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The former Spice Girl has been invited to stay with Rwandan president Paul Kagame, who could face a war crimes trial for allegedly arming Congo rebel group M23 – said to have forced 140,000 people to flee their homes. The singer, whose real name is Melanie Brown, is friends with Ivan and Ange, the adult children of Rwanda's 56-year-old president Paul Kagame. The mum-of-three said: “Christmas is different every year. "Last year we were in Australia and it was lovely but this year we've decided to go to Rwanda. We’ve got this amazing trip planned and we’re staying with the ­president, Paul Kagame. She added: "I know his son and daughter because they live in New York and they're adorable people. They invited us out there. “We will probably have our own Christmas in LA with ­stockings, presents and a big roast dinner, then we shall go off to spend time with the president. A "damning" report released by the UN last year suggested Kagame had supported the insurgents to the hilt. Stephen Rapp, the head of the US war crimes office, has warned that Kagame "could be prosecuted for helping the insurgents carry out atrocities". MEL B is looking forward to Christmas thanks to the "amazing trip" the former Spice Girl is planning to Rwanda.

– The latest celebrity to party with a "bad guy"? Scary Spice. Melanie Brown, the Spice Girl also known as "Mel B," is spending Christmas with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his family, the Mirror reports. It seems Brown is friends with Kagame's grown kids, who invited her to the family palace. "They're adorable people," Brown says of his son and daughter. "I said to the kids, 'Do you want to go to Africa and see lions, tigers, and bears, or stay at home and watch TV all day?' It was a no-brainer." Many wouldn't attach the word "adorable" to Kagame, who took office in 2000 and led the rebel force that ended the 1994 genocide in his country: He could now face a war crimes trial for allegedly arming M23, an insurgent group in the Congo accused of atrocities there. He's been called "ruthless" and "repressive" on the one hand, but the continent's "most dynamic and effective leader" on the other, and he has quite a few friends in the West, The Week reports. Click for more celebs who've partied with controversial leaders.

Research published in the scientific journal Evolution and Human Behavior suggests that women tend to pick partners who show some slight resemblance to their brothers. “Previous research has already shown that people seem, on average, to pick partners who look somewhat like their parents,” explained Tamsin K. Saxton of Northumbria University, the study’s corresponding author. “(I wrote a short summary of that research here). A few theories have been put forward to explain why people might do that. But we realised that most of these theories could also apply equally to siblings. So, we wanted to test whether we could detect perceptual similarity between someone’s partner and siblings.” By examining 64 facial photographs, the researchers found evidence that women’s romantic partners tended to resemble their brothers. Though they have yet to test this with a male sample, they believe the same tendencies should apply to men as well. “One focus of our research is to understand more about how people pick the partners they do, and why people differ in their preferences and choices,” Saxton explained. “Recently, we’ve been trying to unpick the influences that people’s families might have on their partner preferences. We predicted that sibling resemblance might be just one of the many contributing factors in partner choice, and the current study indicates that it may indeed have an influence.” “Having said that, it’s important to note that the effect is subtle. The way the study was designed was that we showed photos to the volunteers who did the ratings. The volunteers saw a facial photo of a man on the left-hand side of a sheet of paper. This man was a woman’s brother (though the volunteers didn’t know that). Then, on the right-hand side of the same sheet of paper, they saw facial photos of 4 other men. Again, the volunteers didn’t know that one of the men was the boyfriend of the same woman. We asked the volunteers to say which of the men on the right-hand side was most, second most, third most, and least similar to the brother.” “If there was no similarity at all between a woman’s brother and partner, then we’d expect the volunteers to pick randomly, selecting each of the four pictures one quarter of the time,” Saxton said. “When we looked just at the raw numbers, we found that nearly one third of the raters’ choices were for the ‘correct’ brother-boyfriend pair as looking most similar. However, these raw numbers are only indicative, and we wanted to know how we might extrapolate the data to the population at large. We used a statistical model to try and predict this. Our model indicated that if we generalised beyond our dataset, we came up with a selection rate for picking the ‘correct’ brother-boyfriend pair as most similar 27% of the time, and as first or second most similar combined 59% (instead of 50%) of the time. The model gave a selection rate of just 16% for picking the brother as least similar to the boyfriend. Psychologists are interested even in these subtle effects because behaviour is complicated and arises from a multitude of different influences.” Saxton emphasized that the effect of sibling resemblance appeared to be small — and only one factor among many that influences attractiveness. “So, I guess one important point is that you shouldn’t expect to be able to pick a partner simply based on the appearance of a sibling,” she explained to PsyPost. “Not all women had partners that looked like their brothers. There will be many relationships where a woman’s partner doesn’t look like her brother, and that’s entirely consistent with what we found. The point though is that we might anticipate intuitively that there could be no resemblance between partners and siblings. However, our study found that there was this subtle resemblance, on average across the sample.” Saxton also noted that her study had some caveats and alternative explanations. “We realise of course that people’s parents resemble their siblings. So it’s possible that our ‘finding’ of brother-boyfriend resemblance could be an essential corollary of parent-partner resemblance. However, first, I think it’s theoretically plausible at least that you could pick a partner who looks like your parents but not your siblings (although this remains to be tested). Second, your siblings might be around even when your parents aren’t. Third, in the published paper, we compared our findings with previous work on parent-partner resemblance. We found that the effect size was broadly similar in the previous work compared to ours. Finally, I guess the point is that we have such a strong aversive reaction to thoughts of anything even remotely resembling incest that you might assume there would be no way that a woman’s partner could resemble her brother — but the study shows this not to be the case.” “Also – it’s not clear how attraction and actual partner choice might map onto each other – they are not necessarily identical things,” Saxton explained. “Indeed, an earlier research paper used computer software to generate facial images that looked a little like the siblings of the participants in the research study. Then they asked the participants to rate how attractive the facial images were. The researchers found that men rated sibling-resembling faces as significantly more attractive than self-resembling faces but not significantly different from control faces, whereas women rated sibling-resembling faces as significantly less attractive than control faces and no different from self-resembling faces. Attractiveness judgements assessed in a laboratory context may not always map directly onto patterns of relationship formation and maintenance when other factors come into play.” “Another caveat is that the photographs that we used weren’t fully standardised; they portrayed facial features, but also facial expressions, hairstyles, and some elements of clothing and background. We asked the raters to judge facial similarity, but these non-standardised elements likely contributed somewhat to their decisions. Therefore, it is possible that our raters were not matching the photographs merely on facial structural similarity, but also on elements such as emotionality (perceived through facial expressions), and socio-economic status and cultural cues (perceived through clothing and hairstyle).” “Finally, our study focussed on contemporary western populations,” Saxton told PsyPost. “We found consistent results irrespective of whether we focussed on the photos that we had collected through direct contacts, or those that we had sourced online from the people more in the public eye. We haven’t tested whether the results would hold outside of these social groups though. In fact, we found a lot of variability in the extent to which a woman’s partner and brother resembled each other. If there are systematic influences that lead women away from a partner who looks like her brother, then in a context or cultural setting where those influences are greater, we might not find the same effects.” The study, “Facial resemblance between women’s partners and brothers“, was also co-authored by Catherine Steel, Katie Rowley, Amy Newman, and Thomas Baguley.

