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Total 100 articles, created at 2016-03-05 18:00

(2.00/3) 1 Top News - powered by FeedBurner Christopher Le Cun was boating off the coast of Hutchinson Island when he and his friend went under to check out three large shadows beneath the waves that looked like buildings. 2016-03-05 08:33 596Bytes www.nydailynews.com 2 Leslie Jones reacts to criticism of ‘Ghostbusters’ character LOS ANGELES—Leslie Jones ain't afraid of no ghost—or playing a transit worker. The costar of the upcoming all-female version of "Ghostbusters" took to Twitter to defend her 2016-03-05 17:58 2KB entertainment.inquirer.net 3 Davis Cup: Gonzales heart fuels PH 2-0 run It was Ruben Gonzales’ big fighting heart that brought the Cebuana Lhuillier-Philippines to the threshold of Davis Cup tie victory against Kuwait. That was the consensus of team officials who 2016-03-05 17:45 1KB sports.inquirer.net 4 Police: Woman found dead in bedroom closet in Detroit Police say they found a woman dead in a bedroom closet of a home in Detroit. 2016-03-05 16:41 1KB www.washingtontimes.com

5 Man gets life in prison in fatal Kansas City home invasion A Kansas City man has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in a 2011 home invasion that left one man dead. 2016-03-05 16:41 1KB www.washingtontimes.com 6 Growing a 1,500-year forest in a matter of weeks Nature doesn’t create a forest in a time frame that fits into humanity’s schedule, but two researchers at Washington State University Vancouver figured out a way to speed up the process. 2016-03-05 16:27 4KB www.washingtontimes.com 7 Prosecutor: iPhone could ID unknown San Bernardino attacker Information contained in an encrypted iPhone could help finally answer whether there was a third assailant in the San Bernardino terror attack that killed 14 people, according to court papers filed by the county’s district attorney. 2016-03-05 16:27 3KB www.washingtontimes.com 8 White on ESPN snub: I’m thinking, should I keep going back? Shaun White turns 30 later this year, and the world’s best rider is celebrating by stamping his name all over the business side of the world he’s helped create. 2016-03-05 16:28 3KB www.washingtontimes.com 9 Farmers consider expensive tech amid low commodity prices When Marc Arnusch graduated from college in the mid-1990s, his father didn’t want him to come back to the family farm in Keenesburg. Crop prices were so bad, Hans Arnusch didn’t think his son could make a living, like he and his father before him had. Arnusch understood his dad’s... 2016-03-05 16:27 4KB www.washingtontimes.com 10 Iowa mulls eliminating front license plates for vehicles. It’s not legal, but Doug Klein says he hasn’t put front license plates on his cars in 30 years. He’s willing to risk getting a ticket to keep it that way. 2016-03-05 16:19 3KB www.washingtontimes.com 11 Police investigating report of sex assault at Norman school Police say they are investigating a report of a sexual assault at Norman High School. 2016-03-05 16:08 1KB www.washingtontimes.com

12 Little Sophia steals show at Alaska IronKids SUBIC--Sophia Angela Remigio proved that triathlon is for all shapes and sizes. The four- year-old girl stole the show at the 2016 Alaska IronKids in Subic Bay Saturday, becoming one of the 2016-03-05 17:14 2KB sports.inquirer.net 13 Ski resorts in New England states are banning drones Airports ban them, the National Park Service forbids them and now drones are prohibited in another place - ski areas. 2016-03-05 16:03 3KB www.washingtontimes.com 14 European Union, Cuba near deal to normalize relations HAVANA—After two years of negotiations, Cuba and the European Union are close to sealing an agreement to normalize relations that soured two decades ago, officials said Friday. Cuban and EU 2016-03-05 17:01 1KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 15 Community to mark one-year anniversary of police shooting Numerous public meetings have been held. Tasks forces have investigated, protests have been held and a lawsuit filed. Yet the efforts have brought little change in Madison since the fatal police shooting of a biracial man one year ago, according to some residents and activists. 2016-03-05 16:48 4KB www.washingtontimes.com 16 Replica of mural, mill’s glory days moves into museum Objects may be larger than they appear. Take Cynthia Ramu’s 7-by-11-foot mural on an interior wall of the Pueblo Heritage Museum. Just a short distance away, on the other side of the railroad tracks, the full-sized 65-by-120-foot version decorates the Arkansas River levee. 2016-03-05 16:48 3KB www.washingtontimes.com 17 Beloit fourth-grader a novelist in the making One budding author at Aldrich Intermediate School has written so many novels, she has to lug them around in a Dora the Explorer suitcase. 2016-03-05 16:48 2KB www.washingtontimes.com 18 Downtown Papillion sees results of revitalization efforts On a chilly, gray morning in February, five men sat around sharing the newspaper inside Papillion Barbers, waiting for their turn in the chair. Outside, a steady stream of cars and a trickle of people kept East First and North Washington Streets busy. 2016-03-05 16:48 3KB www.washingtontimes.com 19 EXCHANGE: Wellness program looks to add more programs It’s hard to believe sixth-grader Juan Carlos Vargas could benefit from more energy. He was like the Tasmanian devil recently, flying from station to station and hollering with enthusiasm during Lifting Club at Challand Middle School. 2016-03-05 16:48 3KB www.washingtontimes.com 20 UAAP: UST sends UE reeling to 53rd straight loss University of Santo Tomas followed up its emphatic upset of La Salle with a sweep of University of the East, 25-17, 25-23, 25-16, in the UAAP Season 78 women’s volleyball tournament Saturday at 2016-03-05 16:45 2KB sports.inquirer.net 21 Parents charged with using stun gun on 4 children Two southwest Florida parents are facing child abuse charges after authorities say they used a stun gun to discipline their children. 2016-03-05 16:41 1KB www.washingtontimes.com 22 Brazil’s Silva denounces detention in corruption probe SAO PAULO—Brazilian police questioned former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for about four hours in an investigation into a sprawling corruption case involving state-run oil company 2016-03-05 16:34 5KB newsinfo.inquirer.net

23 Landlocked property owner is ‘elated’ that now has access John W. Jeffries shed a tear as he talked about the breakthrough that brought his land out of the haze and into the sunshine. 2016-03-05 16:31 2KB www.washingtontimes.com 24 Kansas presidential caucuses could be rocky soil for leaders Bernie Sanders’ progressive supporters and conservative Republican activists were hoping Kansas’ presidential caucuses Saturday proved rocky soil for GOP front-runner Donald Trump and Democratic leader Hillary Clinton. 2016-03-05 16:29 3KB www.washingtontimes.com 25 In Loveland, dual immersion shows early rewards Erika Tran was delighted when her son, Caden, wanted to correspond in Spanish with the serving staff at a Mexican restaurant. 2016-03-05 16:24 3KB www.washingtontimes.com 26 Adaptive skiers overcome obstacles to reach sport’s height U. S. paralympian Joshua Elliott remembers coming off the mountain in Breckenridge feeling “broken” and in tears, thinking he might never be able to relive the sensation of riding a snowboard. 2016-03-05 16:23 2KB www.washingtontimes.com 27 DeRozan gets FT record; Raptors beat Lillard, Blazers TORONTO — After watching his Raptors survive a 50-point game from Damian Lillard and hang on for a 117-115 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, Toronto coach Dwane Casey was in 2016-03-05 16:19 4KB sports.inquirer.net 28 Scientists: Possible new octopus species found near Hawaii HONOLULU—Scientists say they have discovered what might be a new species of octopus while searching the Pacific Ocean floor near the Hawaiian Islands. On Feb. 27, a team found a small 2016-03-05 16:18 2KB technology.inquirer.net 29 The murder of Giulio Regeni Five weeks ago, Giulio Regeni disappeared on his way to a birthday party in Cairo. How did the brilliant Cambridge PhD student end up mutilated on an Egyptian roadside? 2016-03-05 16:16 1KB www.thetimes.co.uk 30 At 89, York fly fishing legend still yearns for the water Even now, at age 89, Ed Shenk is surrounded by feathers and furs. He looks across the upstairs room in his house in Carlisle and points to a trunk against the far wall. He doubts if he’s seen the bottom of it in 25 years. 2016-03-05 16:01 3KB www.washingtontimes.com 31 Advocates blame law change, policies for people left in cold Robert Douglass, 38, still remembers the week that his Harrisburg home was so cold that his family couldn’t shower. 2016-03-05 16:01 3KB www.washingtontimes.com 32 Doctor faces 10 years in prison for Medicare Fraud A South Florida doctor accused of falsely diagnosing hundreds of patients as part of a Medicare fraud scheme has pleaded guilty. 2016-03-05 16:01 1KB www.washingtontimes.com 33 Judge rules Sturgis can challenge Buffalo Chip incorporation A judge has ruled the city of Sturgis can challenge a decision to approve Buffalo Chip Campground’s petition to incorporate. 2016-03-05 16:01 1KB www.washingtontimes.com 34 SCF student discovers bacteria organism around Leffis Key They call it “Pink.” 2016-03-05 16:01 3KB www.washingtontimes.com 35 Man gets 40 years in prison in death of Black Hawk toddler A man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison in connection with the death of a 21- month-old Black Hawk boy. 2016-03-05 16:00 985Bytes www.washingtontimes.com 36 Oregon treasures await new digs at military museum In one corner of the armory is a heavy piece of artillery, mounted on wheels and showing some battle damage. It stands out not necessarily because it’s big, but because it’s green. 2016-03-05 16:00 4KB www.washingtontimes.com 37 Crane topples in West Palm Beach; no injuries Officials say no one was injured when a 110ton crane crashed to the ground in South Florida. 2016-03-05 16:00 1021Bytes www.washingtontimes.com 38 Harassed by bookies, 36-year-old Ulhasnagar man commits suicide A 36-year-old man from Ulhasnagar committed suicide by hanging himself with a nylon rope in a hotel room, police said on Thursday 2016-03-05 15:56 2KB www.mid-day.com 39 Bobbi Kristina Brown's cause of death revealed Whitney Houston's daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown died as a result of immersion in water and drug intoxication, medical records show. 2016-03-05 14:37 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 40 Bill O’Reilly, drunk or just awkward? An in-depth analysis of his slurry, bizarre GOP debate show Several outlets called O'Reilly's performance "awkward," but was he drunk? And does it even matter? 2016-03-05 14:37 3KB www.salon.com 41 AT&T Presses Judge To Dismiss Throttling Case The Federal Communications Commission's new approach to broadband deprives the Federal Trade Commission of the ability to sue AT&T for throttling wireless subscribers, the company says in new court papers. 2016-03-05 14:31 3KB www.mediapost.com 42 Is Michael Bloomberg getting serious about a presidential run? This curious move has fueled new speculation Bloomberg's personal website was recently moved to an independent server, fueling speculation of a presidential bid 2016-03-05 14:26 2KB www.salon.com 43 SpaceX Falcon makes clean getaway SpaceX has at last managed to launch its latest mission - for Luxembourg satellite operator SES - after a series of frustrating delays. 2016-03-05 14:37 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 44 Syria conflict: Truce 'boosts peace talks', leaders agree The truce apparently holding in Syria will create momentum behind peace talks aimed at ending the conflict, major European powers agree. 2016-03-05 14:37 4KB www.bbc.co.uk 45 Pennsylvania man admits to robbing bank with sex toy disguised as a bomb A Pittsburgh area man has pleaded guilty to robbing a bank, threatening bank tellers with a fake bomb he made out of phone wires, duct tape and a sex toy 2016-03-05 14:21 1KB www.rt.com 46 Mumbai crime: This man flew in from UP only to loot city homes Former gram pradhan from Uttar Pradesh held for breaking into houses, stealing valuables in Vasai, Navi Mumbai and Thane; accused used booty to fund his election campaign and buy real estate 2016-03-05 15:34 2KB www.mid-day.com

47 Inside 'Islamic State': A Raqqa diary In areas controlled by IS the penalty for speaking to the Western media is death by beheading, so it took courage for Mohammed to compile this diary of life in the IS capital. 2016-03-05 04:59 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 48 Improve children's mental health care, head teachers urge More young people are suffering mental health problems but care outside schools is failing to keep pace, say head teachers 2016-03-05 14:30 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 49 Borlain sisters dominate 2016 Alaska IronKids SUBIC – The Borlain siblings were at it again. Samantha, Tara and Franchezka Borlain dominated their respective fields to come out as the big winners in the 2016 Alaska IronKids on Saturday 2016-03-05 15:31 2KB sports.inquirer.net 50 Debunking the big lie about Trump and the GOP establishment: They’re identical and hocking the same brand of bullsh*t Trump is successful because he's just as bigoted as other Republicans, but just less hypocritical about it 2016-03-05 13:42 4KB www.salon.com 51 Senatorial bets urged: Champion disaster-resilient housing Several civil society organizations on Friday urged senatorial candidates to address the heightening vulnerability of poor and disaster-affected communities due to climate change. 2016-03-05 04:54 4KB news.abs-cbn.com 52 Trolls will love Peeple: Even with anti-bullying controls, “Yelp for People” still sounds like a nightmare New human-ratings app Peeple, set to launch Monday, still isn’t the cure for fixing your social reputation 2016-03-05 13:48 5KB www.salon.com 53 Pat Conroy: Prince of Tides author dies aged 70 US novelist Pat Conroy - whose best-selling novels include "Prince of Tides" and "Water is Wide"- dies aged 70. 2016-03-05 14:17 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 54 Syrian refugees settle into new lives in Canada Canada has reached its goal of settling 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February. We take a look at how some are settling into life in their new homes. 2016-03-05 14:17 12KB www.bbc.co.uk 55 Obama to stay in Washington DC after leaving White House US President Barack Obama will be moving out of the White House in 2017, but he will not be moving far. 2016-03-05 14:17 1KB www.bbc.co.uk 56 “Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer”: Senator “confirmed” as notorious murderer on Wikipedia as campaign gets new life It doesn't matter that Cruz was born after the killings started in the Wiki universe 2016-03-05 13:48 1KB www.salon.com 57 Inconsistent sexual assault kit testing a statewide issue In Pocatello, the rate is 26 percent. In Nampa, only 10. In Coeur d’Alene, though, testing rates are at 60 percent. 2016-03-05 15:21 4KB www.washingtontimes.com 58 Boko Haram ‘spiritual power base’ destroyed in raid, 63 hostages rescued (PHOTOS) The Nigerian Army says its soldiers have rescued 63 Boko Haram hostages and killed five militants during a raid on a “terrorist camp” established in the north east of the country. 2016-03-05 13:57 1KB www.rt.com

59 NYC mayor praises gun seizures as ‘less deadly’ knife attack increase While praising the New York City Police Department for taking guns off the streets, Mayor Bill de Blasio has suggested this success may be responsible for a 20 percent surge of “less deadly” slashing and stabbing attacks in the Big Apple. 2016-03-05 13:57 1KB www.rt.com 60 Monkeys learn how to ride wheelchairs using mind power (VIDEO) US scientists have developed a brain-machine-interface (BMI) that enables monkeys to control a wheelchair with their minds. The study highlights new opportunities for the paralyzed. 2016-03-05 13:58 1KB www.rt.com 61 Turkish police raid opposition Zaman daily HQ, unleash tear gas & water cannon on protesters Turkish police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse crowds protesting outside the headquarters of the opposition Zaman newspaper. They moved in to secure the premises following a government decision to take over the management of the media group. 2016-03-05 13:58 4KB www.rt.com 62 11yo conquers Tiger Woods' new golf course with a perfect hole-in-one shot (VIDEO) It’s been a tough few years for Tiger Woods, now the world’s 446th highest-ranked golfer. The former champion was beaten again this week, when an 11-year-old hit a hole- in-one inaugural shot on a new course that Woods designed. 2016-03-05 13:58 1KB www.rt.com 63 Family of paralyzed black man killed by cops sues Delaware city Family members of a man gunned down by Wilmington, Delaware, police in September have sued the city, claiming racial discrimination. The wheelchair-bound Jeremy McDole was shot multiple times by four police officers. 2016-03-05 13:58 4KB www.rt.com 64 Man runs amok in South Cotabato, 2 hurt from gunfire KORONADAL CITY – A 67-year-old man ran amok and injured two people after being reportedly irked by the closure of a road network in Banga, South Cotabato because of the town's foundation 2016-03-05 15:08 1KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 65 Livonia - News Livonia - News 2016-03-05 03:04 1KB rssfeeds.hometownlife.com 66 Cancer doesn’t deter high school sweethearts from vows Terminal cancer doesn’t stop high school sweethearts from making vows 2016-03-05 15:06 2KB www.washingtontimes.com 67 Republican presidential race lands in Kentucky Saturday The rambunctious Republican race for president comes to Kentucky on Saturday with a little-publicized caucus that has some party leaders worrying about low turnout. 2016-03-05 15:06 4KB www.washingtontimes.com 68 Suspected NPA rebel killed, militiaman hurt in ComVal clash TAGUM CITY – A suspected communist rebel was killed in a clash with government troops in Laak, Compostela Valley on Saturday, the military said. A militiaman was also wounded following the 7 2016-03-05 15:01 1KB newsinfo.inquirer.net

69 4 face charges after drug buy-bust arrest in Iligan City CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Four persons were now facing charges after being arrested in Iligan City during a buy-bust operation conducted by combined anti-narcotics agents from various parts of Mindanao 2016-03-05 14:54 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 70 McGregor to draw UFC's first $1M disclosed purse Conor McGregor's non-title welterweight fight against Nate Diaz on Saturday night will earn him the first $1 million disclosed purse in UFC history. 2016-03-05 05:28 2KB espn.go.com 71 Naples mother gives a second gift of life to her son A routine sports physical back in August changed 14-year-old Dylon Jacob’s life - and likely saved it. 2016-03-05 14:51 2KB www.washingtontimes.com 72 New iPhone Color Options - In Photos: Leaked: New iPhone Color Options iOS developer Sonny Dickson began leaking hands-on photos of the iPhone 5S and 5C. So far, it appears that Apple is planning three color options for the iPhone 5S (grey with a black trim, white with silver trim and gold) and five for the less expensive iPhone 5C (lime, blue,... 2016-03-05 16:41 1021Bytes www.forbes.com 73 ‘Magical Fairy Dust’ economics: Keiser slams UK govt for ‘bribing, enslaving’ citizens Financial analyst and RT host Max Keiser has blasted the UK government’s housing policy, claiming those in power are showing contempt for the citizens and are engaging in ‘Magical Fairy Dust’ economics. 2016-03-05 10:56 2KB www.rt.com 74 Veteran Russian liberal vows to beat Putin in 2018 presidential race The founder of the old, but minor political party Yabloko, Grigory Yavlinsky, told reporters he expects the presidential elections to take place earlier than currently scheduled and that he hopes to win them, in spite of current popularity ratings. 2016-03-05 10:56 3KB www.rt.com 75 Spain election: Socialists' coalition bid rejected again Spain's Socialist leader fails for the second time in a week to form a coalition government after his proposal is defeated by parliament. 2016-03-05 04:59 2KB www.bbc.co.uk 76 Dog pulled to safety from rushing Peru river A dog is lucky to be alive after it was pulled from the rushing waters of the severely flooded Chili River in Arequipa, Peru. 2016-03-05 11:02 624Bytes www.bbc.co.uk 77 At 75, Millvale church murals gaining new admirers As she grew up attending daily and Sunday Mass six days a week at St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in the 1950s and 1960s, Diane Novosel and her classmates were surrounded by paintings they found baffling and haunting. 2016-03-05 14:44 4KB www.washingtontimes.com 78 If you listen to Trump speeches next to KKK speeches there’s not much difference Decide for yourself VIDEO 2016-03-05 13:34 976Bytes www.salon.com 79 Philippines impounds North Korean ship under UN sanctions New sanctions imposed by the UN on North Korea in response to its fourth nuclear test and rocket launch A member of the crew of the North Korean cargo ship Jin Teng, anchored at the former US naval base at Subic port, north of Manila, seen on deck of the... 2016-03-04 23:50 2KB www.digitaljournal.com 80 Useful Vs. Creepy: The Jury Is Still Out Serving "the right ad, to the right person, at the right time" has become the industry mantra for the 21st century, with the underlying assumption being that if you do that, people will buy your product. But to actually do this right requires a considerable amount of data collection that... 2016-03-05 13:40 2KB www.mediapost.com 81 Bobby Jindal’s Trump fantasy: Who’s to blame for the rise of an anti-Muslim bigot? Obama, of course Republicans like Bobby Jindal can't cop to the fact that Trumpism is their fault, so they punt blame elsewhere 2016-03-05 12:02 4KB www.salon.com 82 Caitlyn Jenner’s absurd faith in Ted Cruz: Supporting the anti-LGBT evangelical hoping he’ll come around on trans issues is ridiculous While Jenner admits Democrats are "better" on social issues, Cait thinks she can get Cruz to come around 2016-03-05 12:02 5KB www.salon.com 83 What impact will S Korea's expanded missile defence system have? North Korea's nuclear threats have prompted South Korea to expand its missile defence system - what impact will this have? 2016-03-05 11:02 5KB www.bbc.co.uk 84 Peanut allergy theory backed up by new research The long-lasting effects of eating peanut products as a baby to avoid the risk of allergy are supported by new research. 2016-03-05 11:02 3KB www.bbc.co.uk 85 What to do when your window of opportunity is closing Spring training had barely started for the Toronto Blue Jays and manager John Gibbons was already facing questions about next offseason, when sluggers Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion could become free agents. 2016-03-05 14:33 4KB www.washingtontimes.com 86 Greens want MTDC's helicopter plans for Matheran grounded MTDC wants chopper services to hill station. The Bombay Environment Action Group says it will shatter the tranquility 2016-03-05 14:33 4KB www.mid-day.com 87 35 Bangladeshi nationals arrested in Tripura As many as 35 Bangladeshi nationals, including 24 women and three children, were arrested by Border Security Force (BSF) in Tripura for illegally entering India, police said in Agartala on Saturday 2016-03-05 14:30 1KB www.mid-day.com 88 Mars Science Lab launch delayed two years - CNN.com NASA's launch of the Mars Science Laboratory -- hampered by technical difficulties and cost overruns -- has been delayed until the fall of 2011, NASA officials said at a news conference Thursday in Washington. 2016-03-05 13:23 5KB rss.cnn.com 89 Escudero: Aquino should have focused on fair polls instead of campaign SAMBOAN, Cebu – Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero on Saturday said President Aquino should not have endorsed any candidate in the May elections to show that the polls will indeed be 2016-03-05 14:26 2KB newsinfo.inquirer.net 90 IS blamed for Yemen care home attack, Pope 'shocked' Yemeni authorities have blamed the Islamic State group for an attack on a care home run by missionaries that killed 16 people and was condemned by Pope Franc... 2016-03-05 13:45 1KB www.dailymail.co.uk

91 Trump suddenly drops out of CPAC and draws swift conservative scorn: “Not the last time Donald Trump will abandon conservatives” GOP frontrunner ditches conservative confab as reports of right-wing protest emerge VIDEO 2016-03-05 12:02 2KB www.salon.com 92 Tories want EU of austerity & corporate capture – McDonnell Tories want a Europe characterized by “runaway corporate power,” inequality and austerity, while Labour wants to restore Europe’s social fabric, clamp down on tax dodging and create quality jobs, says Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. 2016-03-05 13:18 3KB www.rt.com 93 Police arrest 4 adults for alleged sex acts with 4-year old children South Carolina police arrested four people after two 4-year-old children disclosed that they had been sexually assaulted at multiple locations over a five month period. One of the locations was a Myrtle Beach strip club. 2016-03-05 13:18 3KB www.rt.com 94 Cliven Bundy indictment over 2014 Nevada standoff expanded to 19 defendants A dozen people were arrested and face federal charges stemming from a 2014 armed standoff with authorities in Nevada over cattle grazing rights. The confrontation was led by rancher Cliven Bundy and his sons, who are already in federal custody. 2016-03-05 13:17 3KB www.rt.com 95 Sun-Times Endorsement: Hillary Clinton a skilled public servant Follow @csteditorials 2016-03-05 13:05 6KB chicago.suntimes.com 96 Scores & Stats [CONTENT HERE] News, Sports, Weather, Traffic and the Best of NY 2016-03-05 13:09 4KB newyork.cbslocal.com 97 Pune: Two dupe cop's 18-year-old daughter of Rs 1.3 lakh for better score in HSC exams Two conmen duped a cop’s 18-year-old daughter of gold ornaments worth Rs 1.25 lakh and Rs 5,000 cash on the pretext of getting her Std XII marks increased by 5 per cent. One of them was arrested on Thursday 2016-03-05 14:10 3KB www.mid-day.com 98 With overall title almost secured, Hirscher takes GS globe KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia (AP) — Having retained his World Cup giant slalom title with a race to spare, Marcel Hirscher can start preparing for an even bigger... 2016-03-05 14:09 1KB www.dailymail.co.uk 99 BJP leader expelled for offering prize money for cutting Kanhaiya's tongue The BJP Yuva Morcha leader, who had announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for cutting off JNU Students union leader Kanhaiya Kumar's tongue, was on Saturday expelled from primary membership of the party for six years 2016-03-05 14:08 1KB www.mid-day.com 100 How a shot could change a drug addict’s life Late last August, Ryan Haman was ordered to spend a week in a cell at the Cascade County Detention Center. As an opioid addict, it definitely wasn’t his first time in jail, but hopefully it would be his last. 2016-03-05 14:06 2KB www.washingtontimes.com Articles

Total 100 articles, created at 2016-03-05 18:00

1 Top News - powered by FeedBurner (2.00/3) Christopher Le Cun was boating off the coast of Hutchinson Island when he and his friend went under to check out three large shadows beneath the waves that looked like buildings. feeds.feedburner.com 2016-03-05 08:33 www.nydailynews.com

2 Leslie Jones reacts to criticism of ‘Ghostbusters’ character LOS ANGELES—Leslie Jones ain’t afraid of no ghost—or playing a transit worker. The costar of the upcoming all-female version of “Ghostbusters” took to Twitter to defend her role as a member of the paranormal-fighting group who appears in footage released Thursday to be an employee of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The portrayal of the team’s only non-white member as a subway worker in filmmaker Paul Feig’s new “Ghostbusters” came under fire on social media after the trailer debuted online. “Why can’t a regular person be a Ghostbuster?” the African-American actress-comedienne posted on Twitter. “I’m confused. And why can’t I be the one who plays them? I am a performer. Just go see the movie!” Jones’ character Patty teams up to fight ghosts and other apparitions in the film with Kristen Wiig’s particle physicist Erin, Melissa McCarthy’s paranormal researcher Abby and Kate McKinnon’s nuclear engineer Jillian. In one scene, Jones’ character tells them, “You guys are really smart about this science stuff, but I know New York—and I can borrow a car from my uncle.” A poster for the character released earlier this year referred to Patty as a “ghost tracker, municipal historian, metaphysical commando.” “I understand this is a reboot of ‘Ghostbusters’ from 1984 and the new characters mirror their male counterparts,” wrote Donna Dickens on the pop culture site HitFix.com on Friday. “But it’s been over 30 years and the dynamic of three white scientists and ‘street-wise’ minority is dated.” Jones, who serves as a “Saturday Night Live” cast member and appeared in the film “Top Five,” made it clear she was not personally offended by the part, adding on Twitter: “IT’S NOT A MAN, WOMAN, RACE, CLASS THANG!! IT’S A GHOSTBUSTER THANG!!” A spokesperson for “Ghostbusters” writer-director Feig did not immediately return messages seeking comment. In the original “Ghostbusters” films, Ernie Hudson portrayed the team’s only non-white member, Winston. He joined the group by responding to a help wanted ad and did not have any prior experience with paranormal activity. The new “Ghostbusters” installment is scheduled for release July 15. 2016-03-05 17:58 Associated Press entertainment.inquirer.net

3 Davis Cup: Gonzales heart fuels PH 2-0 run It was Ruben Gonzales’ big fighting heart that brought the Cebuana Lhuillier-Philippines to the threshold of Davis Cup tie victory against Kuwait. That was the consensus of team officials who never lost hope even though the 30-year-old veteran lost a two-sets-to-none lead to trail 1-4 in the fifth set, and even face match point at 3-5, 30- 40 Friday night. “He was the hero of that evening,” said team manager Jean Henri Lhuillier ahead of Saturday night’s doubles match that could clinch the Asia/Oceania Group 2 tie for the hosts. World No. 30 Treat Huey and former Australian Open junior champion Francis Casey Alcantara were battling Ghareeb and Abdulhamin Mubarak late Saturday. Lhuillier said Gonzales displayed the true Filipino spirit during a four-hour mano-a-mano against Kuwait’s top gun Mohammad Al Ghareeb, who eventually gave up due to cramps. Jeson Patrombon routed Abdulrahman Alawadhi (6-0, 6-2, 6-1) in the opening singles before Gonzales pulled the 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, 1-6, 6-7 (8-6), 5-5 (ret) victory over Ghareeb.

