the devastation and consequences of the blast at Barnbow munitions factory is being revealed in a new play at the city's West Yorkshire Playhouse. Barnbow Canaries is playwright Alice Nutter's tribute to not just those who lost their lives, but the thousands of others who worked there in dangerous conditions - though she says it is "not a sentimental tribute". "The thing I'm interested in with these women is that sense of what happened - it was an absolute tragedy but a tragedy is not a drama. "I realised that the story was bigger than the disaster. "While it wasn't the first time that women were working, it was the first time they were earning proper money, men's money. "The women who worked in the Barnbow danger rooms, some of them went from earning two shillings and sixpence in domestic service to three pounds a week. Men didn't earn that. It is really good money. "They had money to spend on going out and a social life that wasn't controlled by their husbands, brothers or fathers and they did skilled work. "But rather than this being seen as women being capable and claiming their freedom, it was seen as a blip. "After the war, women were expected to go back to exactly where they were before - when I realised that, I thought 'I want to write this play'. " Nutter was asked to find a drama in the history by the Playhouse's artistic director James Brining, who had lived with the story since hearing it from his grandfather. He says he decided he wanted to put it on stage while researching local stories, but was far more interested in telling a story of social change, than commemorating a centenary. That desire drove him to ask Nutter to come on board, as he "wanted a woman to tell the story and her mixture of political perspective and interest in social justice made her the obvious choice". The playwright says she was never tempted to make the play solely a historical piece and drew on her own experiences to find the theatre within it. "Historical research is not a play and knowing which soap they used is not a drama. "Once I started writing, I realised this wasn't just a play about the First World War and munitions workers, it was about two sisters and what happens when you lose somebody you love - how they stay with you and shape the things you do. "I could write about that because my sister died in 2010 - as a dramatist, you do all the research and then you write a drama on the muscle of what you know and what you feel. "The play has to come from your mind and your heart. " Researching the disaster saw Nutter speaking to the families of those it impacted upon, including David Wilcox, whose grandmother Eliza and great aunts Lizzie and Annie only escaped the explosion by luck. After getting jobs at the factory, he says "they met up in Hut 42, where the explosion happened", but crucially, a month before the disaster, "Grandma was upgraded to overlooker and was moved to an adjacent block". "Lizzie and Annie got a transfer to the same block. On the night of the explosion, they were all on night shift when a huge explosion rocked the factory. "Annie used to say 'if it weren't for our Li, we wouldn't be here now', but Grandma would never speak about it. The story is that she went in to retrieve people and do what she could. " Nutter says the women who worked in the factory were "soldiers, because they worked in really dangerous conditions". "All munitions workers knew they were being poisoned. "Not that they'd been told, but once you got the symptoms - turning bright yellow with stomach, eye and throat problems - you're not stupid, you know it's because you're working with bright yellow powder. "But they accepted it in the same way that men at the front accepted the dangers - partly because they were being paid well, but also because they thought it was their patriotic duty. "Yet after the war, they weren't treated like soldiers. When the men came back, women were expected to relinquish their jobs. "There was a real return to the status quo and women believed they would be seen as selfish if they acted against it. " Find out more: WW1 at Home - The Factory Disaster that Killed 35 Women The production features a community chorus alongside its professional cast - 17-year-old Anna Keat lives in Cross Gates, a stone's throw from where the disaster happened. She says the play has given her "an insight into the women that worked there". "There are scenes where we're doing the jobs that they would have done and it amazes you how hard they would have worked. "It does scare me, because it could have been me and probably would have been me. " She says it is an important story to tell "because it was so hidden by the government". "After the war, they wanted to keep it on the down-low because they wanted women to go back to their houses and work there, so nobody got to know the real story about what happened. " Nutter says that was something that drove her to want to tell the story, as despite living in Leeds since 1982, she had "never heard" of Barnbow. "I don't think it was any sort of conspiracy. I think it's more casual sexism - soldiers were commemorated but women were almost swept under the carpet. "When the explosion happened, I can fully understand why they couldn't publicise it, because they didn't want the Germans to know where the factory was - zeppelins were flying over, it's absolutely understandable. "After the war, that didn't apply any more, but I genuinely think that the male status quo didn't think women's lives were that important. "It had happened and it wasn't news. It wasn't a conspiracy, it just wasn't deemed as something they needed to commemorate. " Wilcox agrees, saying that women "were always put on the back burner, they never got praise for anything". "This showed that women could do the work of men, but they were never recognised as such. "What this play shows is that everybody was important, whoever they were. " Barnbow Canaries is at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds until 9 July.
2016-06-21 19:57 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
73 In pictures: Tim Peake's journey home Tim Peake said his return to Earth "was incredible" and "the best ride I've been on ever". He said his six months on the space station were "truly amazing. A life- changing experience". He was all smiles as he was carried from the Soyuz capsule The capsule had deployed its parachutes as it neared the ground to slow the descent It turned over several times after it hit the ground, eventually landing on its side Back on terra firma Tim was given a medical check before remarking to journalists that "the smells of Earth are just so strong". After the journey to Earth in a hot spacesuit and the sweltering heat of the capsule, Tim said he was looking forward to a cold beer. After his medical checks he got to call his family Crewmate Tim Kopra also gave the journey a thumbs up after being greeted by a team from Nasa All three astronauts looked very calm and relaxed as they acclimatised to the atmosphere on Earth The Soyuz capsule was left charred by the extreme temperatures on the descent. Members of the search and rescue team had to roll it over before they could release the astronauts After his arrival on Earth, Maj Peake was flown to an airport in Karagandy, Kazakhstan, where he received further medical checks
2016-06-21 19:57 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
74 Introducing Fair Play on Yahoo Sports Daily Fantasy Yahoo Launches Key Changes in Daily Fantasy to Help Level the Playing Field for Fans Including Entry Limits, Labeling of Veteran Players and No Scripting --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced important changes to its Sports Daily Fantasy product to make contests more transparent and fun for all users. Changes include limiting entries to a max of 10 entries per user per contest (and in no event can a single user's entries make up more than 1% of total entries in a contest), clearly identifying Veteran players with a badge, and prohibiting the use of any type of scripting tool to upload or edit entries. "We first launched Yahoo Sports Daily Fantasy back in because it was an exciting addition to our product suite and because our users were clamoring for it," said , Head of Product for and Finance. "Yahoo Fantasy Sports has tens of millions of registered fans and we are making these changes today as the result of months of user experience and customer requests. values an environment that is transparent and trustworthy. We also want to provide the best Fantasy games for true sports fans. does both. " As daily fantasy continues to evolve, the labeling of a small percentage of "Veteran" players with a distinct badge is a key change that will make it easier for all players to know who they are playing against on Yahoo Sports Daily Fantasy. Veterans will be defined as users who have entered more than 1,000 contests within a single year, or who have entered more than 250 contests and prevailed in greater than 65% of them within a single year, or who have won a single prize of or greater more than three times within a single year. As a thank you to those users who have been so dedicated to Yahoo Sports Daily Fantasy, will be inviting Veterans to a special, free, invitation-only contest. has been a leader in fantasy sports for over 17 years. The changes made today will continue the tradition of fun and social user experiences that fans have come to expect from. is a guide focused on informing, connecting, and entertaining our users. By creating highly personalized experiences for our users, we keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the world. In turn, we create value for advertisers by connecting them with the audiences that build their businesses. is headquartered in , and has offices located throughout the , (APAC) and the , and (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the Company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com).
2016-06-21 19:57 investor.yahoo.net
75 TUNE IN TODAY: Yahoo Hosts First-Ever Live Stream of Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting Live coverage begins at 10 a.m. ET on Saturday (4/30) Interviews with: , Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; , Series Creator, "Breaking Bad" & "Better Call Saul"; , Chair, CEO and Chief Designer, Kathy Ireland Worldwide; , Sr. Partner, , and many more --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Tune in as (Nasdaq:YHOO) hosts the first-ever live stream of Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholders meeting today, , kicking-off with live coverage and analysis from Yahoo Finance Editor-in- Chief , on-the-ground at CenturyLink Center Omaha. Audiences will be able to watch live on Yahoo Finance - across desktop, tablet and mobile - as Chairman and CEO and his right-hand man share their unscripted views on the company, the markets, the economy, and whatever other topic that may come up. Watch the live stream here: http://yhoo.it/BRKLive Throughout the Preshow and Halftime Report we'll also feature a number of live and pre-taped interviews with the Yahoo Finance editorial team, including: , Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; , BNSF CEO; , CEO; , CEO; , CEO; , CEO; songwriter, and long-time Buffett friend ; author and international speaker ; legendary business journalist ; Sr. Partner, , ; BRK-B shareholder and series creator of "Breaking Bad" & "Better Call Saul" ; Chair, CEO and Chief Designer of Kathy Ireland Worldwide, ; and many others. The shareholders meeting live stream will be available in both English and Mandarin, and will be delivered in 1080p HD quality. Embeddable VOD replay will be available on Yahoo Finance for 30 days following the meeting. For more information, and to register for regular updates on the Berkshire on Yahoo Finance, go to: http://yhoo.it/BRKLive Follow the conversation on Twitter with @YahooFinance #BRKLiveStream
2016-06-21 19:57 investor.yahoo.net
76 The UK's EU referendum: All you need to know A referendum is being held on Thursday, 23 June, to decide whether Britain should leave or remain in the European Union. This article is designed to be an easy- to-understand guide - if you have any questions you can send them in using this link. We'll be answering a selection at the bottom of the page. A referendum is basically a vote in which everyone (or nearly everyone) of voting age can take part, normally giving a "Yes" or "No" answer to a question. Whichever side gets more than half of all votes cast is considered to have won. Prime Minister David Cameron promised to hold one if he won the 2015 general election, in response to growing calls from his own Conservative MPs and the UK Independence Party (UKIP), who argued that Britain had not had a say since 1975, when it voted to stay in the EU in a referendum. The EU has changed a lot since then, gaining more control over our daily lives, they argued. Mr Cameron said: "It is time for the British people to have their say. It is time to settle this European question in British politics. " The European Union - often known as the EU - is an economic and political partnership involving 28 European countries (click here if you want to see the full list). It began after World War Two to foster economic co-operation, with the idea that countries which trade together are more likely to avoid going to war with each other. It has since grown to become a "single market" allowing goods and people to move around, basically as if the member states were one country. It has its own currency, the euro, which is used by 19 of the member countries, its own parliament and it now sets rules in a wide range of areas - including on the environment, transport, consumer rights and even things like mobile phone charges. Click here for a beginners guide to how the EU works. Here's a video explaining how the EU works in less than two minutes "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union? " Read more: Does the wording of a referendum question matter? It is a word that has become used as a shorthand way of saying the UK leaving the EU - merging the words Br itain and exit to get Brexit, in a same way as a Greek exit from the EU was dubbed Grexit in the past. British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens over 18 who are resident in the UK, along with UK nationals living abroad who have been on the electoral register in the UK in the past 15 years. Members of the House of Lords and Commonwealth citizens in Gibraltar will also be eligible, unlike in a general election. Citizens from EU countries - apart from Ireland, Malta and Cyprus - will not get a vote. It will be a similar system to that during other elections. Firstly, if you have registered to vote, you'll be sent a card telling you when voting takes place and where you should go to vote on 23 June. On that day, when you go to the polling station you will be given a piece of paper with the referendum question on it. You then go to a booth, which will have a pencil in it for your use. You then put a X in the box which reflects your choice and put the paper into a ballot box. Alternatively have also been able to opt to vote by post. Read more: Electoral Commission's guide to applying to vote by post. Yes. This was the big news back in January and February as David Cameron sought an agreement with other European Union leaders to change the terms of Britain's membership. He says the deal, which will take effect immediately if the UK votes to remain in the EU, gives Britain "special" status within the 28 nation club, and will help sort out some of the things British people say they don't like about the EU, such as high levels of immigration and giving up the ability to run our own affairs. Critics say his deal will make little difference and falls well short of what he had promised when he announced his plan for a referendum. Read more: What Cameron wanted v what he got The main points of the deal are: The British public are fairly evenly split, according to the latest opinion polls. The UK Independence Party, which won the last European elections, and received nearly four million votes - 13% of those cast - in May's general election, campaigns for Britain's exit from the EU. About half of Conservative MPs, including five