– A new study suggests that when it comes to dating, women tend to pick partners who bear at least a slight resemblance to their own brothers. Reporting in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, the researchers write that selecting "optimal" breeding mates—not too closely related, but not too distantly, either—appears to be something we humans do, and though they haven't tested it yet, they suggest that men likely do the same. In the study, the researchers had women submit photos of their brothers and boyfriends, then added photos of three other men to the "boyfriend" mix. They had strangers choose which of the boyfriend photos most closely resembled the brother. The strangers picked the actual boyfriend 27% of the time, which Discover sees as a "small but statistically significant" improvement over mere chance. "We have such a strong aversive reaction to thoughts of anything even remotely resembling incest that you might assume there would be no way that a woman’s partner could resemble her brother—but the study shows this not to be the case," one of the researchers tells PsyPost. That said, she notes that the tendency is only subtle and needs to be studied further. Discover explains that there might be biological reason behind the preference: While incest carries all kinds of genetic risks, "some amount of genetic similarity between parents can actually be evolutionarily advantageous." It's what the researchers call "optimal outbreeding." (This woman married her son, and later her daughter.)

– The Washington Post thinks it might have figured out where Amazon will locate its second headquarters: Crystal City, Virginia. The locale is in the DC metro area, and the newspaper reports that Amazon and local officials are in "advanced discussions" about the company setting up shop there with an anticipated 50,000 jobs. After the report surfaced, CNBC confirmed that the two sides had a "very productive" and long conference call on Friday. Among other things, Crystal City was reportedly coming up with ways to ease Amazon's concern about DC traffic. But CNBC adds that Austin, Texas, appears to be a finalist as well. The Post adds plenty of caveats to its story about Crystal City, noting that Amazon might very well be holding similar discussions with other cities on a short list. In addition to Austin, cities previously mentioned include Chicago, New York City, and Newark, New Jersey. But the apparent scoop clearly caught the attention of Amazon, as evidenced by a not-so diplomatic tweet issued by an exec. "Memo to the genius leaking info about Crystal City, VA as #HQ2 selection," wrote Mike Grella, Amazon's director of economic development. "You’re not doing Crystal City, VA any favors. And stop treating the NDA you signed like a used napkin." (An Amazon warehouse in Baltimore just had deadly trouble.)