2016-03-05 17:45 Marc Anthony sports.inquirer.net

4 Police: Woman found dead in bedroom closet in Detroit DETROIT (AP) - Police say they found a woman dead in a bedroom closet of a home in Detroit. Detroit Police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer Moreno says officers responded to the home Friday morning after authorities got a 911 call about family trouble and a cutting that just happened. She says police saw a large amount of blood. Police say officers heard someone in the back of the house and saw a man trying to escape. Moreno says the man is a suspect in the woman’s death and was arrested. Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office spokesman Lloyd Jackson said the woman’s autopsy is scheduled Saturday.

2016-03-05 16:41 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

5 Man gets life in prison in fatal Kansas City home invasion KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A Kansas City man has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in a 2011 home invasion that left one man dead. The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/1SpanK4 ) reports that 30-year-old Garron T. Briggs was sentenced Friday for first-degree murder. Court records say a woman was returning to her home in August 2011 around 1 a.m. when three men, including Briggs, approached her. Prosecutors say the men forced the woman to unlock the home’s front door, and Briggs forced her to lie on the living room floor while the other two men went into a bedroom to look for something. Court records say the men questioned the woman’s boyfriend, Edward Ewing, about what they were looking for before he was fatally shot. The woman was shot, but survived. ___ Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com

2016-03-05 16:41 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

6 Growing a 1,500-year forest in a matter of weeks VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) - Nature doesn’t create a forest in a time frame that fits into humanity’s schedule, but two researchers at Washington State University Vancouver figured out a way to speed up the process. Nikolay Strigul, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics, and Jean Liénard, a mathematics postdoctoral researcher, developed a computer program that grows forests down to the branches, leaves and roots of each individual tree. By accelerating the growth of a forest over a millennium and a half, they’re able to see how climate changes, wildfires and droughts can impact forests across North America. “We’re trying to understand how individual trees link to the overall forest,” Strigul said. They call their model LES, after the Russian word for forest, and they’ve already used it to predict how rising carbon dioxide and warmer temperatures will cause increases in fire rates and affect plant growth in Quebec’s hardwood forests. Scientists still don’t fully understand how forests recover after a clear-cut, fire or other disturbances. Monitoring the process can take decades and involves a lot of information. Now, this new program could help forest managers better understand the process and determine which species of trees and environmental factors will help forests re-establish themselves. “The fear is that drier conditions in the future will prevent forests in places like Washington from re-establishing themselves after a clear-cut or wildfire. This could lead to increasing amounts of once-forested areas converted to desert,” Strigul said. “Our model can help predict if forests are at risk of desertification or other climate change-related processes and identify what can be done to conserve these systems.” Strigul said computer modeling for forests isn’t anything new; it’s been used by foresters and ecologists for decades. But until now, computing power was well behind their scientific ambitions. Previous models could only simulate trees at the branches or at the roots, but not both. “Now we can do it,” Strigul said. To generate the simulation, Strigul and Liénard work from their offices at WSU Vancouver and use a computer system at WSU’s Pullman campus capable of producing the equivalent of roughly 400 personal computers. LES digitally grows 100-by-100-meter stands of drought- and shade-tolerant trees that can be scaled up to an actual forest size, but the process still takes three weeks. LES creates intricate roots and canopy structures where trees struggle for light and water. Over time, the forest canopy changes as the trees move their leaves to gather more sun. But the forests the computer grows are not like something a person would imagine. The simulated forest doesn’t look like a three-dimensional landscape with trees growing in hyper lapse. Instead, Strigul and Liénard’s computer monitors display two separate mosaics of shifting shapes and different colors. Each color represents a different species of tree. One screen shows the trees’ root structures. The other shows a bird’s-eye view of the tree canopy. The researchers used data from the U. S. Department of Agriculture Forest Inventory and drone images from particular forests to customize their model to particular forests. “We use this data to develop 3-D models that have real distributions of space and ecological features,” Liénard said. In addition to the changes in the weather, climate change is enabling certain diseases and pests such as the destructive Rocky Mountain Pine Beetle to expand into territories well beyond their native homes. Strigul said they’re in talks with researchers at University of California at Davis to add those variables to their computer models. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:27 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

7 Prosecutor: iPhone could ID unknown San Bernardino attacker LOS ANGELES (AP) - Information contained in an encrypted iPhone could help finally answer whether there was a third assailant in the San Bernardino terror attack that killed 14 people, according to court papers filed by the county’s district attorney. San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said Friday that the question of a third attacker has nagged investigators despite no supporting evidence. “We’ve never been able to completely eliminate it,” he said. “We know we have some witnesses that said they thought they saw three … some saw two, some saw one. The majority said two, and the evidence we have up to this point only supports two.” Still, he said investigators would like to definitively answer the question, and unlocking the phone could help do that. Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, opened fire Dec. 2 at an annual training of his San Bernardino County co-workers. They died hours later in a shootout with police. The 14 people killed marked the deadliest terror attack on U. S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001. In a brief filed in federal court Thursday, San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos cited two 911 calls reporting three perpetrators during the attack. “The information contained solely on the seized iPhone could provide evidence to identify as of yet unknown co-conspirators …” according to Ramos’ brief. The brief also suggested that the county-owned iPhone used by Farook may have introduced a “lying-dormant cyber pathogen” endangering the county’s computer network. Burguan said he’s never heard that theory and knew of no problems. Such a breech is technically possible but unlikely, said David Meltzer, a computer security expert and chief research officer at TripWire, a commercial IT security firm. If an employee wanted to introduce malicious software into the county’s network, Meltzer said they would be more likely to use a desktop or laptop PC because it’s easier to download and manipulate malicious code on a PC’s operating system. The district attorney is among many weighing in on the fight between Apple and the government ahead of a March 22 hearing in which Apple is asking a judge to reverse an order requiring the company to create a software program that overrides iPhone security features. Apple says unlocking Farook’s phone would make all other iPhones more vulnerable to future attacks. In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook cited in another court brief, Mark Sandefur - the father of one of the men killed in the terror attack - also cited reports of three attackers, saying the phone must be unlocked. “Several of the survivors tell me bone-chilling stories of where they were, and what they saw,” Sandefur wrote. “Some of them describe in precise detail, laying on the floor, hiding under furniture and the bodies of their co-workers, that they saw three assailants, not two, walking around in heavy boots as they carried out their murders. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:27 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

8 White on ESPN snub: I’m thinking, should I keep going back? VAIL, Colo. (AP) - Shaun White turns 30 later this year, and the world’s best rider is celebrating by stamping his name all over the business side of the world he’s helped create. As he shapes the future, in part by buying resorts and running events, it’s becoming clear that future will include what, at best, will be a shaky relationship between White and another of the sport’s biggest players, ESPN. The network that created the X Games and, in doing so, provided White an outsized platform from which to become a star, nixed his invitation to this year’s Winter X Games, denying a 13-time champion a spot in the biggest contest of the year. It was a shocker of a move that engendered bad feelings which, nearly two months later, haven’t gone away. “It’s kind of opened my eyes,” White said in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press this week. “This happened, and I’m thinking, should I keep going back or not?” White says the network told him the snub came because of unflattering comments he made at a business forum last year about ESPN’s unsuccessful attempt to take the X Games global. White said he and the network negotiated about collaborating in that effort, but those talks stalled. After the talks broke down, the snowboarder-slash-businessman’s next move was to purchase the Air & Style sports and music festival - an international set of events with a Coachella-like art- and-music vibe interspersed with some of action sports’ biggest stars. He plans on expanding that into a six-event tour, starting next season. ESPN, meanwhile, has refused to discuss the reason for White’s snub from Winter X, which has only further irritated the two-time Olympic gold medalist. “The rise of Shaun White and the X Games will always go hand in hand,” Scott Guglielmino, senior vice president of programming and X Games, told AP when asked for comment about the rift. “Each has been good for the other. We have always valued our relationship with Shaun, and that hasn’t changed as both continue to evolve.” White agrees. But where they go next is anybody’s guess. He has since declined a spot he earned, based on a victory in the Dew Tour earlier this season, in ESPN’s startup event - a summer-winter hybrid X Games in Oslo, Norway. “I guess I’m good enough to help you launch your new event, but not good enough to go to Aspen,” he said. Instead, he focused on riding this weekend at the U. S. Open, run by one of his very first sponsors, snowboarding pioneer Jake Burton. Successful as he’s become, White is still bothered by the X Games snub. “Those are the moments you get to shine. It feels good. It’s why we do this,” he said. But, he insists, “I’m not moping around about it.” He remembers a time when he got flak for not having a bigger voice in the sport. Set to hit the “Big 3-0” on Sept. 3, he insists those days are over. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:28 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

9 Farmers consider expensive tech amid low commodity prices GREELEY, Colo. (AP) - When Marc Arnusch graduated from college in the mid-1990s, his father didn’t want him to come back to the family farm in Keenesburg. Crop prices were so bad, Hans Arnusch didn’t think his son could make a living, like he and his father before him had. Arnusch understood his dad’s concerns, but he grew up with farming. He loved it. He couldn’t stay away. Now with modern crop prices even lower than they were in the mid-‘90s - and after two decades of market swings - Arnusch understands why his dad warned him. He’s worried he’ll be the last Arnusch to farm wheat, corn and alfalfa. But he also has a son studying agriculture at Colorado State University, so Arnusch does everything he can to stay profitable. Though technology can help him raise his yields, the quality of his crops and, therefore, his profits, it also has a price tag. Some precision ag systems can cost tens of thousands of dollars. While some, like Arnusch, incorporate tech as frequently as they can, many farmers see precision ag technology as a luxury, and it’s one of the first areas where they start cutting back. That’s a mindset Arnusch, who serves on the Colorado Farm Bureau’s board of directors, thinks the ag world can’t afford. “I don’t see that technology as a luxury at all,” he said. “I see it as important as the tractors that are on our farm.” Arnusch farms 2,800 acres with a diversified operation. Though the farm continues to do well, he is no stranger to hard times, something he reminds the young farmers who come to him for advice. In 1996, a hailstorm devastated his crop. The storm, and that year’s low prices, made Arnusch think only two years after he’d begun farming, his career would be over. In 2012, he had to close his successful onion shed, because of concerns about onion prices, food safety and immigration. He says that’s the hardest thing he’s ever done. Now, commodity prices are low once again, so low Arnusch has to find ways to grow smarter so he can stay competitive, like leasing expensive technology and selling wheat and barley seed. “There isn’t a book on a shelf anywhere that you can go to and flip to the chapter, ‘How do we get through this?’ We kind of have to feel it out on our own,” Arnusch said. “This is where you really find out how good of a farmer you are.” A NEW LOW Since 2013, prices for some of Colorado’s staple crops, like corn for grain and wheat, have dropped drastically. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, in 2013, the value of the state’s corn for grain crop was nearly $600 million. In 2015, it came in at just under $500 million, a drop of nearly 20 percent in value. At its peak in the last 10 years, corn in Colorado was more than $7 per bushel. Last year, it was priced at $3.70. Tim Magnuson, co-owner of Magnuson Bros. LLC in Eaton, has farmed since the mid-2000s. He got to see prices slink up, then slide back down. That’s taught him a lot, he said. When corn was over $7, he didn’t have to be as crafty as he does now. “There was a while that you could pretty much do whatever you wanted to do within reason,” said Tim Magnuson, co-owner of Magnuson Bros. LLC in Eaton, where he and his brother farm corn and alfalfa. “You don’t have a complete open checkbook anymore. You start pinching your pennies more, trying to look at cost per acre more.” TRYING TECH In recent years, the ag tech world has made major strides to help farmers increase their yields and crop quality while using fewer resources. One of the types of tech Arnusch uses is soil- moisture monitoring. He buries tension probes with the crops with sensors to see how much water is in the soil. Last year, he used 20 percent less water on his corn crop. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:27 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

10 Iowa mulls eliminating front license plates for vehicles. DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - It’s not legal, but Doug Klein says he hasn’t put front license plates on his cars in 30 years. He’s willing to risk getting a ticket to keep it that way. Klein is the owner of American Dream Machines in downtown Des Moines, a dealership with an inventory that includes such classic cars as a gleaming red 1957 Cadillac Eldorado convertible and a sleek black 1995 Ferrari 348 Spider. “I don’t see the logic of someone spending $50,000 to $100,000 for a beautiful car, and then you have to slap a license plate on the front,” Klein said. The Des Moines Register (http://dmreg.co/1LzsWtB ) reports that the Iowa House is considering House File 540, which would require only a rear license plate on vehicles. The Iowa Department of Transportation says the change would save more than $500,000 annually. But Iowa law enforcement officials have pushed back against the bill, raising concerns that the absence of a front license plate can hinder police work. State Rep. Josh Byrnes, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said he’s received more emails in support of getting rid of one license plate than he did from both sides last year when the Legislature raised the gas tax by 10 cents a gallon. “People want this thing gone,” Byrnes said. Nationwide, 19 states do not require a front license plate. But law enforcement officers say having front and rear license plates is important for criminal investigations, both for tracking vehicles and surveillance camera recordings. Law officers also say having two plates on a car is important when they issue Amber Alerts to seek public cooperation when a child has been abducted and is in danger. “Not having that front plate cuts the chances of seeing the suspect’s license plates in half. We think it would be a step backward for public safety,” said Maj. John Godar of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, who is also president of the Iowa State Sheriffs & Deputies Association. The Iowa DOT hasn’t taken a position on the one-plate debate. But eliminating the front license plate would prevent people from avoiding detection of unregistered vehicles by splitting plate pairs on two vehicles, said Mark Lowe, director of the DOT’s Motor Vehicle Division. Although if pairs are split, only one plate would have a registration tag. The Iowa Automobile Dealers Association officially supports the one-plate legislation, in part because new car bumpers don’t have holes drilled to install license plate brackets. Sales representatives need to inform new car buyers that Iowa law requires a front license plate and then get permission to install it. “For a lot of people, the front of a car typically looks much cleaner, much better, without a front license plate,” said Jim Usgaard, general manager of Willis Auto Campus in Clive, which sells seven brands of new vehicles and all types of pre-owned cars. In addition, many new vehicles are designed with bumpers that cause low-hanging license plates to strike curbs, damaging the plates, said Bruce Anderson, president of the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association. He noted Iowa law already permits car dealers to demonstrate vehicles with a single dealer plate, and cars from states with one-plate laws can operate legally in Iowa. But there’s not much sympathy for those one-plate arguments from legislators with backgrounds in law enforcement. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:19 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

11 Police investigating report of sex assault at Norman school NORMAN, Okla. (AP) - Police say they are investigating a report of a sexual assault at Norman High School. Norman Police Department spokeswoman Sarah Jensen said Thursday that police received a report of an assault involving a male juvenile and a female juvenile at the school. Norman Public Schools released a statement confirming the investigation, saying that school officials immediately met with the student who reported the incident and that student’s parent before contacting police. The school district says that the other student has been suspended, pending an investigation. Jensen said that police plan to present their findings to the district attorney next week. In 2014, students at the same school protested over how administrators handled alleged bullying of a sex assault victim, and one student was suspended and later convicted of raping a former classmate. And earlier this year at another Norman high school, Norman North, four students were charged with rape by instrumentation in an assault on two teammates on a wrestling team bus.

2016-03-05 16:08 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

12 Little Sophia steals show at Alaska IronKids SUBIC–Sophia Angela Remigio proved that triathlon is for all shapes and sizes. The four-year-old girl stole the show at the 2016 Alaska IronKids in Subic Bay Saturday, becoming one of the youngest to join and finish the race beside her older counterparts. Sophia left a lot of spectators in awe as her determination drove her to finish the bike, swim, run course. READ: Borlain sisters dominate 2016 Alaska IronKids Though she didn’t emerge as the frontrunner in the Girls 6 to 8 race, Sophia gained a lot of fans with her valiant stand to get to the finish line. “Masayang masaya kami na natapos nya kasi first time nya sumali sa ganito,” said her proud mother Josephine. No doubt the smallest of the bunch, Sophia was really the one who pushed to join the race, according to Josephine. “Noong una, laro-laro lang sana. Pero nagustuhan nya yung swimming, hanggang sa inalok sya ng coach na sumali ng triathlon dito sa IronKids,” said Josephine. Though letting her child participate in such tough competition did make Josephine worry, it was even Sophia herself who calmed her. “Sabi nya sa akin, ‘Kaya ko ito, mommy.’ Noong una, kinakabahan ako. Nakakanerbyos nga eh,” said the older Remigio. “Pero noong natapos na, masayang masaya ako.” Now a part of the growing triathlon community, Josephine said that this will not be Sophia’s last race, but rather, a start of bigger dreams for her charming kid. RELATED VIDEO

2016-03-05 17:14 Randolph B. sports.inquirer.net

13 Ski resorts in New England states are banning drones SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - Airports ban them, the National Park Service forbids them and now drones are prohibited in another place - ski areas. A prominent sign on the main chairlift at Mount Snow explains drones are banned from the entire ski area property and Butternut Ski Area officials have hung a sign near a high-traffic area at lodge entrance saying drones are not allowed. Resorts have publicized the bans on websites, brochures and trail maps. Nearly all ski areas in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts ban drones unless the operator has written permission from the resort owners. “There are definitely safety concerns about having drones flying around skiers, lifts and other mechanical equipment, said Thad Quimby, director of marketing and events for Mount Snow in West Dover, Vermont. At Mount Snow drones are only allowed with prior approval from mountain owners. Those who do receive permission have to show the drone is properly registered and the operator has the necessary training and credentials to operate them. They also must carry insurance, he said. Drones would mostly be allowed for the media filming races or other events. Some resorts also hire operators to take publicity photos and video of skiers and snowboarders, ski officials said. Mount Snow is hardly alone. In fact, it is hard to find a resort that allows drones without prior approval, said Sarah Wojcik, director of public relations for Vermont Ski Areas Association. “We made the decision to communicate that this winter because they became so popular,” said Matthew Sawyer, marketing director for Ski Butternut in Great Barrington. In 2015 more than 700,000 drones were sold, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration to require them to be registered. Airports officials, including those at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, have also aired concerns about their use. Sawyer said they haven’t had any problems with unmanned drones, but decided on the ban as a preemptive strike to prevent anything from happening on the slopes. The problem with drones at ski areas came to the forefront in December when an unmanned drone carrying a television camera crashed on a slalom course during a World Cup race in Italy. It came close to striking Austrian skier and Olympic silver medalist Marcel Hirscher while he was taking his second run. The drone was allowed, but the operator was not supposed to be flying directly above the race course. The International Ski Federation banned camera drones from World Cup races following the crash. Mad River Glen, in Vermont, has its own drone, but does not allow the general public to use them without permission. So far there hasn’t been a problem, said Eric Friedman, marketing director for the ski area in Waitsfield. A number of other mountains had already banned drones, so Mad River officials looked at other policies and took parts of them to create one that fits their area, he said. The National Ski Areas Association has created a blanket policy and most ski areas are using a version of it. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:03 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

14 European Union, Cuba near deal to normalize relations HAVANA—After two years of negotiations, Cuba and the European Union are close to sealing an agreement to normalize relations that soured two decades ago, officials said Friday. Cuban and EU negotiators said talks could be concluded for the March 10-11 visit to Havana by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. “We have covered all the chapters of the agreement,” chief EU negotiator Christian Leffler said, adding that the sides ended two days of talks on Friday with substantial progress. His Cuban counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno, said the agreement could be ready for Mogherini’s visit although it would not be signed immediately. Since 1996, EU policy toward Cuba has been guided by the so-called Common Position, which rules out full relations with Havana until it makes reforms in areas such as more diverse political participation and freedom of expression. Relations hit a nadir in 2003 after Cuba imprisoned 75 government opponents during a crackdown on dissent. The EU instituted limits on high-level visits to the island, reduced cultural cooperation and began inviting dissidents to visit European embassies in Cuba. Leffler said it was a coincidence that Mogherini would visit shortly before President Barack Obama’s historic March 21-22 trip to Cuba.

2016-03-05 17:01 Associated Press newsinfo.inquirer.net

15 Community to mark one-year anniversary of police shooting MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Numerous public meetings have been held. Tasks forces have investigated, protests have been held and a lawsuit filed. Yet the efforts have brought little change in Madison since the fatal police shooting of a biracial man one year ago, according to some residents and activists. Community members have planned a series of events this weekend to mark the one-year anniversary of the death of 19-year-old Tony Robinson, who was unarmed when fatally shot by a white police officer on March 6, 2015. They say they hope the events draw attention to the lack of tangible difference in the city’s policing. “From my perspective, nothing has changed,” said Brandi Grayson, organizer of the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition, which led protests last year. “Our black and brown community continues to be impacted negatively due to over-policing of the neighborhoods, the criminalization of our youth.” Some community leaders are optimistic, saying recent task force recommendations will enhance trust with communities of color and that change takes time. NAACP of Dane County President Greg Jones has said the a task force built a bridge between law enforcement and the communities, with both participating in the conversations. Police also say officers have redoubled their outreach efforts over the last year. Madison Police Chief Mike Koval has encouraged officers to park and get out of their vehicles while on patrol and interact with people in neighborhoods if they’re not responding to calls. “I want people to know that we’re not going to go into a shell and be hermits,” Koval said. “We’re not going to remain tethered to a narrative that is defined by an 18-second event that occurred on March 6.” Madison police officer Matt Kenny, who is white, shot Robinson in the stairwell of an apartment house after responding to calls about Robinson behaving erratically. Kenny said he entered the house to investigate sounds of a disturbance, and Robinson started punching him. An autopsy showed Robinson had traces of drugs in his system, including hallucinogenic mushrooms. Kenny was later cleared of criminal wrongdoing, and an internal investigation found he didn’t violate any police policies. The shooting sparked protests throughout the city, a federal civil rights lawsuit from Robinson’s family, calls for examination of police use of force and renewed efforts by police to educate and engage the community. The shooting also came amid a time of heightened scrutiny of shootings by police nationwide, particularly those involving unarmed young black men. The conversations are continuing in Madison. About 100 people gathered Friday afternoon at the University of Wisconsin-Madison amid frigid weather to march toward the state Capitol, chanting Robinson’s name and carrying a banner demanding justice. A community dinner will be held Saturday, and another march is scheduled for Sunday on Williamson Street - where Robinson was shot. Over the past year, multiple efforts have launched to examine the police department’s policies and procedures. A United Way of Dane County task force that formed months before Robinson’s death - in the aftermath of the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri - published a report last month with 60 recommendations. Koval said Madison police already practice many of the recommendations, such as implicit bias training. He said wants to look at others more closely. A city committee is conducting an analysis of the police department’s policies, with plans to have a report finished by October. Grayson said it’s not enough. “They’re basically sitting at the table together and singing Kumbaya while our communities are still torn and broken,” she said. Robinson’s mother, Andrea Irwin, said the family’s lawsuit is still in the discovery stage, so it will likely be months before anything changes. She said she lost her job in August but is starting a nonprofit to help victims of state violence. She also said the time hasn’t helped her heal. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:48 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

16 Replica of mural, mill’s glory days moves into museum PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) - Objects may be larger than they appear. Take Cynthia Ramu’s 7-by-11-foot mural on an interior wall of the Pueblo Heritage Museum. Just a short distance away, on the other side of the railroad tracks, the full-sized 65-by-120-foot version decorates the Arkansas River levee. But not for long. The Pueblo Conservancy District’s project to lop the top 12 feet off the levee - machinery that destroys the concrete canvas - will catch up to the full-size mural sometime soon, leaving only a memory of the artwork. Much like its subject, the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co. mill as it appeared in 1902, when it had all 12 of the original stacks. “The Whistle at 3” mural was a section of Ramu’s original design for the Pueblo Levee Mural Project in 1992. Using projected images, she painted the smaller mural at the museum, located at 201 W. B St., last summer. It’s incorporated into an exhibit that also features William Jackson Palmer, one of Pueblo’s founding fathers. Palmer established CF& I, the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad and South Pueblo, among other Colorado landmarks. “The title is ‘The Whistle at 3.’ In Pueblo, the whistle was the time you got up or went to sleep or went to work,” said Heraldo Acosta, a member of the museum who set up the exhibits. “I think it complements what Palmer had done. Pueblo needs to say thank you to Palmer.” And to Ramu. “Since they’re tearing down the levee, or half of the levee, I thought it would be appropriate,” said Acosta, who has been using his own camera to document the mural’s destruction as the levee is rebuilt. “I am just amazed at how much she has done for the community with her teaching and the Empty Bowls (a community fundraiser for the homeless). She’s just a great person.” The mini mural incorporates Ramu’s statement about what the mural means to her. In her own words: “As I dove into the endless archives at the library, I was moved by the rich history of the mill. In the beginning I was incorporating at least five separate murals honoring the structures and the mill workers through the past 100 years. My mural on the levee encompassed an area of 65 feet tall by 120 feet long on a 45-degree angle and took me over two months to complete during the summer months. At a point I ran low on money because I did not live in Pueblo at the time, was commuting from Redwing in the Huerfano, and the local Steelworkers Union pitched in to help me cover some of my final expenses.” The 1992 full-size mural also received funding from a CoVisions grant for art in public places, and when it was completed, CF& I and the Colorado Arts Council hosted a reception on the bike trail across the Arkansas River. “Endless retired steelworkers came out to thank me for mural dedication and honoring them,” Ramu said. The levee mural, which began surreptitiously by the Tee Hee Painters in the 1970s, was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest outdoor mural. Ramu began coordinating the mural painting project in 1988, using recycled paint for much of the work. Artists, students and other volunteers contributed over the years. Ramu’s original reaction upon learning the murals would not only be cut in half but replaced with new concrete facing was: “That’s insane!” Since that time, the Pueblo Conservancy District paid to produce a photographic record of the mural. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:48 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

17 Beloit fourth-grader a novelist in the making BELOIT, Wis. (AP) - One budding author at Aldrich Intermediate School has written so many novels, she has to lug them around in a Dora the Explorer suitcase. Fourth-grader Amari Morton not only fills spiral notebooks faster than her parents can buy them, but skipped a grade and is reading at the sixth grade level. “She’s very thoughtful in her execution of dialogue, character interaction and story development,” said her teacher Tim Vedra. “Her future is bright. She’s very smart, works hard and is able to articulate well. She’s awesome.” Amari’s parents, Sean and Audrey Morton of Beloit, credit her success, in part, to teaching her to read at 2 years old through the “Your Baby Can Read” program. Although the program’s creator had to settle charges with the Federal Trade Commission for false advertising, her parents are still believers, the Beloit Daily News (http://bit.ly/1QmKGFd ) reported. “She’s at the top of her class now, and she still has that desire to read. We don’t have to make her go read, we’ll find her reading,” said her dad, Sean, a machine operator at Frito-Lay. Whether her daughter learned from the program may be unclear, but her mother’s determination is an inspiration to all who know her. Audrey started holding up sight-word flash cards to Amari when she was 2-years-old. Within weeks, Amari could distinguish words such as tiger or elephant. Audrey had already been teaching her son Armani Lewis, now 20-years-old, for years. “You are not supposed to baby talk a baby. I would use words with him,” Audrey said. Audrey, a stay-at-home mom who worked in cosmetology, said she was always an average student. Sean said reading is the basic key to learning or doing anything. Audrey said she wished she had applied herself more and went to college to pursue her interests in writing and art. She decided she wanted more for her kids and left no stone unturned in advancing their education. After dutifully going over about 20 books and DVDS with the “Baby Can Read” program, she got Amari making picture books with stories and photos at age 3. “You know how kids ask for toys? Well Amari asked for notebooks,” added father Sean. Pretty soon Amari would tell stories on camera. “Ever since she was knee high to a duck she would start recording videos of her stories,” Audrey noted. Everyone who knew the little girl would be forced to sit down and listen to her many tales. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:48 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