cabinet ministers, several Labour MPs and the DUP are also in favour of leaving. They believe Britain is being held back by the EU, which they say imposes too many rules on business and charges billions of pounds a year in membership fees for little in return. They also want Britain to take back full control of its borders and reduce the number of people coming here to live and/or work. One of the main principles of EU membership is "free movement", which means you don't need to get a visa to go and live in another EU country. They also object to the idea of "ever closer union" and what they see as moves towards the creation of a "United States of Europe". Prime Minister David Cameron wants Britain to stay in the EU. Sixteen members of his cabinet also back staying in. The Conservative Party has pledged to be neutral in the campaign - but the Labour Party, SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Lib Dems are all in favour of staying in. US president Barack Obama also wants Britain to remain in the EU, as do other EU nations such as France and Germany. As mentioned above, according to polls, the British public seems pretty evenly split on the issue. Those campaigning for Britain to stay in the EU say it gets a big boost from membership - it makes selling things to other EU countries easier and, they argue, the flow of immigrants, most of whom are young and keen to work, fuels economic growth and helps pay for public services. They also believe Britain's status in the world would be damaged by leaving and that we are more secure as part of the 28 nation club, rather than going it alone. It depends which way you look at it - or what you believe is important. Leaving the EU would be a big step - arguably far more important than who wins a general election - but would it set the nation free or condemn it to economic ruin? Issue-by-issue: The arguments for and against Big business - with a few exceptions - tends to be in favour of Britain staying in the EU because it makes it easier for them to move money, people and products around the world. BT chairman Sir Mike Rake, a recent CBI president, says there are "no credible alternatives" to staying in the EU. But others disagree, such as Lord Bamford, chairman of JCB, who says an EU exit would allow the UK to negotiate trade deals as our country "rather than being one of 28 nations". Many small and medium-sized firms would welcome a cut in red tape and what they see as petty regulations. The British Chambers of Commerce says 55% of members back staying in a reformed EU. The Electoral Commission is in charge of making sure it's a fair contest. It has designated lead campaigns for both the "leave" and "remain" sides. The official campaigns - Vote Leave and Britain Stronger in Europe - get access to a grant of up to £600,000, an overall spending limit of £7m, campaign broadcasts, free mailshots and free access to meeting rooms. The Electoral Commission has published a guide to the rules. Thanks for sending in your questions. Here are a selection of them, and our answers: A lot of people asked about this. To be clear, if you are a British, Irish or Commonwealth citizen on the electoral register you will be able to vote in the referendum. You will not have to register specially. You can check with your local authority's electoral services team if you are worried that you are not on the register. If you were not on the register you had until midnight on Thursday, 9 June to submit an application for a vote; this deadline was extended by two days after an online glitch meant people trying to register online in the run up to the original deadline could not do so. For those who are registered to vote the deadlines for applying for a postal vote at the referendum have now gone The good news for Edward, from Cambridge, who asked this question, is we have been working on exactly such a list. Click here for the latest version. . Yes, is the answer to this question from William from West Sussex. All the votes will be counted and then added up, with a straight majority needed to provide the result. In answer to some other people's questions, there is no minimum turnout needed. So if, for the sake of argument, only three people voted on the day, if two of them voted to leave, that would be the result. The good news for Dean from West Sussex - and the many others of you who asked the same question - is that you will be able to vote by post, as people can in local and general elections. Here's the Electoral Commission's guide to applying to vote by post. In answer to a question from John, from Lewes, counts will get under way when polls close at 22:00 GMT Thursday, 23 June at 382 local centres around the UK. These local results will be declared as the counts are completed before being collated at 12 regional centres, which will also declare the totals for each side. There will be a rolling total so the time at which one side reaches the point of being mathematically unbeatable depends on how quickly the vote are counted and how close the results are running. It is a safe bet that from 4am onwards there should be pretty clear picture of which way the vote is going. A chief counting officer will announce the overall result at Manchester Town Hall. Lots of people asked about this. A lot would depend on the kind of deal the UK agreed with the EU after exit. If it remained within the single market, it would almost certainly retain free movement rights allowing UK citizens to work in the EU and vice versa. If the government opted to impose work permit restrictions, as UKIP wants, then other countries could reciprocate, meaning Britons would have to apply for visas to work. As explained in the answer above, it would depend on whether the UK government decided to introduce a work permit system of the kind that currently applies to non-EU citizens, limiting entry to skilled workers in professions where there are shortages. Duncan, from Chippenham, wanted to know if the UK could deport terror suspects to their own countries to face charges without being overruled by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg. The ECHR is not a European Union institution. It was set up by the Council of Europe, which has 47 members including Russia and Ukraine. So quitting the EU would not exempt the UK from its decisions. The UK government is, however, committed to repealing the Human Rights Act which requires UK courts to treat the ECHR as setting legal precedents for the UK, in favour of a British Bill of Rights. As part of that, David Cameron is expected to announce measures that will boost the powers of courts in England and Wales to over-rule judgements handed down by the ECHR. Pauline, from Shipston on Stour, asked this one. No nation state has ever left the EU. But Greenland, one of Denmark's overseas territories, held a referendum in 1982, after gaining a greater degree of self government, and voted by 52% to 48% to leave, which it duly did after a period of negotiation. The BBC's Carolyn Quinn visited Greenland at the end of last year to find out how they did it. It is up the UK government to decide whether or not to keep the pound or switch to the euro. The deal David Cameron struck with the EU included recognition that the UK has no plans to switch to the euro currency. In answer to this query from Nancy from Hornchurch - the UK is one of 10 member states who pay more into the EU budget than they get out, only France and Germany contribute more. In 2014/15, Poland was the largest beneficiary, followed by Hungary and Greece. The UK also gets an annual rebate that was negotiated by Margaret Thatcher and money back, in the form of regional development grants and payments to farmers, which added up to £4.6bn in 2014/15. According to the latest Treasury figures, the UK's net contribution for 2014/15 was £8.8bn - nearly double what it was in 2009/10. The National Audit Office, using a different formula which takes into account EU money paid directly to private sector companies and universities to fund research, and measured over the EU's financial year, shows the UK's net contribution for 2014 was £5.7bn. Read more number crunching from Reality Check. David, from East Sussex, is worried about what would happen to his retirement plans if Britain votes to leave the EU. This is one of those issues where it is not possible to say definitively what would happen. At the moment, the large British expat community in Spain gets free access to Spanish GPs and their hospital treatment is paid for by the NHS. After they become permanent residents Spain pays for their hospital treatment. Similar arrangements are in place with other EU countries. If Britain leaves the EU but remains in the single market, or the European Economic Area as it is known, it might be able to continue with this arrangement, according to a House of Commons library research note. If Britain has to negotiate trade deals with individual member states, it may opt to continue paying for expats' healthcare through the NHS or decide that they would have to cover their own costs if they continue to live abroad, if the country where they live declines to do so. The short answer is that we'll find out on 24 June! John wrote to ask whether we are in for a repeat of the general election when the opinion polls underestimated support for one side, the Conservatives, and overstated support for the other, Labour. As John points out, research suggests younger people are more likely to vote to remain in the EU, while older voters tend to favour out. But as a general rule, older people are more likely to vote in elections than younger people. The "don't knows" are also running at between 17% and 20%. Prof John Curtice, who supervised the general election exit poll, has also noticed a difference between polls conducted online, which suggest the race is close, and ones conducted over the telephone, which put the Remain campaign ahead. Opinion polling is not an exact science - for more information on the latest referendum polls and analysis by Prof Curtice, visit the National Centre for Social Research's What UK thinks site. Jude wanted to know if his Peruvian girlfriend, who is a British citizen but has been living in Peru for five years, can take part in the referendum. The answer is yes, if she has appeared on the UK electoral register in the past 15 years. This was a question asked by many people. The minimum period after a vote to leave would be two years. During that time Britain would continue to abide by EU treaties and laws, but not take part in any decision-making, as it negotiated a withdrawal agreement and the terms of its relationship with the now 27 nation bloc. In practice it may take longer than two years, depending on how the negotiations go. Michael, from East Sussex asks an intriguing question - could the necessary legislation pass the Commons if all SNP and Lib Dems, nearly all Labour and many Conservative MPs were in favour of staying? The answer is that technically MPs could block an EU exit - but it would be seen as political suicide to go against the will of the people as expressed in a referendum. The referendum result is not legally binding - Parliament still has to pass the laws that will get Britain out of the 28 nation bloc, starting with the repeal of the 1972 European Communities Act. The withdrawal agreement would also have to be ratified by Parliament - the House of Lords and/or the Commons could vote against ratification, according to a House of Commons library report. It adds: "If the Commons resolves against ratification, the treaty can still be ratified if the Government lays a statement explaining why the treaty should nonetheless be ratified and the House of Commons does not resolve against ratification a second time within 21 days (this process can be repeated ad infinitum). " In practice, Conservative MPs who voted to remain in the EU would be whipped to vote with the government. Any who defied the whip would have to face the wrath of voters at the next general election. One scenario that could see the referendum result overturned, is if MPs forced a general election and a party campaigned on a promise to keep Britain in the EU, got elected and then claimed that the election mandate topped the referendum one. Two thirds of MPs would have to vote for a general election to be held before the next scheduled one in 2020. Virginia, from Hayling Island, asked several questions around the concept of the single market. You could probably write a book on this one. But we'll try to keep it brief. The single market is seen by its advocates as the EU's biggest achievement and one of the main reasons it was set up in the first place. Britain was a member of a free trade area in Europe before it joined what was then known as the common market. In a free trade area countries can trade with each other without paying tariffs - but it is not a single market because the member states do not have to merge their economies together. The European Union single market, which was completed in 1992, allows the free movement of goods, services, money and people within the European Union, as if it was a single country. It is possible to set up a business or take a job anywhere within it. The idea was to boost trade, create jobs and lower prices. But it requires common law-making to ensure products are made to the same technical standards and imposes other rules to ensure a "level playing field". Critics say it generates too many petty regulations and robs members of control over their own affairs. Mass migration from poorer to richer countries has also raised questions about the free movement rule. Read more: A free trade area v EU single market Dee, from Launceston, wanted to know what would happen to EU laws covering protected species such as bats if Britain left. The answer is that they would remain in place, initially at least. After a leave vote, the government would probably review all EU-derived laws in the two years leading up to the official exit date to see which ones to keep or scrap. The status of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas, which are designated by the EU, would be reviewed to see what alternative protections could be applied. The same process would apply to European Protected Species legislation, which relate to bats and their habitats. The government would want to avoid a legislative vacuum caused by the repeal of EU laws before new UK laws are in place - it would also continue to abide by other international agreements covering environmental protection. Martin, from Poole, in Dorset, wanted to know what taxpayers are likely to get back from the benefit curbs negotiated by David Cameron in Brussels. We don't exactly know because the details have not been worked out. HM Revenue and Customs have suggested about 20,000 EU nationals receive child benefit payments in respect of 34,000 children in their country of origin at an estimated cost of about £30m. But the total saving is likely to be significantly less than that because Mr Cameron did not get the blanket ban he wanted. Instead, payments will be linked to the cost of living in the countries where the children live. David Cameron has said that as many as 40% of EU migrant families who come to Britain could lose an average of £6,000 a year of in-work benefits when his "emergency brake" is applied. The DWP estimates between 128,700 and 155,100 people would be affected. But the cuts will be phased in. New arrivals will not get tax credits and other in-work benefits straight away but will gradually gain access to them over a four year period at a rate yet to be decided. Sophie from Peterborough, who asks the question, need not worry. We have consulted Alasdair Rendall, president of the UK Eurovision fan club, who says: "No, we would not be barred. All participating countries must be a member of the European Broadcasting Union. The EBU - which is totally independent of the EU - includes countries both inside and outside of the EU, and also includes countries such as Israel that are outside of Europe. Indeed the UK started participating in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1957, 16 years before joining the then EEC. " Brendan, from London, wonders whether Commonwealth citizens need to