Contraceptive pills that contain two hormones are called combined oral contraceptive pills. Advantages and disadvantages Some advantages of the progestogen-only pill include: it does not interrupt sex you can use it when breastfeeding it is useful if you cannot take the hormone oestrogen, which is in the combined pill, contraceptive patch and vaginal ring you can use it at any age – even if you smoke and are over 35 it can reduce the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and painful periods Some disadvantages of the progestogen-only pill include: you may not have regular periods while taking it – your periods may be lighter, more frequent or may stop altogether, and you may get spotting between periods it does not protect you against STIs you need to remember to take it at or around the same time every day some medications, including certain types of antibiotic, can make it less effective The progestogen-only pill is generally well tolerated and side effects are rare. Her parents also hope medical professionals will take more time to explain serious side effects to all women, not just those in high risk groups, such as smokers or overweight women. Derry GP, Dr Tom Black from the British Medical Association, said: “I think it is fair to say that the pill has been used for decades and the formulations we are using now in terms of hormones are a lower dose than would have been many years ago. Continue to take a pill at the same time each day until the pack is finished. Following our story of the tragic death of 21-year-old Fallan Kurek, who after taking the contraceptive pill, we have pulled together the latest information on the risks of taking the combined pill or progestogen-only pill below. The benefits of any combined hormonal contraceptive far outweigh the risk of serious side effects – prescribers and women should be aware of the major risk factors for blood clots and the key signs and symptoms. It follows the tragic death of a 21-year-old woman who suffered a fatal blood clot after she was prescribed the contraceptive pill. If a blood clot develops, it could cause: deep vein thrombosis (clot in your leg) pulmonary embolus (clot in your lung) stroke heart attack The risk of getting a blood clot is very small, but your doctor will check if you have certain risk factors that before prescribing the pill. If you have a family history of breast cancer, you may feel that this increase in risk (however small it is) is not worth taking.

– A young woman died earlier this month from a pulmonary embolism that doctors link to her use of the contraceptive pill, her parents tell the Birmingham Mail. "We felt angry when they first mentioned it could be the pill," says Julia Kurek, mother of 21-year-old Fallan Kurek. "She was only on it to regulate her periods." Fallan was a "confident, cheeky, [and] bubbly" teaching assistant in England when she started her three-month prescription, Julia says, but soon suffered limb pains and breathlessness. A hospital electrocardiogram came up negative, so Fallan went home—and collapsed four days later. "She just went limp in my arms," says Julia. At the hospital a big clot was found on Fallan's lung, which inflamed her heart, and her heart rate and blood pressure shot up. An emergency CT-scan showed Fallan was brain dead from lack of oxygen, and three days later, her ventilator was turned off. Within a half hour, she was gone. "Fallan was looking forward to the rest of her life," says her dad Brian. "We just don’t want any other family to go through this." A formal inquest is pending, but according to the Kureks, doctors suspect that the "combined" pill (which contains artificial progesterone and estrogen) had given her blood clots. Medical officials say the combined pill is generally safe, but smokers over 35 or women with particular medical issues shouldn't take it, Belfast Live reports. Another Mail article compares risks involved with the combined and progesterone-only versions of the pill.

Please enable Javascript to watch this video One Whittier police officer has died and another officer was wounded following a Monday morning shootout with a recently paroled "known gang member" who is suspected of the fatal shooting of another man hours earlier, authorities said. The officer killed was identified Monday afternoon as Keith Boyer, a veteran of the Whittier Police Department. Officer was 'best of the best' "I can honestly say on behalf of all the officers, he was the best of the best," Piper said of Boyer. Piper teared up as he described Boyer, saying the two had played music together and had been friends for a quarter-century. A second Whittier officer who responded to the accident was wounded, according to Lt. John Corina of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Corina said officers went to check the suspect for a weapon because they could see he had tattoos over his face and neck and had "gang attire." "As they went to pat him down for any weapons, that's when he pulled out his gun and that's when he started shooting," Corina said. Once other officers arrived on scene, the shooter was taken into custody. He was released from custody about a week before Monday's shooting and was on parole, Corina said, calling it an "early release." The car had been stolen out of East Los Angeles, where the suspect may have been involved in another killing earlier Monday morning, Corina said. Corina said the officers, who were wearing protective vests, didn't know the car was stolen or that the driver may have been involved in criminal activity. Witnesses have identified the suspect as being responsible for that other killing, which was also a shooting, Corina said. "Our community knows him, and they would say the same thing." The suspect, he added, was in the intensive care unit; video from the scene showed him conscious and handcuffed. He was at least the fifth US law enforcement officer to be fatally shot in the line of duty this year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund Condolences for Boyer and best wishes for Hazell's recovery poured in from law enforcement.

– "This is a senseless, senseless tragedy that did not need to be," says a California police chief after a gang member paroled earlier this month allegedly killed a relative and a police officer. At least two officers had responded to the scene of a vehicle accident in Whittier around 8:30am Monday and were told the 26-year-old man, with tattoos on his face and neck, had rear-ended another vehicle, authorities tell KTLA. Noting the man's "gang attire," the officers—who were wearing bulletproof vests—ordered him out of his vehicle and were about to pat him down "when he pulled out his gun and … started shooting," a rep for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department tells CNN. Keith Boyer, a 27-year veteran of the Whittier Police Department, died at the hospital while Patrick Hazel, a three-year veteran, was admitted in stable condition. Neither officer had realized the suspect—who was injured in the gunfight and is in intensive care—had been driving a car stolen from East Los Angeles, where he'd fatally shot his 46-year-old cousin around 5:30am, authorities say, per the Los Angeles Times. The gunman's identity has not been released, nor have details about his prior criminal record. Whittier's police chief says the man was released from jail early because of new laws meant to reduce prison stays, which he says actually make cities less safe. "We need to wake up," he said through tears, describing Boyer as "the best of the best."