18 Downtown Papillion sees results of revitalization efforts PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) - On a chilly, gray morning in February, five men sat around sharing the newspaper inside Papillion Barbers, waiting for their turn in the chair. Outside, a steady stream of cars and a trickle of people kept East First and North Washington Streets busy. In years past, people were mostly breezing through downtown - stopping briefly to get a haircut or to drop off some shoes at Tom’s Shoe Repair next door. But not anymore. “There’s growth all around,” said Kim Lemonds, who has been cutting hair at the barbershop for 15 of its 45 years. Downtown Papillion is the most vibrant it’s been in decades, business owners and city officials say. The Omaha World-Herald (http://bit.ly/1T9dWFb ) reports that about 85 small businesses and public spaces call the area home, and turnover is quick when retail spots open. A number of boutiques, antique shops and places to grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine give shoppers reasons to stick around. Popular farmers markets draw people to City Park during warmer months. And more events - like Sip and Walk, Papillion Days, the Fall Festival, Winter Wonderland and last summer’s Slide the City - encourage foot traffic, even into the evening. The City of Papillion has made downtown a priority, funding construction of the $1.3 million First Street Plaza, which opened in 2013. Mayor David Black said he’s worked for eight years to rebuild the area, a once-thriving shopping destination that became stagnant in the 1990s. “When we got here, there was nothing, really,” said Lisa Biermann, who manages Kajoma’s, a boutique on East First Street next door to the barbershop. Growth since the boutique opened there in 2006 has been “unbelievable,” she said. Although the number of businesses hasn’t increased markedly, a different type of commerce has moved in. Bill Ehegartner owns Twisted Vine, a paint-and-sip studio that helps organize the popular Sip and Walk events during warmer months. Ehegartner said he and his wife, Cara, opened their business downtown in 2014 because they saw the opportunity to bring a different demographic to an area that he believed was poised for a revitalization. “We’ve seen continual growth and support from the downtown area in general,” Ehegartner said. The mayor’s long list of downtown endeavors aimed to do more than draw businesses and customers. He also wanted to protect the area’s character and remind people of its history. The city added parking. It also implemented new building codes to make it easier to move into old buildings and new zoning rules requiring permits to alter the character of old houses. A state historical marker was installed near what was the original Union Pacific main line through Papillion. The city’s comprehensive development plan added a chapter about downtown. The Historical Downtown Papillion Business Association formed. “We’ve got a great thing going out here,” said Kim Ahlers, president of the business association, which started in 2013. “I’ve always thought we could be the little Old Market south of the metro.” Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:48 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

19 EXCHANGE: Wellness program looks to add more programs STERLING, Ill. (AP) - It’s hard to believe sixth-grader Juan Carlos Vargas could benefit from more energy. He was like the Tasmanian devil recently, flying from station to station and hollering with enthusiasm during Lifting Club at Challand Middle School. “Come on, let’s go, let’s go!” he yelled to his three workout buddies. Volunteer Brandon Nelson, pastor at St. Paul Lutheran, had to tell eighth-grader Jeremy Masa to slow down, too, as he did lateral box jumps at a frenetic pace. But the goal isn’t just to boost energy. Or lose weight, for that matter - although Jeremy’s lost about 20 pounds since the club opened in late October. Seventh-grader Alex Tapia, who came up with the idea for the club, has lost about 30 pounds. That’s 30 pounds in about 15 weeks - 2 pounds shed per week, despite Christmas break’s intrusion. The chief goal is wellness - physical, mental and emotional. Six Challand students are flexing their wellness muscles in the club, in the classroom, in the hallways - just about everywhere they go. The Wellness Committee, made up of school administrators and faculty, CGH Medical Center personnel and members of the community, formed about a year ago. It’s a districtwide program, which has brought some initiatives to each of its schools. In addition to Lifting Club on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Challand, there’s also Fitness Club on Mondays and Wednesdays. School counselors identify students who could stand to benefit from the programs most. Personal trainer Nick Pepper oversees Lifting Club and Mitch Saad, youth pastor at New Life Lutheran Church, helps out Thursdays. Both he and Nelson serve as mentors in the district. Originally, Pepper, too, had spoken with committee member Janet Freed, the district’s K-8 asset coordinator, about the mentoring program. Alex mentioned his Lifting Club idea, and she ran into Pepper at Kroger, excited to share Alex’s vision. “This kind of spun off of the mentoring program, and this fit for my qualifications,” Pepper said. “The awesome part about it is that leaders are starting to come out of them. It’s a lot more than just fitness. They’re building confidence.” Grades and behavior have improved, too. “For some of these kids, behavior or academics might not have been the greatest,” Principal Matt Birdsley said. “Grades have shot up, and behavior (problems have) shot down. They’ve learned leadership roles, and they’ve found a different way of releasing anger if they get frustrated or upset.” The committee would like to start more programs, and grow the ones it has. But they’d need more volunteers before they can add more students. “We would need a couple more Nicks to do that,” Freed said. They also need more ideas. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:48 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

20 UAAP: UST sends UE reeling to 53rd straight loss University of Santo Tomas followed up its emphatic upset of La Salle with a sweep of University of the East, 25-17, 25-23, 25-16, in the UAAP Season 78 women’s volleyball tournament Saturday at San Juan Arena. EJ Laure and Cherry Rondina once more led the Golden Tigresses, putting up 15 and 12 points, respectively. READ: Cherry on top: Rondina leads scoring after Round 1; Valdez at 4th It was Laure who sealed UST’s 4-4 record with a crosscourt kill, following up Rondina’s attack for the 24-16 match point. Golden Tigresses head coach Kung Fu Reyes wanted his team to shake off the emotions after trouncing the Lady Spikers and focus on a UE team which has lost its 53rd straight. READ: UAAP: UST ‘wonder women’ slay giants “Anong cloud nine? Sinabihan ko players na ‘anong karapatan nating pumunta ng cloud nine? Tingnan mo nga standing natin, nasa bottom three pa rin tayo,’” Reyes said. “Nanalo tayo isang laro pero nasa bottom three pa rin.” University of Santo Tomas committed 27 errors, five more than UE’s, but Reyes was still thankful for the win despite the erratic performance. READ: UST’s unsung heroine Francisco extra motivated against La Salle “Blessing pa rin at medyo nanalo kahit papano, at erratic o unstable pa yung mga setter na ginamit sila Alyssa [Teope] at [Alexine] Cabanos tapos sumabay pa mga opposite namin.” Shaya Adorador had nine points for the 0-8 Lady Warriors.

2016-03-05 16:45 Bong Lozada sports.inquirer.net

21 Parents charged with using stun gun on 4 children LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. (AP) - Two southwest Florida parents are facing child abuse charges after authorities say they used a stun gun to discipline their children. The News-Press (http://goo.gl/yRrjHm ) reports that 28-year-old Joshua Pierre Louis and 33- year-old Roxanne Paduani were arrested Thursday. The Department of Children and Families began investigating following a call to the Florida Abuse Hotline. A Lee County Sheriff’s Office arrest reports says one of the four children at the Lehigh Acres home told a DCF investigator that Louis would use a Taser on them when they were bad and showed the investigator scars. The ages of the children weren’t immediately reported. Louis and Paduani were each being held on $200,000 bail. Jail records didn’t list an attorney. ___ Information from: The (Fort Myers, Fla.) News-Press, http://www.news-press.com

2016-03-05 16:41 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

22 Brazil’s Silva denounces detention in corruption probe SAO PAULO—Brazilian police questioned former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for about four hours in an investigation into a sprawling corruption case involving state-run oil company Petrobras that has ensnared some of the country’s top lawmakers and wealthiest businessmen. The once-immensely popular president, who governed from 2003 to 2010, angrily denounced the Friday morning raid on his home by police to detain him as part of a campaign to sully his image, that of his party and that of his hand- picked successor, President Dilma Rousseff. “I felt like a prisoner this morning,” said Silva, who has expressed interest in possibly running for president again. At a rally late Friday in Sao Paulo, an emotional Silva insisted on his innocence and blasted those accusing him. “If they are a cent more honest than I, then I will leave politics,” he pledged, his eyes welling with tears. Rousseff also expressed her “total inconformity” with the operation, which she called unnecessary, although she appeared to distance herself from her one-time mentor by only briefly mentioning Silva in an address Friday afternoon. Police arrived at about 6 a.m. at Silva’s residence in greater Sao Paulo’s Sao Bernardo do Campo and spirited the 70-year-old to a federal police station at the city’s Congonhas airport. Silva was released after around four hours of questioning. Police said they also searched the headquarters of his nonprofit foundation Instituto Lula, as well as properties connected to his sons and other family members. One of his sons was brought in for questioning. Clashes broke out between Silva’s supporters and critics outside several sites where police were conducting searches. After his release, cheering supporters gathered outside Silva’s apartment to welcome him home. Judge Sergio Moro, who is heading the Petrobras investigation, said he allowed the police to haul in Silva for security reasons, citing fears that demonstrations could complicate efforts to question him. He also stipulated that police were not to handcuff or film the former leader. Officials said they were looking into 30 million Brazilian reais ($8.12 million) in payments for speeches and donations to the Instituto Lula by construction firms that were crucial players in the Petrobras corruption scheme. They were also looking into whether renovations and other work at a country house and beachfront apartment used by Silva and his family constituted favors in exchange for political benefit. “No one is exempt from investigation in this country,” said public prosecutor Carlos Fernando dos Santos Lima. “Anyone in Brazil is subject to be investigated when there are indications of a crime.” Prosecutors in the so-called Car Wash corruption case say more than $2 billion was paid in bribes to obtain Petrobras contracts, with some money making its way to several political parties, including the governing Workers’ Party. Some of Brazil’s wealthiest people, including the heads of top construction companies, have been caught up in the probe, as have dozens of politicians from both the governing coalition and the opposition. The reaction of the governing party was scathing. Workers’ Party president Rui Falcao issued a video statement calling the detention “a political spectacle” that revealed the “true character” of the probe. “It’s not about combatting corruption but simply to hit the Workers’ Party, President Lula and the government of President Dilma,” Falcao said. Legal analysts said that bringing Silva in for questioning suggests that any possible case against him is still in its early phases. “Police are still collecting evidence. There is no smoking gun because if there were, the searches wouldn’t be needed,” said Jair Jaloreto, a Sao Paulo-based expert on money laundering. A lathe operator at a metal factory who entered politics as a labor union leader, Silva was widely seen as representing the common man, and his ascension to the country’s highest office was hailed in a nation long dominated by the elite. During his two terms in office Silva presided over galloping economic growth that pulled tens of millions of poor Brazilians into the ranks of the middle class. Despite a votes-for-bribes scandal that took down his chief-of-staff and others, Silva left office with record high popularity levels and his hand-picked successor, Rousseff, handily won the presidency. Silva and Rousseff have seen their popularity nosedive as Brazil has slipped into its worst recession in decades and the Car Wash investigation spread. Rousseff’s approval ratings have dipped into single digits, though they’ve rebounded slightly of late. She faces impeachment proceedings.

2016-03-05 16:34 Associated Press newsinfo.inquirer.net

23 Landlocked property owner is ‘elated’ that now has access GREENSBORO, N. C. (AP) - John W. Jeffries shed a tear as he talked about the breakthrough that brought his land out of the haze and into the sunshine. For two decades, Jeffries had thought of the 9.3-acre property near Horse Pen Creek Road as a mystical place “out there somewhere.” It was a place he owned, but couldn’t see - or reach. His parcel, you see, is surrounded by other properties. Because of that, Jeffries hasn’t seen the land in decades. But that could soon change, thanks to the help of a state legislator. “It felt real good,” said Jeffries, 74, with a laugh. “I was elated.” On Feb. 22, he stood in a path cleared by the city which will eventually allow him access to land that has been in his family for decades. “That’s what I needed,” he said. “Being able to get to mine so I could … know exactly where the (property) lines are.” At one time, this parcel was a lot bigger. Jeffries’ great-grandfather, a former slave, bought 86 acres in 1906. Over the decades, family members sold off pieces. By the 1990s, the remaining 9.3 acres were surrounded by homes, apartments and other developments along Horse Pen Creek Road and Drawbridge Parkway. He and his sister paid property tax on the land for 50 years up until three years ago, when they stopped in protest. Before then, Jeffries, retired from the U. S. Postal Service, said he hired lawyers, real-estate agents and spent his own time trying to find somebody at the city or county who could help him gain access. Any access. The Guilford County tax office was undeterred. In December, a letter was sent to Jeffries threatening to foreclose on the land if $1,508 tax wasn’t paid. Enter N. C. Rep. Ralph Johnson. After hearing about his plight, Johnson thought he could help. So recently, he paid a call to Ben Chavis, director of the Guilford County tax office. Now, the city is working out a way for Jeffries to gain access to his property. He still, of course, needs to pay the tax. After that, City Council must approve any easement it grants to Jeffries. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:31 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

24 Kansas presidential caucuses could be rocky soil for leaders TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Bernie Sanders’ progressive supporters and conservative Republican activists were hoping Kansas’ presidential caucuses Saturday proved rocky soil for GOP front-runner Donald Trump and Democratic leader Hillary Clinton. Trump was making an appearance Saturday in Wichita, the state’s largest city, just before voting started there in the local GOP caucus. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz also was visiting, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio had three campaign events Friday. Trump leads the Republican race nationally, but in Kansas, the billionaire businessman seemed more the insurgent, with most of the Kansas party establishment wary of him. But the majority of the state GOP’s top elected officials and rank-and-file activists were split between Cruz and Rubio. Clinton had a different challenge. The former U. S. secretary of state is the choice of former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and other state party establishment figures, working to prevent a surge of new voters and energized progressives from bolstering the challenge from Sanders, the Vermont senator. Voting was opening at 10 a.m. for Republicans and was by secret paper ballot at 103 sites, including one at a St. Louis hotel for Wichita State University basketball fans there for a conference tournament. Democrats had 47 sites, opening at 1 p.m., and voting was to start after 3 p.m., with participants clustering in groups to show which candidate they back. Republicans have 40 delegates to their national convention at stake, with 37 to be allocated proportionally among the candidates receiving at least 10 percent of the vote. The other three were party leaders required to back the statewide winner. Clinton went into the caucuses with the endorsement of one of the state’s four party-leader superdelegates, who can back whomever they choose. The caucuses would determine how the state’s 33 other delegates would be allocated, also proportionally. Her backers were trying to avoid a repeat of her 2008 race in Kansas, when supporters of Barack Obama overwhelmed caucus sites and gave him a sweeping victory. But Obama had the backing of state party leaders - including Sebelius. Kansas Republicans have shown an iconoclastic but conservative streak in the most recent previous caucuses. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and ex-Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum won the 2008 and 2012 caucuses over eventual nominees John McCain and Mitt Romney. ___ Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna .

2016-03-05 16:29 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

25 In Loveland, dual immersion shows early rewards LOVELAND, Colo. (AP) - Erika Tran was delighted when her son, Caden, wanted to correspond in Spanish with the serving staff at a Mexican restaurant. It showed her how the kindergartner is integrating two languages into his life through dual immersion, a program new to the Thompson School District. “It’s starting to live in him,” Tran said in a presentation to the school board. “It’s not just a school activity. It’s going to be a lifetime activity.” The school district launched dual-immersion programs in kindergarten this year at Truscott and Cottonwood Plains elementary schools. Six months into the program, teachers report they are seeing growth in math skills and literacy, and the district has a plan to grow the program over these first students’ educational careers. “We feel very honored and privileged to have this program,” said Karen Hanford, principal of Truscott. “It may be one of the best things I’ve seen in education in 18 years.” Kindergartners enrolled in the two schools receive half of their education in English and half in Spanish. Each school has two kindergarten teachers, one for English and one for Spanish, and the students spend half of each day in each classroom. They focus on literacy and calendar in both languages, science and social studies in English and math in Spanish. In math, 93 percent of the dual-language students were meeting expectations at the end of the first unit while 89 percent reached that mark at the end of the second. That compares with last year’s traditional kindergarten numbers of 86 percent and 88 percent, respectively. And in literacy, the schools have seen growth by students across the board in sounds and capital and lowercase letters throughout the year, according to numbers provided to the school board. The district provided numbers in this category comparing what the dual-language students grasped at the beginning of the year compared with now, not a comparison with last year’s traditional class. At the start of the year, 21 percent had their capital letters under control. Now, that is 58 percent. For lowercase letters, 39.5 percent had a firm understanding at the beginning of the year - a number that has increased to 82.4 percent. And for reading, 21 percent ranked deficient going into the program. Now, only 7.6 percent rank deficient, while the number ranking strong increased from 6.5 percent to 42 percent and those ranking distinguished increased from 0.8 percent to 2.5 percent. But numbers aside, the teachers at both schools say the students are excelling across the board. They are speaking and writing in complete sentences in both English and Spanish, asking questions and understanding what is being taught, the teachers said. “It’s exciting to see them using their skills, not just sound skills but thinking skills in both languages,” said Mindi Mayberry, a teacher at Cottonwood Plains. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:24 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

26 Adaptive skiers overcome obstacles to reach sport’s height ASPEN, Colo. (AP) - U. S. paralympian Joshua Elliott remembers coming off the mountain in Breckenridge feeling “broken” and in tears, thinking he might never be able to relive the sensation of riding a snowboard. Growing up in Washington, Elliott devoted so much time to snowboarding that he was nearly kicked out of high school and then college, he said. But the avid snowboarder endured both, and went on to serve in the U. S. Marine Corps for 10 years. While working as a combat engineer in Afghanistan, Elliott was assigned with the task of finding improvised explosive devices in order to clear the path for infantry. On April 18, 2011, a misstep onto a 20-pound, improvised explosive device changed Elliott’s life forever: The military sergeant lost both of his legs. Elliott retired from the military in 2012 and decided to pursue a dream he’d always had of becoming a pilot. But Elliott’s aviation aspirations were abruptly halted while he was training at flight school in San Diego. A stern letter from the Federal Aviation Administration said he wasn’t allowed near aircraft until he was off his pain medication for at least six months. Having nothing to do for half a year during the winter months, Elliott figured he would try an adaptive-sports camp. Given his background in snowboarding, he chose to attend the Ski Spectacular in Breckenridge, which is one of the nation’s largest winter sports festivals for people with disabilities. “My goal was to snowboard again,” Elliott said. “But trying to snowboard without legs was a completely new experience.” Elliott said he felt like a beginner all over again, which was devastating coming from the level at which he once performed. After three unsuccessful days on the slopes, Elliott was ready to pack his bags and head back to San Diego when he remembered a promise he had made to one of the physical therapists at the festival. “She told me I had to try adaptive skiing before I left, and I told her I would but that I’m not going to like it because I’m a snowboarder,” Elliott said. But, a man of his word, Elliott gave the monoski a chance. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:23 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

27 DeRozan gets FT record; Raptors beat Lillard, Blazers TORONTO — After watching his Raptors survive a 50-point game from Damian Lillard and hang on for a 117-115 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, Toronto coach Dwane Casey was in disbelief. “How he isn’t an All-Star in our league? Shame on us,” Casey said. “That young man can score any which way he wants to. Talk about (Stephen) Curry coming across halfcourt and shooting it? This young man can come across halfcourt and shoot it also.” Toronto overcame Lillard’s outburst behind a season-high 38 points from DeMar DeRozan, who set an NBA record with 24 consecutive free throws made in one game. That helped the Raptors win their franchise-record 12th straight home game. Lillard wasn’t selected to the All-Star Game last month in Toronto, and Casey had suggested before the game that the Trail Blazers point guard was playing with a chip on his shoulder as a result of the snub. “He’s going to be trouble for all of us for a long period of time,” Casey said. Lillard’s 50 points were one shy of his career high, set last month in Portland’s 137-105 win over the Golden State Warriors. After starting the fourth quarter on the bench, Lillard scored 22 points in the final 12 minutes and went 4 of 7 from 3-point range while the Trail Blazers closed what had started as a 13-point deficit into a two-point game on multiple occasions. “I told myself on the bench when I get back in the game I’m going after this game, I’m going to go out there and try to take over the game,” he said. “That was just my mindset.” In a chippy game, the Raptors relied on DeRozan and also got 28 points from Kyle Lowry. DeRozan was 24 of 25 at the foul line, and his only miss was an intentional one with 0.9 seconds left to run out the clock. He set career highs for free-throw attempts and makes, and is the first player to make 24 in a game since Dwight Howard had 25 in 2013. No player in NBA history has ever gone 25 for 25 from the line. “I was just taking what they were giving me, honestly,” DeRozan said. “I wasn’t trying to force anything. Every time I saw an angle I was trying to take advantage of it.” Toronto set franchise marks in both free-throws made (43) and attempted (54), and the amount of fouls being called didn’t go over particularly well with the players. “It kind of messed up the flow of the game a little bit, but it happens,” said C. J. McCollum, who had 24 points and joined Lillard as the only Trail Blazer with double-figures in points. Sharp Shooter With his 50-point outing, Lillard became the first Blazer with three 40-point games in a season since Brandon Roy and the second player in franchise history to score 50 or more points twice, following on from Geoff Petrie. Lillard also became the second player in Portland history to have 50-plus points in a loss, joining Damon Stoudamire in that regard. Mr. 9,000 DeRozan became the third player in Raptors history to score 9,000 points, following on from Vince Carter and Chris Bosh. It evidently wasn’t really something that he had thought much about. “Oh really?” he said. “I don’t know any of this. I swear I don’t think anything until you tell me or I read it on Twitter. It’s cool with me.” Valaciunas at the double Jonas Valanciunas got his team-leading 14th double-double on 17 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. The Lithuanian has now scored in double-figures in a career-high 13 consecutive games, and Toronto improved to 12-2 when Valanciunas has a double-double. Celebrity coach Canadian rapper Drake, who was the winning coach against Kevin Hart’s team during the All- Star Weekend’s celebrity game in Toronto last month, took in the game courtside, joining the Raptors broadcast in the second quarter to give his thoughts on Toronto’s red-hot play at home of late.

2016-03-05 16:19 Associated Press sports.inquirer.net

28 Scientists: Possible new octopus species found near Hawaii HONOLULU—Scientists say they have discovered what might be a new species of octopus while searching the Pacific Ocean floor near the Hawaiian Islands. On Feb. 27, a team found a small light-colored octopus at a depth of about 2.5 miles in the ocean near Necker Island, said Michael Vecchione of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The octopus did not have fins and all of its suckers were in one row on each arm, Vecchione said. The octopus “did not seem very muscular” and was light colored, he said. “This resulted in a ghostlike appearance, leading to a comment on social media that it should be called Casper, like the friendly cartoon ghost. It is almost certainly an undescribed species …, ” he said in the statement posted on Wednesday on the NOAA website (http://1.usa.gov/1oXarVu.) It’s unusual to find an octopus without fins so deep in the ocean, said Vecchione, who noted that the previous depths at which an octopus without fins was found were all less than 4,000 meters, or 2.5 miles. Two scientists he has consulted “agreed that this is something unusual and is a depth record …,” said Vecchione, who is with NOAA’s National Systematics Laboratory. The octopus was discovered during a search of the ocean floor by a remotely operated vehicle from NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer, he said.

2016-03-05 16:18 Associated Press technology.inquirer.net

29 The murder of Giulio Regeni Five weeks ago, Giulio Regeni disappeared on his way to a birthday party in Cairo. How did the brilliant Cambridge PhD student end up mutilated on an Egyptian roadside? “I’m going to meet someone important.” That was how Giulio Regeni described it. He didn’t give a name, just that he’d arranged to meet someone later. Someone important, as he told his parents over Skype. “Stay in the house,” his mother told him. “Don’t go out.” She knew that the next day, January 25, was the fifth anniversary of the uprising against Hosni Mubarak, the ousted dictator, and that there would be an extra edge on the streets of Cairo that night. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi would not be in the mood for leniency. The city was on high alert.

2016-03-05 16:16 www.thetimes.co.uk

30 At 89, York fly fishing legend still yearns for the water CARLISLE, Pa. (AP) - Even now, at age 89, Ed Shenk is surrounded by feathers and furs. He looks across the upstairs room in his house in Carlisle and points to a trunk against the far wall. He doubts if he’s seen the bottom of it in 25 years. A coyote fur, one of six he trapped on a farm years ago, hangs from a hook on the back of the door like a robe. Peacock feathers droop out of a vase. An animal skull sits on the top of a cabinet. A picture of his sister, killed in a childhood mishap almost 90 years ago, hangs on the wall. “This,” he said, holding his hands outstretched, “is the accumulation of 70 years.” His passion for fly fishing and tying flies outgrew the “sewing room” where he started when his late wife and four children lived with him. He eventually moved his tying operation to a larger room, and he filled it with a multitude of feathers, fur, thread and hooks needed to create imitations of bugs or minnows, caterpillars or spiders. A pinch of fur, a section of feather and a twist of thread around a hook creates the “fly.” Shenk is one of the last of his kind. “He’s the top gun,” said fly fisherman Joe Humphreys, who has known Shenk since the 1940s and worked with him at fly fishing schools for more than 30 years. “Put it this way, a lot of guys talk a good game, he is the game.” Shenk helped to make streams in central Pennsylvania some of the most famous in the nation. He fished them. He talked about them. He taught classes. Shenk created his own fly patterns, and dozens of videos exist on YouTube demonstrating how to tie variations of his patterns. A sitting U. S. president invited him and other fly fishermen to entertain him on a retreat. “Perhaps the real significance of Ed Shenk lies not just in his expertise and many individual accomplishments, but as a carrier of the torch and a link between the founders of the limestone tradition and the next generation of fly-fishers to whom the torch will be passed,” Thomas E. Baltz wrote in the book, “The LeTort: A Limestone Legacy.” Fly shop owner and friend Harry Murray said: “You’ll never find anyone that knows more about fishing than Ed Shenk.” With each passing year, however, it’s not as easy for Shenk to do what he loves. For the first time since he was 15, he does not believe he will tie flies to sell this year. He no longer sits for hours at a time behind his desk, finishing about a dozen of his LeTort crickets in about an hour - or one in a little under five minutes. The medication he began taking after a November stroke forces him to lie down after tying one or two flies. And after a lifetime of fishing trips, he estimates he fished just a dozen times last year. “I’m to the point now, I just enjoy going out and making just a few casts,” Shenk said. … A childhood memory of opening day of fishing season stands out. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:01 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

31 Advocates blame law change, policies for people left in cold HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Robert Douglass, 38, still remembers the week that his Harrisburg home was so cold that his family couldn’t shower. Although it had been nine months since their gas had been shut off, bathing, at least, had not been a problem for Douglass’s family. Their water heater ran on electricity. But as temperatures plunged into the high 20s and low 30s in December, it became too cold for Douglass, his wife, or his mother to even step out of the shower. Douglass’ two children, ages 1 and 5, went without baths for a week. “To get in a tub of hot water and then out into the cold, that’s just asking for trouble,” Douglass said. “Kids can’t deal with that kind of weather.” Last year, Douglass’ household was one of more than 300,000 to have their gas or electric service shut off - part of an unprecedented surge in terminations across the state. Advocates for low-income Pennsylvanians say that the plight of Douglass and other Pennsylvanians has been driven by two major factors: a 2004 law change that made it easier for utility companies to terminate customers for failing to pay their bills and state policies that fail to adequately subsidize bills for the poor. For families like the Douglass’, they say, those policies are increasingly exposing young children to unsafe temperatures and putting new pressures on already strained households. “People are so desperate over their circumstances,” said Kay Pickering, program coordinator for the Harrisburg Center for Peace and Justice, which helps low-income households. “It makes them angry, it makes them depressed and, in a lot of cases, it makes them unable to function.” A fraught history Douglass’ family, who reside in uptown Harrisburg, have a long history of struggling to pay their utility bills. Douglass has bipolar disorder and has subsisted on Social Security disability payments since 2006 following a 2004 injury on a construction site. He lives with his wife, his mother, his two children, and his brother and his brother’s wife. Douglass’ mother is, according to her and Douglass, borderline intellectually disabled. She, like her son, subsists on social security disability payments. Meanwhile, Douglass’ brother, who suffers from a degenerated disc in his neck, is in a legal fight for social security disability himself. Between Douglass’ disability check and his mother’s, the family’s gross income is about $1,400 - about $700 after rent. Douglass says he has frequently turned to panhandling over the years to make ends meet. More recently, his wife, Shelley Tart, got a job as a cashier that nets about $100 each month, but her hours are sporadic. Consequently, Douglass’ family has often struggled to pay its utility bills. The family’s trouble with UGI, in particular, began around 2012 when Douglass thought he could put off paying a monthly bill in order to prioritize expenses for his 1-year old daughter. “She was growing faster than we could put her in clothes,” Douglass said. “So I had to keep extra money on the side because she needed new clothes, new shoes.” Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:01 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

32 Doctor faces 10 years in prison for Medicare Fraud MIAMI (AP) - A South Florida doctor accused of falsely diagnosing hundreds of patients as part of a Medicare fraud scheme has pleaded guilty. The U. S. Attorney’s Office reports that Dr. Isaac Kojo Anakwah Thompson pleaded guilty this past week to one count of health care fraud. He faces up to 10 years in prison at a May 18 sentencing. Court records show that Thompson engaged in a scheme to defraud the Medicare Advantage program, a voluntary system which allows Medicare beneficiaries to enroll in health insurance plans sponsored by private insurance companies. Between 2006 and 2010, Thompson defrauded Medicare out of about $2.1 million by diagnosing 387 Medicare Advantage beneficiaries with ankylosing spondylitis, a rare chronic inflammatory disease of the spine.