have been granted indefinite leave to remain to get a vote. The Electoral Commission guidelines say: "Any type of leave to enter or remain is acceptable, whether indefinite, time limited or conditional. " That means all citizens of India, Australia, Pakistan, Canada and 48 other Commonwealth nations who are living in the UK can take part (provided they are old enough and are on the electoral register). As can citizens of British overseas territories, such as the Falkland Islands, Bermuda or Gibraltar, if they are currently residing in the UK. Here is a full list of Commonwealth countries. Philip, from Kriton in Lindsey, North Lincolnshire, asked this. The answer is no, unless you are an Irish, Malta or Cyprus citizen. The rules are the same as for a general election, when EU citizens living in the UK are not allowed to take part. So they will not get a polling card and not be on the list at the polling station. John, in London, is concerned about what will happen to house prices if Britain leaves the EU and "millions of EU citizens need to leave" creating a flood of available housing. This is one of those questions where there is no clear-cut factual answer. But we can say that none of the main players are suggesting that citizens of other EU countries will be "sent packing" (to use John's phrase) after a Leave vote. There are a host of other variables that have an impact on property prices, including things like interest rates and the general state of the economy. But expect this to be one of those issues fought over by both sides during the campaign. Ged, from Liverpool, suspects "red tape" is a euphemism for employment rights and environmental protection. According to the Open Europe think tank , four of the top five most costly EU regulations are either employment or environment-related. The UK renewable energy strategy, which the think- tank says costs £4.7bn a year, tops the list. The working time directive (£4.2bn a year) - which limits the working week to 48 hours - and the temporary agency workers directive (£2.1bn a year), giving temporary staff many of the same rights as permanent ones - are also on the list. There is nothing to stop a future UK government reproducing these regulations in British law, if the country left the EU. And the costs of so- called "red tape" would not necessarily disappear overnight in the event of an exit - if Britain opted to follow the "Norway model" and remained in the European Economic Area most of the EU-derived laws would remain in place. Ste, in Bolton, asked about this. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership - or TTIP - currently under negotiation between the EU and United States will create the biggest free trade area the world has ever seen. Cheerleaders for TTIP, including David Cameron, believe it could make American imports cheaper and boost British exports to the US to the tune of £10bn a year. But many on the left, including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, fear it will shift more power to multinational corporations, undermine public services, wreck food standards and threaten basic rights. Quitting the EU would mean the UK would not be part of TTIP. It would have negotiate its own trade deal with the US. Paddy, from Widnes, wanted to know how leaving the EU would affect the number of doctors we have and how it would impact the NHS. This became an issue in the referendum debate after the Leave campaign claimed the money Britain sends to the EU, which it claims is £350m a week, could be spent on the NHS instead. The BBC's Reality Check team looked into this claim. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned that leaving the EU would lead to budget cuts and an exodus of overseas doctors and nurses. The Leave campaign dismissed his intervention as "scaremongering" and continues to insist that EU membership fees could be spent on domestic services like the NHS. Former Labour health secretary Lord Owen has said that because of TTIP (see answer above) the only way to protect the NHS from further privatisation was to get out of the EU. Mandy, from Sutton-in-Ashfield, asked this one - and the answer is no. You can use a pen, if you want. But electoral law states that clerks must provide pencils in polling booths. Alan, from Stockport, and Paul, from the Isle of Wight, and quite a few others, sent invariations of this question. And the short answer is, no. A ballot paper will only be counted if it contains a cross in either the box for Remain, or in the box for Leave. Anything else - for example, more than one cross, a cross outside the box, or a blank ballot paper - will be deemed invalid. The side that wins is the one with the most legible votes. Tim, from Epsom, wanted to know what would happen if 49% voted for one side, 48% for the other side with 3% spoilt ballots. Because the spoilt ballots would not count as votes, they would therefore not be counted as part of the final result. Yes, in answer to Ruth's question. It is a British document - there is no such thing as an EU passport, so whether the UK stays in or leaves the EU your passport will stay the same. In theory, the government could, if it wanted, decide to change the colour, which is currently standardised for EU countries, says the BBC's Europe correspondent, Chris Morris. No-one knows for definite. The EHIC card - which entitles travellers to state- provided medical help for any condition or injury that requires urgent treatment, in any other country within the EU, as well as several non-EU countries - is not an EU initiative. It was negotiated between countries within a group known as the European Economic Area, often simply referred to as the single market (plus Switzerland, which confusingly is not a member of the EEA, but has agreed access to the single market). Therefore, the future of Britons' EHIC cover could depend on whether the UK decided to sever ties with the EEA in the event of a leave vote. Probably not, says BBC Europe correspondent Chris Morris , because there's no EU-wide law on vehicle registration or car number places, and the EU flag symbol is a voluntary identifier and not compulsory. The DVLA says there has been no discussion about what would happen to plates with the flag if the UK voted to leave. A few people have asked this question - and the answer is yes. BBC Europe editor Katya Adler says the UK would have to start from scratch with no rebate, and enter in to accession talks with the EU. Every member state would have to agree to the UK re-joining. But she says with elections looming elsewhere in Europe, other leaders might not be generous towards any UK demands. The mechanisms for re-joining the EU are set out in the Lisbon Treaty. According to Article 50: " If a state which has withdrawn from the Union asks to rejoin, its request shall be subject to the procedure referred to in Article 49. " And Article 49 states: " The applicant state shall address its application to the Council, which shall act unanimously after consulting the Commission and after receiving the assent of the European Parliament, which shall act by an absolute majority of its component members. The conditions of admission and the adjustments to the Treaties on which the Union is founded, which such admission entails, shall be the subject of an agreement between the member states and the applicant state. " New members are required to adopt the euro as their currency, once they meet the relevant criteria, although the UK could try to negotiate an opt-out. Yes, says BBC Europe editor Katya Adler. There would still be 27 other EU states in the bloc, and others wanting to join in the future, and the common language tends to be English - "much to France's chagrin", she says. On the one hand, it's easier as there are only two options, says BBC home editor Mark Easton. But it's also harder because polling companies' expertise has been based on the general election model and built up over many years. Probably not is the answer. It would depend on whether or not the UK decided to get rid of current safety standards. Even if that happened any company wanting to export to the EU would have to comply with its safety rules, and it's hard to imagine a company would want to produce two batches of the same products. Got a question on the UK's EU referendum? Submit it using the form below and we will answer a selection:
2016-06-21 19:57 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
77 Orlando shooting: Mother of 11 killed at nightclub laid to rest A mother of 11 who saved her son's life in the Orlando nightclub shooting has been laid to rest. Isaiah Henderson, 21, delivered a tearful eulogy for his mother, Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, who was one of the 49 people killed at a gay nightclub. Ms McCool, 49, threw herself on her son to shield him from a spray of bullets after gunman Omar Mateen opened on fire on a crowd on 12 June. She is survived by 11 children, who were all at her funeral to pay tribute. Many of Ms McCool's 11 children spoke at the funeral at the First United Methodist Church of Orlando. The Brooklyn, New York, native was residing in Orlando before she was shot and killed. Mr Henderson said he was dancing with his mother when gunshots rang out. "I never thought that her life would be ended right in front of my eyes", Mr Henderson said of his mother, ABC News reported. "My mother accepted everyone with open arms. She loved everybody equally no matter what. " "I haven't stopped crying since". Kassandra Marquez, Ms McCool' cousin, told the BBC the mother of 11 died saving her son. Ms McCool's family also used the funeral to celebrate their loved one's life. Henderson recounted how he used to wrestle with his mother. "I obviously lost. She's a linebacker! " he said to a crowd of laughter. Michael Santos, her brother, also described Ms McCool as the life of the party. Following the funeral, members of Ms McCool's family released 49 white balloons in honour of her lost life. The Mayor of Orlando, Buddy Dyer, declared a day of mourning in remembrance of Ms McCool's heroism. US Attorney General Loretta Lynch is expected to meet victims in Orlando. The high-profile visit comes a day after the FBI released a transcript of the phone calls between Mateen and the Orlando Police Department.
2016-06-21 19:57 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
78 Iraqi army only retook third of Falluja A US military commander in Baghdad has openly contradicted the Iraqi army's claim last week that it had liberated the key city of Falluja and driven out IS militants from most of the city. Colonel Christopher Garver said Iraqi forces had cleared only a third of the city and the rest remains contested. Iraqi commanders insist that 80% of Falluja is under their control. Iraq's prime minister announced Falluja's "liberation" on Friday, after the city council building was retaken. Haider al-Abadi claimed that remaining pockets of IS fighters would be "cleaned out within hours". But clashes between government forces and IS militants continue and the militants have dug in in residential neighbourhoods in the north of the city. Falluja: Why the embattled city matters Devastated Falluja remains a battleground Fight to drive IS from Iraq far from over Islamic State group: The full story Iraqi forces moved into the centre of the city on Friday, raising the national flag from the city council building. But Colonel Garver warned that the troops would encounter more resistance as they moved out from the centre of the city. He said: "What it looks like is (an IS) defensive belt around the city with not as stiff defences inside. That could be their toughest fighting. " Iraqi commanders said on Tuesday they had pushed IS out of two northern neighbourhoods of the city. They say the battle for Falluja has killed 2,500 militants, but the figure has not been independently backed up. The operation to retake the city has pushed thousands of residents to flee, overwhelming refugee camps. More than 83,000 people have fled since the government launched the assault and up to 25,000 more are likely to be on the move, according to the UN. The Norwegian Refugee Council said reception camps for the displaced were overwhelmed, and there was insufficient water, food, shelter and medical care. Falluja, only 50km (30 miles) west of the capital Baghdad, has been held by IS for longer than any other city in Iraq or Syria. The jihadist group overran the predominantly Sunni Arab city in January 2014, six months before it seized control of large parts of northern and western Iraq.
2016-06-21 19:57 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
79 Trump suspect Michael Sandford was a 'very quiet lad' A British man arrested while trying to grab a policeman's gun at a Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas has been described in his home town as "a very quiet lad". Michael Sandford is charged with an act of violence in a restricted area. The 20-year-old had reportedly tried to seize the gun and said he wanted to shoot the US presidential candidate . Surrey Police said it was "providing family liaison support on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office". Mr Sandford told American police if he had not tried to kill Mr Trump at this rally he would have tried again at a rally in Phoenix, for which he had already booked tickets, the papers say. He told investigators he had been in the US for one and a half years and drove to Las Vegas from California specifically to kill Mr Trump, the court papers say. Court research showed he was unemployed, living out of his car and in the US illegally, the Associated Press news agency reports. A federal public defender said he had autism and had attempted suicide, the agency adds. Mr Sandford's father Paul Davey, from Havant, said his son had "always been a polite and peaceful boy". Mr Davey told the Portsmouth News : "Whether he's been blackmailed or put up to it, that's the only thing me and his mum can think of. "It's so against his nature and obviously with his Aspergers, we think somebody has got hold of him and done something. " Mr Sandford has been described as a keen Robot Wars enthusiast who competed with a machine he built and bought a number of robots featured in the show. The BBC understands he lived with his mother Lynne in Dorking, Surrey until about 18 months ago. Their neighbours and his former schoolmates also reacted to news of his arrest. Katrina Greg told BBC Surrey: "He seems like quite a scruffy-dressed fellow most of the time; jeans and a baggy t-shirt, shaggyish brown hair. He certainly never looked like he dressed smart or wore a suit to work. " But she added: "He kept himself to himself, like most people on this street". Another neighbour in Dorking described him as "a very quiet lad". "He was alright. He got on well with his mum as far as I know. His mum is nice and is a friendly character. " One elderly neighbour, asked if she was surprised by what is said to have happened, said: "Kids do strange things and he (Trump) is a horrible man anyway. " Mr Sandford attended Powell Corderoy Primary School in Dorking, then went on to Ascombe School, whose headteacher David Blow declined to comment. One classmate, who was in Mr Sandford's Year 6 class, said: "My boyfriend's mum showed me an article about it this morning and asked if I had gone to school with him and as soon as I saw the picture I recognised him. "All I remember about him from school - he was a bit of a strange one and I never really spoke to him. " Powell Corderoy headteacher Emma McLoughlin said she did not work at the school when Mr Sandford attended but staff had mentioned him. She said: "I did not know the guy, it was a long time ago in the school's history. "It highlights the importance of how we teach children about expressing themselves in non-violent ways. "To be honest it's not the sort of thing we want to draw the children's attention to. " The US Secret Service claimed Mr Sandford told police he wanted to kill the presumptive Republican nominee. Mr Sandford is alleged to have told investigators he expected to die in the attempt, which he had been planning for a year. He arrived in Las Vegas last Friday and reportedly went to a local shooting range to learn how to use a gun.