All 230 people aboard TWA 800 died when the plane, headed for Paris, exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. But some people have come forward, "all saying the same thing: that there was an external force -- not from the center wing tank, there's no evidence of that -- but there is evidence of an external explosion that brought down that plane," Stalcup said. But the cause of the crash was not identified immediately, and after authorities said the crash was caused by static electricity ignited fuel fumes, many skeptics cast doubt on the theory. A handful of aviation experts, including a number of investigators who were part of the original probe of TWA Flight 800, have come forward in a new documentary to say evidence points to a missile as the cause of the crash off the coast of Long Island 17 years ago. "As required by NTSB regulation, a petition for reconsideration of Board findings or a probable cause determination must be based on the discovery of new evidence or on a showing that the Board's findings are erroneous," said board spokeswoman Kelly Nantel. The board's investigation of TWA 800 lasted four years and "remains one of the NTSB's most extensive investigations," Nantel said. Investigators "spent an enormous amount of time reviewing, documenting and analyzing facts and data and held a five-day public hearing to gather additional facts before determining the probable cause of the accident," she said. "While the NTSB rarely re-investigates issues that have already been examined, our investigations are never closed, and we can review any new information not previously considered by board," she said. I will watch this thing with a very critical eye, knowing what I know." You can take just the radar; you can say it was a missile. But the documentary asserts that a missile may have exploded adjacent to the plane. “It is what it is and all the evidence is there.” Hank Hughes, a retired senior accident investigator for NTSB, said probers were not allowed to seek answers once the FBI took over the crime scene. - Jim Speer, accident investigator for the Airline Pilots Association The half-dozen investigators whose charges will be fleshed out in a documentary set to air July 17 - the anniversary of the crash - say they were never allowed to get at the truth. "If they felt that way back then, they could have come to me," Kallstrom said.

– Conspiracy theorists have long suspected TWA Flight 800 was brought down not by the NTSB's officially determined cause (a gas tank explosion), but by something less accidental, and a new documentary debuting next month will give them quite a bit of fuel. The film includes testimony from six high-level "whistleblowers," as Fox News calls them, all of whom were on the original investigation team. They say it was actually "one or more ordnance explosions outside the aircraft" that caused the 1996 crash, according to a statement from the producers, who explained the six "waited until after retirement to reveal how the official conclusion by the (NTSB) was falsified and lay out their case." The whistleblowers do not go so far as to claim the plane was shot down (one popular theory is that it was hit by a terrorist missile), nor do they theorize about the source of the "ordinance explosion," Fox News reports. But they intend to petition the NTSB to reopen its investigation. Witnesses who saw the Boeing 747 explode and crash into the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island claimed to have seen "a streak of light and a fireball," CNN reports. Investigators, however, said that was likely just burning fuel coming out of the plane's wing tank. TWA Flight 800 premieres on the 17th anniversary of the crash, July 17, on cable network EPIX TV.

This did not go over well, and especially not with Voletta Wallace, mother of the late Christopher Wallace, the real name of Notorious B.I.G. CLOSE Kendall and sister Kylie are being slammed for creating a line of vintage music T-shirts, part of their Kendall + Kylie line, that feature rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie, with the women’s faces and Instagram posts superimposed on them. “These designs were not well thought out and we deeply apologise to anyone that has been upset and/or offended, especially to the families of the artists”, their joint statement on the scandal that has rocked their t-shirt operation read. Fashionista then pointed out that the brand's Instagram removed images of the tops, and that they're no longer available for purchase on its website. We will use this as an opportunity to learn from theses mistakes, and again we are very sorry.” This isn’t the first time a Jenner has faced controversy. "I am not sure who told @kyliejenner and @kendalljenner that they had the right to do this," she fumed next to a picture of a shirt with a big red X through it. “I am not sure who told @kyliejenner and @kendalljenner that they had the right to do this,” she captioned a photo on Instagram, adding, “The disrespect of these girls to not even reach out to me or anyone connected to the estate baffles me. I have no idea why they feel they can exploit the deaths of 2pac and my Son Christopher to sell a t-shirt." She slammed the girls on Instagram, calling the shirts "disrespectful, disgusting, and exploitation at its worst!!!" “Girls, you haven’t earned the right to put your face with musical icons”, Ms Osbourne wrote on Twitter. “Stick to what you know… lip gloss."