2016-03-05 16:01 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

33 Judge rules Sturgis can challenge Buffalo Chip incorporation STURGIS, S. D. (AP) - A judge has ruled the city of Sturgis can challenge a decision to approve Buffalo Chip Campground’s petition to incorporate. The campground became an incorporated town last spring. The judge ruled Friday in favor of Sturgis. Buffalo Chip asserted Sturgis didn’t have legal standing to challenge the decision by Meade County commissioners. County commissioners voted in February 2015 to allow the campground to move forward in its bid to become a town. Voters confirmed it in an election. A trial in Sturgis’ appeal is tentatively set to begin May 11, which is close to the anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Buffalo Chip.

2016-03-05 16:01 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

34 SCF student discovers bacteria organism around Leffis Key MANATEE, Fla. (AP) - They call it “Pink.” Named for its color when cultured in a petri dish, Pink is a never-before discovered single-cell organism that a State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota student found in the mangroves around Leffis Key on Anna Maria Island. Stephanie Morgan, 22, found the organism two years ago as part of a biotechnology research project at SCF. That discovery has since been added to the National Institute of Health’s genetic sequence database. It is also being researched as a potential new medication to fight infections. Pink is a bacteria that produces brightly colored pigment molecules that gives it its bright pink color. The antibiotics Pink produces help it fight off neighboring bacterial organisms in the environment as a part of its competition for nutrients. Those properties could make it valuable as a medication some day. Morgan, who has since transferred to New College, is continuing to work on Pink to see what its future as an antibiotic could be. Her work will be closely noted as scientists struggle to find antibiotics to combat resistant staph bacteria like Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also known as MRSA. At New College, Morgan has worked to isolate and identify the pigment molecules produced by Pink. She determined the structure of the pigment molecule and also found the specific DNA sequence the bacteria uses to make this molecule in each cell. “It’s too early to tell if Pink produces a novel antibiotic,” Morgan said. “While it’s certainly possible, there is a lot of additional testing that needs to be done to confirm this.” Morgan credits her classmates and SCF teachers, including Biotechnology Program Manager Matthew Thomas and Microbiology Professor Eric Warrick, with helping her develop Pink. The discovery has lifted State College of Florida’s reputation in the science community, said Jose Ors, chairman of Natural Sciences at SCF. “To become known all over the world because of this would be a dream come true,” Ors said of the school’s roughly 5-year-old biotech program. “But, for sure, we are now known throughout the state of Florida. Not many two-year programs, in fact not many four-year institutions have a program like this. This is a program that is fairly unique for this area.” The story of Pink really begins in 2011 when SCF decided to start a biotechnology program to help develop a workforce for local employers, Thomas said. “The Roskamp Institute was an early proponent of the program, as was Lakewood Amedex, a pharmacy company trying to bring novel antibiotics to the market,” Thomas said. SCF biotech graduates have worked at Roskamp Institute, which researches neurological diseases, and three graduates currently work at Rapid Pathogen Screening in Lakewood Ranch, Thomas said. Rapid Pathogen Screening develops point-of-care testing for ophthalmologists. The company manufactures a test for conjunctivitis that can be administered in a physician’s office. As the biotech program got rolling, microbiologist Warrick wanted to inspire students to do field research, and so asked them to go into their neighborhoods and collect samples. “Eric changed the culture here,” Thomas said. “He helped students see that science is more than one experiment or technique. He wanted them to see the breadth of how science is done. Stephanie Morgan was one of his students. She had high aspirations and the ability to get there.” Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:01 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

35 Man gets 40 years in prison in death of Black Hawk toddler STURGIS, S. D. (AP) - A man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison in connection with the death of a 21-month-old Black Hawk boy. Thomas Pentecost was sentenced Friday in court in Sturgis. He pleaded guilty in November to first-degree manslaughter in the death of Bentley James Bahr. Prosecutors say Pentecost fatally injured the boy on April 9 while the boy’s mother was attending school. The boy was declared brain dead two days later. Meade County State’s Attorney Kevin Krull said the state had sought a sentence of 50 years in prison.

2016-03-05 16:00 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

36 Oregon treasures await new digs at military museum SALEM, Ore. (AP) - In one corner of the armory is a heavy piece of artillery, mounted on wheels and showing some battle damage. It stands out not necessarily because it’s big, but because it’s green. Most of the artifacts at the Oregon Military Museum are camouflaged in white muslin. But this one, a German Lange 21cm Mörser that could fire a 250-pound shell nearly 7 miles, is either too unwieldy or indestructible, most likely both. The weapon was captured in France by the American Expeditionary Force during World War I, brought to the U. S. as a trophy of the war, and later awarded to Oregon by Congress. Today it is among more than 14,000 artifacts housed at the museum, including 1,300 uniforms, 750 small arms, 50 vehicles and five aircraft. “Each one, to me, is an absolute treasure,” curator Tracy Thoennes says, “and I can tell you a story about it, or how it was used.” The treasures and their stories, including those of Oregon’s war trophies, have been mothballed since 2009. That’s when base realignment at Camp Withycombe in Clackamas gave the museum an opportunity to expand. Organizers have since been on a mission to transform from a modest museum with an average of just 4,000 visitors a year into a state-of-the-art museum that draws that many in a month. Construction and remodeling is under way, but fundraisers are just halfway toward their $16 million goal and an estimated two years away from their grand reopening. If anyone has motivation to expedite the timeline it’s Tommy Thayer. He is the son of James Thayer, a decorated World War II veteran and namesake of the museum. “I hope that my dad can actually cut the ribbon and walk through the doors,” Tommy Thayer says. “He turns 94 next month, so time is important. I want him to see it become a reality.” Tommy Thayer, lead guitarist for what he refers to as a little band called Kiss, has been center stage in the fundraising campaign for the Brigade General James B. Thayer Oregon Military Museum. He and his band mates have performed at several charity galas, including an intimate gathering last summer at a private residence in Lake Oswego that raised $1.2 million. For the record, the museum’s artifacts are not really mothballed, but preserved and protected by archival packing materials whenever possible. It took Thoennes and 14 volunteers six months to pack up and move the collection from its previous location into the Clackamas Armory, and it won’t be unpacked and displayed for the public until the project is complete. Thoennes is in her 13th year as curator of the official state repository for weapons, documents and artifacts in relation to the military history of Oregon. She is the only paid staff member. The museum opened in 1975 and today has what she and Thayer refer to as “the greatest armament collection west of the Mississippi.” Much of the collection is being stored in the former drill room of the armory, which was built in 1954 and needed a new roof and a new HVAC system. It now has temperature and relative humidity control to create the most favorable environment for priceless, and sometimes precarious, artifacts. The collection includes 1,000 examples of ordnance, such as bombs, shells and grenades. Thoennes says it took three members of an explosive ordnance detachment three months to go through the collection, X-raying 250 objects and opening the others. The technicians removed two examples at that time and have since removed others. The oldest artifact at the museum is a cannon used by the 2nd Oregon Militia in Manila during the Spanish American War. Among the newest are a Remote Ordnance Neutralization System (RONS) robot and an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) suit used by the Oregon Air National Guard from 2002 to 2013. Some items have been donated by military units and branches, others by private individuals and families. Thoennes says the museum continues to have a moratorium on new donations, although there are limited exceptions. The personal papers of Dr. Charles Zerzan, for example, were accepted in 2015. Zerzan entered the Oregon National Guard in 1937, at age 16, and remained in service until 1968. He was a physician for President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 16:00 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

37 Crane topples in West Palm Beach; no injuries WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Officials say no one was injured when a 110ton crane crashed to the ground in South Florida. The Palm Beach Post (http://goo.gl/Cbhj5q ) reports that Friday’s crane accident occurred at the future site of All Aboard Florida’s $29 million West Palm Beach station. The station is one of four the company is building as part of its express passenger rail line planned between Miami and Orlando. The 130foot crane’s accident comes a day after bricks fell off a West Palm Beach building and injured four people. ___ Information from: The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, http://www.pbpost.com

2016-03-05 16:00 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

38 Harassed by bookies, 36-year-old Ulhasnagar man commits suicide A 36-year-old man from Ulhasnagar committed suicide by hanging himself with a nylon rope in a hotel room, police said on Thursday. Ashoklal Sharma, Pic/Navnet Barbhate According to the police the deceased identified as Amit Ashoklal Sharma alias Maharaj is a real estate agent based in Ulhasnagar who took interest in betting. Sources close to the deceased said that he had suffered monetary losses after betting on Asia Cup India-Pakistan cricket match and that he committed suicide as the bookies were harassing him for cash. There was a water and electricity cut in Ulhasnagar, so Sharma went to Seema hotel. An officer from central police station said, "He rented the room no 303 of the lodge and was taking rest. On Wednesday afternoon, the waiter from the hotel knocked the door for lunch, but there was no response even after repeated attempts. Assuming that Sharma would be asleep, the waiter went away. The same thing happened when the waiter went to check for dinner. Suspicous, the waiter then informed the owner who then reported the matter to the central police station. " The central police have registered a case of accidental death case on Wednesday night and are probing the matter. "We have registered a case of accidental death case and are investigating the matter. We are yet to take the statement of the family members as they are still under shock," said AV. Saigaonkar, Senior Police Inspector, Central police station. Even though the police did not find any suicide note from the spot, sources said that they have found an affidavit of Rs 50 that clearly stated that he had taken a loan. "Maharaj used to bet on cricket matched and in the last India-Pakistan match, he had bet in lakhs. The bookies were harassing him to get the cash he had lost the bet," said a source close to Maharaj.

2016-03-05 15:56 By Faisal www.mid-day.com

39 Bobbi Kristina Brown's cause of death revealed Whitney Houston's daughter died as a result of immersion in water and drug intoxication, medical records show. Bobbi Kristina Brown, 22, died at a hospice on 26 July, six months after she was found unresponsive in a bath. The Fulton County Medical Examiner's office in Atlanta released an initial statement ahead of the full post-mortem report - eight months after her death. A judge in Atlanta issued an order on Thursday to unseal the report, following requests from the media. The medical examiner's office said it reviewed medical records, investigative files and other documents to determine how Brown died. The exam concluded cannabis and alcohol were involved in her death, along with medication used for sedation or to treat anxiety, citing the "underlying cause" of death as "immersion associated with drug intoxication". The statement said: "Death was clearly not due to natural causes, but the medical examiner has not been able to determine whether death was due to intentional or accidental causes, and has therefore classified the manner of death as undetermined.'' The state reportedly requested the post-mortem documents originally be sealed in September 2015 in order to protect an ongoing investigation into Brown's death. Media lawyers argued the sealing order should be lifted because it was made without a public hearing, in violation of the long-standing rules that post-mortem results are public records. "We would hope that news agencies and the media receiving the report would do so with the discretion and dignity a family who has lost a loved one deserves," said district attorney Paul Howard, who argued for the sealing of the report last year. "Our investigation into the death of Bobbi Kristina Brown will continue. " Brown was the only child of singer Whitney Houston; her father was R&B singer Bobby Brown. She was buried in August at the Fairview cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey, next to her mother, who drowned in a bath in 2012 on the eve of the Grammy Awards ceremony.

2016-03-05 14:37 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

40 Bill O’Reilly, drunk or just awkward? An in-depth analysis of his slurry, bizarre GOP debate show Topics: Bill O'Reilly , The O'Reilly Factor , Donald Trump , Ted Cruz , Marco Rubio , John Kasich , Elections 2016 , Elections News , Media News , Politics News After Thursday night’s Fox News GOP debate, each candidate separately guested on a live “O’Reilly Factor.” After a supposedly “ awkward ” leadoff interview with Trump and a few intermittent speech blips, some are positing host Bill O’Reilly went a little heavy on the pre-show sauce. The speculation appears to have originated with Patton Oswalt’s Twitter, and then spread thenceforth: Be that as it may, until President Trump has something to do with it, we live in a democratic society with due process. It would be negligent not to presume O’Reilly sober until proven sloshed. So let’s break it down. Donald Trump: O’Reilly keeps his composure quite well in the Trump spin-room interview. He interrupts Trump’s tired “(Mitt Romney’s) a failed candidate” spiel in typical fashion. He asks Trump why he thinks he “engender(s) so much loathing” from his own party. His posture is impeccable: He does get a little too friendly with Melania, but, to be fair, Trump initiates the exchange to ease the tension after suggesting that O’Reilly ask his therapist why his coverage of the Trump campaign has become increasingly negative. “I think I’ve been fair,” O’Reilly reverses, even after Trump introduces “my boy Eric” so as to avoid a heated post-debate debate. To poke a bear like Trump, you’d have to be drunk, stupid, Mitt Romney, or a combination thereof. O’Reilly will not stop: “You wanna give me an example?” And when Trump says no, “C’monnn!” Thankfully for everyone’s sake, O’Reilly finally recognizes he’s hit a dead end and switches gears, this time looking ahead to the Convention this July in Cleveland. Unable to find the words “brokered convention,” O’Reilly settles for, “the under table thing.” Marco Rubio: A little blip right off the bat: He calls it the “post-Factor” instead of the “post-debate Factor.” Splitting hairs here; he still has the benefit of my doubt. I don’t know if this is the case, but I might start watching “The Factor” more if he treats all his interviewees like he did Rubio. After talking about Trump the entire time, O’Reilly gave Rubio the last 30-or-so seconds to explain how he’ll win Florida. Then, squeezing in the last word, Bill says, “I don’t think it’s gonna work.” And throws to commercial. Fuck objectivity; that was beautiful. Ted Cruz: O’Reilly messes up the name of his show again — a serious blow to his case for sobriety. Bill has a certain smug cadence, resting on the last word in a clause, which he’s mastered over a century on-air. “Continuing nowww with The Factorrr” was what he was going for. At the last second, though, he tried to fit in “Special Edition of,” then decommitted. In a vacuum, the stumble is a brain fart. But up against his shaky performance thus far, it’s fair to get suspicious.

2016-03-05 14:37 Brendan Gauthier www.salon.com

41 AT&T Presses Judge To Dismiss Throttling Case The telecom argues that the FCC's Feb. 26 vote to reclassify broadband as a utility service means that a “new regulatory regime will apply to the very subject matter of this dispute.” AT&T's papers, filed Thursday, mark the latest twist in a dispute about the company's policy of slowing down broadband connections of some wireless subscribers who pay for “unlimited” data. The FTC alleged in a lawsuit filed in October that AT&T's throttling program deceives users. The dispute centers on AT&T's 2011 throttling policy, which allows it to slow down “unlimited” customers who exceed a data cap. Since implementing the policy, the company has throttled more than 3.5 million wireless customers, according to the FTC. AT&T implemented the throttling policy soon after introducing “tiered” billing plans, which require customers to pay for a monthly allotment of data. The wireless provider still allows longtime users who previously had unlimited plans to avoid pay-per-byte billing, but slows them down after they hit a cap of either 3GB a month for customers on the 3G and HSPA+ networks, or 5 GB a month for people using the LTE network. In January, the telecom asked U. S. District Court Judge Edward Chen in the Northern District of California to throw out the case on the grounds that the FTC lacks jurisdiction over common carriers. Initially, the FTC countered that it was entitled to proceed because mobile broadband wasn't regulated as a utility service, even if other AT&T offerings are considered common-carrier services. Last week, the FCC voted to reclassify mobile broadband as a common-carrier service. Immediately after that decision, AT&T and the FTC told Chen that they wanted to submit new arguments regarding whether the agency's case could proceed. On Monday, the FTC said in court papers that it's still entitled to sue AT&T for its prior conduct, because the reclassification isn't retroactive. AT&T counters in papers filed on Thursday that the FTC isn't empowered to proceed, regardless of the timing of AT&T's throttling program. “The FTC now lacks the authority to prosecute this case, whether based on past, present, or future conduct,” AT&T argues. “Changes to jurisdiction take immediate effect.” AT&T adds that the FCC intends to address throttling by allowing companies to use “reasonable network management” practices, but will monitor how companies apply those practices to subscribers who pay for unlimited data. Chen directed the FTC to respond to AT&T's latest argument by Tuesday.

2016-03-05 14:31 Wendy Davis www.mediapost.com

42 Is Michael Bloomberg getting serious about a presidential run? This curious move has fueled new speculation Topics: Michael Bloomberg , bloomberg lp , Bloomberg for president , Bernie Sanders , Donald Trump , 2016 Elections , News , Politics News In a move sure to fuel rumors that Michael Bloomberg will launch an independent presidential bid, the New York Times reports that Bloomberg’s personal website was recently transferred from his company’s servers to an independent server. The Times reports that MikeBloomberg.com was hosted on the servers of Bloomberg, L. P. until Feb. 14, when it was moved to a server run by Amazon.com. The news led to speculation that the transfer could be motivated by federal campaign finance laws, which prohibit corporations from making contributions of cash or services to candidates. As the Times explains, “[B]usiness executives running for office can either divorce their campaign from their business, as Mr. Bloomberg did when he ran for mayor, or painstakingly reimburse their company from their campaign funds.” The timing of the move is not insignificant: the Feb. 14 transfer came just days after Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump cruised to victories in the New Hampshire primaries. A third-party Bloomberg candidacy is generally believed to be most likely in the event of a November election pitting Sanders against Trump. While Trump has continued to surge, Sanders appears less likely to win the Democratic nomination after Hillary Clinton’s Super Tuesday victories. A Bloomberg run seems less plausible on March 4 than it did on Feb. 14, but it can’t yet be ruled out.

2016-03-05 14:26 Michael Garofalo www.salon.com

43 SpaceX Falcon makes clean getaway SpaceX has at last managed to launch its latest mission from Cape Canaveral. After some frustrating postponements over the past week and a half - including a last-second abort on Sunday - the company's Falcon rocket left its Florida pad right on cue on Friday. The Falcon has placed a telecoms satellite in orbit for the Luxembourg operator SES. This platform will relay video and other services across the Asia-Pacific region. As has become customary on recent SpaceX missions, an attempt was made to fly the lower stage of the Falcon rocket back to Earth after it had sent the satellite on its way. A drone ship was placed more than 600km offshore in the Atlantic Ocean to receive the returning booster - but the procedure was unsuccessful. The company had, though, gone into the exercise with low expectations, stating before the launch that the chances of sticking the landing were slim given the particular flight profile used during the ascent. "Rocket landed hard on the droneship. Didn't expect this one to work (v hot reentry), but next flight has a good chance," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk later tweeted. SES will be delighted to have its satellite in orbit. The new platform should have gone up months ago but has had to wait for SpaceX to work its way back to normal operations following a launch failure last June. "SES-9 is an important building block in our strategy to grow in dynamic regions and four prime sectors - video, enterprise, mobility and government," said Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer of SES. "Co-located with SES-7, the new satellite will reach 22 million TV homes and is designed to deliver high-performing connectivity to homes, enterprises and institutions across Asia. " SES has been among the young rocket company's most bullish supporters, and Mr Halliwell has told SpaceX that the operator is keen to fly a future satellite on a recovered and refurbished booster. The year ahead is a busy one for SpaceX. The hiatus in activity following the June failure means missions are backing up. Highlights in the coming months should include the roll-out of the next-generation Iridium sat- phone constellation, which Falcons will loft in batches of 10 spacecraft at a time. We should also see the beefed-up Falcon-Heavy rocket make its debut at some point. This vehicle straps three first-stage boosters together to gain significant extra performance. And throughout 2016, SpaceX will be working on its Dragon astronaut capsule. This will be flown initially in an unmanned configuration, with astronauts set to take their first ride to the International Space Station next year.

2016-03-05 14:37 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

44 Syria conflict: Truce 'boosts peace talks', leaders agree The truce broadly holding in Syria will create momentum behind peace talks, major European powers say. The leaders of Russia, Germany, France, Italy and the UK had a telephone conversation on Friday after which they agreed to use the "positive dynamic", said the office of UK PM David Cameron. EU countries asked Russia to exert influence over Syria's government to respect the truce, Germany said. Scattered attacks have not threatened the truce, which began last Saturday. However, both the opposition and the government have accused each other of violating the cessation of hostilities agreement brokered by the US and Russia. The truce does not include the jihadist groups Islamic State (IS) and al-Nusra Front. Taking advantage of the lull, thousands of protesters across Syria took to the streets for some of the most widespread rallies in years. Demonstrators in parts of Aleppo, Damascus, Daraa and Homs called for President Bashar al- Assad to step down. UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura says he plans to reconvene talks aimed at ending the five- year conflict in Syria next Wednesday, with their format flexible to enable some parties to turn up days later. UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said progress had been made in getting aid to besieged areas of Syria. There would be further attempts at air-drops of aid over the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, where 200,000 people are surrounded by IS militants, within days or weeks, Mr Egeland said. More than 250,000 Syrians have been killed and millions more have been forced from their homes in five years of Syria's civil war that began with the aim of overthrowing President Bashar al-Assad. "The main point that the European leaders made on the call to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin was that we welcome the fact that this fragile truce appears to be holding," a spokesman for Mr Cameron said. "We have got to use this as a positive dynamic now to create some momentum behind the talks... so we can move from a truce into a more lasting durable peace with a political transition away from Assad. " Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel met French President Francois Hollande in Paris and praised Russia's confirmation to abide by the truce. "We have asked Russia to exert its influence to ensure this will also apply to the Assad regime," Mrs Merkel said. There was disagreement between the EU leaders and Russia over Mr Assad's plans to hold parliamentary elections next month. The Kremlin said this was "in accordance with the existing Syrian constitution and does not interfere with steps to build the peace process". Mr Hollande said this was "not just provocative, but totally unrealistic". In a statement on Thursday, the main anti-Assad rebel group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), spoke about "a continuation of deadly operations and war crimes which the regime and its allies have not ceased to commit". On Friday HNC head Riad Hijab said that the truce had not been respected and that this jeopardised peace negotiations. "We believe that the current conditions are not favourable for these negotiations, no aid has entered the besieged areas and detainees have not been released" he said. He said the Syrian government and its allies, including Russia, had carried out over 90 air strikes since the truce began. Amnesty International has also accused Russian and Syrian government forces of appearing to have been deliberately and systematically targeting health facilities in the northern province of Aleppo in the past 12 weeks, ahead of the truce. The human rights group reported that it had gathered "compelling evidence" of at least six deliberate attacks on hospitals, medical centres and clinics there.

2016-03-05 14:37 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

45 Pennsylvania man admits to robbing bank with sex toy disguised as a bomb Aaron Stein pleaded guilty on Thursday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court to charges of robbery, making bomb threats, making a fake bomb, aggravated assault and four counts of reckless endangerment. Bruce Carsia, an attorney for the 36-year-old pretend-bomber, said that Stein was motivated to commit the June 15 robbery after he discovered that $9,000 that he invested in money markets was gone and his honeymoon was rapidly approaching. “This was completely out of character for Mr. Stein,” Carsia said, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “He just panicked.” Wearing an Iron Man mask to hide his identity, Stein had taken the sex toy to a PNC bank in Crafton, Pennsylvania. A teller described the fake bomb as having wires and a green light on the top that looked like a detonator button. Shortly after the robbery, police found Stein pulled over on the side of the road. Though he admitted that he had robbed the bank with a fake bomb, the officers called in a bomb squad as a precaution. Stein spent 18 days in a county jail until his bail was reduced and his father was able to post it. He then went through with his wedding, though it had to be pushed back due to his troubles with the law. Any plans for a honeymoon had to be put on hold, however, after a judge revoked Stein’s bond. “I'm stunned that he's standing here as a free person,” Judge Anthony Mariani said during the plea hearing, according to the Tribune-Review. “This was outrageously dangerous behavior.” Stein’s sentencing hearing is set for May 31.

2016-03-05 14:21 www.rt.com

46 Mumbai crime: This man flew in from UP only to loot city homes A former gram pradhan in Rampur Rajwadi village of Pratapgarh district in Uttar Pradesh was arrested on Wednesday night in Allahabad and brought to Mumbai on Friday on charges of breaking in houses and stealing valuables in Vasai, Navi Mumbai and Thane. But the quirky bit about his modus operandi is he used to book air tickets in advance to conduct robberies in the city. The accused Aslam Israel Shaikh was brought to Mumbai yesterday. Pic/Hanif Patel Investor The accused identified as Aslam Israel Shaikh used up the booty in election campaigning, property investments and buying small restaurants. He was caught on CCTV while robbing a residential society in Vasai in January this year and was identified by one of the police informers, who directed the cops to Uttar Pradesh. Shaikh was nabbed with the help of Uttar Pradesh STF. Later, police also found that Shaikh was once arrested in a similar case in Vashi but was out on bail. Police says PSI Ganesh Shinde from Manikpur police station said Shaikh is a professional thief, who used to enter residential complexes and ring the bell of each flat to check which one was vacant. He then used to break in, rob the booty and before the day could end he used to catch a flight back. Shaikh has been remanded to police custody till March 7. The police are also trying to find out if Aslam had any accomplice.