2016-06-21 19:57 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
80 Could Australia swing the UK’s Brexit vote? Australians sending in postal votes for the upcoming UK referendum on European Union membership could have considerable influence on the result, writes Julian Lorkin. Fresh from Australia's success at Eurovision - when contestant Dami Im came in second - many Australian residents are about to cast a much more important vote on Europe and its future. Anyone with a British passport who lives Down Under is eligible to participate in the UK's referendum on exiting the EU if they have registered to vote in the past 15 years. With 1.2 million British nationals in Australia, and 250,000 in New Zealand, both the stay and leave camps are in full campaign mode half a world away from the UK. Southern hemisphere votes have the potential to swing the knife-edge referendum. Posters supporting both sides have sprouted in areas popular with UK residents. In some locations, such as Perth, up to 15% of the population was born in England. The referendum vote is optional. As a result there has been a strong campaign just urging voters to post their ballot slips back from Australia. "Expat conversations swirl around it," says the Guardian's cartoonist David Squires. He is a household name in Britain, even though he migrated to Australia several years ago. "I'm just overloaded trying to work out the issues and the timing is woeful - the vote comes right after Eurovision, just before the Australian general election - and with all the noise of the US election too. " He feels that it's odd to have a postal vote when he has essentially left the UK behind. "I really shouldn't have a vote. I'm an ex-pat who has migrated - almost the opposite as to what the vote is about. It's great for comedy though. " Some expats have been incorrectly told they need to pay to return their postal vote, which uses the free International Business Reply Service (IBRS). Post offices have asked for up to A$68 (£32) to courier votes. The UK's Electoral Commission told the BBC in a statement it was working closely with postal operators to correct misunderstandings. Expats are also closely watching the sterling and the Australian dollar, among the world's most-traded and most-volatile currency pairs. The value of the pound has recently veered between A$1.50 and A$3. At its last meeting the Reserve Bank of Australia deferred changing interest rates ahead of the Brexit vote, calling it a "near-term risk" with considerable implications for the Australian dollar. "Sterling could take a pounding with a Brexit," confirms Australian business commentator Ross Greenwood. He has spoken to many business leaders in the UK about the impact of a Brexit. "Mind you, the pound dropping would make the UK's exports more competitive, giving a boon to UK tourism. Aussies would queue at Kingsford Smith [Sydney's airport] keen to get a cheap trip back," he says. "Hundreds of Australian companies are champing at the bit to get access to Britain. They want a UK Free Trade Agreement on much better terms than Europe. "Many farmers have been enviously eyeing up their traditional British market for Australian milk, beef and wool. It would build an economic relationship that used to be the cornerstone of the Australian and British partnership. " However, he thinks Australian banks would be very cautious. "Australia's NAB had an ill-fated adventure into UK regional banking, losing millions on Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank. Once bitten, they'd fight shy of jumping in feet-first again. " Although the UK might eye-up Australia, he says, "Down Under is linked now to Korea, Japan and the US. But make no mistake; a newly independent UK would be welcomed with open arms by trade delegations from Canberra. " However, Annmarie Elijah, from the ANU Centre for European Studies, urges caution. "The UK and Australia cannot dig the UK-Australia Trade Agreement [UKATA] out of the bottom drawer, dust it off and carry on. " Creating a new trade agreement would take time. "There is no reason to think that Australia would be top of the UK's prospective trade partners. " Far more British expats live Down Under than elsewhere in the world. Only Spain, with 760,000, and the United States at 600,000 come close. As such they will wield considerable influence over whether the UK stays in the EU. And Ross Greenwood, whose parents are from the UK, says one other thing might change with a Brexit - the EU passport queues. "It might also heal the small hurt that Aussies of British parentage feel, when they have to queue in the non-UK, non-EU passport line at Heathrow. "
2016-06-21 19:57 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
81 Jewish commentators on Brexit With the UK poised for its fateful referendum on Thursday to decide whether to stay in the European Union or leave the continent to its own devices, political commentators from the Jewish community have weighed in both for and against Brexit. The upcoming vote has dominated the public debate in Britain for weeks if not months now, with the “Remain” camp led by Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party David Cameron arguing principally that leaving the EU would cause severe economic damage to the country, while proponents of Brexit have claimed that only by leaving the union can the country gain control of its borders and halt immigration. None of the major Jewish institutions of Anglo-Jewry have made any public comments on Brexit at all, and most Jewish leaders have also refrained from coming down in favor of one side or the other. Two prominent progressive UK rabbis, Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner of the UK’s Movement for Reform Judaism, and Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism in the UK Rabbi Danny Rich, did however sign a public letter together with other faith leaders and published in The Observer in favor of remaining in the EU. Several prominent Jewish political columnists have though strongly backed Brexit. Melanie Phillips, a columnist for The Jerusalem Post and for The Times, has been vociferously in favor of leaving the EU’s political and economic union. In an article for the Post in April, Phillips said she was in favor of Britain leaving the EU “so that it can become once again a democratic, self- governing nation,” arguing that the UK had joined the ECC, the precursor of the EU, in 1973 out of economic despair. In an even stronger article in The Times on Tuesday, Phillips said that the EU had “metastasized into a full- blown superstate project” which restrains the democracy of its members, made it impossible for the UK to control immigration and thereby generated much public anger. Some 330,000 people migrated to the UK in 2015, 184,000 of whom were from EU member countries of the EU. Member countries of the union are obliged to accept immigrants from other members in line with the EU’s fundamental principles of freedom of work and movement. Geoffrey Alderman, a well known columnist for the Jewish Chronicle, also took a similar line when he said in the paper in March that “The United Kingdom is now governed in large and ever-expanding measure by unelected apparatchiks in Brussels.” Daniel Finkelstein, associate editor for The Times who worked as an aide to former Conservative Party leader William Hague, said that despite his Euro-skepticism he said the UK should stay in the EU for economic reasons. “I can see the arguments for leaving the EU, but the costs will be great and I don’t think the benefits will come,” he said on LBC radio station on Tuesday. “I don’t think we’re going to get the control on immigration that the leave people want,” he continued, adding that the UK was well position within the EU by not being committed “to ever closer union,” and not being required to bail out some of the sickly economies of southern Europe. “To throw away the economic advantages of ebbing in a big single market which all businesses are saying will be economically damaging for people’s jobs and incomes. If we damage our prosperity we damage everything.”
2016-06-21 20:03 JEREMY SHARON www.jpost.com
82 How Ray Parlour straddled a culture clash in English football Haystack in a haystack: travels around the human genome With 20 minutes of the 2002 FA Cup final remaining, Arsenal’s Sylvain Wiltord played a smart pass behind the Chelsea midfield. “Oh, it’s all right,” said the television presenter Tim Lovejoy, a Chelsea supporter, commentating on Sky’s FanZone. “It’s only Ray Parlour.” But Marcel Desailly backed off and Parlour kept advancing, then he whipped in a shot from 25 yards to give Arsenal a lead that Fredrik Ljungberg doubled ten minutes later. It was a fine and important goal but the moment also summed up Parlour: underestimated, underappreciated and never taken entirely seriously. Although he won three Premier League titles and four FA Cups with Arsenal, Parlour was capped only ten times for England. In part, that was because he was competing for a place with David Beckham, but he wasn’t helped by an incident shortly before the 1998 World Cup, when he suffered a calf strain after being called up to join Glenn Hoddle’s England squad. Hoddle insisted that Parlour see his faith healer, Eileen Drewery. When she ran her fingers over his head as part of her diagnostic process, he asked for a short back and sides. Hoddle didn’t take him to the World Cup. The story is typical. Parlour emerges as somebody who is open and generous, always up for a laugh, rarely thinking of the consequences. His autobiography is, in essence, a series of anecdotes about drunken japes, lads’ antics and moments of slapstick, though it is rather more engaging than that makes it sound. There have been attempts in recent years to reinvigorate the sports autobiography but this one is unashamedly old school. There are no great meditations on the nature of fame or the meaning of football, but there is something rather refreshing about that, even if the tales of eating contests and debaggings may not be to all tastes. And, in a sense, that is reflective of Parlour, who always seemed something of a throwback in Arsène Wenger’s great Arsenal side at the turn of the millennium. As Wenger revolutionised match preparation, introduced such revolutionary nutritional ideas as eating broccoli and pasta and enjoyed great success with his coterie of French and Dutch midfielders and forwards, Parlour was the English anachronism, a blur of energy whose willingness to work allowed the rapid Marc Overmars to take on a more attacking role on the left. It’s perhaps because of Parlour’s prodigious stamina that his technical qualities were often overlooked: the nickname “Romford Pelé” was bestowed by Overmars and it stuck largely because it seemed so incongruous. Parlour describes himself as a bridge between two eras, between the hard- drinking side of the George Graham era and Wenger’s more enlightened team. Some of the details of the culture clash are revealing. On a pre- season tour of Switzerland, the French midfielder Gilles Grimandi asked to join the English players on a drinking session rather than going to a café with his compatriots. Parlour went to the bar and ordered a small white wine for Grimandi and 35 pints for the five English players there: seven each to get them going. The drinking is played largely for laughs but there is darkness lurking as Tony Adams, Arsenal’s inspirational captain, is jailed for drink-driving and subsequently admits to being an alcoholic. Parlour writes of his shock and expresses admiration for Adams as he changes his lifestyle, but it is a passing detail. Similarly, he refers frequently to his own love of betting but is mostly silent on the subject of his team-mate Paul Merson and his addiction to gambling. It’s just not an introspective book. Even his divorce, the settlement of which made legal history by taking his future earnings into account, is skipped over, as though he doesn’t want to dampen the mood for too long. Some of the stories are very funny. The quiet and intense Martin Keown is a constant butt and Parlour suggests that it was a joke at his expense that led to the baffling signing of the Latvian central defender Igors Stepanovs in 2000. Stepanovs was invited for a trial by Arsenal that summer. Keown was always anxious about those who might be signed in his position and so, to needle him, a number of squad members decided to praise everything Stepanovs did. Keown became increasingly wound up but Parlour now wonders whether their praise swayed Wenger, who offered the Latvian a four-year contract. He was never good enough for Arsenal and became a standing joke after a dreadful first half in a game at Old Trafford that Manchester United won 6-1. It’s not entirely clear the extent to which Parlour believes his theory, but that’s the nature of the book. It is full of good, knockabout stories but the aim is always to get a laugh, rather than to offer any great insight. Occasionally, there are glimmers of something more profound but they are quickly left behind by the next tale of high jinks. Maybe that’s the nature of the man. If nothing else, Parlour’s autobiography suggests that he would be very good company on a night out. Jonathan Wilson’s books include “Angels With Dirty Faces: the Footballing History of Argentina” (Orion) The Romford Pelé: It’s Only Ray Parlour’s Autobiography by Ray Parlour, with Amy Lawrence is published by Century (304pp, £16.99) My favourite quotation from Charles Darwin: “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.” In that brief sentence, the founder of modern biology unknowingly summarised in advance the history of genetics, from the eugenical ideas of his half-cousin Francis Galton to Bill Clinton’s statement that the human genome sequence was “the most important, the most wondrous map ever produced by humankind”. The eugenics movement led to disasters known to everyone. It is not yet dead: Francis Crick once claimed that “no newborn should be declared human until it has passed certain tests regarding its genetic endowment”, and our own government’s decision to deny child support to poor people irresponsible enough to have more than two