– The youngest members of the Kardashian-Jenner dynasty are learning the hard way not to mess with beloved rock and rap icons. On Wednesday, sisters Kylie and Kendall Jenner debuted $125 T-shirts on their online store featuring images of themselves superimposed over shots of artists like Tupac Shakur, Metallica, and Led Zeppelin. Cue the backlash. USA Today reports that Voletta Wallace, the mother of Christopher "Notorious BIG" Wallace, tore into the Jenner sisters on Instagram for printing unauthorized images of her son. "I have no idea why they feel they can exploit the deaths of 2pac and my Son Christopher to sell a t-shirt," she wrote alongside an image of one of the shirts. One Tupac shirt featured their initials on top of the late rapper. Sharon Osbourne also took issue with the shirts, one of which involved Ozzy Osbourne (see it here), the Independent reports. "Stick to what you know … lip gloss," she tweeted. Despite the controversy, the LA Times reported mid-day Thursday that shirts featuring Metallica, Doors lead singer Jim Morrison, and the cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album were "running low" on the site. On Thursday afternoon Kylie and Kendall tweeted that the shirts had been pulled from their Kendall + Kylie site and issued an apology for their designs, which they say were "not well thought out. ... We are huge fans of their music and it was not our intention to disrespect these cultural icons in any way," they wrote. Biggie's estate was not placated, telling People it appreciates the move but "this matter has yet to be resolved." (This isn't Kendall's first product-related controversy.)

“Try showing a little class,” Elizabeth Lauten, communications director for Rep. Stephen Lee Fincher (Tenn.), wrote Friday in a Facebook posting addressed to Sasha, 13, and Malia, 16, chastising them for their comportment during last week’s annual turkey pardoning event at the White House. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at the bar,” Lauten wrote. USA Today published this headline: “Malia and Sasha Obama are so done with their dad’s turkey pardon,” while the Gawker Web site observed that “not even the pomp and ritual of the White House can overcome the most powerful force known to man: TEEN CONTEMPT.” U.S. President Obama speaks as his daughters Sasha, center, and Malia listen before the pardon of two turkeys during a ceremony at the White House on Nov. 26. And, given the acrimonious nature of Republican dealings with the Democratic president, Zelizer said, “this is low-hanging fruit.” In her post, Lauten also took a dig at the president and first lady, saying “your mother and father don’t respect their positions very much, or the nation for that matter, so I’m guessing you’re coming up a little short in the ‘good role model’ department.” Hours after the original post, Lauten followed up with a second post apologizing for her critique. 'Hours of prayer' In her apology, Ms Lauten wrote: "After many hours of prayer, talking to my parents, and re-reading my words online I can see more clearly just how hurtful my words were. “It’s a way to kind of make a statement about who the president is through how the kids are acting,” he said. It’s about the president, but it’s obviously frustrating for the president who’s a father.” According to her LinkedIn profile, Lauten previously served as press secretary for a Republican representative from Illinois and as a “new media political manager” for the Republican National Committee.

– President Obama trotted out his daughters for the sixth pardon of a turkey of his tenure, and when they, like much of the rest of the nation, appeared bored by the tradition, a congressional aide created a stir by publicly taking offense, reports the Washington Post. In a Facebook post since deleted, Elizabeth Lauten, the communications director for Rep. Stephen Lee Fincher, R-Tenn., wrote: "Dear Sasha and Malia: I get you're both in those awful teen years, but you're a part of the First Family, try showing a little class. At least respect the part you play." She hit Obama and the first lady as "coming up short in the 'good role model' department," then advised the girls to "dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar" and to not "make faces during televised, public events." Lauten's post picked up steam online, inspired much comment via #ElizabethLauten on Twitter, and hours later prompted Lauten to "apologize to all of those who I have hurt and offended with my words." The BBC notes that she went on to say that she "had judged the two young ladies in a way that I would never have wanted to be judged myself as a teenager." The post is "a way to kind of make a statement about who the president is through how the kids are acting," says a presidential historian. Lauten, Fincher, and the White House all declined further comment, notes the Post. Malia Obama got in a little dig at Chuck Todd yesterday in a bookstore, adds the New York Post, calling the fact that he has a book out already "sad."