2016-03-05 15:34 By Samiullah www.mid-day.com

47 Inside 'Islamic State': A Raqqa diary In areas controlled by the group that calls itself Islamic State the penalty for speaking to the Western media is death by beheading, so it took courage and conviction for Mohammed to compile this diary of life in Raqqa, the capital of IS's self-proclaimed caliphate. Having seen friends and relatives butchered, his community's life shattered and the local economy ruined by these notorious extremists, Mohammed (not his real name) believes he's fighting back by telling the BBC what is happening to his beloved city. Mohammed finds his father dead and mother badly injured following an air strike. After expressing his anger about beheadings in the streets, he is sentenced to 40 lashes. (Like many Arabic speakers, Mohammed refers to IS as "Daesh".) Mohammed is lashed, witnesses extortionate tax demands made by IS (which he calls Daesh) and sees a young woman stoned to death in a hole by the roadside. A neighbour's house is bombed, IS bans shops from selling televisions and Mohammed struggles to afford food for his family. Prayer checks are carried out on the streets, a man is ordered to attend compulsory Sharia classes because his trousers are too long and Mohammed is advised to focus on the future and forget about the present. Heavily taxed foods gather dust in the shops. Mohammed tries to comfort the worried mother of a friend whose son has been arrested. When his decapitated body is found outside her home Mohammed decides it's time to leave Raqqa. At various points during the compilation of these diaries my producer on BBC Radio 4's Today programme and I were unable to contact Mohammed, and alarm bells began ringing. Sometimes five or six days would pass without any response to our questions about whether he was all right and able to carry on. On one occasion news reached us of the murder of two Raqqa activists who had escaped to Turkey. Having managed to flee across the border from Syria they probably assumed they were safe. But both were found beheaded. IS later claimed responsibility. Happily we managed to make contact with our diarist a couple of days later and heard he was still alive and well in Raqqa. But at least eight other anti-IS activists have been killed in this way, most of them inside Syria. Since IS took control of Raqqa, just over two years ago, the city has become ever more isolated from the outside world. Civilians are banned from leaving the city without permission, watching international TV, or talking by phone to anyone considered an enemy of IS. To help reduce the risks to our diarist we have withheld his name and done our best to remove anything thing from his account that might lead to him, or those he knows, from being identified. Some other details from his diaries have also been changed where necessary for similar reasons. But there is no way to completely protect anyone who chooses to speak out in the way that he and his fellow activists do. His courageous diaries give the world a rare and valuable glimpse of day-to-day life in the heart of IS's now infamous capital. Animation: Scott Coello Producer: John Neal Researcher and Translator: Nader Ibrahim, BBC Arabic Service Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

2016-03-05 04:59 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

48 Improve children's mental health care, head teachers urge More young people are suffering from mental health issues but the care on offer outside schools is not keeping pace, say head teachers. In total, 55% of 338 school leaders surveyed by the Association of School and College Leaders reported a large rise in pupils with anxiety and stress. Almost 65% said they struggled to get mental health services for pupils. The government said it was investing £1.4bn on children's mental health services in England. The survey, launched at the Association of School and College Leaders' (ASCL) annual conference in Birmingham, found that over the past five years: According to the report, carried out by ASCL alongside the National Children's Bureau (NCB), most schools offer on-site support to students - for example, counselling and educational psychology sessions. The problems arise when students needs extra support, says the report. On Saturday ASCL's interim general secretary, Malcolm Trobe, will tell the conference of "a serious gap in mental health provision beyond the school gates". "The fact is that children today face an extraordinary range of pressures. "They live in a world of enormously high expectations, where new technologies present totally new challenges such as cyber-bullying," Mr Trobe is expected to say. "There has seldom been a time when specialist mental health care is so badly needed and yet it often appears to be the poor relation of the health service. "Its importance cannot be over-emphasised. " NCB chief executive Anna Feuchtwang said the survey results were "alarming". "For these young people, and many others like them, their psychological states are almost too distressing to bear. "This research confirms that better provision of child mental health services, both in and outside school, is still sorely needed. " Anthony Seldon, co-founder of Action for Happiness and former head of Wellington College, said exams became a problem when school or the home put an "excessive weight" on them. "Psychologically healthy schools need not cost vast sums, and much can be done by heads changing their approaches which will change the entire atmosphere throughout the school," he added. The government said it was investing £1.4bn to transform mental health support for children and young people in England, with a £3m pilot scheme to trial "single points of contact for schools to ensure support is joined up and quickly available when needed". "Schools have an important role to play in tackling children's mental health issues, but teachers are not mental health professionals and they should have the support of specialist services," said a spokeswoman. Later on Saturday England's Education Secretary Nicky Morgan will urge school leaders to work with her to give every child the education they deserve. Mrs Morgan is expected to announce a renewed focus on entrenched areas of underperformance in coastal towns and rural areas. "Simply hoping for improvement is not enough because these areas are not only underperforming, but they also lack the capacity and support that they need to improve," she will tell the conference. "This scandalous demography of destiny," has no place in 21st Century Britain, she will add.

2016-03-05 14:30 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

49 Borlain sisters dominate 2016 Alaska IronKids SUBIC – The Borlain siblings were at it again. Samantha, Tara and Franchezka Borlain dominated their respective fields to come out as the big winners in the 2016 Alaska IronKids on Saturday at Remy Field in Subic Bay. Eldest sibling Samantha ruled the Girls 13 to 14 category, finishing the race in 47 minutes and 52 seconds, more than two minutes ahead of her closest pursuant Everly Janarie Macalalad, who clocked 50:01. Tara, meanwhile, came away with the win in the Girls 11 to 12 category with a time of 35 minutes and six seconds. Runner-up Micaella Barlin was a minute and a half behind at 36:06. Youngest Franchezka effortlessly topped the Girls 6 to 8 category, closing the race in exactly 19 minutes. It was a triple crown for the Borlain sisters, the first time all three of them won in their respective categories in the IronKids triathlon competition. In the other girls’ race, Kira Ellis took the gold in Girls 9 to 10 category, leaving everyone behind with her 27 minutes and 25 second run. In the boys’ division, Connor Hodges emerged as the champion in the 6 to 8 category, clocking in at 17 minutes and 15 seconds. Mark Grist paced the Boys 9 to 10 division with 25 minutes and 48 seconds on the track, Zedrick James Borja came out first in Boys 11 to 12 with 37 minutes and 16 seconds, and Juan Francisco Baniqued won Boys 13 to 14 category with a time of 43 minutes and eight seconds. RELATED VIDEO

2016-03-05 15:31 Randolph B. sports.inquirer.net

50 Debunking the big lie about Trump and the GOP establishment: They’re identical and hocking the same brand of bullsh*t Topics: Donald Trump , Marco Rubio , Ted Cruz , Republican Primary , Elections 2016 , Elections News , Media News , News , Politics News Despite some panicked claims otherwise, Donald Trump is not an evil genius. What this week showed, between Mitt Romney’s hypocritical anti-Trump speech and the ridiculous Fox News debate in Michigan, is that the Republican establishment has a few easily identified vulnerabilities that any charlatan with enough bombast and access to media could exploit. Trump, and this appears to be the theme of his entire life, just got lucky to be the right narcissist with the right connections and the right money at the right time. That vulnerability, at its core, is hypocrisy. For decades, Republicans have positioned themselves as the backlash party, the people who will do everything in their power to stop and ideally reverse gains made by people of color, women, and LGBT people, all while running around in the media denying they hold any animosity towards the liberal ideals of equality and fairness. It’s been an incredibly effective campaign strategy, because it turned out that the majority of white people and men will repeatedly vote for a party that screws them over economically so long as they stick it harder to the other guy. These voters have long understood and accepted the hypocrisy of the Republican Party. They understand why politicians need to pretend to support racial equality while undermining the economic and social rights of people of color. They understood why you can’t just openly say you want women back in the kitchen, even as you fight to destroy the rights that help women get out. But that kind of game really wears thin on people’s nerves and so really, it shouldn’t be a big surprise that Trump, who clearly enjoys crossing the line and saying all those things you’re not supposed to say, would be killing with conservatives voters. But what this week showed is that the Republican addiction to hypocrisy won’t be so easily defeated. Even though Trump has shown for months and months that taking umbrage at his antics only endears him more to conservative voters, for some reason, establishment Republicans decided the way to kill him off was to apply even more hypocritical umbrage. But voters will continue to see right through this posturing, because, at the end of the day, the only real difference between Trump and his Republican opponents is that he takes a blunter tone about things. This was made clear by the whole embarrassing Mitt Romney debacle. Romney got on his high horse, sneering about Trump’s tax plan and his health care plan and his misogyny and his racism, even though it took only a few minutes of googling to show that Romney’s own positions in his 2012 campaign on these issues were basically the same, and more extreme in some circumstances. But forget all that wonky stuff. Trump was able to zero in an even more obvious hypocrisy. When you see stuff like this, it’s easy to see why Trump is able to engender so much love with certain kinds of conservatives. The party does treat a certain set of Republican voters like they’re that ugly girl you’ll dial up for a booty call but would never dare bring as a date to a party: The birthers, the people who think Ann Coulter is smart, the people who really love “Duck Dynasty.” Romney’s acting like he’s too good for the likes of Trump, and Trump is reminding everyone he was singing a different tune Thursday night.

2016-03-05 13:42 Amanda Marcotte www.salon.com

51 Senatorial bets urged: Champion disaster-resilient housing MANILA - Several civil society organizations on Friday urged senatorial candidates to address the heightening vulnerability of poor and disaster- affected communities due to climate change, during a forum at the University of the Philippines Diliman. The Philippine Legislators' Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD) hosted the dialogue between climate resilience organizations and senatorial candidates Raffy Alunan, Lorna Kapunan and Francis Tolentino. In a statement, PLCPD executive director Romeo Dongeto, called on the candidates to champion policies and programs that promote adequate housing amid the growing threat of climate change. Adequate housing, Dongeto said, is a basic human right enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It requires shelter safe from all forms of harm, sensitive to special needs of its inhabitants and with access to basic utilities, social services and livelihood opportunities. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY Alunan, former Interior and Local Government Secretary, said that government should provide people their basic needs such as food, water, jobs and housing. He underscored the importance of good governance to achieve this. Kapunan added that accountability and transparency through freedom of information is crucial in ensuring disaster victims are fully rehabilitated. Asked about how she will hold the authorities accountable for the deaths linked to supertyphoon Yolanda , Kapunan said she wants to bring "death penalty to all of them", drawing cheers from the audience. Tolentino, for his part said responsibility for disaster rests on all stakeholders. He stressed the importance of multisectoral participation and consultation in addressing disasters and climate change. Tolentino also said that the interest of the people should always be considered in resettling communities. On-site socialized housing, he said, should have access to transportation and economic opportunities. He added that indigenous peoples should be protected against mining. UP Professor Prospero de Vera speaks at a senatorial candidates' forum attended by Raffy Alunan, Lorna Kapunan and Francis Tolentino at the UP Diliman, Friday. PLCPD STEPS VS CLIMATE CHANGE Kapunan also believes that investment in green technology and renewable energy will also contribute in battling climate change. She proposed giving tax incentives and research grants to businesses developing and using clean energy, a point echoed by Tolentino. Kapunan also said that resources should be allocated outside Metro Manila to address the vulnerability of poor communities in urban centers. "Opportunities should be present in other regions for businesses to grow and provide local employment," she said. READ: Manila, other Asian cities vulnerable to climate change - ADB Local government units should also be trained to respond to disaster response and promote sustainable development, Tolentino said. He also said that the national government should refund the 5% calamity fund of LGUs to replenish resources for disaster preparedness and rehabilitation. Senatorial candidates Raffy Alunan, Lorna Kapunan and Francis Tolentino attend a forum on adequate housing and climate change at the UP Diliman, Friday. PLCPD Alunan also urged the protection of natural lifelines through reforestation, mangrove planting, and cleaning of rivers to provide ecological security and environment justice. To achieve security from disasters, Kapunan said a separate department on climate change should be created. On the other hand, Tolentino urged the establishment of a department on disaster management and reconstruction that will synchronize disaster relief and recovery efforts in local and national levels. PLCPD organized the dialogue in coordination with DRRNet Philippines, Aksyon Klima, the University of the Philippines Student Council, and various civil society and youth organizations. "Our next set of leaders must not only enact responsive policies to the demands of changing climate but also ensure that sufficient funding are allocated for their full implementation," Dongeto concluded.

2016-03-05 04:54 ABS-CBN news.abs-cbn.com

52 Trolls will love Peeple: Even with anti-bullying controls, “Yelp for People” still sounds like a nightmare Topics: Peeple , Social Media , Apps , technology , Yelp , online abuse , Trolls , Life News , Entertainment News Five months after Peeple caused international outrage over its plans to become a “ Yelp for People ,” the much-maligned app is set to launch in the App Store on Monday. In an email to its mailing list on Thursday, Peeple assured users that the main criticisms of the app have been taken into account and its functionality adjusted accordingly. Specifically, users, who can rate people in three categories—professional, personal and dating—will have complete control over what goes on their profile, no one will be able to add anyone else to the app (although you can invite others to join), you can deactivate your profile and there will be no star ratings. In that email and on its website , Peeple stated, “We are a concept that has never been done before in a digital space. We want character to be a new form of currency. Peeple will provide you a safe place to manage your online reputation while protecting your greatest assets by making better decisions about the people around you.” In listing its offerings on its site, the app boasts that it will help “build positive relationships” by letting users “boost up the people you know and form stronger relationships by having a 2 way communication system based on feedback and recommendations.” The rest of its messaging is similarly focused on the supposed benefits the app will offer. I’m not so naïve to think that such an app won’t provide trolls with the opportunity to bombard users with an onslaught of hate. Sure, Peeple has now made it so that you can control what goes up on your profile, but you’ll still see those messages—as Peeple has amply learned firsthand. The app recently asked on Facebook “What do you say to your haters?” The post was accompanied by a screenshot of a message they’d received saying “Go f—k yourself” to which they’d responded “Go love yourself.” Which raises the question: why would anyone voluntarily sign up for yet another forum where they are asking to be validated by the masses? By requiring Facebook and phone number verification, Peeple is trying to ensure that only those who actually know us are leaving us feedback, but in the online world, “knowing” is a broad term. I interact with potentially thousands of people in my social media channels that I don’t know personally. They are of course welcome to leave comments on my articles or respond go to my social media already. I don’t need another outlet for people I know (or “know”) to appraise me. While giving users the opportunity to approve all content that goes on their profile does assuage one of the most widespread criticisms of the app’s first iteration—that people could hate on each other without recourse—that won’t always be the case. Peeple co-creator Julia Corddray told The Calgary Herald that the free app plans to implement a paid “truth license” that would allow anyone to see all reviews of them, even if they weren’t approved by the user. She said, “If a mom wants to look up a coach for her kids, she can see all the amazing things on that person’s profile, but maybe there’s some areas of improvement for that person. So when the mom upgrades to the truth license, she’ll be able to see all the recommendations on the back-end that the coach never published on their profile.” In other words, the claim in their FAQ in resonse to “What happens if someone sends me a negative recommendation?” that “Recommendations never go live without your permission. You can delete any recommendation from your inbox” doesn’t actually mean that that feedback will remain unseen. The user can delete it, but can’t, apparently, prevent it from being accessed by those willing to pad Peeple’s pockets to download the license. Even if they got rid of the “truth license,” then they’d have created another problem: any messages that are approved are likely to be overly glowing. After all, who’s really going to accept a comment that, even if true, says something like, “Arrived at date reeking of alcohol” or “Always forgets my birthday” or “Doesn’t know how to run a meeting?” Probably nobody. So if all we’re going to get are the kinds of statements that read like we wrote them ourselves, what’s the point? Setting aside the potential that still exists for haters, trolls and abuse, even if we lived in Peeple’s utopia and the app were only used to offer genuinely thoughtful, positive recommendations, we should be asking ourselves why we need this kind of external validation. It’s one thing for LinkedIn to have recommendations that employers can use to help evaluate candidates, but what is it saying about our culture that the app’s founders think we need to be recommended as humans regarding our everyday actions? Shouldn’t decency, kindness and friendliness be things we do simply because they reflect the kind of people we want to be, rather than something that has to be quantified?

2016-03-05 13:48 Rachel Kramer www.salon.com

53 Pat Conroy: Prince of Tides author dies aged 70 US novelist Pat Conroy - whose best-selling novels include Prince of Tides and Water is Wide - has died aged 70. Conroy, who had pancreatic cancer, died at his home in Beaufort, South Carolina, surrounded by family and friends, his wife and publisher said. His works drew from his own experiences of life in South Carolina. He is recognised as a leading figure of the 20th Century's literature of the American South. Several of Conroy's novels were made into films. "The water is wide but he has now crossed over," his wife, Cassandra King, said in a statement issued via his publisher. She said Conroy died on Friday evening. In a tweet, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley wrote: "South Carolina lost a beloved son tonight. Pat Conroy will be missed. We can find comfort knowing his words and love for SC will live on. "

2016-03-05 14:17 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

54 Syrian refugees settle into new lives in Canada In a small, crowded classroom in tiny Belleville, Ontario, Syria native Abdel Malek al-Jasem is learning some very important terms in English. Coat, gloves, toque, scarf and boots. He scribbles them in a notebook next to their Arabic translations. He will need all of that gear as he adjusts to life in Canada. Jasem arrived in October of last year after four years in Lebanon, where he and his family sought refuge after bombing in their village outside of Hama, Syria, pushed them out. He and his wife have eleven children, including two sets of twins, ranging in age from a toddler to a college-aged boy. They were anxious and scared to arrive in their new country. The transatlantic journey was also the family's first time on an airplane. They touched down in Canada safely. Now, the journey for the Jasem family is learning English, going to school and finding work. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is making resettling Syrian refugees one of the top priorities for his new Liberal majority government. The government set a goal of resettling 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February. About 26,000 arrived in Canada by the end of February, 8,567 of them privately sponsored. They had aimed to reach that goal by the end of 2015, but ended up pushing it to February. By the end of 2016, the government aims to have at least 25,000 government-assisted refugees in Canada. "This is something that we are able to do in this country because we define a Canadian not by a skin colour or a language or a religion or a background," Trudeau said at Toronto-Pearson International Airport last December, during a well-publicised event that spurred iconic images of Mr Trudeau giving coats to refugees after they emerged from a plane. "But by a shared set of values, aspirations, hopes and dreams that not just Canadians but people around the world share. " Jasem and his children are learning how to live in their new country. They learned to ice skate in January. They don't like the cold and snow in Canada, they said, but like all things, it will just "take time" to get used to. "Everything back home is gone. Everything is demolished… there's nothing left to go back to," said Jamal Bsat, who was working as a translator in the classroom with Jasem. Jasem said he prefers his old wardrobe, though. In Canada, he said you have to wear "too many clothes on top of each other". The Jasem family's first temporary home in Picton, Ontario, was paid for by a group of sponsors organised by Toronto's Ryerson University's Lifeline Syria Challenge. The university founded the programme, later joined by OCAD University, University of Toronto and York University. It's setting a precedent of sorts for successful private sponsorship of Syrian refugees in the country. The Canadian government has not yet set a cap on how many privately sponsored refugees they will accept. Connected by Ryerson's programme, groups of about ten people per family arrange housing, English classes, doctor's appointments, shopping trips and anything else needed to navigate life in the refugees' new homes. At the end of February, the programme had 87 teams of sponsors, and 15 families from Syria - 93 refugees total. Wendy Cukier, executive director of the programme, said families who receive private sponsorship succeed much more than those who come to Canada as government-sponsored refugees. Government-sponsored refugees are eligible for a year of financial help. For families with private sponsors, the help can extend beyond one year. They become permanent residents upon arrival, entitled to Canada's social programmes like healthcare. Once they start working, they are subject to the same rules and taxes as any Canadian resident. Within a few years, they can apply for full citizenship. To get to Canada, refugees usually must be registered as such by the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees. For Lifeline Syria, which is categorised as a Sponsorship Agreement Holder programme, this is not required, but recommended. Some refugees have relatives in Canada, which may speed their applications along. Refugees can indicate they are interested in going to Canada, but women and complete families have the best chance of getting to the country as government-sponsored refugees. Each refugee, private or government-sponsored, undergoes a security screening that includes biometrics, security and health, and some are interviewed by visa officers. In the US, the Obama administration has said it wants to resettle about 10,000 Syrian refugees before the end of 2016. Syrian refugees who end up in the US must also register as refugees with UNHCR, and a small number are recommended to resettle in the US. Having family in the US helps. After that, the State Department takes over, and the Department of Homeland Security decides whether an individual application is approved. The process for approval then takes 18-24 months, and then refugees are admitted at a 50% acceptance rate, after undergoing, as one US official put it, "the most rigorous screening of any traveller to the US". Some politicians have said they want to halt the US programme entirely. Meanwhile, the challenge for Ryerson's programme, said Cukier, is deciding when to stop. "Do we keep going or do we say, we've done our bit? " she said in January. Over in rural, snow-covered Picton, houses are kilometres apart, the long roads dotted by farms. The Jasem family is settling in. Their youngest boy ran around the home rambunctiously on a January afternoon, playing with a toy airplane and getting dangerously close to knocking over mugs of hot chocolate. Slowly, all the other children arrived home from school on yellow school busses, bright against the white landscape. The teenage boys wrapped their arms around their younger siblings as they bounded into the house. "Good job, good job, good job," one young girl said, repeating a favourite phrase learned in school. Another practices, "Hi, how are you? I'm good. " One teenage brother said he is happy to be going to school after working long hours back in Lebanon as a butcher, but he wants to get a job as soon as possible so he can contribute to the family, and as his sponsor said, get out of the house on the weekends. "My friend in Lebanon told me working at McDonald's is good," he said. One of the family's sponsors, local art gallery owner Carlyn Moulton, said she would talk to the manager of the McDonald's in town to get him a job, filling his eyes with excitement. Government data shows that immigrants to Canada in the past five years have had an easier time gaining employment in Western Canada, and that many immigrants are employed in the service sector. Most refugees are eager to start working, not wanting to be a burden on their sponsors. "You are going to do more than work at McDonald's," she said. "Maybe you could manage a McDonald's. " Another son spoke to the model United Nations conference in his school recently. The topic was refugees and displaced persons. "This was the first time they'd met a person as a refugee, to practically hear someone say our house was bombed," said Moulton. "It profoundly moved the other kids. " Some families have been able to get most of their members over to Canada, but had to leave some loved ones behind in the process. In Mississauga, a community near Toronto with a large Muslim population, the Al Hasan family arrived in January. Before, they all lived in one room in Lebanon, where they spent four years before getting to Canada. Now, the family is desperately trying to get two more daughters over to the country, one currently in Iran and one in Turkey. On a day not even a month after arriving in Canada, they purchased so much while out shopping with their sponsor that they struggled to bring it upstairs. Bags of ground turkey and bread sagged under one child holding a new toaster. Data from the government's Internal Citizenship and Immigration Department released in 2012 suggests privately sponsored refugees who arrived in Canada between 1993 and 2007 do better than government-sponsored ones. They are less likely to be on social assistance two years after resettling in Canada and more likely to have a higher salary. Before arriving in Canada, the Al Hasan family's daily grievances and worries were quite different than how to get bags of groceries into the elevator. "We just pray and hope that not another person will die in this situation, whether it's in hands of the crazed [so-called Islamic State] - in the name of Islam, it's so ridiculous to us - it's all people just dying," said Batal al-Hasan, the patriarch of the family, speaking through a translator. "We're hoping it will stop like right now, and not a single more person will suffer and the country will return and rebuild. I hope with God's will it will stop and change. If not for our generation, for future generations. " One of his daughters said of Canada, "There's so much freedom, I'm very, very happy. " "She couldn't go out, she just stayed at home [in Jordan]...you feel like you're choking, no freedom whatsoever," said Mariela Barazi, one of the family's sponsors also serving as a translator. Public opinion on refugees is mixed, despite the common image of a warm, welcoming Canada. In January, a man bicycling by the Muslim Association of Canada Centre in Vancouver pepper- sprayed a group of Syrian refugees standing outside. Mr Trudeau condemned the attack. A poll released in late February of 1,507 Canadians by the Angus Reid Institute found that 52% support the government's refugee plan, and 44% oppose it. Forty-two percent say Canada should stop taking in Syrian refugees immediately. Asked if the family would return to Syria should things resolve, Hasan said their new home is Canada. "We want to establish ourselves here," he said. "We would love to be able to go visit our Syria and visit Syria in the future, but for the future for our kids, we want to establish somewhere where we can build a life. " "Here, everyone has the same value. " By early March, the Jasem family moved into a new home in Picton. They are renting it from their sponsors, who purchased it. The home has a backyard and a fireplace, and the children can walk to school. Eventually, the Jasem family will purchase it from their sponsors. Ahmed, the son who wanted to work at McDonald's, has been hired at a local restaurant in Picton for the summer and is working part-time, along with some of his brothers, at a local canoe and kayak company. Abel Malek al-Jasem is starting to look for work. Moulton said he would really love to work on a farm. Some of their relatives have also arrived in Canada and have moved in across the street. "Lots of progress has been made," said Moulton. "None of this would have happened if they were government sponsored. " The younger children are doing very well in school, picking up English quickly, the school principal recently said. Jasem now has a car and will soon no longer rely on the sponsors for transportation. The family is a world away from their old reality - running from their home due to bombings, fleeing and then struggling to get by in Lebanon. When the family arrived, they were "exhausted in a profound way," said Moulton. "It is almost impossible to imagine what everyone must have been through. It's not a bad thing for them to have a little recovery time. Soon enough, the daily grind will be upon them. "

2016-03-05 14:17 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

55 Obama to stay in Washington DC after leaving White House US President Barack Obama will be moving out of the White House in 2017, but he will not be moving far. Mr Obama said on Thursday the family would stay in Washington while his 14-year-old daughter, Sasha, finishes her education at the elite academy, Sidwell Friends. "Transferring someone in the middle of high school. Tough," he said to an audience question in Wisconsin. It is not common for presidents to stay in the capital after they leave office. Woodrow Wilson, who served as president from 1913 to 1921, was the last. However, the Obama family also plans to spend time in Chicago, where the family has a home and First Lady Michelle Obama has family. Mr Obama is also establishing his presidential library in Chicago.

2016-03-05 14:17 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

56 “Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer”: Senator “confirmed” as notorious murderer on Wikipedia as campaign gets new life Topics: Ted Cruz , Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac Killer? , zodiac killer , internet memes , 2016 primary , Elections 2016 , Elections News , Politics News “ Sad Chris Christie ” and “ Ben Carson Wikipedia ” had their 15 minutes in the spotlight, but only one meme from the Republican presidential primaries has real staying power: “Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer.” It’s a movement that has spawned t-shirts , a Twitter feed and even an e-book: “ Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer: A Time Travel Romance .” None other than Public Policy Polling recently found that 38 percent of Florida voters think it’s possible that Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer. Yes, that’s a real poll. The debate raged on in the Wild West of Cruz’s Wikipedia page on Friday morning: We’re pretty certain that Ted Cruz is not the Zodiac Killer. The infamous Bay Area homicides occurred in 1968 and 1969 and Cruz was born in 1970. (Although his birth certificate is Canadian … Isn’t Donald Trump looking into this?) As yet, Ted Cruz hasn’t gone on the record saying he’s not the Zodiac.