offspring (the agent of the policy has four) is in the same tradition. As a reminder of our ignorance, the DNA chart looks more like a medieval atlas than a modern map – with geneticists, in unconscious parallel to Swift’s words, the geographers who “in Afric maps/With savage pictures fill their gaps,/And o’er inhabitable downs/Place elephants for want of towns”. Siddhartha Mukherjee’s book is a tourist guide to the new Africa, the human genome. The chart of that continent does indeed have too many metaphorical elephants and a noticeable shortage of productive towns: there are only about 20,000 working genes in the conventional sense, rather than the millions once assumed to exist (and why do tomatoes have more than we do?). They are surrounded by vast numbers of more or less mysterious molecular beasts, some of them parasites that invaded long ago, others the mouldering corpses of once-noble creatures, and yet more – the so-called junk – known more in its anatomy than in what it actually does. Lengthy as this book is (and Mukherjee might have gained from turning to his own account of the genome’s ability to cut out redundant and repetitive sections), it gives a full and lively account of the development of the subject, from its birth in the 19th century to its infancy in the 20th and its uncertain adolescence in the 21st. Mukherjee begins the book with a melancholy tale of the schizophrenia that attacked two of his uncles and his cousin, and caused his own father to worry that elements of the illness “may be buried, like toxic waste, in himself”. Other family members had blamed the madness of their relatives on the horrors of Partition in India in 1947, which led to millions of deaths. Now, however, it has become clear that a predisposition to the condition, and particularly to the variety known as bipolar disorder (doctors have abandoned the old name “manic depression”), has a strong hereditary component, and Mukherjee confesses that part of the impetus for writing The Gene: an Intimate History was a personal concern about his own offspring. In this it resembles his 2011 work on cancer, The Emperor of All Maladies , which he describes as a biography rather than a work of popular science. The problem with genetics is that it lends itself too readily to anecdote. When teaching, I begin my own first-year course on the subject by telling the students: “I am a geneticist and my job is to make sex boring.” They look somewhat bemused, but after 20 lectures that fight through pedigrees, linkage mapping, population genetics, inbreeding, heritability, mutation and the like, I can tell that they agree heartily – and I’ve not even started to talk about the mechanics of sequencing or the horrors of bioinformatics, which have turned much of biology into computer science. Instead, to leaven the mix, and much as I secretly regret it, I plunge again and again into the Swamp of Storytelling and revel in colourful and often tragic tales of Sex, Age and Death (a phrase I once planned to use as a book title but made the mistake of mentioning to Bob Geldof, who stole it for one of his albums). Mukherjee does the same, and often succeeds. I did not know that Gregor Mendel twice failed in his attempts to enter teacher training college; that the founder of (and donor to) the notorious “genius” sperm bank of the 1980s, the Nobel prizewinner William Shockley, may well have had autism, another condition with some genetic component; nor that the human genome paper was the longest ever published in Nature. And I learned perhaps more than I needed to know about the sordid disagreements between public and private genome mappers, the latter anxious to make millions, even billions, from the map, and the former who saw it as a public good. The good guys won in the end, though the American molecular diagnostics company Myriad Genetics managed to leap in just in time to patent the two genes that can cause breast cancer when they go wrong. On his trek across the genetical landscape Mukherjee gives an exhaustive account of the development of the modern science of inheritance. He has talked to many of the main players and gives deep insights into their moments of discovery. He does sometimes fall a little too hard for the latest scientific fashion, the most glittering (or tawdry) of which is epigenetics, the interaction between gene and environment. The term was coined by one of my own teachers at Edinburgh, C H Waddington, a student of fruit fly development. He found that a sudden heat shock to the embryos led to the appearance of a few flies with abnormal wings among the adults. By breeding from these, he could obtain stocks that in time produced such flies with no need for a shock, proof that an environmental stress could uncover hidden genetic variation. Unfortunately, the term has been hijacked and turned into a universal bridge between chemistry and biology. It is even used to revive the discredited idea that an organism can pass on characteristics acquired in its own lifetime. That bridge goes far too far. The idea that genes respond to external stresses can be traced to the first days of molecular genetics, when it became clear that some genes regulate the activity of others when a creature is faced with a shift in food, or temperature, or some other external stress. In part it is a statement of the obvious: go out in the summer sunshine and the average Briton will get a tan, because skin cells respond to an alarm call by a protein that senses cellular damage to summon up dark granules of melanin around the DNA in order to protect it. His or her children, though, will be born pink. Quite why there has been such a fuss about a concept invented 70 years ago is not clear and is made no clearer here. The book ends where it began, with schizophrenia. That illness is a microcosm of Darwin’s aphorism on ignorance. Freud blamed the condition on “unconscious homosexual impulses”, while others were just as confident that it was brought on by hostile mothers. Then the pendulum swung towards treating it as a genetic disease almost as straightforward as haemophilia. Some cases, like those described in Mukherjee’s opening pages, do indeed run in families, but many more are sporadic and appear among kindred that have no history of the problem. For the latter, the new genetics has revealed hundreds of gene mutations in affected children that are not present in their parents. For the former, the story is not so simple. Certainly, genes that predispose to the condition can be passed on, but various families may inherit different genes yet show similar symptoms, and particular combinations of genes rather than single elements may be responsible for the illness. As this book puts it, the search for the genes behind mental disorder is not like searching for a needle in a haystack, but for a haystack in a haystack. Even for highly heritable attributes such as height, the quest for genes has been baffling, given that more than a hundred are known to be involved in such variation but altogether do not represent even a tenth of the number needed to explain the similarity of parents and children. Unpalatable as this may be for us mere Mendelians, almost every human gene, in effect, may influence almost every one of our attributes, which will be no fun for tomorrow’s molecular cartographers. Even so, and tangled as it already is, Mukherjee does a good job of cutting away the web of ambiguity and complexity that scientists have woven since the happy days when Mendel counted the ratio of round to wrinkled peas in the garden of Brno’s abbey. Another Darwin quotation, this one from The Voyage of the Beagle : There are several other sources of enjoyment in a long voyage . .. The map of the world ceases to be a blank; it becomes a picture full of the most varied and animated figures. Each part assumes its proper dimensions: continents are not looked at in the light of islands, or islands considered as mere specks, which are, in truth, larger than many kingdoms of Europe. Africa, or North and South America, are well-sounding names, and easily pronounced; but it is not until having sailed for weeks along small portions of their shores, that one is thoroughly convinced what vast spaces on our immense world these names imply. Very true, but for his genetical descendants the expedition has only just begun. Steve Jones is Emeritus Professor of Human Genetics at University College London and the author of “No Need for Geniuses: Revolutionary Science in the Age of the Guillotine” (Little, Brown) The Gene: an Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee is published by Bodley Head (608pp, £25)
2016-06-21 19:57 Sarah Ditum www.newstatesman.com
83 Shocking! BJP MLA Ravindra Chavan stokes controversy by comparing Dalits with pigs BJP MLA from Dombivli, Ravindra Chavan, has landed in a huge controversy after comparing Dalits with pigs. BJP MLA Ravindra Chavan. Pic/YouTube The MLA was attending an inaugural function by the Smart City Program in Thane where his comparison went awry and has the landed the BJP leader in big trouble after the video went viral on social media. Chavan while addressing the crowd cited the example of Abraham Lincoln narrating a story where Lincoln picked up a piglet from a drain and cleaned it. The MLA went on to say PM Narendra Modi and CM Devendra Fadnavis too are working hard to uplift dalits. The comparison has angered many Dalit organisations who have demanded an apology from the MLA. The opposition also criticised the BJP MLA and demanded an apology while the district unit of NCP went a step ahead by organising a 'Naming Ceremony' of a pig and named it Ravindra Chavan as a mark of protest.
2016-06-21 19:59 By mid www.mid-day.com
84 BDS not so widespread, US Jews still maintain strong emotional connection to Israel The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement is not as widespread and is only a major issue on some campuses in the US, according to Prof. Theodore Sasson and Prof. Leonard Saxe from Brandeis University. Speaking at a discussion on the changing demographics and politics of American Jewry at the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs, the two professors aimed to dispel common misconceptions regarding US Jews and their relationship with Israel. Contrary to Israeli perception, the professors asserted, BDS is only present on certain campuses and is not deterring Jewish students' engagement with Israel. “BDS is only a problem on certain campuses and on these campuses Jewish students perceive substantial hostility towards Israel,” Saxe said. “What is interesting there are certain campuses where there is very little anti- Israel sentiment on campus,” he added saying that Brandeis, a Jewish university, was one such campus. Still, he said, “even on Brandeis’s campus Israel is the most difficult issue for students to discuss, more difficult than sexual assault and serious problems.” On the most hostile campuses, however, he explained that it is very difficult to express an opinion on Israel. “There is a huge difference between hostile and least hostile campuses and at the same time, the level of hostility doesn't seem to affect the level that people feel connected to Israel,” he said. “It has even been suggested that in the most hostile campuses it is causing the opposite effect, encouraging people to visit Israel to see for themselves.” The Brandeis professors also presented recent data challenging the narrative that American Jewry is shrinking or disappearing and that it is losing its connection to Israel. “What we now know is that it is increasing, both among people who view themselves as Jewish and among people who have Jewish roots,” Saxe said. According to the professors, in 1990 there were 5.5 million Jews in the US while today there are over 7.2 million, which includes people who consider themselves partly Jewish. Prof. Sasson explained that the consequences of intermarriage in terms of Jewish continuity seem to be changing. According to their findings, the millennial generation children of intermarriage are much more likely than their previous generations to receive a Jewish education or have a Bar Mitzvah. The professors stated that educational experiences are very influential in determining a person’s identity as Jewish and in their emotional connection to Israel. These experiences are most influential in the college years, both for children of in-marriage but even more so for children of intermarriage. “The central theme is that the gap is narrowing between millennials of intermarriage and in-marriage, but the gap can be further narrowed by significant college experiences with Jewish organizations,” Sasson said. The professors showed that through interaction with organizations such as Hillel and Chabad and visiting Israel on Birthright trips significantly increase people’s emotional connection to Israel. “With BDS and anti-Semitism on campus persuading Jews not to come to Israel, this can represent a problem,” Sasson said. “Nonetheless there are causes for concern when looking forward,” Sasson added. One such phenomenon he explained is a new tendency in recent years which found significant gaps in emotional connection to Israel among respondents who identify as liberal and those who identify as moderate or conservative. “This pattern was not evident in 2000, then there was no connection between politics and an emotional connection to Israel, this is something new that we are seeing,” he said. Professor Sergio Della Pergola from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, one of the leading authorities on Jewish demographics in the world, also presented statistics on world Jewry but asserted that there were only 5.7 million US Jews and not 7.2 million as the Brandeis professors suggested. He said there was a significant portion, nearly one million people who considered themselves only “partly Jewish,” even if they may have both Jewish parents, and for some reason or another failed to identify in this way. Prof. Saxe said he disagrees with this characterization and said that during a time where the world Jewish population is shrinking, categorizing or excluding people who are only “partly Jewish” was a “policy mistake.”