Born in the mid-western US, he had been diving with his father since he was nine and worked as a maritime archeologist for close to two decades, including on the archaeological team that investigated the American civil war submarine H L Hunley. In 2014, the wrecks of the HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales and the graves for more than 800 Royal Navy sailors were found to have been damaged by scavengers. Here are the ships known to have gone down with over one hundred lives lost. It’s no different to me, at all,” said Hunter, who comes from a military family. These submerged ships are one of the last sources of “low background steel”, virtually radiation-free and vital for some scientific and medical equipment. No one knows where—or to whom—the steel from these illegally salvaged ships is being sold. “We still have people who are living and served in the Battle of the Java Sea or were directly involved in other ways. And one of Australia’s most treasured ships, light cruiser HMAS Perth, has also been ripped up. Here is how it’s done. Martijn Manders, the head of the maritime programme at the cultural heritage agency of the Netherlands, has been looking at mystery of three Dutch wrecks that disappeared in the Java Sea. “And as the technology develops and as it gets cheaper and as it gets more accessible, I honestly believe this going to become a bigger problem.” Sources: US Navy, Royal Navy, Australian Department of Defence, Dutch Ministry of Defence, wrecksite.eu, combinedfleet.com Large “crane barges” have been photographed above wreck sites, often with huge amounts of rusted steel on their decks. The rusted 70-year-old wrecks are usually sold as scrap but the ships also contain valuable metals such as copper cables and phosphor bronze propellors. All sank during operations in the Java Sea in 1942, one of the costliest sea skirmishes for the Allies during the war. But they agree that even the biggest known ones couldn’t come close to pulling up a whole ship. Whatever the motives for destroying historical treasures, hundreds more wrecks that sit in south-east Asian waters are at risk from illegal salvaging. “If you’re simply looking at steel to melt down, go after a modern wreck ... But a month later, staring through the silty water in the Java Sea, Hunter saw how the salvagers had “ripped [the Perth] from one end to the other”. A spokesperson for the U.S. embassy in Indonesia told me that they have been working in partnership with the Indonesian government “for several years” to protect and preserve what remains of the Houston.

– The telling sign is a crane barge floating above. Once its divers inspect the shipwreck below, they lower explosives that rip it to shreds of steel, copper, and brass. This is how as many as 40 British, American, Australian, Dutch, and Japanese warships from World War II—which also serve as the graves of up to 4,500 crew members—have been desecrated in waters off Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, at an increasing rate and to an increasing extent. Using impressive maps and graphics, the Guardian describes the efforts of salvage divers posing as researchers or fishermen in the Java Sea. Australia-based maritime archaeologist James Hunter says he "couldn't believe" the shift from plucking off pieces of a ship to taking it in its entirety until he saw it with his own eyes. "I was completely horrified," he says. Though some experts believe a single ship can yield $1 million worth of steel, even if it's in poor shape, Hunter scratched his head at how the value of the corroded metal can offset the cost of the operation. The age of the steel is potentially why, and Outside explained the science earlier this year: During the steel-making process, oxygen is blown into the mix, "along with ambient atmospheric particulates." Once we began detonating nukes in the 1940s, steel started to contain radiation. Radiation-free steel from these pre-nuclear-era ships commands very high prices. And Hunter fears the deepest wrecks won't long be protected from divers. Technology "is enabling people to find and potentially salvage wrecks in extremely deep water," he says. "This threat is getting bigger." (More on the salvaging here.)

The assets included approximately $3 million in seized bank accounts, $1.2 million in jewelry, and six Ferraris, two Rolls Royces, one Cobra, and four other vehicles worth $2.8 million.According to the Grand Jury presentment, the investigation began after an October 2013 fire at Claire Risoldi's home in New Hope, Bucks County, or "Clairemont," as she referred to it.Officials say this was the third fire to occur at Clairemont in the past five years, including one in June 2009 and another in August 2010.Risoldi lived in the home with her husband, son, and daughter-in-law.Following each of the fires, the Risoldis filed insurance claims with their insurance carrier, which to date has paid out in excess of $20 million in claims for the three fires.The Risoldis are also seeking $20 million more in insurance claims for the fire, including $10 million for jewelry that the Grand Jury found Claire Risoldi falsely accused the volunteer firefighters, who extinguished the blaze, of stealing.According to the presentment, the official cause of each fire was "undetermined," which could include that the fires may not be accidental. In the case of all three fires, the Grand Jury found that there were large quantities of highly flammable materials stockpiled near the points of origin.Officials say video from a home security system inside Clairemont showed Claire Risoldi left the home a minute before smoke was visible outside and may have been inside while it was burning, which contradicts what she told both law enforcement and insurance representatives.Authorities say the Grand Jury reviewed evidence that established the Risoldi family had a 20-to 30-year history of filing questionable insurance claims. "It says the Risoldis, with assistance and false testimony from Holston, attempted to obtain $2 million for damaged window treatments at Clairemont.Officials say Claire Risoldi waged a campaign of intimidation of witnesses, including threatening an insurance adjustor and an attorney that was involved in one of the real estate transactions, whom she also attempted to bribe to change her testimony.They were arraigned and released after posting bail.The following are the list of charges:Claire A. Risoldi, Doylestown, Bucks County, is charged with one count each of: corrupt organizations, attempted theft by deception, receiving stolen property, conspiracy to commit theft by deception, intimidation of witnesses or victims, obstructing the administration of law, tampering with public records, criminal use of a communication facility, false reports to law enforcement and insurance fraud; two counts each of: dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities and theft by deception; and three counts of forgery.Carl A. Risoldi, Doylestown, Bucks County, is charged with one count each of: corrupt organizations, theft by deception, attempted theft by deception, conspiracy to commit theft by deception, intimidation of witnesses or victims, obstructing the administration of law, tampering with public records, criminal use of a communication facility and false reports to law enforcement; two counts each of: dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities and insurance fraud; and three counts of forgery.Carla V. Risoldi, Doylestown, Bucks County, is charged with one count each of: corrupt organizations, theft by deception, attempted theft by deception, conspiracy to commit theft by deception, intimidation of witnesses or victims, obstructing the administration of law, tampering with public records, criminal use of a communication facility and false reports to law enforcement; two counts each of: dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities and insurance fraud; and three counts of forgery.Sheila M. Risoldi, Doylestown, Bucks County, is charged with one count each of: corrupt organizations, theft by deception, attempted theft by deception, intimidation of witnesses or victims, obstructing the administration of law, tampering with public records, criminal use of a communication facility and false reports to law enforcement; two counts each of: dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, insurance fraud and attempted theft by deception; and three counts of forgery.Thomas J. French, Doylestown, Bucks County, is charged with one count each of: corrupt organizations, theft by deception, attempted theft by deception, conspiracy to commit theft by deception, intimidation of witnesses or victims, obstructing the administration of law, tampering with public records, criminal use of a communication facility, false reports to law enforcement and insurance fraud; two counts each of: dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities and insurance fraud; and three counts of forgery.Mark Goldman, Wayne, Chester County, is charged with one count each of: corrupt organizations, theft by deception, attempted theft by deception, conspiracy to commit theft by deception, intimidation of witnesses or victims, obstructing the administration of law, tampering with public records, criminal use of a communication facility and false reports to law enforcement; two counts each of: dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities and insurance fraud; and three counts of forgery.Richard Holston, Medford, New Jersey, is charged with one count each of: corrupt organizations, insurance fraud, obstructing the administration of law, theft by deception and perjury.