2016-03-05 13:48 Michael Garofalo www.salon.com

57 Inconsistent sexual assault kit testing a statewide issue NAMPA, Idaho (AP) - In Pocatello, the rate is 26 percent. In Nampa, only 10. In Coeur d’Alene, though, testing rates are at 60 percent. Those are the percentages of rape and sexual assault evidence collection kits that each law enforcement agency has submitted, over a five- year timeframe, to the state lab for testing. In November, the Idaho Press-Tribune published two stories after learning that Canyon County law enforcement’s submission of rape kits varied widely in testing rates. They ranged from 10 percent in the Nampa Police Department, to 54 percent submitted by the Caldwell Police Department and 52 percent of Canyon County Sheriff’s Office kits were submitted for testing. After learning of a lack of uniform policy on the submission of the kits, the Press-Tribune reviewed 22 Idaho law enforcement agencies using public record requests. The review found great disparity in rape kit testing among each law enforcement agency. Over five years, Twin Falls Police, for example, had a 23 percent submission rate while Moscow Police had a 35 percent submission rate of rape kits being sent for testing at a lab. Moscow Police, from Nov. 23, 2010, to Nov. 23, 2015, collected 55 kits and sent 19 to a lab. The Twin Falls Police Department, from Jan. 1, 2010, to Nov. 3, 2015, collected 84 kits and only sent 19 to a lab for testing. Meanwhile, the Meridian Police Department collected 40 kits from Oct. 1, 2010, through Nov. 4, 2015. Of those collected, 32 kits were sent to a lab. That’s an 80 percent submission rate. Currently in Idaho, if a law enforcement agency determines no crime has been committed or the case is no longer being investigated as a crime, a sexual assault kit may not be sent to a laboratory for testing. Kits are also not submitted for testing if a victim decides he or she does not want the kit tested. The term rape kit is used to describe the forensic exam a person may undergo after an alleged sexual assault, which looks for evidence that sex abuse has occurred. Through the record requests, some law enforcement agencies couldn’t provide a reason as to why some specific cases didn’t have a sexual assault kit tested for evidence, and other agencies estimated it would take as long as 60 hours to find the answer on why some kits weren’t tested - stating the agency did not track that explanation in an easily accessible way. The Press-Tribune’s record requests illustrate the lack of uniform statewide policy on how to track whether a rape kit is sent to a lab for testing. At the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office, from April 8, 2014 - Nov. 30, 2015, it collected 18 kits. Of those, eight were submitted, nine were not sent in and one belonged to another agency. However, to find numbers of rape kits collected and tested over a full five-year time frame, the agency estimated 60 hours of labor would be needed to find the answer. The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office estimated fees of up to nearly $800 for further explanation because data prior to April 8, 2014, was not readily accessible. The Idaho Press-Tribune declined to pay the fee. A bill proposed by Rep. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, this legislative session would change how sexual assault kits are tracked by all law enforcement agencies in Idaho and could provide some general explanations as to why some may go untested. The bill is currently working its way through the Statehouse. “When tested, DNA evidence . inside those rape kits can be an incredibly powerful tool to solve and prevent a crime,” Wintrow said when first proposing the bill to legislators. “It can identify an unknown assailant and confirm the known suspect. It can affirm the survivor’s account of the attack and discredit the suspect. It can tie the suspect to other crime scenes and it can exonerate the wrongfully convicted or accused.” IDAHO TESTING Story Continues →

2016-03-05 15:21 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

58 Boko Haram ‘spiritual power base’ destroyed in raid, 63 hostages rescued (PHOTOS) A special forces unit carried out the operation in which they cleared Boko Haram hideouts at the villages of Lawin Meleri, Matiri Bulaka and Aljeri, according to an army statement. Weapons and ammunition, including a long- barreled dane gun, a light machine gun bipod stand, and an IED were also recovered. Soldiers also destroyed Boko Haram camps in the Alagarno forest in Borno State, in a separate operation, according to the military. “Seven Division Nigerian Army, demystified Boko Haram terrorists’ spiritual power base at the Alagarno forest, Borno State,” the Nigerian Army statement read. The troops destroyed terrorist camps at Mosa, Ariwuzumari and Kagalmari, as well as Missene, Joba, Yajiwa and Sansan after they received a tip-off. “During the operations, the troops were able to clear all the camps, killing quite a number of terrorists and recovered Boko Haram terrorist flags hoisted on some premises, destroyed their logistics base and recovered 31 motorcycles, assorted foodstuffs, a donkey and a pick-up van, AK-45 rifle with registration number 17714 and a Dane gun,” the military statement said. The Boko Haram terrorist group has killed around 20,000 people and displaced 2.5 million since launching an insurgency in 2009 which aims to establish Islamist rule. READ MORE:Drone ‘destroys Boko Haram base’ in Nigeria (VIDEO) 2016-03-05 13:57 www.rt.com

59 NYC mayor praises gun seizures as ‘less deadly’ knife attack increase “I’m not a criminologist, but I can safely say that guns are being taken off the street in an unprecedented way,” de Blasio said at an event in Manhattan, praising the work of the NYPD’s Gun Violence Suppression Unit. While shootings and murders have declined to historic lows, crimes such as robbery, assault and theft are on the rise, and rapes were up 26 percent in February, according to WCBS. Knife attacks are also on the rise. “Some people, unfortunately, are turning to a different weapon – thank God, typically a less deadly weapon – but they’re turning to a different weapon,” the mayor said. “Well, guess what that means. The NYPD will now go get those weapons.” New York law enforcement will now focus on criminals using knives and razors. “There’s no question: we don’t take knives lightly, we don’t take razors lightly,” de Blasio said. The number of slashings and stabbings across the city is up over 20 percent this year compared to the same period in 2015. Since January 1, officers have confiscated 212 cutting instruments in the subways – a 46 percent increase over last year, WCBS reported. Yet, despite the surge, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said in February that the streets of New York are “safer than ever.” Following a series of slashings on the New York City subway, the Guardian Angels – an unarmed, volunteer anti-crime group that had its heyday in the 1970s and '80s – has gone underground to patrol the system for the first time since 1994.

2016-03-05 13:57 www.rt.com

60 Monkeys learn how to ride wheelchairs using mind power (VIDEO) Researches from Duke University, North Carolina, have developed a device to interpret the brain’s cortical activity and produce wheelchair movements, their article in Nature's Scientific Reports reads. The gear was tested on two rhesus monkeys, implanted with a wireless neuron activity recorder. The simians were motivated by grapes. READ MORE: DARPA aims for brain implants to control machines At first, the monkeys were driven around in powered wheelchairs with their brains’ impulses recorded by an intracranial scanner, which later allowed for creating a steering algorithm. Test runs were made in straight lines: monkeys were put in three different locations, while the food dispenser stayed in the same spot. The trajectories were distorted by making corrections in turning and over steering. After the monkeys had mastered the basic technique, backward movements were added as well. All tests proved successful. “ The present results support our recent clinical observation that when paraplegic patients are subjected to intense BMI training, they not only become capable of regaining walking, using a robotic exoskeleton, but they also can exhibit signs of partial neurological recovery of sensorimotor and autonomic functions, ” the researchers wrote. They did not indicate when, and whether, the device will be released on the market. READ MORE: Paralyzed man walks in 1st-ever proof direct brain control possible

2016-03-05 13:58 www.rt.com

61 Turkish police raid opposition Zaman daily HQ, unleash tear gas & water cannon on protesters Part of the crowd have taken cover inside of the building, as riot police moved in on protesters. After clearing their way through the crowd in front of the newspaper’s HQ, the officers pushed their way inside the building. “Throw him off the staircase!” one of the officers allegedly shouted, as the raid squad pushed one of the publication’s employees down to the hall, according to a tweet written by a Zaman employee. Zaman Editor-in-Chief Sevgi Akarcesme said that during the raid she was pushed by police as authorities tried to take her out of the building. “A police officer grabbed my phone forcefully while I was broadcasting on Periscope. I'll sue him when the rule of law is back. Unbelievable!” she tweeted. “This is beyond comprehension! Such a sad day in Turkey!” The daily confirmed that police had gone to the management floor in the building, and were preventing editors from entering their offices. The journalists were shut out of their offices while police allegedly confiscated their cell phones, according to reports on social media. The raid began shortly before midnight after a day of standoffs between police and opposition protesters furious about what they call a government crackdown on the free press. The biggest opposition publication is being accused by the state of alleged links to America- based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the government accuses of attempting to topple the regime. The decision by Istanbul 6th Criminal Court of Peace to de facto censor the publication was granted after the request of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, that accused the publication of taking orders from what it called the “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization/Parallel State Structure (FETO/PDY).” The prosecutor said that the alleged terrorist group is working together with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) with the aim of toppling the Turkish government. To remedy the so-called “terrorist threat,” the court ruled to sack the entire management and the editorial team of Feza Media Group companies and to replace the entire group’s administration with a three-member board appointed by the state court. Following the court ruling the newspaper editorial team released a statement through its English- language sister publication, Today's Zaman, calling the takeover the “darkest and gloomiest” for the freedom of the press. READ MORE: Court orders Turkish Zaman daily into administration, raising concerns of free press abuse The statement added that “media organizations and journalists are being silenced via threats and blackmail.” After the ruling, hundreds of people gathered outside the newspaper's offices in Istanbul protesting against the move, before police fired tear gas at protesters as they stormed the head office building. Amnesty International has condemned the move to silence the opposition press. “By lashing out and seeking to rein in critical voices, President Erdogan’s government is steamrolling over human rights,” said Andrew Gardner from Amnesty International’s Turkey. Even Washington, while reaffirming Turkey’s crucial role as a NATO member and US ally in the region, had to admit that the Turkish government’s recent actions are not fully consistent with the spirit of “democracy.” “We see this as the latest in the series of troubling judicial and law enforcement actions taken by the Turkish government targeting media outlets and others critical of it…We call on the Turkish government to ensure full respect for due process and equal treatment under the law. Court- ordered supervision of a media company’s finances and operations should not prompt changes to the newsroom or editorial policy,” State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said, reading from a prepared statement. “We don’t think that these sorts of actions are in keeping with the healthy democratic values,” Toner told RT's Gayane Chichakyan. “As Turkey’s friend and NATO ally – and we do count ourself as a friend of Turkey and we certainly are a NATO ally – we urge Turkish authorities to ensure their actions uphold the universal democratic values enshrined in their own constitution.”

2016-03-05 13:58 www.rt.com

62 11yo conquers Tiger Woods' new golf course with a perfect hole-in-one shot (VIDEO) Taylor Crozier from Corpus Christi, Texas, had the honor of hitting the inaugural shot at the opening of a Woods-designed course in Houston. Woods was there to witness the moment the young golfer hit the perfect shot, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Woods failed to follow suit, talking three shots at the hole. Crozier beat his hero over nine holes, finishing three shots ahead of Woods on two over par. However, the only sore feelings from Woods were in his back, which he has had surgery on three times over the past two years. He congratulated the youngster before sharing the clip online. Forty-year-old Woods slipped down the world rankings after failing to achieve a top five finish in the past two years. The golfer has repeatedly had issues with his back in the last few seasons. Despite not playing competitively since August Woods said he intends to return to play again once he is free of pain in his back. Woods won’t be too jealous of Crozier, he’s had plenty of memorable moments in golf himself. 2016-03-05 13:58 www.rt.com

63 Family of paralyzed black man killed by cops sues Delaware city McDole, 28, was killed after Wilmington police received a call that an African-American man in a wheelchair was suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on September 23. The family's lawsuit says that McDole was robbed of his wallet and shot, and that the thief or an accomplice called police claiming a self-inflicted gunshot was to blame for McDole's condition. Witnesses shot cellphone video of the police encounter with McDole. Three white police officers and one Hispanic officer approached McDole; one officer pointed a shotgun or rifle at him, yelling at McDole to "drop the gun" and to put his "hands up. " The video shows McDole rubbing his knees with both hands. As he moves his hand toward his waist, the officers shoot him several times, as he falls sideways to the ground. McDole's family gathered on Thursday to announce the lawsuit, filed in Superior Court in Wilmington, the largest city in Delaware. "As shown by a contemporaneous video, he was unarmed, his hands were on his lap, sitting in broad daylight out in the open with plenty of nearby cover for the police," the lawsuit said. "He was not combative or physically aggressive, and he did not say anything threatening or verbally taunt the police. Nor was he fleeing from the scene of a felonious crime which involved serious physical injury, or a threat of imminent harm to anyone. " The family said they filed the lawsuit because of the official silence on the case, according to The News Journal. Wilmington police and state Attorney General Matt Denn have said that investigations of the shooting are ongoing. “It has been five months,” said attorney Thomas C. Crumplar, who is representing McDole's mother and grandmother in the suit. “The family just cannot wait. We still don’t even know the names" of the police officers involved. A Wilmington police spokesperson said the department is continuing to review the incident, The News Journal reported. Meanwhile, the Justice Department’s Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust is actively investigating the shooting to determine whether potential criminal charges should be filed against the officers. An autopsy report was completed on January 28, according to state Justice Department spokesman Carl Kanefsky. "The investigation has also included review of forensic evidence gathered at the scene by scientific experts, enhancement of video evidence of the incident, consultation with outside experts on the use of force by law enforcement officers, and subpoenaing and reviewing hundreds of pages of documents," Kanefsky said. The civil rights lawsuit is aimed at defendants Bobby L. Cummings, Wilmington's chief of police, and the four unnamed police officers. Thomas S. Neuberger, attorney for the family, said officers never identified themselves to McDole as police and did not attempt to use non-lethal means of force. Chief Cummings said a .38-caliber gun was found at McDole's side, yet the lawsuit emphasizes that no gun is visible in the cellphone video. The family's attorneys said they believe the lawsuit will help uncover the truth about the incident. “We are going to investigate this matter, and we ask every member of the community who witnessed this shooting to come forward,” Neuberger said Thursday. Some local officials , as well as the state NAACP, have called for an independent review of the shooting by the US Department of Justice. “The family and the community need to know the facts,” Crumplar said. “Neither the Wilmington Police Department nor the Attorney General can give us the unbiased facts.”

2016-03-05 13:58 www.rt.com

64 Man runs amok in South Cotabato, 2 hurt from gunfire KORONADAL CITY – A 67-year-old man ran amok and injured two people after being reportedly irked by the closure of a road network in Banga, South Cotabato because of the town’s foundation anniversary, the police reported. Chief Inspector Marvin Duadua, Banga town police chief, told Radio dxOM here by phone that the suspect was identified as Norberto Javellana, a resident of Barangay Benitez in the said town. He said based on investigation, Javellana was driving his car near the town plaza about 9 p.m. but found out he could not get through because of the road blocks. Banga was celebrating its 75th foundation anniversary and roads around the town plaza had been blocked for the culminating program there. Duadua said Javellana suddenly pulled out a 9-millimeter pistol and indiscriminately fired it, hitting bystanders Darryl Villaruel and Salim Pandilang. He said Javellana was arrested and charges for violation of the election gun ban and illegal possession of firearms were now being prepared against the suspect. CDG READ: Gun ban nabs 549 in Ilocos

2016-03-05 15:08 Edwin O. newsinfo.inquirer.net

65 Livonia - News This feed's current articles are shown below. Subscribe for updates to all the content available in this feed, or click through here to see the original article. Students and parents are questioning the Plymouth-Canton high school start time. Neither city clerk had a solid guess at what turnout might be in Tuesday’s primary. Public education does better than ‘reformers’ would have you believe. Proposal on March 8 ballot asks voters if they want to keep Maple Road at four lanes Driver ran through red light at Pontiac Drive and Orchard Lake Road Local officials unsure on what the turnout will be next week Redford Township board members voiced conerns over the cost of buying a new fire engine. This is the third and final month of the summer with a Supermoon. It's when a full or new moon coincides with the moon's closest point to Earth in its orbit. Basically, the moon appears bigger and brighter than usual in the night sky. Days before Michigan primary, some still undecided. Laurie Aren of the Plymouth Salvation Army was honored as a P-CCS volunteer. Sunday in the park: Sign of approaching spring The Canton Chamber of Commerce is ready to rock out at its biggest fundraiser Several dozen people are enrolled in the department’s academy through the end of April. Westland Wayne Relay for Life kicks off for 2016 Brief news from around the Farmington community. LPS officials will welcome parents of incoming kindergarten students. Voters across the state will cast votes in the upcoming primary election.

2016-03-05 03:04 rssfeeds.hometownlife.com

66 Cancer doesn’t deter high school sweethearts from vows PITTSBURGH (AP) - Terminal cancer doesn’t stop high school sweethearts from making vows Chris Togneri By Chris Togneri? ‘ Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016, 11:30 p.m. Updated 2 hours ago The young groom paces in the sacristy. He adjusts his suit, which hangs loosely from his gaunt frame. A large binder clip - like the ones used to hold reams of paper together - cinches his pants at the waist, to make them smaller. The young bride pulls a shawl over her shoulders. In a room below the church, she giggles with friends and touches up her makeup. She looks beautiful, full of life and optimism, despite everything. Family and friends wait in the church. Nearly 200 have come to witness this union and, as the moment draws near, they turn and stare up the aisle, anticipating. Finally, it begins. Luke Blanock comes into view, his bald head shining under the bright overheads. His limp is pronounced, but it’s not nearly as noticeable as his smile. He takes his place in front of the altar. Natalie Britvich holds her father’s arm. She feels weak. From the moment she and Luke fell in love, they knew this day would come. Just not this soon. She thinks she might faint. But as she enters the sanctuary and sees him, she, too, smiles. “Today is sort of a graduation day,” the priest says. “You are leaving adolescence and entering adulthood. You won’t be kids anymore. You will be husband and wife.” Facing the priest Feb. 19 in St. Mary Catholic Church in Cecil, Luke and Natalie, both 18, turn their heads and look into each other’s eyes. They cannot stop shaking. ___ I’m not marrying you just to make you a widow. I’m not giving up hope for one second, no matter what the doctors say. I’m going to fight. - Luke ___ Story Continues →

2016-03-05 15:06 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

67 Republican presidential race lands in Kentucky Saturday BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) - The rambunctious Republican race for president comes to Kentucky on Saturday with a little-publicized caucus that has some party leaders worrying about low turnout. Caucus locations open at 10 a.m. local time across the state and close at 4 p.m. Most counties have just one location, though some larger counties have multiple sites to vote. Nine smaller counties won’t have a caucus location at all, sending would-be caucus-goers to neighboring counties to cast their ballots. The caucus was proposed and paid for by U. S. Sen. Rand Paul, the former Republican presidential candidate who wanted to run for president and re-election at the same time without violating a state law banning candidates from appearing on the ballot twice in the same election. Paul convinced party leaders to ditch their May primary for a March caucus, but only after he agreed to donate $250,000 to cover the party’s expenses. Paul pitched the caucus as a way to make sure he was treated fairly. But after his poll numbers started falling, the focus shifted to making Kentucky more relevant in presidential politics by having a caucus earlier on the electoral calendar. “For the first time ever, presidential candidates will be coming to Kentucky to compete for your vote,” Paul wrote in an email to supporters Friday. But Friday afternoon, a hotel ballroom in Louisville the state party had rented for candidate rallies sat empty, with rows of white table cloths sitting behind a locked door. Most of the candidates have stayed away, distracted by Super Tuesday and a televised Republican debate Thursday night in Michigan. Ben Carson held a rally in Lexington on Monday before effectively ending his campaign Wednesday. Front-runner Donald Trump held a large rally Tuesday in Louisville, where local police are investigating after two protesters said they were punched and shoved by Trump’s supporters. Marco Rubio had scheduled a rally in Lexington on Friday but canceled the day before. He campaigned in Kansas, one of five states voting Saturday, but called in to the popular Kentucky Sports Radio show Friday. “Kentucky is relevant. It’s going to matter,” Rubio said. Friday night, Paul attended a local Republican Party fundraiser in his home county, joking with reporters about the one delegate he managed to pick up after a disappointing campaign for president. But Paul’s name will appear on the ballot in Kentucky, and he has not endorsed anyone or mobilized his supporters to vote. And he criticized the actions of 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, saying his decision to criticize Trump publicly could backfire. “If you are considering voting for Donald trump and someone from the establishment tells you it’s a really bad idea, maybe you react exactly the opposite,” Paul said. “I spent about a year pointing out sort of what I thought the advantages of one candidacy were versus the other. I think I’m done pointing out those differences.” Paul said he expects the turnout to be low, citing a “knowledge barrier.” The party has not held a presidential caucus since 1984. Most voters are used to voting on a Tuesday in May at their local precinct. Instead, they will have to go to one location on a Saturday between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. And once they are there, they could find people inside the caucus location wanting to talk to them about their vote_something not allowed in an election run by the state government. “You could see some surprises. I think the polls show Trump ahead in Kentucky, but I think it’s going to be a small caucus,” Paul said. “Nobody outside of the Republican party is allowed to vote. I think that maybe doesn’t argue as much to Trump’s strengths.” ___ Reporter Claire Galofaro contributed reporting from Louisville, Kentucky.

2016-03-05 15:06 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

68 Suspected NPA rebel killed, militiaman hurt in ComVal clash TAGUM CITY – A suspected communist rebel was killed in a clash with government troops in Laak, Compostela Valley on Saturday, the military said. A militiaman was also wounded following the 7 a.m. clash between suspected New People’s Army guerrillas and troops from the army’s 60 th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Datu Ampunan, according to Maj. Michael Angelo Candole, the 60IB executive officer. Candole said the incident happened as militiamen–led by a Corporal Agay – were conducting pursuit operation against a band of rebels allegedly behind the killing on Feb. 22 of an off-duty soldier in Asuncion, Davao del Norte, when they ran into another group of insurgents in the vicinity of Sitio Agsam. The firefight lasted for about 30 minutes, he said. An M-14 rifle was also recovered along with the body of the slain rebel, Candole said, while the wounded militiaman was airlifted to a local hospital. The body of the slain rebel, who remained unidentified, had been turned over to Laak officials, he said. CDG READ: Tribal militiamen gather, vow to fight NPA

2016-03-05 15:01 Frinston Lim newsinfo.inquirer.net

69 4 face charges after drug buy-bust arrest in Iligan City CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Four persons were now facing charges after being arrested in Iligan City during a buy-bust operation conducted by combined anti-narcotics agents from various parts of Mindanao that also led to the seizure of some two kilograms of shabu. Wilkins Villanueva, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) director for Northern Mindanao, said the suspects were arrested at a car park inside a mall in Barangay Villa Verde in Iligan City on Thursday. Villanueva identified the arrested suspects as Sanawiya Ampaso Calumbang, alias Soraya Umpa, 40, a resident of Salvador, Lanao del Norte; Jamey Sarif, 31, married, and a resident of Purok 5, Barangay Mahayahay in Iligan City; Khadafi Aloyodan, 37, married, also of Salvador town; and Bryan Abdul Malik, 32, married, of Madaya, Marawi City. Villanueva said also seized from suspects were a black Toyota Vios, six bundles of counterfeit money, six pieces of genuine P1,000 bills used by Pdea agents in the buy-bust operation, and two cellular phones. Adzhar Albani, PDEA director for Southern Mindanao, said the operation was conducted by anti-drug agents from PDEA offices in regions 9, 10, 11 and elements of the Iligan City police after days of stakeout. He placed the value of the seized drugs at P18 million. Villanueva said they had conducted surveillance on Calumbang for two weeks and determined that her operation covered northern and southern Mindanao and Caraga. Asked where the illegal drugs may have come from, Albani said: “We can’t ascertain yet if it’s locally (produced) or smuggled from other countries.” Villanueva said the illegal drugs might also have come from Luzon. “What we are a doing is focus on high-value targets,” Albani said, adding that Calumbang was considered among the big-time dealers, whom Pdea had arrested. With a report from Dennis Jay Santos/CDG READ: PDEA seizes 60 kilos of marijuana in Pampanga buy-bust

2016-03-05 14:54 Jigger Jerusalem newsinfo.inquirer.net

70 McGregor to draw UFC's first $1M disclosed purse LAS VEGAS -- UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor will make history this weekend after all. Editor's Picks McGregor weighs in at 168 for UFC bout with Diaz Patting his belly on his way to the scale, UFC featherweight champ Conor McGregor came in at 168 pounds at Friday's official weigh-in for his welterweight bout with Nate Diaz at UFC 196. Predictions: Fighting McGregor on short notice is no easy task Brett Okamoto breaks down his predictions for Saturday's UFC 196 card in Las Vegas, including welterweights Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz and the Holly Holm-Miesha Tate bantamweight title bout. 1 Related Patting his belly on his way to the scale, UFC featherweight champ Conor McGregor came in at 168 pounds at Friday's official weigh-in for his welterweight bout with Nate Diaz at UFC 196. Brett Okamoto breaks down his predictions for Saturday's UFC 196 card in Las Vegas, including welterweights Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz and the Holly Holm-Miesha Tate bantamweight title bout. McGregor (19-2), who fights Nate Diaz at UFC 196 on Saturday night, will draw a $1 million disclosed purse, according to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. It is the first $1 million disclosed purse in UFC history. McGregor, 27, stands to make much more than that overall. The NSAC figure does not include pay-per-view bonuses, sponsorships or potential Fight Night bonuses from the UFC. McGregor told CNBC this week he will "breeze past" $10 million. His pay, as disclosed to the NSAC, is $1 million with no win bonus. Diaz (18-10) is listed to make $500,000 to show with no win bonus. Female bantamweight champion Holly Holm (10-0), who signed a contract extension with the UFC in January, is also listed to make $500,000 to show with no win bonus. The purse for her opponent, No. 1 contender Miesha Tate , is $46,000 to show and $46,000 to win.

2016-03-05 05:28 Brett Okamoto espn.go.com

71 Naples mother gives a second gift of life to her son NAPLES, Fla. (AP) - A routine sports physical back in August changed 14- year-old Dylon Jacob’s life - and likely saved it. Doctors noticed the Naples middle schooler had extremely high blood pressure and suggested his mother, Lindsey Jacobs, have him checked out. But Jacobs felt the problem couldn’t wait. She rushed him to the hospital that day. Doctors would later determine the eighth grade youth football player had Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis. Kidney disease. “He had no symptoms. None,” Jacobs said. “Thank God he had that sports physical.” The following months would be filled with doctors visits and close calls, trips to Miami twice a week for dialysis treatment and consuming worry for Jacobs, who stopped working to care for her son full-time. When doctors determined Dylon would need a new kidney to survive, Jacobs, 32, volunteered. “I was just mainly scared for him,” Jacobs said. “What if my kidney wasn’t good enough? What if he rejected it? All my thoughts were about him, not myself. The mom adrenaline just kicks in and you do whatever it takes.” On Jan. 28, mother and son went under the knife together. Now, they’re recovering together in a Miami hotel where they have to stay so they’re in proximity to the hospital where they continue to have daily blood work. “I haven’t been scared myself,” Jacobs said. “I’m in pain but it’s worth it.” Life has been a whirlwind since the Jacobs family first learned Dylon had kidney disease. “It was scary finding out,” Dylon said. “I was scared I would not play football again.” Eventually, doctors suggested transplanting a kidney from a cadaver. Jacobs learned that a live donor’s organ usually lasts longer and she pushed her doctors for that option. They told her family donors are usually the best bet. “My other two boys are 3 and 5, they’re too little,” said Jacobs, a single mother. “So that day I went and got tested. It matched. It worked.” The news was a relief but it also meant another hurdle. “I was excited that I would not have to go to dialysis anymore,” Dylon said. “But was kind of weird that I would have a girl’s kidney. Also I became more nervous because the actual surgery was coming.” The surgery took place Jan. 28. Both Jacobs and Dylon were kept in a holding room together at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami before surgery and taken back for the procedure at the same time. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 14:51 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

72 New iPhone Color Options - In Photos: Leaked: New iPhone Color Options iOS developer Sonny Dickson began leaking hands-on photos of the iPhone 5S and 5C. So far, it appears that Apple is planning three color options for the iPhone 5S (grey with a black trim, white with silver trim and gold) and five for the less expensive iPhone 5C (lime, blue, red, yellow and white). Photo: Sonny Dickson/Sonny Dickson

2016-03-05 16:41 Ewan Spence www.forbes.com

73 ‘Magical Fairy Dust’ economics: Keiser slams UK govt for ‘bribing, enslaving’ citizens The ruling Conservative Party has come under increased scrutiny since Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne launched the ‘Help to buy: London’ scheme on February 1, 2016. The program sees taxpayers provide a low- interest loan for 40 percent of the deposit of a house for those who wish to buy in the super- expensive capital. However, Keiser can’t fathom the logic behind the plan. “You have a global economic phenomenon of negative interest rates,” he said. “You put money in the bank and they confiscate one percent or more per year, clearly indicating deflation. Why would you take money from the government to buy an asset that only works if there is inflation? “Is the government just openly contemptuous of the population?” Keiser asked. “They are trying to enslave them with this debt and hoping this is the way to keep them from revolting and staging a coup. It makes no sense.” Keiser warned that as well as tying homeowners down with this debt, the program will fuel a perilous property bubble. “These people think all you need to do is sprinkle the magical fairy dust of printed money but the returns of printed money have gone negative.” Meanwhile, the government’s starter home initiative - which could see up to 200,000 first-time buyers receive £141,000 each to help get on the property ladder - was also slammed by Keiser. “This is just political bribing because the money to pay this subsidizing comes out of the savings accounts and the wages of those who have money in the banks,” he said. “Zero percent interest rates is financial repression. Some £200 billion has been moved from pension funds into subsidies for housing in the last year.”