2016-06-21 19:57 LIDAR GRAVÉ www.jpost.com
85 Four MKs reveal family members, friends among missing in Yemenite Children Affair Four MKs stepped forward on Tuesday to reveal that their family members or friends were among the missing children in the Yemenite Children Affair. The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee met for a discussion on the declassification of sealed protocols of the State Commission of Inquiry into the affair, initiated by MK Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid). MK Nava Boker revealed that her parents, who have since passed away, told her that she had lost a brother and sister in the affair. "If my siblings are still alive, it is important to me to meet them," she said. "I am afraid that the same people who planned and executed these crimes of ripping babies away from their mothers’ arms, ensured their own safety and hid the documents. I expect that the seal will be removed and that we can know what happened to these children. " The affair, which occurred during the early days of the establishment of the state, saw hundreds of babies and toddlers of families of Mizrahi descent, mostly from Yemen, mysteriously disappear. In the vast majority of cases, parents were told in the hospital that their newborn baby had died, though they never received any official confirmation. Over the years families have claimed that their children were in fact kidnapped and given away or sold off to Ashkenazi families. Over the past few decades, the government established a number of commissions to investigate the matter and expose the truth, though all had failed to do so, concluding that the majority of children had in fact died in the hospital. However, in 2001 the state commission decided to seal numerous documents until 2071, a move that has drawn intense criticism from the families, NGOs and MKs. MK Rachel Azaria, MK Yossi Yona, and MK Nurit Koren, who has led the charge to declassify the documents, all revealed they had relatives or acquaintances who were among the missing children. Following the discussion, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video on Facebook in which he expressed solidarity with the MKs and the Yemenite families. The issue of the children of Yemen is an "open wound" for many families searching for answers, the prime minister said. Netanyahu said he could not fathom why the documents would be sealed and said that "it is time to discover what happened. " As such, he said that he instructed Minister without portfolio Tzachi Hanegbi to probe whether the government should open the sealed files.
2016-06-21 19:54 LIDAR GRAVÉ www.jpost.com
86 Saudis, Gulf states could all become nuclear threshold states, former PMO official says “Gulf states are gradually going nuclear” and Saudi Arabia is likely to develop its nuclear program to Iran’s level, said Yoel Guzansky, a former Israeli official at the National Security Council in the Prime Minister’s Office and research fellow at the INSS. An international array of top experts on Saudi Arabia and the Gulf spoke during the first day of a two-day conference on Tuesday at Bar-Ilan University’s Begin- Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (the BESA Center). Guzansky argued that the Iran nuclear deal set a precedent where the US would deal with each country on a case by case basis. And mainly because of the Iran threat and prestige Saudi Arabia is probably going to accelerate its program as part of a hedging strategy. The nuclear deal between Iran and world powers “buys the Saudis a decade to rearm without breaking non-proliferation commitments,” he said, noting that there are plans in the works for 16 plants as part of a civilian program. However, the drop in oil prices probably affects the pace of these plans, he added. Nuclear energy is attractive for the Saudis since it would provide cheaper energy in the long term, but in reality it is being used “as an excuse for a nuclear program,” said Guzansky. There has been an erosion of trust with some regional players as the “Gulf fears a US pivot to Asia”, but “the greatest fear is a pivot towards Iran.” There are Saudi ideological and strategic motives to go nuclear, continued Guzansky. “The nuclear deal may set a worrisome standard in the region and a cascade of threshold nuclear states,” he warned, adding that it is difficult to discourage countries to pursue what Iran received in its nuclear deal. “The Saudis are panicking” and as Iran strengthens it is “preparing contingency plans,” he asserted, calling it a “slow motion nuclear arms race.” Asked if the Saudis have the technical ability for a nuclear program, he responded that the Saudis have a small group of scientists, some of which study in the US, but they also have agreements with Egypt, which has a number of good scientists. The Pakistanis are another option for acquiring know how, noting that the UAE does not have scientists but the South Koreans are building a nuclear plant there. Prof. Joshua Teitelbaum, an expert on Saudi Arabia and the modern Middle East at the BESA Center described how the minority Shi’ite community in Saudi Arabia “went all out” in persistent protests following the breakout of the “Arab Spring” uprisings. Theses protests were largely in solidarity with their Shi’ite brethren in neighboring Bahrain, where Saudi Arabia and UAE sent forces in 2011 to help deal with protests. “The Saudis look at Bahrain like the US Puerto Rico,” he noted , annex Bahrain if needed wouldn't be surprised “The Saudis feel threatened by Iran and the local Shiites are feeling the brunt of that,” he said, noting that the country’s execution of Shi’ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr in Januray “is a signal to Iran.” As long as the Saudis feel threatened internally and externally, continued Teitelbaum, “Shi’ites continue pay the price of being the ultimate other.” Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a fellow at the Middle East Forum who closely follows Islamist opposition groups in Syria and Iraq, told The Jerusalem Post that the project of Islamic State building a state structure is a failure, which could lead to members going back to al-Qaida. Tamimi showed a document of an Islamic State dissenter who argued that the group should not publicize pledges of allegiance from far flung “provinces” in places like Yemen or Saudi Arabia because of the difficult local circumstances that impede its growth. “The problem is projecting the credibility of developing governance,” which is not there in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Guido Steinberg, from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said that al-Qaida may be having recruiting difficulties as more than 80 percent of foreigners join Islamic State. For the youth, “al-Qaida is a spent force,” he argued.
2016-06-21 19:47 ARIEL BEN www.jpost.com
87 America's 9 favorite fast-food restaurants Burgers and fries may be iconic fast-food items, but it turns out that Americans are looking for something fresher when they go out to eat these days. The $228 billion fast-food industry exists to serve the whims of consumers, many of whom grew up hearing slogans like Wendy's "Where's the beef? " and McDonald's "You deserve a break today. " Yet today, Americans are more likely to snub the all-beef patty and look for a break from older fast-fast chains. That may be why some of the country's most storied fast-food restaurants are at or near the bottom of a new ranking from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index, which surveyed 4,786 customers about their experiences at fast-food restaurants. The competition from newer upstarts is pushing older chains like McDonald's ( MCD ) to up their game with better quality food and new dishes. "A few years ago, the burger chains seemed a bit tired in the eyes of a lot of consumers," said ACSI director David VanAmburg. "The perceptions were they weren't places. I'm going to get something new and exciting. " While McDonald's has improved its standing with consumers since last year, it still lands at the bottom of ACSI's list. The chain earned an ASCI score of 69, better than last year's 67, but the lowest of the group and far below the industry average of 79. McDonald's appears to be in the midst of a turnaround under CEO Steve Easterbrook, who introduced all-day breakfast last year. "McDonald's has always been at or near the bottom," VanAmburg said. "This year one would certainly point to adding Egg McMuffins to their all-day menus to providing a little boost. " Likewise, Jack in the Box ( JACK ), Wendy's ( WEN ) and Burger King ( QSR ) also scored below the average. Read on to learn about America's nine favorite fast-food restaurants. Decades ago, the chain gained fans for its promise of delivering within 30 minutes or the pizza would be free. Even though that pledge is long gone (it was dropped in 1993 after several payouts to victims of speeding delivery drivers), Domino's ( DPZ ) continues to win over hungry stomachs and even critics. The food site Epicurious proclaimed Domino's as having the best pizza among several chains in 2014. While Domino's doesn't score as highly in the survey as some rival pizza chains, it holds its own with an ACSI score of 78. The Mexican-themed restaurant has had a tough year, reflected in the fact that its ACSI score dropped from 83 points last year to 78 points in 2016. The slide represents a fallout from Chipotle's ( CMG ) outbreaks of E. coli and norovirus at several of its locations last year. In order to win back customers, it has expanded its menu and spent more on advertising, even offering free guacamole and chips to get people back in the door. Last year, Chipotle ranked No. 2 on the ACSI survey. "It's a sizable drop," VanAmburg said. "They started from a fairly high level, and their reputation had been strong, so it it may make it easier for them to come back from this. " Subway represents another chain that had a tough year, although it wasn't tied to its food quality. Last year, the company's pitchman, Jared Fogle, was convicted of child pornography and sex crime charges and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Despite the scrutiny of its former spokesperson, the sandwich shop actually gained in customer's estimation. Subway earned an ACSI score of 80 this year, compared with 77 in 2015. After the scandal, Subway hired former Coca-Cola ( KO ) marketing chief Joseph Tripodi to oversee its marketing efforts. It also vowed to stop using meat raised with antibiotics, which may have won over some consumers. America apparently does like to run on Dunkin' Donuts ( DNKN ), which saw its ACSI score increase from 78 last year to 80 in 2016. The company has retooled its offerings to compete with Starbucks ( SBUX ), offering coffee drinks like iced macchiatos and salted caramel hot chocolate. Starbucks' flub with its loyalty program earlier this year also prompted some consumers to switch their allegiance to Dunkin' Donuts. Arby's has carved out a niche within the fast-food industry by focusing on slow-cooked meats and curly fries. It's one of the older chains to score well in the survey, thanks to sandwiches like its smokehouse brisket. Arby's CEO Paul Brown told Business Insider last year that the company had made an effort to stand out from the pack. Arby's score jumped from 74 last year to 80 in this year's ACSI survey. "We're in a unique position because consumers perceive our food as high- quality, but we are routinely priced below fast-casual competitors," Brown told the publication. "This gives us an expanded base of customers. " Panera Bread ( PNRA ) has vowed to get rid of "no no" ingredients, and consumers seem to be saying, "Yes, yes. " Last year, the chain promised to eliminate ingredients like artificial smoke flavor and glycerol ester of wood rosin, saying it would be the first national restaurant company to share a list of unacceptable ingredients. Consumers appear to be on board with the changes, pushing up Panera's ACSI score to 81 from 80. The pizza chain may be known for its 1970s-eara "Pizza! Pizza! " catchphrase, but it's keeping up with consumer tastes. Little Caesars last year grabbed attention with its limited-time "Bacon Wrapped Crust Deep! Deep! Dish" pizza, notable for the 3.5 feet of bacon inside its crust. But the chain gained fans for its "hot-n-ready" pizzas, which don't require preordering. Little Caesars jumped from 74 to 81 ACSI points this year. Yet another pizza chain scored well on the ACSI survey this year, with Papa John's ( PZZA ) coming in second place overall. Its score rose from 78 last year to 82 in the 2016 survey. The improvement comes after the chain said it would spend $100 million a year to eliminate artificial ingredients and other additives. Earlier this year, Papa John's introduced a new guarantee : If a customer doesn't love its pizza, she can tell the chain why and get another one free. When it comes to customer satisfaction, Chick-fil-A has something to crow about. The restaurant ranks as consumers' favorite, earning an 87 in this year's survey, compared with 86 a year earlier. "They're doing something fairly limited and doing it extremely well," said VanAmburg. "You'll get chicken in various forms. That's their thing. It's about focusing on a niche, and a certain kind of product. " Aside from the chicken sandwiches, customer rave about the service at Chick-fil-A outlets. Fast Company noted that its servers end their transactions with "My pleasure," which it termed "distinctive and classy. "
2016-06-21 19:57 Aimee Picchi www.cbsnews.com
88 Cameron urges voters to 'think of children' before EU choice David Cameron has urged people to think of the "hopes and dreams" of future generations in a direct appeal to them to vote to stay in the European Union. Speaking outside No 10, the prime minister said he would not recommend a Remain vote if he didn't feel it would make the UK safer and more prosperous. He said: "Britain does not quit, we get involved, take a lead, make a difference and get things done. " Vote Leave says the vote is a chance to take control of the UK's destiny. There are less than 48 hours to go before voters head to the polls to decide whether the UK remains in the EU or leaves. Both sides are making fresh appeals to undecided voters ahead of the last TV referendum debate of the campaign, to be broadcast by the BBC later. In a hastily arranged ten minute statement outside Downing Street, Mr Cameron strove to emphasise the momentous nature of the decision facing the British people, warning if the UK chose to leave it would be "irreversible" and Britain would be "out of Europe for good". Warning that family finances and jobs would be put at risk by a vote to leave, he said the UK's economic security was "paramount". Pointing out that his first duty as prime minister was to keep the country safe, he said EU membership - and the access that it gave him to intelligence material and security co-operation - made his job of fighting terrorism and organised crime easier. Conscious of the "honour and responsibility" that he felt to have served as prime minister for six years, he said he would not recommend a Remain vote if he felt it would make the UK weaker or diminish its standing in the world. "I believe very deeply from my years of experience that we will be stronger, we will be safer, we will be better off inside Europe. " Focusing directly on older voters, who polls suggest are more inclined to back Brexit, the PM said that while the EU was far from perfect, it was a force for good and future generations would not be able to reverse the decision. "As you take this decision whether to remain or leave do think about the hopes and dreams of your children and grandchildren. " "They know their chances to work, to travel, to build the sort of open and successful society they want to live in rests on this outcome. "And remember they can't undo the decision we take. If we vote out, that's it. It is irreversible. We will leave Europe for good, and the next generation will have to live with the consequences far longer than the rest of us. " Mr Cameron's former adviser Steve Hilton, who backs leaving the EU, called it a "weird statement" and a "rather amazing thing to hear". "What you just saw from the prime minister was an admission that they've lost the economic argument, they've lost the argument on immigration, so he's being wheeled out by rather panicky spin doctors to try to change the subject," Mr Hilton told the BBC. Speaking earlier, justice secretary Michael Gove said that the UK would only be able to control immigration from outside the EU and said it was in the economic interest of countries such as Germany and France to continue to trade with the UK on the current terms.