– What kind of people would set their home on fire, then falsely accuse volunteer firefighters of stealing $10 million in jewelry? The Risoldi clan of Bucks County, Pa., might fit the bill, according to prosecutors. The family fell under suspicion of fraud after a fire at Claire Risoldi's "Clairemont" mansion in 2013—the third fire in five years—which was followed by huge insurance claims, 6 ABC reports. According to a grand jury presentment, although the cause of all three fires is officially "undetermined," large amounts of highly flammable material had been placed near the origin of the blazes, and home security video shows Claire Risoldi leaving the home just a minute before smoke appeared in the 2013 blaze, which contradicts the account she gave to cops and insurance representatives. Authorities say Risoldi falsely accused the firefighters of taking 55 pieces of jewelry—and the family had increased the insurance coverage on the jewelry from $100,000 to nearly $11 million just 25 days before the blaze. Risoldi, 67, has been charged with conspiracy, attempted theft by deception, witness intimidation, and forgery, reports the AP. Her husband, two children, and a daughter-in-law are among six other people charged in the case. Prosecutors say the family used fraud to fund an "excessively extravagant lifestyle"; the insurance company has paid out more than $20 million in claims for the three fires, and Risoldi had also allegedly made other questionable insurance claims. Around $7 million in family assets have been seized, including $3 million in cash, six Ferraris, and two Rolls-Royces.

The Prince of Wales will one day succeed the Queen to become the next Head of Commonwealth, it was confirmed on Friday night, after leaders reached an agreement to honour Her Majesty’s “vision, duty and steadfast service” to the institution. The Prince will take on the honorary position in the Commonwealth at the same time he eventually becomes King, following the “sincere wish” expressed by the Queen this week. "I am deeply touched and honoured by the decision of Commonwealth Heads of State and Government that I should succeed The Queen, in due course, as Head of the Commonwealth,” he said.

– A day after Queen Elizabeth II's bold move on behalf of her son comes news that should cheer her: British media report that Prince Charles will succeed her as the next head of the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth leaders have reportedly agreed on his appointment as head of the 53-nation group, and a statement confirming that is expected at the end of their two-day meeting, which began Thursday at Windsor Castle. The position is not a hereditary one, which left open the possibility that someone else could take on the role. The BBC suggested one option had been to have it cycle among the 53 leaders, but the Telegraph notes many thought Charles to be the only "realistic contender." Prime Minister Theresa May and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau had expressed their support for him. Many of the member states were formerly part of the British Empire. They are collectively home to 2.4 billion people, but only 15 of them will eventually have Charles as their head of state.

Moscow is a staunch ally of Assad and it has appeared to grow more defiant since the European Union let its arms embargo on Syria expire as of June 1, opening up the possibility of the West arming the Syrian rebels.