2016-03-05 10:56 www.rt.com

74 Veteran Russian liberal vows to beat Putin in 2018 presidential race In a major interview released by the Interfax on Friday, Yavlinsky said the fact that Vladimir Putin’s electoral rating is now over 80 percent “ plays no role ,” and assured journalists that his own chances for victory are real. “ I make this conclusion precisely because Vladimir Putin’s rating is exceptionally high today. From my point of view, the situation in economy looks so bad that, in a year, early elections could become a reality – Putin will want to have the elections ahead of term in order not to wait for the situation to deteriorate further … So far, he has never held elections in the situation of downward trends ,” Yavlinsky said. READ MORE: Veteran Russian liberal Yavlinsky announces presidential ambitions The Yabloko (Apple) founder also rejected any possibility that the situation in the country would improve before 2018, saying that this could happen only if Russia “ returned ” the Crimean Republic to Ukraine and stopped supporting the self-proclaimed republics in Donbass. When asked if these were the objectives he wanted to prioritize in his own elections program, Yavlinsky evaded a direct answer, but said that the conflict over Crimea could be resolved with the help of a major international conference with wide participation. As for the will of Crimean residents, who almost unanimously supported the accession of the republic into the Russian Federation two years ago, Yavlinsky said in his opinion this decision had to be reconfirmed at another referendum, but the final word on the issue must belong to the international conference. The Yabloko founder also reiterated his stance over the possible political blocs at the forthcoming parliamentary elections. He rejected any possibility of alliance with the pro-market liberals Parnas (Party of People’s Freedom headed by former PM Mikhail Kasyanov), but expressed confidence that even by itself Yabloko would get at least 30 seats in the 450-member State Duma. READ MORE: Putin’s electoral rating hits 4-year high Currently Yabloko has no parliamentary representation, but is entitled to a simplified registration procedure because it managed to get over 3 percent of votes in the previous poll. Grigory Yavlinsky was among Yabloko’s founders and headed the party for many years. He abandoned the post of party leader in 2008, but remained on Yabloko’s political council and represented the party in elections. In 1996, he garnered 7.4 percent of the vote and in 2000, 5.8 percent. He also registered as a candidate in 2012, but the authorities removed him from the polls after a large share of supporters’ signatures provided by his headquarters were deemed invalid.

2016-03-05 10:56 www.rt.com

75 Spain election: Socialists' coalition bid rejected again Spain's Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez has failed for the second time in a week to form a government after his proposal was defeated by parliament. In a 219-131 vote, MPs rejected Mr Sanchez's proposed coalition cabinet with the centre-right Ciudadanos party. If MPs fail to choose a government by 2 May, a snap poll will be held in June. Spain has been governed by a caretaker cabinet of conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy following December's inconclusive elections. The influence of the two traditional parties - the Socialists (PSOE) and Mr Rajoy's Popular Party (PP) - has been diluted by the rise of the anti-austerity Podemos movement and Ciudadanos. Blame game begins in earnest Strain of Sanchez's bid to rule Kiss that showed real political passion On Friday Mr Sanchez failed to secure an absolute majority in the 350-member parliament, with only Ciudadanos and a small party from the Canary Islands backing his proposal. "I am going to keep working until I achieve this majority which our country needs," Mr Sanchez said after the vote. He also said Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias "has betrayed his party's voters and he is responsible for Rajoy remaining as prime minister". Meanwhile, Mr Rajoy described Mr Sanchez's proposed alliance with the Ciudadanos as "theatre". The Socialist leader's first attempt to form a coalition cabinet was rejected by parliament on Wednesday. Between them, the PSOE and the Ciudadanos command only 130 seats in the lower chamber. The PP gained most votes in the 20 December election - but Mr Rajoy was unable to secure enough backing to form a government. The PSOE performed badly, hit by the emergence of Podemos and Ciudadanos, and the fragmented political landscape has eluded efforts to agree a governing coalition.

2016-03-05 04:59 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

76 Dog pulled to safety from rushing Peru river A dog is lucky to be alive after it was pulled from the rushing waters of the severely flooded Chili River in Arequipa, Peru. It was carried along by the strong current before a man pulled the dog to safety.

2016-03-05 11:02 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

77 At 75, Millvale church murals gaining new admirers

MILLVALE, Pa. (AP) - As she grew up attending daily and Sunday Mass six days a week at St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in the 1950s and 1960s, Diane Novosel and her classmates were surrounded by paintings they found baffling and haunting. And no wonder. Of what they could see of the murals in the small, dim church, nobody ever explained what they were about. There was a devilish hand reaching toward a top-hatted capitalist; a maternal figure hanging crucified in wartime; a peasant Madonna who could be as comforting in her muscular embrace as she could be terrifying in shattering battlefield weapons. “For a young child, there were just a lot of haunting images, and people really didn’t talk about them,” Novosel recalled. But eventually she and others gained a new appreciation for this unparalleled portrait of an ethnic community’s faithful survival through desperate times. “I knew they were unique, I just didn’t know the story,” Novosel said. When she did, she realized, “This is the story of the immigrant experience, this is the story of Pittsburgh. It made it much more compelling that I do something to join up with the other people to do something to preserve them, to light them, to put them on the map.” They’re definitely on the map now, even if in an unexpected part of the map. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Croatian-American artist Maxo Vanka’s completion of 25 murals that cover the walls and ceilings of the hilltop church in Millvale, a river town on Pittsburgh’s northern border. In its day, the work was hailed both near and far as a daring landmark in modern ecclesiastical art - “one of the few distinguished sets of church murals in the U. S.,” said Time magazine - and an homage to the precarious lives of its immigrant Croatian parishioners. “You’d hardly expect Millvale to be one of the great American art centers,” The Pittsburgh Press said in 1941. “The smoky town, cradled in the industrial area along the Allegheny, populated largely by mill workers and miners, noted for its contributions to contemporary art? … It’s a fact.” It added: “No innocuous, run-of-the-mine church art are these, but powerful social documents, in which a sensitive, brilliant artist has portrayed his abhorrence of injustice and war.” Today, the artwork has transcended its original context, said Marya Halderman, granddaughter of the artist. “It’s not just about Croatian immigrants anymore,” said Halderman, who maintains the Bucks County farm where Vanka lived and worked. “It’s about life and death, rich man-poor man, charity. It’s just so universal.” In two intensive bursts of creativity in 1937 and 1941, Vanka poured out a searing vision of faith and social conscience in egg tempura. He raged against the inhumanity of a world engulfed in the Great Depression, labor strife and the onset of World War II. Vanka blended everything from Byzantine iconography to the social indignation of the Mexican muralist movement of his time. He contrasted the Old World of Croatia with the New World of America - and a wounded earth on the walls with a glorious heaven high above in the church ceiling. “It’s religion, expressed in our social life,” Father Albert Zagar, the former pastor of the church, said in 1941. “At the same time, it’s completely Catholic.” Over the decades, the murals suffered water damage and other wear. As later generations of parishioners slowly integrated into the American melting pot, they also lost their immediate connection to the paintings’ narratives. More recently, the murals have enjoyed a revival in appreciation among parishioners and other admirers who have worked to restore them - even as St. Nicholas faces the challenges and uncertain future that many small, urban ethnic parishes have faced. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 14:44 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

78 If you listen to Trump speeches next to KKK speeches there’s not much difference Topics: KKK , Donald Trump , Ku Klux Klan , David Duke , original video , Media News , News , Politics News Donald Trump’s most recent endorsement from former KKK leader David Duke came as a surprise to well, no one. And Trump didn’t immediately condemn support from the hate group. But a closer look at Trump’s hateful, racist rhetoric reveals that it aligns so closely with the message of the KKK that it’s scary. It’s no wonder that Trump is resonating with white supremacists… take a look.

2016-03-05 13:34 Asha Parker www.salon.com

79 Philippines impounds North Korean ship under UN sanctions The Philippines said on Saturday it had impounded a North Korean vessel in response to tough new United Nations sanctions introduced in response to Pyongyang's recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The 6,830-tonne cargo ship Jin Teng will not be allowed to leave Subic port, northeast of the capital Manila, where it had been docked for three days and its crew will be deported, presidential spokesman Manolo Quezon said on state-run radio station Radyo ng Bayan. It was the first reported case of the sanctions -- the toughest to date, which were adopted late Wednesday by the UN Security Council -- being enforced. "The world is concerned over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme and as a member of the UN, the Philippines has to do its part to enforce the sanctions," Quezon said. A team from the UN is expected to inspect the ship in the port, located near a former United States naval base, foreign affairs spokesman Charles Jose said. Jose told AFP the ship was impounded "in compliance with the UN resolution" and did not depend on the results of the inspections. The Jin Teng, carrying palm kernels, was searched for the second time on Saturday, this time using electronic weapons sensors, coastguard spokesman Commander Armand Balilo told AFP, adding the 21 crewmen were "very cooperative". Balilo said no explosives, drugs or banned substances have been found so far. North Korea has no embassy in the Philippines. Its embassies in Thailand and Indonesia were unavailable for comment when contacted by AFP. There are no other North Korean ships docked in Subic, according to the coastguard. The Jin Teng arrived in Subic from Palembang, Indonesia Thursday afternoon, just hours after the latest sanctions were unanimously passed. In response to the UN's move, Pyongyang fired six short-range missiles into the sea on Thursday, while North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un ordered its nuclear arsenal put on standby for pre-emptive use at any time. On Friday, the European Union also tightened sanctions against North Korea by adding 16 people and 12 entities to a list of some 60 individuals and groups who were hit with travel bans and asset freezes.

2016-03-04 23:50 By AFP www.digitaljournal.com

80 Useful Vs. Creepy: The Jury Is Still Out "We are begging to be controlled. " Not cool. Why is it that no one is ever offended by the current dystopia of untargeted ads and monumental waste, but has to become freaked out about The Dark Targeted Future? Imagine, for just a moment, a world where an automotive manufacturer only send ads to the people who are right for the product, and you get to miss out on, say, a billion truck ads. Now, imagine what that might do to the sticker price for people who actually buy trucks, Then, multiply that out through all of the different consumer categories. Think about a world in which you don't only see the right ad at the right time, but a dramatic decrease in seeing the wrong ads all of the rest of the time. Isn't that a nicer world, for everyone but companies that are benefitting from the current waste? And why is blocking that something to be encouraged? http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/250870/with-home-address-identification- reveelz-takes-ta.html? utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=bottom&utm_campaign=83234 I always try to visit ebay at least once a day and look for something that I'm never going to buy (e.g. a $30,000 analog audio console that's completely useless today). Doing this will prompt an image of this same console to follow me around all day. Sometimes I actually break into laughter when the image faithfully appears. Be creative people -- you can screw up all this profiling with just a random visit or two to a site you don't belong at or by viewing a product that screws up the whole elaborate marketing bucket you've been put in at such great cost and effort. Tracking of mobile devices and collection of volumes of data regarding the device is Creepy and drains the battery life (background usage)

2016-03-05 13:40 George Simpson www.mediapost.com

81 Bobby Jindal’s Trump fantasy: Who’s to blame for the rise of an anti-Muslim bigot? Obama, of course Topics: Bobby Jindal , Donald Trump , The Wall Street Journal , Louisiana , 2016 Elections , 2016 GOP primary , 2016 Republican primary , anti-immigrant discrimination , Xenophobia , Islamophobia , anti-muslim bigotry , Elections 2016 , Elections News , News , Politics News As the GOP continues to rip itself asunder over the ascendance of Donald Trump, conservatives and Republicans find themselves staring down a host of difficult questions. How did this happen? Why did no one see this coming? What explains the dogged popularity of a nakedly xenophobic and unapologetically shallow cretin who offers little more than hypermasculine posturing and crude appeals to nationalism? The answers to these questions will be hard for conservatives and the party elite to hear, as they will very likely reveal deep, catastrophic cracks within the movement and massive institutional failures on the part of the GOP. Presumably, there are some people on the right who are trying to honestly grapple with these questions and make a good-faith attempt at figuring out what has gone wrong. Others, however, have arrived at a simple, much more satisfying conclusion: Donald Trump is Barack Obama’s fault. That’s the thesis laid out Friday in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed by Bobby Jindal, the disastrously unpopular former governor of Louisiana who ran a brief, sad campaign for the White House and has now booked passage on Marco Rubio’s sinking ship. By Jindal’s reckoning, Trump is simply a reaction to the Obama presidency. We’ve had eight years of the “cool, weak and endlessly nuanced” Barack Obama, he argues, which means now voters are hungry for the precise opposite – they want “a strong leader who speaks in short, declarative sentences.” Per Jindal: “You can draw a straight line between a president who dismisses domestic terrorist attacks as incidents of workplace violence and a candidate who wants to ban Muslims from entering the country.” This is some of the dumbest, laziest political analysis you’re likely to see this side of Tom Friedman. The point that must be made here is that it’s not “Americans” broadly speaking who are embracing Trump – it’s Republicans. His popularity is largely confined to a segment of the Republican electorate that is in open revolt against its own party. Trump is running as much against the Republican establishment as he is the Obama legacy, and his popularity is drawn, in part, from the fact that he lashes out at the GOP elites for the ways they’ve failed their own constituents. Let’s use Bobby Jindal as an example of how Trumpism came to dominate the GOP. Jindal, a former rising star of the party, was comfortably elected governor of deep red Louisiana and pursued an extremely conservative economic policy that paired hugely regressive tax cuts with deep spending cuts. A slowly recovering state economy and falling oil prices resulted in massive budget shortfalls that forced Jindal to cut spending even further and rely on transparent budget gimmickry just so he could stay faithful to the promise he made to Grover Norquist to never raise taxes. As the state crumbled under the weight of its budget problems, Jindal’s approval rating cratered to the point that he was less popular in his own state than the Democratic president. When it came time for voters in the state to select Jindal’s successor, they voted in Democrat John Bel Edwards by a whopping 12-point margin (just three years earlier, Mitt Romney carried the state by 17 points over Barack Obama).

2016-03-05 12:02 Simon Maloy www.salon.com

82 Caitlyn Jenner’s absurd faith in Ted Cruz: Supporting the anti-LGBT evangelical hoping he’ll come around on trans issues is ridiculous Topics: caitlyn jenner , i am cait , Ted Cruz , 2016 Elections , anti-transgender discrimination , LGBT Rights , Elections News , Entertainment News In a recent interview with The Advocate , Caitlyn Jenner, whose E! docuseries “I Am Cait” returns for its second season on Sunday, expresses support for notoriously anti-GLBT rights GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz, though stops short of actually endorsing him. According to the profile by Dawn Ennis, Jenner, a longtime Republican, didn’t shy away from hypothesizing about what a Cruz presidency might look like: While admitting, “The Democrats are better when it comes to these types of social issues,” Jenner continues with, “if we don’t have a country, we don’t have trans issues. We need jobs. We need a vibrant economy. I want every trans person to have a job. With $19 trillion in debt and it keeps going up, we’re spending money we don’t have. Eventually, it’s going to end. And I don’t want to see that. Socialism did not build this country. Capitalism did. Free enterprise. The people built it. And they need to be given the opportunity to build it back up.” After stating that Cruz was “very nice” to her when she met him, Jenner goes on to say, “Wouldn’t it be great, let’s say he goes on to be president. And I have all my girls on a trans issues board to advise him on making decisions when it comes to trans issues. Isn’t that a good idea?” Asked if she wants to be Cruz’s trans ambassador, Jenner affirms, “Yes, trans ambassador to the president of the United States, so we can say, ‘Ted, love what you’re doing but here’s what’s going on.’” In a clip from an upcoming “I Am Cait” episode, Jenner is seen arguing about politics with her crew of fellow transwomen, stating, “Sometimes these girls think that now that I’ve transitioned that everything has to change. You can’t be conservative anymore. You have to be a liberal. No, I don’t believe that. I think I can keep all of my views the same cause I feel in my heart that’s the best way to go.” Yet it’s a long way from Jenner remaining a steadfast Republican to suggesting, whether she was being serious or not, that she could be a “trans ambassador.” If such a bizarre, extremely unlikely scenario were to ever come to pass, Jenner would certainly have her work cut out for her. The reality star, who recently Tweeted urging followers to ask South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard to veto a transgender bathroom bill which would have required transgender students use separate lockers and restrooms (which he did ), doesn’t get into any further details about what issues she would prioritize in such a role, or whether Cruz would have any interest in her performing such a function. Jenny Boylan, who’s shown yelling at Jenner in the “I Am Cait” clip, has blogged that she tried to quit the show because “hanging out with her was infuriating,” but wound up sticking it out. “The fact that she’s swooning over Ted Cruz–a bigot, a hater, and an all around dunderhead–is galling, but no more galling, to me, than a political philosophy that exclusively benefits the wealthy and leaves the rest of us to struggle. Cruz’s policies on trans rights are horrific, but not a whole lot more horrific than those of anyone else in the GOP currently running for office,” Boylan wrote in a post arguing that Jenner has the potential to “become someone who listens, who opens her heart, who has compassion.” Jenner’s optimism about Cruz is baffling, considering that he’s specifically railed against those same rights for transgender students that Jenner supports. In November, Cruz told conservative radio show Louder With Crowder , “Look, these guys are so nutty that the federal government is going after school districts, trying to force them to let boys shower with little girls. Now listen: I’m the father of two daughters, and the idea that the federal government is coming in saying that boys, with all the god-given equipment of boys, can be in the shower room with junior high girls – this is lunacy!” At an Iowa campaign event in January, Cruz said of the White House’s choice to honor the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same sex marriage by lighting the building in celebration, “What we’re doing doesn’t make any sense. What does it say that that day, they lit up the White House in rainbow colors, and yet it took nearly a week to recognize that our servicemen were murdered by jihadists in Chattanooga by lowering the flag at half staff? How messed up are those values?” Trans activists and social media users were quick to take Jenner to task for her statement. Blogger Monica Roberts of TransGriot wrote, “And Caitlyn, while you have every right to support whoever you wish in this 2016 presidential contest, I would suggest that you not support a presidential candidate who thinks it’s sound political strategy and policy to demonize our trans younglings for political gain.”

2016-03-05 12:02 Rachel Kramer www.salon.com

83 What impact will S Korea's expanded missile defence system have? The verbal threats from the North Korean leadership - and its recent nuclear and missile tests - have prompted a fundamental rethink in its southern neighbour. The long-standing hopes that Pyongyang might eventually be induced to give up its nuclear weapons programme have proved illusory. South Korea is accordingly reassessing its security needs and it is clear that an expanded missile defence system is going to be a key part of its response to the North's more aggressive behaviour. Even before the latest threats from Kim Jong-un , the US and South Koreans had begun urgent consultations to explore the feasibility of deploying a system known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) to the Korean Peninsula at the earliest possible date. Will carrots or sticks change North Korea? Missile defences in the region It is not yet clear if the missiles would be sold to the South Koreans. It is possible an interim arrangement might see some US batteries deployed to give an initial capability. South Korea already operates a variant of the US Patriot anti-missile system and further Patriot batteries are deployed in South Korea by US forces based there. But these are intended to hit incoming missiles at relatively low altitudes. Thaad is a much more capable and longer-range system. It destroys incoming missiles at a much higher altitude, beyond the Earth's atmosphere. This makes it especially useful in countering missiles that might carry a nuclear warhead. (It should be noted in passing that there is no evidence yet to suggest that North Korea has sufficiently miniaturised a nuclear weapon to enable it to be mounted on a ballistic missile). The Thaad interceptor is produced by the US company Lockheed Martin. It is an extremely fast missile with a maximum speed of 2,800 metres per second (10,080km/h). It is capable of making interceptions at an altitude of 150km i.e. beyond the atmosphere. The Thaad system is made up of six truck-mounted launchers carrying some 50 interceptor missiles, and a fire control and communications unit, all linked to a powerful X-band radar system - manufactured by Raytheon - capable of detecting targets at very long range. 1. The enemy launches a missile 2. The Thaad radar system detects the launch, which is relayed to command and control 3. Thaad command and control instructs the launch of an interceptor missile 4. The interceptor missile is fired at the enemy projectile 5. The enemy projectile is destroyed in the terminal phase of flight The launcher trucks can hold up to eight interceptor missiles. Any significant enhancement of South Korea's missile defences is going to be controversial. Inevitably it will inflame tensions with the North. But the plans have already fallen foul of the main regional security actor - China. Beijing is concerned by the spread of sophisticated anti-missile defences, worrying - in the same way as Moscow - that as these systems become more commonplace they will inevitably affect the capabilities of its own nuclear deterrent. It also has concerns about the X-band radar system, which has sufficient range to penetrate into China itself. The debate is a little like that between Russia and Nato regarding missile defences in Europe. Nato says these are to defend against a very specific threat - that from a potential Iranian long- range missile. Similarly Thaad is, as its name implies, an area defence system - in other words if it were based in South Korea it would only be capable of shooting down Chinese missiles if they were targeting South Korea. But this does not cut much ice in either Moscow or Beijing. The Chinese in particular may see the deployment of US Thaad missiles to South Korea as the start of a regional defence system intended to contain China. There are echoes of the Cold War here where anti-missile systems were largely banned by international treaty in an effort to avoid their potentially destabilising effects. That agreement - the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty - was abandoned by the Americans who saw it as a constraint on the sorts of limited defence systems required to counter the proliferation of missile technology. But the upshot of the spread of missile defences, like any other battle between offence and defence, is that China may ultimately look to upgrade its nuclear capabilities to counter any potential defensive systems. That could have an impact for India too, who may be concerned about its deterrent capabilities. The ripples from North Korea's threats against the South could spread very widely.

2016-03-05 11:02 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

84 Peanut allergy theory backed up by new research The effects of eating peanut products as a baby to avoid the risk of allergy have been backed up by new research. In 2015, a study claimed early exposure to peanut products could cut the risk of allergy by 80% . Now researchers say "long-lasting" allergy protection can be sustained - even when the snacks are later avoided for a year. The New England Journal of Medicine study looked at 550 children deemed prone to developing a peanut allergy. The latest paper builds on the results of the 2015 research, which was also carried out by King's College London and marked the first time scientists were able to suggest that exposing children to small amounts of peanut snacks could stave off an allergy. The new study suggests that if a child has consumed peanut snacks within the first 11 months of life, then at the age of five they can afford to stop eating the food entirely for a year, and maintain no allergy. Lead author Prof Gideon Lack said: "[The research] clearly demonstrates that the majority of infants did in fact remain protected and that the protection was long-lasting. " He said that part of the problem was that people lived in a "culture of food fear". "I believe that this fear of food allergy has become a self-fulfilling prophecy, because the food is excluded from the diet and, as a result, the child fails to develop tolerance," he told the BBC News website. The researchers used the same children who took part in the 2015 study - half of whom had been given peanut snacks as a baby while the remainder had been fed on a diet of breast milk alone. "The study found that at six years of age, there was no statistically significant increase in allergy after 12 months of avoidance, in those who had consumed peanut during the [2015] trial," the authors said. The children taking part in the study were considered prone to peanut allergy, because they had already developed eczema as a baby - an early warning sign of allergies. Prof Lack said that further studies were needed to see if the resistance lasts for considerably longer than the 12-month abstinence period. He said that in the UK and US combined, 20,000 babies a year are being diagnosed with peanut allergies. He also said that between 1995 and 2005, the number of people being diagnosed had trebled, and this was not because detection methods had become any more advanced as they had remained the same. Prof Barry Kay, from Imperial College London, said the study's results "point the way to completely fresh thinking on the mechanisms of tolerance to allergenic foods in 'at risk' infants". Speaking about both pieces of research, Michael Walker, a consultant analyst and medical adviser to the government, said: "Taken together these are reassuring findings that pave the way to stem the epidemic of peanut allergy. "

2016-03-05 11:02 BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

85 What to do when your window of opportunity is closing Spring training had barely started for the Toronto Blue Jays and manager John Gibbons was already facing questions about next offseason, when sluggers Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion could become free agents. “You’re happy for them, but it also kind of magnifies the importance of this year for us, because nobody knows what the future holds,” Gibbons said. “So let’s take advantage of this year while they’re here and then hopefully they hang around for a long time, but nobody knows.” It was just last season that the Blue Jays won the AL East and returned to the playoffs for the first time since 1993, and already there’s a sense that the clock is ticking. Success in baseball can be harshly cyclical. A perennial contender can become an aging also-ran almost overnight. For some teams, the word “window” represents a foreboding reminder that the time to win a World Series is now - and the opportunity won’t be there forever. The Blue Jays want to build on last year’s success, while the Detroit Tigers and Washington Nationals hope 2015 was an aberration. All three teams are trying to keep their championship windows open, and it isn’t easy. “At some point, some teams get into an all-win-now mode because they’re right there,” Tigers general manager Al Avila said. “It’s very hard to get into the playoffs. It’s very hard to get into the World Series, much more even to win it. When you feel you have that chance, you’ve got to go for it.” The Tigers have spent most of the past decade going for it, handing out expensive contracts to both their own players and incoming free agents - and aggressively trading prospects for stars. Detroit won American League pennants in 2006 and 2012 and AL Central titles every year from 2011-2014, but the Tigers are still without a World Series championship since 1984. Last year, Detroit fell all the way to the bottom of the division, and with Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander both in their 30s and signed to massive long-term deals, it looked like the Tigers might turn into the AL’s version of the Phillies. Philadelphia finished atop the NL East every year from 2007-2011 - and won the World Series in ‘08 - but the decline afterward was swift as its core of stars aged. Detroit tried to avoid that by spending tens of millions of dollars this offseason. After signing Justin Upton and Jordan Zimmermann, the Tigers and owner Mike Ilitch are expected to begin the season with a payroll around $200 million. While the Tigers were spending big, the Blue Jays were gearing up for another run at a division title, albeit without David Price, who went from Detroit to Toronto in a trade deadline deal last year before leaving in the offseason for Boston. The Blue Jays have control over Josh Donaldson through 2018 and Troy Tulowitzki through 2021, but Bautista and Encarnacion are in the last year of their contracts. The Nationals, meanwhile, already lost a key player in Zimmermann, and Stephen Strasburg is due to become a free agent after this season. Bryce Harper, last year’s National League MVP, should be the centerpiece of the lineup for a while, but after a disappointing 83-win campaign in 2015, the Nationals can’t be certain what their roster will look like a couple years from now. Still, new manager Dusty Baker isn’t buying the idea that Washington’s window could close soon. “The window closes if you don’t replenish the refrigerator,” Baker said. “I don’t believe in that window unless you stand pat and don’t do anything. Then that window will close. If you do it right … you’ll see the same organizations win for a long time.” There are two obvious ways teams can try to keep the window open. One is by spending more and more money, like the Tigers are doing now, and like the New York Yankees have done for years. Big-budget teams have the luxury of bringing in free agents who can boost what might otherwise be an aging roster. The other way to keep winning is through player development. The St. Louis Cardinals have won at least 86 games in each of the past eight seasons, even though they aren’t really thought of as big spenders like the Yankees, Dodgers or Red Sox. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 14:33 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

86 Greens want MTDC's helicopter plans for Matheran grounded The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) has proposed a helicopter service from Mumbai to Matheran. The tourism body though faces a green block in the form of the Bombay Environment Action Group (BEAG). BEAG claims that the smallest hill station in the country does not need a chopper service. The Olympia Racecourse in Matheran is one of the sites on the anvil for a helipad. Pic/Merwyn Rodrigues Hema Ramani, BEAG activist said, “There is already the road route from Dasturi into Matheran and the toy train, for such a small hill station which is already overcrowded. Tourists access Matheran in this way, so another mode of transport is not needed. We also do not know where the choppers will land, but, the Olympia Racecourse is the proposed spot. The racecourse is very far from main Matheran. The noise the helicopter makes will affect the flora and fauna in the area, and there will be air pollution too.” The helicopter is slated to take off from Juhu. PIC/NIMESH DAVE The environment group says they are fine if the helicopter gives a bird’s eye view of the hill station, not actually landing in Matheran simply hovering above to give tourists a view from above and then going back to Mumbai. “We have started writing letters to the MTDC and are ready to go to court if they do not stop this project,” added Ramani. The Matheran Municipal Council though is very enthusiastic about the project, claims the state tourism body. Satish Soni, Jt. Managing Director, MTDC, admitted though that they are facing stiff opposition from the environmentalists. “BEAG is opposing the plan. Our team has visited various sites in Matheran for the helipad. There is no clarity at the moment about when the service will start. We are still in the process of procuring permissions. We want all good tourist destinations to be part of the helitourism venture that we have undertaken, so Matheran and Murud- Janjira are on our list.” The matter is with the Eco Sensitive Committee and the National Green Tribunal. The No Objection Certificate (NOC) from these is awaited by the MTDC. “Pawan Hans is ready from their Juhu base. As soon as we get permission, the service will start. So far we don’t want to set any date all I can say is that it will happen as soon as we get the all clear from the various scrutinising committees,” Soni said. Manoj Khedkar, Leader of the Opposition, Matheran Hill Station Municipal Council (MHMC) says that since Matheran is an eco-sensitive zone, permissions for setting up the helipad is taking time. Also, the proposal to use the Olympia Racecourse land as the helipad will be given the nod, provided the helipad doesn’t disturb the activities there. “Our priority is to retain the green space, racing ground and sports activities that are in the area. While officials from MTDC and Pawan Hans have surveyed a part of the racecourse for the helipad, the proposal is still in the preliminary stage and is not going to be passed any time soon,” he said. MHMC President Gautum Gaikwad said that while a General Body meeting of the council discussed the helipad proposal, no decision or resolution has been passed. “The standing committee will meet some time next week. There are some people opposing the helipad, but the chopper service will help the hill station boost tourism. No VIP comes here because there are no choppers,” he said. The hill station was declared an eco-sensitive region by the Union Environment Ministry and is Asia’s only automobile-free hill station. BEAG says they are fighting to protect this hill station which sees water and electricity shortage, during summer. Matheran, which resounds to the clip clop of hooves is now caught in the inevitable tussle between development and environment. — Inputs by Apoorva Puranik

2016-03-05 14:33 By Maleeva www.mid-day.com

87 35 Bangladeshi nationals arrested in Tripura Agartala: As many as 35 Bangladeshi nationals, including 24 women and three children, were arrested by Border Security Force (BSF) in Tripura for illegally entering India, police said in Agartala on Saturday. The detention took place two days after police arrested 23 Bangladeshi citizens for illegally entering in India on Wednesday. "BSF troopers on Friday evening arrested 35 Bangladeshis, all tribals, as they came to market in Raishyabari (in northern Tripura) to sell their products and buy other items," police spokesman Uttam Kumar Bhowmik told IANS. The intruders were later handed over to the police. The Bangladeshi residents came to Tripura from tribal dominated Chittagong Hill tracts. The previously detained group came to seek consultation about their ailment from a tribal traditional practitioner. Northeastern state of Tripura shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh. However, most parts of the frontier are fenced, mountainous and riverine.