2016-06-21 19:56 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
89 In pictures: Barnardo's ball boys remembered This year, the charity Barnardo’s is commemorating its 150th anniversary and 70 years since its partnership with Wimbledon, when, between 1946 and 1966, it provided all the ball boys for the tournament. Images in the Barnardo's archive show the ball boys at Golding’s school in Hertfordshire before the championships in 1956. The charity was established by Thomas Barnardo to care for destitute boys, opening its first care home, in Stepney Causeway, in 1870. Barnardo later opened the Girls' Village Home, in Barkingside. At Golding’s school, the boys learnt how to operate at various points around the tennis court. Barnardo’s chief executive Javed Khan said: "Being ‘ball boys’ for 20 years was an opportunity for some Barnardo’s students to be part of something truly special and inspirational, and as we mark our 150th anniversary, it’s wonderful to recognise the positive impact both Wimbledon and the support from our charity has had on their lives. " "From Barnardo’s beginnings to the present day, we continue to provide care, support and training to hundreds of thousands of children, young people and families every year," added Mr Khan. Retrieving balls from the net and then making their way off court as quickly as possible to allow play to resume. They were also trained how to deliver the tennis ball to the player about to serve. In 1956, it was just boys, with girls having to wait until 1977 before they were introduced at Wimbledon. Those long hot British summers meant that the boys were also called on to serve the player's barley water. For the 1957 final, the boys lined up to meet the Duchess of Kent. A highlight was the chance to meet the stars of the time. Here, the boys are seen with US players John and Beverley Fleitz. The previous year, in 1955, Mrs Fleitz lost the women's singles final to Louise Brough.
2016-06-21 19:56 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
90 how a mother's loss opened the conversation on baby death Millie Smith gave birth to twin girls, knowing that one of them would soon die. Skye and Callie were born prematurely at Kingston Hospital on 30 April. Twelve weeks into her pregnancy, Millie discovered one of her babies had anencephaly - a condition where the skull does not properly form, leaving the brain exposed. "I was told one of my babies will have no chance of survival," says Millie. "My baby was only expected to live a few seconds. " Baby Skye died at just a few hours old. Twin Callie is thriving and is now seven weeks old. "We had a couple of scares with Callie, but she is fine," says Millie. But it was a passing comment made by a mother that led Millie to come up with a way to inform people of a death of a baby from a multiple birth. "I was in a neonatal ward with Callie, and there were three sets of twins crying," she says. "A parent who didn't know what I'd been through turned to me and said, 'You are so lucky you don't have twins.' "When she said this to me, it just broke me. "I know the mother would have felt bad if she knew how her words affected me. " "I felt there should be something like a small symbol to let people know that my baby had died. "I thought of a butterfly coloured purple, for either a girl or boy, that could be put on cots. " The idea of sticking purple butterflies on to the cots, indicating a loss of a sibling was adopted by her local hospital. "Our aim is to get these butterflies into all hospitals across the UK. "Instead of stickers, the butterflies will be printed on card and laminated, and each hospital would have a template to make these themselves. "Also, this allows parents to take the card home in their memory box. " The purple butterfly idea inspired Millie and fiance Lewis to start the Skye High Foundation to raise money to support bereaved families in their time of grief. They are hoping to raise £10,000 for a counsellor at Kingston Hospital. When Millie posted on the foundation's Facebook page about the purple butterfly initiative, the post went viral. "I couldn't believe the response - there were over 1,000 shares of my post," says Millie. Now, that figure has doubled. "I was also contacted by the Neonatal Research [group, which] has a Butterfly Project doing similar work to me. "Charity work was something very new to me as I was very career-focused, but I am learning every step of the way. "It was my way of dealing with what had happened - it was a turning point for me. "I was fortunate to have a bereavement midwife. "She was there during the birth, when Skye passed away, and when I'm having a bad day. "But she is not a counsellor, and I think it is important that counselling is available. " Jo Bull, a specialist midwife in bereavement, helped Millie through her ordeal. "My role involves helping women who have lost a baby before birth or who subsequently dies," says Jo. "In Millie's case, she knew what was going to happen, and I was involved quiet early on. "But not every trust in England has a specialist midwife. "Stillbirth rates have not been reduced in a long time. "And, although all midwives can support parents with what they are going through, the specific specialist role is not widely available. " Jo emphasises that although she helps bereaved parents, she is not a trained counsellor. "I am with parents on their journey until the post-natal period, and advise on funeral arrangements and help parents come to terms with what has happened," she says. "I think we should talk about [baby death] more, as the more we talk to friends, family and others, the more likely you might hear from someone who has gone through the same thing. "It's only beginning to be talked about, but it's still classed as taboo. "The last thing people want who are going through this is for people to be ignoring it. It is terribly upsetting. " Millie says her main objective is to get people talking about babies who die. "People don't talk about a loss of a baby - they feel awkward," she says. "Even some nurses didn't know what to say. "The thing I am most proud of is that it has got people talking about it. "I want to support families, the butterfly idea, and anything else that can make a difference. "
2016-06-21 19:56 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
91 Tacoma's Sluggo Brewing allows dog owners to bring pets, drink beer With businesses booming, construction of a 151-unit apartment complex and more people visiting Tacoma’s Proctor District, its neighborhood association has asked the City of Tacoma for a parking study to determine if it has a problem. Kids took their first spin down a skateboard ramp Saturday, while grown-ups who have been skating since their own childhoods brought their kids. Longtime Washington State Fair spokesperson Karen LaFlamme, now retired, encourages families to grab happy memories, hold on to them “not just today but for years to come”. Cortney Spencer who lost both legs when Brenda Pleasants, who had been drinking, crashed into him, speaks at her sentencing in Pierce County Superior Court on Friday, June 17, 2016. Pleasants was sentenced to one year and a day in prison on a charge of vehicular assault. Surveillance video just released by the King County Prosecuting Attorney Public Disclosure Office, a student at Seattle Pacific University pepper- sprays a gunman then taking him to the ground during an on-campus attack in 2014. The video was released after a ruling ordering the footage released under Washington’s Public Records Act. Students with the Early Act Club at Maple Lawn Elementary School in Sumner presented a Belonging Bench for future students to use on the playground. When students feel lonely or don’t have anyone to play with, they can go sit on the bench, and someone from the Early Act Club or another student will invite them to play. Washington State Department of Transportation project engineer Neal Uhlmeyer provides a close-up look at the massive abutment being built adjacent to Interstate 5 in Tacoma. The wall, 45-feet-tall at its highest point, will match the existing grade of the new northbound I-5 bridge that will span the Puyallup River. Master maker Joe Marchel hand crafts about a thousand sausages a day for Blue Max Meat Co. in Puyallup. Watch him in action creating a batch of their popular cheddar cheese bratwurst. Michael Boisselle is sentenced for 21 years and eight months Wednesday in Tacoma on a charge of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Brandon Zomalt. "We are not afraid," said a unified crowd of nearly 700 who gathered on the steps of Tacoma's Tollefson Plaza Sunday evening for a candlelight vigil in honor of LGBT members who were gunned down in an Orlando nightclub.
2016-06-21 19:56 www.thenewstribune.com
92 In Photos: Hillary Clinton's Private Email Scandal: A Timeline Hillary Clinton is the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee. But before the former Secretary of State can formally accept the nomination, she still has one major concern clouding those prospects: her private email scandal. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
2016-06-21 19:55 Kenneth Rapoza www.forbes.com
93 93 Man accused of kidnapping prosecutor's father found guilty RALEIGH, N. C. (AP) — A federal jury in North Carolina on Tuesday convicted a prisoner of directing a botched kidnapping attempt from his prison cell, in an incident where the kidnappers mistakenly grabbed the father of a prosecutor. Kelvin Melton, 51 was found guilty of multiple charges, including kidnapping and aiding and abetting and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, a release from the U. S. Department of Justice said. Prosecutors said Melton's underlings were sent to grab Wake County Assistant District Attorney Colleen Janssen, who put him in prison in a 2011 shooting case, but mistakenly kidnapped her father instead. Prosecutors said officials wiretapped a cellphone smuggled into Melton's prison cell and caught him giving instructions on how Frank Janssen should be killed and how to dispose of the body and clean up the crime scene. Melton, who was already serving a life sentence in the shooting case, faces up to life in prison and a fine of $250,000 when he is sentenced on the latest conviction. In opening statements, defense attorney Gerald Beaver urged jurors not to believe Melton's gang when they testified against him, including the four who kidnapped, pistol-whipped and tortured Frank Janssen with a stun gun during his four-day ordeal in April 2014. All nine of Melton's co-defendants struck plea deals to avoid the death penalty or life prison sentences for earlier shootings and aborted kidnapping plots, Beaver said. The statement from the Department of Justice said Frank Janssen was kidnapped from his home on April 5, 2014. Melton used the cell phone while he was serving his sentence in a prison in Butner. The co-conspirators in the plot also sent threats to Janssen's wife, prosecutors said. Janssen's captors were finalizing details to kill Janssen and dispose of his body when the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team stormed a southeast Atlanta apartment and rescued him on April 9, authorities said.