2016-03-05 14:30 By IANS www.mid-day.com

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

2016-03-05 13:23 Alan Silverleib rss.cnn.com

89 Escudero: Aquino should have focused on fair polls instead of campaign SAMBOAN, Cebu – Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero on Saturday said President Aquino should not have endorsed any candidate in the May elections to show that the polls will indeed be fair. “Nalungkot ako ng bahagya nung nagpasya si Pangulong Aquino na mag-endorso ng kandidato (I was slightly saddened by the decision of President Aquino to endorse a candidate),” he told a news conference at the rest house of Mayor Raymond Calderon of Samboan town, located at the southern tip of Cebu. “Mas maganda sana kung wala, hindi dahil si Sen. Grace and inendorso niya or ako pero mas maganda sana kung pinangasiwaan na lang ng Pangulo, sinupervise at inoversee niya ang isang malinis at patas na halalan (It would have been better if he hadn’t, not because he did not endorse Senator Grace or me. It would have been better if the President just supervised and oversaw the conduct of clean and fair elections),” he added. Escudero said the government’s program– Daang Matuwid (straight path)–would have best exemplified the ideals of fair play had the President not been involved in the campaign. Sen. Grace Poe, who is running for president, and her running mate, Escudero, were in Cebu on Saturday, a day after the two-day sortie of administration standard bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas II and running mate, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo in this vote-rich province. From Samboan, they were expected to fly to Bantayan Island, in northern tip of Cebu. Poe said it was also important to have the support of different groups from well-meaning families like the Calderons in Samboan. “We need all the support that we can get from well- intentioned families. It makes a big difference if you are welcomed when you go to any province. We respect their prerogative to be able to declare where their commitment lies.” CDG RELATED STORIES Cebu ally says Poe will gain 10 points if SC decides for her Poe, Escudero head to vote-rich Cebu

2016-03-05 14:26 Carmel Loise newsinfo.inquirer.net

90 IS blamed for Yemen care home attack, Pope 'shocked' Yemeni pro-government fighters gather outside an elderly care home in the southern city of Aden after it was attacked by gunmen on March 4, 2016, killing at least 16 people ©Saleh Al-Obeidi (AFP) Pro-government Yemeni fighters loyal to exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi gather outside an care home for the elderly in the main southern city of Aden after it was attacked by gunmen on March 4, 2016 ©Saleh al-Obeidi (AFP) Yemenis gather on March 5, 2016 outside Aden's security department to protest against an attack on an elderly care home in the city ©Saleh Al-Obeidi (AFP)

2016-03-05 13:45 Afp www.dailymail.co.uk

91 Trump suddenly drops out of CPAC and draws swift conservative scorn: “Not the last time Donald Trump will abandon conservatives” Topics: conservative twitter , Donald Trump , CPAC , CPAC 2016 , Elections 2016 , Election 2016 , 2016 Republican primary , Video , Elections News , Media News , News , Politics News After shamelessly fessing up to blatantly flip-flopping on immigration during Thursday night’s Fox News GOP debate, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump suddenly announced that he was backing out of addressing this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday. Secured with, yet another, round of vows from his rivals pledging their support to the eventual Republican presidential nominee, Trump’s campaign released a statement canceling his CPAC speech in favor of campaigning in Kansas, which votes on Saturday. The Trump campaign statement, released Friday afternoon as the Los Angeles Police Department held a press conference announcing an apparent breakthrough in the decades old OJ Simpson case, misspelled where Trump was campaigning ( again ), and was widely mocked on Twitter: In any case, conservatives who were just in an uproar at the mere indication Tea Party Senator Marco Rubio may not be attending CPAC last week, were quick to lash out at Trump’s last minute decision. (The Rubio campaign and CPAC eventually agreed on a schedule): While CPAC may only be willing to express its “disappointment” in Trump’s decision, right now, conservatives on Twitter are hardly holding back their hurt at Trump’s apparent dismissal of the conservative movement — after all, Trump has attended the conservative confab numerous times before:

2016-03-05 12:02 Sophia Tesfaye www.salon.com

92 Tories want EU of austerity & corporate capture – McDonnell McDonnell’s scathing criticism of the Conservative Party came during BBC One’s Question Time on Thursday evening, which focused on Britain’s upcoming ‘In/Out’ EU referendum. Panelists included the shadow chancellor, Tory Justice Minister Dominic Raab, UKIP’s Louise Bours, Guardian columnist Zoe Williams and former England footballer Jermaine Jenas. Addressing the live studio audience in Liverpool, McDonnell said a long-term vision for Europe is vital. “We believe it’s in the best interests of Brits to remain in the EU,” he said. “We’ve ceded sovereignty to multi-national corporations. The only way we can tackle them and bring them under some form of democratic control – including making sure they pay their taxes – is on a European scale.” Unlike Europhiles who fail to critically question Europe and Europhobes who rigidly reject the EU, McDonnell said Labour’s position on the referendum is rational. He argued Europe must be used as a vehicle to protect the fundamental civil liberties Britons hold dear. “In the short-term, because of the fragility of our economy, withdrawal would set us backwards. Withdrawal from a market that almost 50 percent of our trade is with would destabilize our economy when we’re at such a fragile position,” he said. “We have to develop a reform agenda that’s about protecting wages, protecting trade union rights – a real vision for the future and a vision of hope.” McDonnell stressed that a vote to remain part of the EU would carry multiple long-term benefits, offering Brits a vital platform from which to tackle climate change, engage in peace building and manage mass migration flows. Adopting a cynical tone, he said the vote on Britain’s EU membership had been sparked by Tory tensions over the party’s leadership. On the subject of Brexit fear mongering, he said lobbyists on both sides of the debate need to calm down. “I think most of us want a sensible, rational debate and discussion. I don’t think people should be frightened into voting either way,” he said. Left-leaning journalist Zoe Williams said both sides of the debate are relying on economic arguments they are unable to justify. She said such rhetoric is “insulting” and “uninspiring.” Also adopting a reformist stance, she said Brits must vote to remain part of an EU that is yet to be born. UKIP’s Louise Boars said she hopes that the pro-Brexit campaign does not indulge in the sort of scaremongering that the pro-EU campaign has. “There are no tangible facts being pushed out there by either side. What we have is politicians spouting lots of statistics to back up their arguments … instead of making a positive case for what a fabulous country this is,” she said. “We’re the fifth largest economy in the world. If you think in terms of our soft power across the globe – football, sport, music, art, culture – we have a tremendous influence.” Controversially, Boars went on to argue that NATO rather than the EU had kept Europe peaceful. McDonnell’s comments on Britain’s future in Europe came as Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said Brits would be better off leaving the European Union (EU) if the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is implemented. Speaking at an event hosted by McDonnell on Wednesday, the US economist said TTIP represents a wholesale “rewriting of the rules with no public discussion” and poses significant dangers to society.

2016-03-05 13:18 www.rt.com

93 Police arrest 4 adults for alleged sex acts with 4-year old children Horry County, South Carolina police made the arrests on Thursday, taking the four adults into custody. Detectives received a report of sexual assault to children in January and followed up by conducting forensic interviews with the two 4-year-old victims, a boy and a girl, according to WMBF News. The arrest warrant alleged that between December 2014 and April 2015, the four adults allegedly engaged in sex acts, including intercourse, with the two victims over a five month period in multiple locations. The suspects are Lindsey Honeycutt, 29, Ambrose Heavener, 30, Panteleimon Spirakis, 55 and Anthony Strickland, 45. Honeycutt was the mother of the children. The criminal discovery was made when the children, during trauma-focused therapy sessions, mentioned the sexual assault. Later under questioning with detectives, both victims said their parents “force them to have sex with their siblings and each other,” according to police reports. They also said that Honeycutt and Heavener, another family member, had sex with them, and the female victim was forced to have sex with Spirakis, a convicted child molester. The victims also revealed one of the locations of the sexual assaults was “the dance club” which was later identified as Chez Joey, a strip club in Myrtle Beach, where Honeycutt worked as a dancer. Assaults also occurred at two homes in Myrtle Beach. The children have been placed with a guardian by the North Carolina Department of Social Services, Lt. Mark Bonner said, according to Myrtle Beach online. Honeycutt and Heavener are charged with criminal sexual conduct with minor in the first degree, sexual exploitation of a minor in the first degree, engaging a child for sexual performance and incest. Spirakis and Strickland are charged with criminal sexual conduct with minor in the first degree, sexual exploitation of a minor in the first degree, and engaging a child for sexual performance. One of the suspects, Spirakis, was previously arrested and charged in 2008 for allegedly molesting an 11-year old girl for three years. According to a police report, the man fondled the girl and had threatened her with a knife at one point. In the report, the victim says the man also videotaped her, and kept it in a safe at his residence. In that incident, he was sentenced to five years in prison in 2010 but the sentence was suspended to two years and five years on probation, according to court records. News stories at the time also said Spirakis was under investigation for another claim of assault. The suspects are scheduled to appear at a bond hearing on Friday.

2016-03-05 13:18 www.rt.com

94 Cliven Bundy indictment over 2014 Nevada standoff expanded to 19 defendants On Thursday, 12 people from five states were arrested after a federal grand jury in Las Vegas expanded an indictment previously filed against Cliven Bundy. The indictment included Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy and four other men already in federal custody as of late January in connection with a nearly six-week occupation of a federal wildlife preserve in Oregon. Those four include Ryan Payne of Montana, Peter Santilli Jr. of Ohio, and Brian Cavalier and Blaine Cooper, both of Arizona, according to AP. The indictment named Cliven Bundy as the leader and beneficiary of the armed standoff with federal agents in April 2014 near his southern Nevada ranch. The indictment called Bundy's sons, Ammon and Ryan, leaders and organizers of around 200 gunmen and other supporters. Cliven Bundy was arrested in Portland, Oregon, on February 10 while traveling to visit his sons. The 19 defendants in the Nevada case are accused of leading an armed confrontation with US Bureau of Land Management agents, who were forced to halt an attempt to move cattle belonging to the elder Bundy out of federal lands. Bundy has long refused to pay federal fees in exchange for permission to let his cattle graze on public lands. Charges in the nine-count indictment include conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States; threatening a federal law enforcement officer; obstruction of justice; attempting to impede or injure a federal law enforcement officer; and several firearms charges. The indictment says the defendants recruited, trained and provided support for armed gunmen and others amid a dispute of more than $1 million in federal grazing fees that Bundy has not paid. Bundy's outstanding federal grazing fees are reportedly more than all other ranchers combined. Federal officials said the 12 men arrested on Thursday include: Gerald "Jerry" DeLemus of Rochester, New Hampshire; Blaine Cooper of Humboldt, Arizona; Eric J. Parker and Steven A. Stewart, both of Hailey, Idaho; O. Scott Drexler of Challis, Idaho; Richard R. Lovelien of Westville, Oklahoma; Todd C. Engel of Boundary County, Idaho; Gregory P. Burleson of Phoenix; Joseph D. O'Shaughnessy of Cottonwood, Arizona; and Micah L. McGuire and Jason D. Woods both of Chandler, Arizona. Cliven's wife Carol Bundy said the arrests of her husband and sons symbolize overreach by an oppressive federal government. "I truly believe this is showing the federal government thinks they have unlimited power over we the people," Carol Bundy told AP. "What kind of government do we have? " "This is going to be won in the court of public opinion," she added. "When we the people make a stand, that's when we'll win. " Last week , Ammon Bundy and 15 more members of the group that staged the 40-day standoff at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon pleaded not guilty to charges against them. "It's the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life," Ammon Bundy told AP of his incarceration. "But I don't regret what we did because I knew it was right. "

2016-03-05 13:17 www.rt.com

95 Sun-Times Endorsement: Hillary Clinton a skilled public servant Follow @csteditorials Hillary Clinton has been a public servant all her adult life. She has been steeled by the fire of over-hyped scandals, learned the hard way the wisdom of building bridges, and developed a pragmatic, feet-on-the-ground approach to getting things done. That might not sound like high praise to the most liberal wing of Clinton’s Democratic Party, which has rallied behind the pie-in-the-sky agenda of Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s opponent in the party’s presidential primary race. Nor might this assessment of Clinton jibe with the views of right-wing zealots who will forever mumble on about Whitewater, Travelgate and Benghazi. There’s no pleasing some folks. Follow @csteditorials But in Hillary Clinton we see the possibility of not only the first woman American president, but also the first president in awhile who might have the professional and personal skills to get Washington back to real governing. Our endorsement goes to Clinton. It’s an easy call. Over three decades, Hillary Clinton has viewed the job of president from an unbeatable number of angles. She has trained for the job from the inside, as the wife and public policy confidante to a remarkably popular, though flawed, president. She has considered the job from the vantage point of Capitol Hill, as a senator from New York. She has come to understand how the rest of the world looks at the presidency and America, as a globetrotting secretary of state. As first lady in the 1990s, Clinton took on one of the biggest goals of her husband’s presidency, the creation of a single-payer national health insurance program, and failed miserably. Whole books have been written about what went wrong, but there is no doubt she did too little to get congressional Republicans on board. Hillary being Hillary, she learned from that. Best we can see, she’s been reaching across the aisle ever since, even when her hand gets slapped. As first lady, Clinton learned that then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, a highly partisan Republican from Texas, was an adoptive parent. She mined that nugget of information to work with DeLay on adoption and foster care reforms. As a senator, she partnered on the issue of military benefits with an unlikely ally: then-Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who previously had pushed for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment. Graham later praised Sen. Clinton’s statesmanship, telling Time magazine that she “has managed to build unusual political alliances on a variety of issues with Republicans.” Even former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, a conservative Republican from Mississippi, told The Hill last year that President Barack Obama “doesn’t like to deal with Congress.” But Clinton, he said, was a different story. “I think Hillary – I’m not going to be for her – but I think she would be much better about reaching out and actually trying to work with the Congress,’’ Lott said. On matters of foreign policy, all indications are Hillary Clinton would be more assertive than Obama, guided by a stronger conviction of means and ends. Nobody’s looking for the return of the hyper-interventionist foreign policy of President George W. Bush, and Clinton made the wrong call when she voted as a senator for the war in Iraq — a vote for which she has apologized. But there is, under Obama, a sense of foreign policy adrift. Clinton has come to know dozens of important world leaders first-hand. She gets what drives them. Not since the first President Bush would the United States have a Commander in Chief who so fully appreciates the nuances of international politics. Domestically, Hillary Clinton could be very good for Chicago, even if she had not grown up in suburban Park Ridge. She has long favored the kind of common-sense gun controls this city and country desperately need. She has been a champion of civil rights, women’s issues and comprehensive immigration reform, including the creation of a pathway to citizenship. She opposes privatizing Social Security and believes working people should be guaranteed, by law, up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. Hillary Clinton has made her share of big mistakes. She has had her blind spots. As secretary of state, it is regrettable that she did not push the Obama Administration to move swiftly and decisively to address the dangerous vacuum left by Libya’s Muammar el-Qaddafi. She was also wrong as secretary of state to use a private computer server. And if she wants to convince skeptics she is not owned by Wall Street, she should release the transcripts of speeches she gave to big banks in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars. But as we say, Clinton has a way of learning. She moves on, takes stock and recalibrates. Unlike the Hillary Clinton of two decades ago who lectured a little too self-righteously about the virtues of universal healthcare, Clinton today seems much more inclined to just get stuff done. She lives in the real world, which is the fundamental difference between her and Sanders in this race. Where Sanders has called for what is surely impossible, Clinton has called for the tough but possible. Sanders would make college free for all, whatever the price and the impossibility of getting cooperation from Congress. Good luck with that. Clinton would create incentives for states to offer students free tuition at two-year community colleges and make it possible to refinance student loans at lower interest rates. Sanders has called for universal health care, apparently not noticing how eagerly Republicans are to kill what we’ve already got, the Affordable Care Act. Clinton knows the realistic goal should be to protect and improve Obamacare. Hillary Clinton is a skilled politician, not an ideologue. And she has earned the right to her party’s nomination time and again. Tweets by @CSTeditorials

2016-03-05 13:05 chicago.suntimes.com

96 Scores & Stats BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics are doing the kinds of things that make you think they can make some real noise in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Special things. "I don't know. I think the sky's the limit. I said that in preseason," Jae Crowder said after playing a major role in a dramatic comeback that gave the Celtics their 13th straight home victory, a stunning 105- 104 win over the floundering New York Knicks on Friday night. "We are just taking it game by game right now. We're not looking too far ahead. "The Celtics rallied from eight points down in the final 3:22 and Avery Bradley scored on a tough drive for the winning points with 17.7 seconds remaining. "We're just really focused on the right now and focused on continuing to get better and let the cards fall where they may," said Isaiah Thomas, who had 32 points and eight assists in his second straight 30-point game. Thomas has 16 assists and no turnovers while scoring 62 points in the last two games. Evan Turner, who had an outstanding game off the bench, had put the Celtics ahead with 36.4 seconds left, only to have Carmelo Anthony answer for the Knicks with 21.4 seconds on the clock. Bradley, who scored nine points, was 14 of 41 from the floor against the Knicks in four games before his winning basket. Anthony, who scored 30 points, had a final chance after Bradley's basket, dribbling slowly into the frontcourt before (the Knicks were out of timeouts) he was fouled by Jae Crowder (Boston’s only foul of the fourth quarter) with 3.3 seconds left. Anthony wound up firing a long 3-pointer off the backboard as the game ended. The victory gave the Celtics (38-25) their longest home winning streak since 2008-09 and 16 wins in their last 20 games. Crowder, who finished with 20 points and eight rebounds, scored six of Boston's 13 late points and also put the clamps on Anthony, who had abused him at times earlier in the game. The Celtics are 4 1/2 games behind the Toronto Raptors for the Atlantic Division lead, but the deficit is six in the loss column. The teams have two games left against each other. "Of course I think so," Crowder said when asked if his team can catch the Raptors. "It's just a matter of us locking in and not overlooking any opponent and taking care of our business day by day. "Turner finished with a season-high 21 points, eight rebounds and three assists. Center Tyler Zeller, also coming off the bench, scored the Celtics' first eight points of the fourth quarter and finished with 12 points and five rebounds. "We just got to keep competing and I think we'll always give ourselves a chance," Zeller said. Anthony was 13 of 27 from the floor and also had seven rebounds and four assists. Arron Afflalo scored 17 points, rookie Kristaps Porzingis added 15 points, big man Robin Lopez had 12 points and 12 rebounds and Jose Calderon contributed 13 points and five assists. "I feel bad for the guys. They did so many good things out there. They deserved to win that ballgame," Knicks interim coach Kurt Rambis said. "We obviously lost our composure in the late-game situation, turned the ball over and they hurt us. "There was a lot of really, really good things out there at both ends of the floor. "The Celtics, who visit the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night, haven't lost at home since Jan. 6 and finished a sweep of a five-game homestand. They take a 10-4 record in the back ends of back-to-backs into Saturday night's game. NOTES: The Celtics ran up a 30-4 advantage in fast-break points. ... Boston had eight turnovers, and just 13 in the last two games. ... The Knicks played their first game since F Carmelo Anthony told a heckling fan to ask owner James Dolan for a refund -- and then apologized, saying, "We are all frustrated by the team's recent results -- everyone, including me, my teammates, coaches and the fans. I should not have responded the way I did. "... Anthony, on the 3-15 run after the Knicks were 22-22: "I don't know why. I don't know how, it just went downhill from there. "... Celtics coach Brad Stevens, on his team before Friday night's game: "It is a fun group. The way that they play, I laugh sometimes, because we do some pretty haphazard things and even I'm entertained over there sometimes when I have no idea what's going to happen. "... Boston assigned rookie G R. J. Hunter to the Maine Red Claws of the D-League to get some playing time.

2016-03-05 13:09 The Sports newyork.cbslocal.com

97 Pune: Two dupe cop's 18-year-old daughter of Rs 1.3 lakh for better score in HSC exams Pune: Two conmen duped a cop’s 18-year-old daughter of gold ornaments worth Rs 1.25 lakh and Rs 5,000 cash on the pretext of getting her Std XII marks increased by 5 per cent. One of them was arrested on Thursday. Representational picture The case was registered on Wednesday in Bharati Vidyapeeth police station after the victim Diksha Dattatraya Purale’s father, who is a policeman, noticed that she didn’t have her gold chain and rings on. She then told him all about the accused — Micky Jadhav (23) and his accomplice Chetan Patil (25) — who said with the help of their contacts in the education board they could get her marks increased if she paid them R1 lakh. “I had scored 66 per cent marks in my HSC exams last year and that was too less to become a doctor. My classmate Suraj Uneha had introduced me to Micky on June 30, who assured me he could get my marks increased and would charge Rs 25,000 for each per cent increase,” said Diksha while adding that after negotiations the accused settled for Rs 20,000 a per cent and she asked them for a 5 per cent raise. Diksha gave them Rs 5,000 she had received as pocket money but after two days when Micky asked for more claiming that he had to give it to a corrupt board employee, she gave him her gold chain. “I had no money and I did not want to burden my parents. So I gave him the gold chain my grandmother had gifted me on my birthday. But they kept on demanding more. They had said they would get me the desired result by August 2015,” added Diksha. “When I asked Micky about the delay, he said that through the board employee the cops can get to me. But they said that if I paid them extra they could make it all go away. So I ended up giving them my gold rings,” said Diksha, a resident of Narhe in Sinhagad Road. After Diksha filed a complaint, police set up a trap to arrest the accused. Assistant police inspector Amol Deokar said, “We asked Diksha to ask them to meet her. We arrested Micky, an electrician, when he came to meet her and he claimed that he had given all the ornaments to Chetan, who melted the chain and sold it to a goldsmith.” Chetan is at large. Both the accused have been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for cheating.

2016-03-05 14:10 By Chaitraly www.mid-day.com

98 With overall title almost secured, Hirscher takes GS globe Austria's Marcel Hirscher competes during an alpine ski men's World Cup giant slalom race, in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, Saturday, March 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Shinichiro Tanaka) France's Alexis Pinturault competes during an alpine ski men's World Cup giant slalom race, in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, Saturday, March 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti) Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen reacts after completing an alpine ski men's World Cup giant slalom race, in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, Saturday, March 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)

2016-03-05 14:09 Associated Press www.dailymail.co.uk

99 BJP leader expelled for offering prize money for cutting Kanhaiya's tongue Badaun (UP): The BJP Yuva Morcha leader, who had announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for cutting off JNU Students union leader Kanhaiya Kumar's tongue, was on Saturday expelled from primary membership of the party for six years. The president of district unit of BJP, Harish Shakya, said that the party has expelled district president of BJP Yuva Morcha, Kuldeep Varshnay for six years. Shakya told reporters that party has nothing to do with Varshnay's controversial statement. "Varshnay's statement is his personal one and the party has nothing to do with it...he has been expelled from the primary membership of the party for giving such a statement without the consent of party office bearers," he said. Shakya stated that a notice to remove Varshnay from the post had been issued six months ago, and Ankit Maurya was made working president in his place. Varshnay had on Friday announced Rs 5 lakh prize money for cutting off the tongue of Kanhaiya Kumar who he had alleged was speaking against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi ever since he was released on bail. Kumar who was arrested on February 12 on sedition charges was released from the Tihar jail on March 3 after the Delhi High Court granted him interim bail for six months.

2016-03-05 14:08 By PTI www.mid-day.com

100 How a shot could change a drug addict’s life GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) - Late last August, Ryan Haman was ordered to spend a week in a cell at the Cascade County Detention Center. As an opioid addict, it definitely wasn’t his first time in jail, but hopefully it would be his last. Haman would walk out of the jail clean after detoxing, as always. “I couldn’t stay sober for more than a week.” But this time, instead of relying on sheer force of will to keep his urges to inject himself with drugs like oxycodone or heroin at bay, Haman had an appointment to receive a shot that had the potential to change his life. The Vivitrol injection Haman received a Vivitrol injection. Vivitrol is the brand name for extended-release naltrexone, an opioid antagonist, a drug that blocks opioid receptors in the brain from being activated. That means the patient can’t feel the euphoric and pain-relieving properties of opioids if they use after receiving their monthly injection. “Relapse rates are so high,” said Shelley Andrus, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner with Benefis Health System. “It’s dismal.” She said most medical studies place the relapse rate for an opioid addict around 96 percent. “The brain has been profoundly affected,” Andrus said. “It’s like not being able to feel happiness anymore.” In fact, Andrus has known opioid addicts so disconnected with cause and effect they’ve injured themselves, even broken their own bones, to gain access to prescription medication. Haman called his experience with the Vivitrol shot “amazing.” He said he could feel how the drug was changing his brain. “Having a clear brain for a month makes a big difference,” Andrus noted. That “clear brain” can then be reprogrammed, so to speak. It starts functioning normally again, allowing patients to feel good without pills or heroin. “That’s the beauty of this medicine,” Andrus added. Therapy becomes effective as the patient can develop new thought processes and coping skills. Story Continues →

2016-03-05 14:06 The Washington www.washingtontimes.com

Total 100 articles. Created at 2016-03-05 18:00