2016-06-21 18:13 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk
94 0-Tennis-Eastbourne International women's singles results June 21 (Gracenote) - Results from the Eastbourne International Women's Singles matches on Tuesday Round 2 Andrea Petkovic (Germany) beat 13-Sara Errani (Italy) 6-1 3-6 6-4 11- Johanna Konta (Britain) beat Lesia Tsurenko (Ukraine) 7- 6(4) 6-1 Kateryna Bondarenko (Ukraine) beat 6-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) 2-6 6-4 7-5 Misaki Doi (Japan) beat 8-Carla Suarez Navarro (Spain) 3-6 6-4 6-1 10-Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic) beat Daria Gavrilova (Australia) 6-2 6-2 Madison Brengle (U. S.) beat 14-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) 6-4 6-3 Ekaterina Makarova (Russia) beat 2-Roberta Vinci (Italy) 4-6 6-4 6-3 1-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) beat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (Croatia) 6-4 2-1 (Lucic-Baroni retired) Monica Puig (Puerto Rico) beat Ana Konjuh (Croatia) 6-1 5-3 (Konjuh retired) Eugenie Bouchard (Canada) beat 15-Irina Begu (Romania) 6-3 6-1 Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) beat 7-Samantha Stosur (Australia) 6-2 6-1 12-Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) beat Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) 6-3 6-3 5-Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) beat Timea Babos (Hungary) 6-4 7-6(5) Kristina Mladenovic (France) beat 4-Timea Bacsinszky (Switzerland) 6-1 7- 5 Round 1 Anna-Lena Friedsam (Germany) beat Anett Kontaveit (Estonia) 6-7(3) 6-4 6-4 Misaki Doi (Japan) beat Polona Hercog (Slovenia) 6-4 6-4 Daria Gavrilova (Australia) beat Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (Slovakia) 6-1 7-5 Kateryna Bondarenko (Ukraine) beat Yulia Putintseva (Kazakhstan) 6-2 4-6 6-4 Madison Brengle (U. S.) beat Alison Van Uytvanck (Belgium) 6-7(4) 7-6(4) 6-2 Lesia Tsurenko (Ukraine) beat Zhang Shuai (China) 6-1 7-6(3) Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (Croatia) beat Denisa Allertova (Czech Republic) 6-4 6-2
2016-06-21 18:12 Reuters www.dailymail.co.uk
95 Watford reject £25million offer for Troy Deeney from Leicester Watford remain determined to keep Troy Deeney from joining Leicester and have reiterated the striker is not for sale. The Hornets have rejected two bids for their captain from the Foxes after turning down Leicester's latest offer of £25million offer at the weekend, Press Association Sport understands. The Premier League champions are yet to return with an improved offer but Watford have no desire to allow Deeney to leave Vicarage Road, especially given they would owe Walsall 25 per cent of any profit over the £500,000 they bought the forward for in 2010. Deeney scored 15 goals last season as the Hornets comfortably survived in the Premier League following promotion from the Sky Bet Championship in 2015. Leicester have held a long-time interest in Deeney, who turns 28 next week, and he is not a replacement for Jamie Vardy should the England striker join Arsenal. The Gunners activated his £20million release clause but Vardy, on international duty with England at Euro 2016, has stated he will not make a decision until after the tournament - although Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger admitted at the weekend he expects him to stay. Leicester will sign Sporting Gijon defender Luis Hernandez on a free transfer when his contract in Spain expires while they are also hopeful of signing Nice defensive midfielder Nampalys Mendy. The 23-year-old is not a replacement for N'Golo Kante as the Foxes do not want to sell the France international but Gokhan Inler is expected to leave with the club holding talks with his agent about his future after just a season at the King Power Stadium.
2016-06-21 18:12 Press Association www.dailymail.co.uk
96 The Latest: 8 states OK city's use of Lake Michigan water CHICAGO (AP) — The latest on a meeting of representatives of the eight Great Lakes states to determine whether the city of Waukesha, Wisconsin, will be allowed to use Lake Michigan as its drinking water source (all times CDT): 1 p.m. A council representing the eight Great Lakes states has voted to allow Waukesha, Wisconsin, unprecedented access to Lake Michigan as its drinking water source. The city of 70,000 in the Milwaukee suburbs won unanimous approval Tuesday from eight states that are members of a regional compact designed to prevent water raids from afar. Waukesha is only 17 miles from Lake Michigan but lies just outside the Great Lakes watershed boundary. It needed unanimous approval from the compact states to draw water from the lake. The city says its groundwater is tainted with radium. The council approved several amendments designed to ensure that conditions it placed on Waukesha's application could be enforced. ___ 12 p.m. Representatives of the eight Great Lakes states have begun a meeting in Chicago that is expected to determine whether the city of Waukesha, Wisconsin, will be allowed to use Lake Michigan as its drinking water source. Waukesha has submitted a $207 million plan to draw water from the lake, describing it as a necessity because the groundwater wells on which it has long relied are contaminated with radium. The city is only 17 miles from the lake but lies just outside the Great Lakes watershed. A regional compact prohibits most diversions of water across the watershed boundary, but creates a potential exception for communities within counties that straddle the line. Waukesha is the first community to request water under that provision. __ 12:15 a.m. Representatives of the eight states in the Great Lakes region are preparing to decide whether a city in the Milwaukee suburbs qualifies to tap Lake Michigan as its drinking water source. Waukesha, Wisconsin says the groundwater wells on which it has long relied are contaminated with radium. The city is only 15 miles from the lake. But because it lies just outside the Great Lakes watershed, it needs permission from all the region's states to use lake water. They include Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Waukesha says it would return as much water as it uses. Opponents say the city has other alternatives and approving its request would set a precedent that could lead to demands from other communities near the watershed boundary.
2016-06-21 18:11 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk
97 Luis Hernandez switch will strengthen Leicester's defensive options Leicester have announced they will sign defender Luis Hernandez on a free transfer from Sporting Gijon. The 27- year-old will join the Premier League champions on a four-year deal when his contract with the La Liga side expires at the end of the month. Hernandez becomes the Foxes' first summer signing as they prepare for the Champions League next season, while they are also chasing Watford striker Troy Deeney. The central defender is a product of the Real Madrid youth academy and moved to Sporting Gijon in 2012. The Madrid-born player helped Sporting beat relegation from La Liga by a point last season, playing 36 times, after they were promoted to the Spanish top flight in 2015. Leicester have been searching for defensive reinforcements to compete with established first-choice pair Wes Morgan and Robert Huth. Manager Claudio Ranieri insisted after their title win the club would not chase superstar signings but they have seen two bids for Deeney rejected by Watford, the second of £25million coming at the weekend. Press Association Sport understands they are yet to return with an improved offer. They could lose Jamie Vardy to Arsenal after the Gunners triggered his £20million release clause with the striker yet to make any decision public but Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger admitted at the weekend he expected the forward to stay at the King Power Stadium.
2016-06-21 18:11 Press Association www.dailymail.co.uk
98 British Olympic Association gives backing to sanctions against Russia and Kenya The British Olympic Association has backed the sanctions taken against Russia and Kenya ahead of the Rio Olympics. Athletes from both countries will only be able to compete in Brazil if they pass an "individual evaluation" to prove they have not been doping. The unprecedented step was unanimously agreed at an emergency summit convened by the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne on Tuesday. BOA chief executive Bill Sweeney said: "The BOA supports any measure that ensures clean athletes can have peace of mind when they go to the start line and that they compete equal to all others. "The measures taken by the IAAF and supported by the IOC are both necessary and strong. In making these difficult decisions anyone that is doping, or is considering it, should take note - you will be caught and sanctioned. "It is important that between now and the start of competition in Rio the whole of sport demonstrates its backing both for the anti-doping authorities and the advancement of clean sport education throughout the world. " The move by the IOC follows a ruling by the IAAF last week that Russian track and field athletes would face a blanket ban from competing in Rio due to continued doping issues involving the Russian Athletics Federation, ARAF. Amid continued re-testing of samples from both the 2008 and 2012 Games, IOC president Thomas Bach went further on Tuesday, saying athletes from Russia and Kenya can no longer be "presumed innocent" due to evidence of testing irregularities. Ben Hawes, chairman of the BOA Athletes' Commission, welcomed the developments, insisting the interests of clean athletes must continue to be protected. Hawes said: "British athletes unanimously supported a widening of the investigation into doping both in Russia and beyond, as well as the re-testing of samples collected from previous Olympic Games. "However, whilst retrospective action is welcome, too many athletes have lost their moments of glory due to those that chose to dope. This is why the IAAF decision is bold and timely. "We believe there must now be a renewed proactive approach to rooting out those who are doping whilst handing out appropriate and meaningful sanctions. "The athlete community has a duty to stand up and call out those who continue to cheat the system. "
2016-06-21 18:11 Press Association www.dailymail.co.uk
99 Chelsea Leaves Hospital After Son’s Birth Chelsea Clinton Leaves Hospital After Birth Of Her Son NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 20: (L to R) Chelsea Clinton, holding her newborn son Aidan, Marc Mezvinsky, former President Bill Clinton, and Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton exit Lenox Hill Hospital, June 20, 2016 in New York City. Chelsea Clinton gave birth to Aidan, her second child, on Saturday. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Chelsea Clinton Leaves Hospital After Birth Of Her Son NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 20: (L to R) Former President Bill Clinton, Marc Mezvinsky, Chelsea Clinton, holding her newborn son Aidan, and Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton exit Lenox Hill Hospital, June 20, 2016 in New York City. Chelsea Clinton gave birth to Aidan, her second child, on Saturday. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Chelsea Clinton Leaves Hospital After Birth Of Her Son NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 20: (L to R) Chelsea Clinton, holding her newborn son Aidan, Marc Mezvinsky, former President Bill Clinton, and Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton exit Lenox Hill Hospital, June 20, 2016 in New York City. Chelsea Clinton gave birth to Aidan, her second child, on Saturday. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Chelsea Clinton Leaves Hospital After Birth Of Her Son NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 20: (L to R) Marc Mezvinsky, Chelsea Clinton, holding her newborn son Aidan, and Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton exit Lenox Hill Hospital, June 20, 2016 in New York City. Chelsea Clinton gave birth to Aidan, her second child, on Saturday. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Chelsea Clinton Leaves Hospital After Birth Of Her Son NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 20: (L to R) Former President Bill Clinton, Marc Mezvinsky, Chelsea Clinton, holding her newborn son Aidan, and Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton exit Lenox Hill Hospital, June 20, 2016 in New York City. Chelsea Clinton gave birth to Aidan, her second child, on Saturday. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Chelsea Clinton Leaves Hospital After Birth Of Her Son NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 20: (L to R) Marc Mezvinsky, Chelsea Clinton, holding her newborn son Aidan, former President Bill Clinton, and Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton exit Lenox Hill Hospital, June 20, 2016 in New York City. Chelsea Clinton gave birth to Aidan, her second child, on Saturday. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Chelsea Clinton Leaves Hospital After Birth Of Her Son NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 20: (L to R) Former President Bill Clinton, Marc Mezvinsky, Chelsea Clinton, holding her newborn son Aidan, and Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton exit Lenox Hill Hospital, June 20, 2016 in New York City. Chelsea Clinton gave birth to Aidan, her second child, on Saturday. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
2016-06-21 19:55 newyork.cbslocal.com
100 Israeli troops 'mistakenly kill Palestinian bystander' Israeli troops have accidentally shot dead a Palestinian bystander and wounded several others in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military says. A statement said the soldiers were responding after Palestinians threw stones and petrol bombs at vehicles on a main road, injuring three civilians. Uninvolved bystanders were "mistakenly hit during the pursuit", it added. Palestinians said the person killed was a 15-year old boy who had been inside a car when it came under fire. An earlier statement issued by the Israeli military had identified him as an assailant. The Israeli military said an investigation had been opened into Tuesday's incident, which happened near the Palestinian village of Beit Sira, outside Jerusalem. It began with two foreigners and one Israeli being lightly injured when their car was hit by stones on Route 443, a busy road that connects Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israeli media reported. The Israeli military's initial statement said that "nearby forces acted in order to protect the additional passenger vehicles from immediate danger and fired towards the assailants". "Forces confirmed hits resulting in the death of one of the attackers," it added. Two suspects were also arrested, according to the statement. Later, the Israeli military revised its account, saying that "after an initial inquiry, it appears that uninvolved bystanders were mistakenly hit during the pursuit". The official Palestinian news agency Wafa and the mayor of the nearby village of Beit Ur al-Tahta identified the bystander who was killed as Mahmoud Badran. The mayor, Abdul Karim Kassem, told the Reuters news agency that Mahmoud had been in a car with other passengers "returning from a pool in a village near us when they came under fire". A hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah told the Associated Press that another Palestinian was moderately wounded and three others lightly wounded. The incident comes amid a months-long wave of violence in Israel and the West Bank. Thirty-three Israelis have been killed in knife, gun and car-ramming attacks since October. More than 200 Palestinians - mostly attackers, Israel says - have also been killed in that period. The assailants who have been killed have been shot either by their victims or by security forces as they carried out attacks. Some attackers have been arrested. Other Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops.
2016-06-21 19:55 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
Total 100 articles. Created at 2016-06-22 00:03