– On the one hand, it's a fairly expected announcement: On the heels of Russia's confirmation of a missile deal with Syria, President Bashar al-Assad has confirmed that the initial shipment of S-300 air defense missiles was in fact delivered to his country, with the second portion of the order arriving today. But Assad's statement, made in an interview to air today on Al Manar TV, and reaction to it bear some noteworthy aspects: As the New York Times points out, Al Manar is a channel run by Hezbollah, and that choice of delivery method, in the Times' view, only enhances "the confrontational atmosphere" of Assad's statements. The interview was actually taped on Tuesday, according to a Beirut source. That same day, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon firmly denied a weapons delivery had occurred, warning Russia that such a move could spur Israel to retaliate. "If, by some fortune, [the missiles] arrive in Syria, we will know what to do," he said. Per the AP, the next day, Syria's foreign minister said in a TV interview that Damascus "will retaliate immediately" if Israel strikes Syrian soil again. (Reuters notes Israel has thus far launched three airstrikes against Syria in a bid to stop weapons transfers.) But the AP notes that with the S-300 system in hand, the Israeli air force's abilities are curtailed, as the S-300s will allow Syria to counter airstrikes launched from foreign airspace. What exactly are the S-300 systems capable of? A second Israeli minister says they have a range of up to 185 miles; the AP, which puts their range at 125 miles, reports they're able to track and strike multiple targets simultaneously. What does Israel have to say about all this? No statement has been issued yet.

The Miami-based organization released a press release Friday saying that a tabulation mistake resulted in the title being awarded to Fechtel instead of runner-up Victoria Cowen. Cowen will move on to compete in the Miss America pageant Sept. 14 in Atlantic City, N.J. "Elizabeth has changed her life all around in these last five or six days," said her father, Vince Fechtel Jr. Fechtel, 20, had withdrawn from the University of Florida to compete for Miss America, her father said. Late Thursday, pageant officials visited Fechtel to inform her of a massive error: The crown should’ve gone to the first runner-up instead. "We were very concerned that it be clear that Elizabeth did nothing wrong, absolutely nothing, and she had spent all this time working. In Florida, Mary Sullivan, executive director of the pageant Elizabeth Fechtel thought she had won, said any scholarships associated with preliminary competitions that Fechtel won will still be awarded to her. The family says it was told that one of the judges changed his mind while scoring first and second place on the night of the pageant and that "in the last 15 seconds of the time allotted to vote, that he drew lines to reverse his first vote," mother Dixie Fechtel wrote in an email. The national pageant will be held in Atlantic City, N.J. Calls to the pageant’s president and executive director Mary E. Sullivan weren't returned as of Friday afternoon. By Friday evening, the statement was updated to reflect the pageant error. The Miss Florida Scholarship Organization, which puts on the Miss Florida pageant, said Friday that an independent review and audit of the scores awarded by the judges found that the first runner-up, Victoria Cowen of Panama City, had the top overall score at last weekend's pageant in St. Petersburg. The Miss Florida Scholarship Organization released a statement that said "to protect the integrity of the Miss Florida Scholarship Organization it is imperative to make sure that the contestant who received the highest overall score is officially named the winner…" Fechtel said her daughter, who was crowned Miss University of Florida earlier this year, is holding her head up and is proud of all the contestants. Fechtel was studying political science, entrepreneurship and mass communications at UF. "She's a very accomplished young woman and she's going to proceed to do bigger and better things," she said.

– Florida has just one-upped Delaware in the beauty-pageant gaffe department: The Miss Florida pageant crowned the wrong winner last Saturday because of a vote-counting error and has had to make an embarrassing about-face, reports the Miami Herald. The pageant initially named Elizabeth Fechtel its winner, and the 20-year-old University of Florida student basked in the glory for all of five days, until a pageant official arrived at her house Thursday evening to inform her that first runner-up Victoria Cowen is getting the crown instead. Fechtel had already dropped her classes at the University of Florida to begin preparation for the Miss America pageant, her mom tells the Orlando Sentinel. So what happened? Pageant officials told the Fechtels that one judge changed his mind about who should finish first in the final seconds of his allotted time and drew lines on his ballot to reverse his vote, reports the Tampa Bay Times. The switch got overlooked initially, but a subsequent independent audit confirmed that Cowen was the rightful winner. Fechtel called to congratulate her friend, and she'll also have to hand over the thousands in scholarship money she won ever so briefly. In a statement, the pageant chalked it up to an "error in the tabulation process." In Delaware, meanwhile, the newly crowned winner got stripped of her title because she was too old at 24.

They found the food in less than five seconds and went directly to the right food well almost every time,” Catania said. Catania’s interest in the common mole’s sense of smell dates back ten years when he was studying the remarkable sense of touch of the common moles’ cousin, the star-nosed mole, which uses a set of fleshy tentacles surrounding its nose to detect edible objects as it burrows. Evidence moles can smell in stereo Most mammals, including humans, see in stereo and hear in stereo. When the mole first entered the chamber, it moved its nose back and forth as it sniffed, but then it seemed to zero in on the food source, and moved in a direct path. The chamber was temporarily sealed so he could detect each time the mole sniffed by the change in air pressure. Moles using both nostrils went almost directly to the food, but the path of those with their left nostrils blocked was consistently to the right of the direct path and that of those with the right nostrils blocked was consistently to the left. “I expected the common mole, which is virtually blind and doesn’t have a very good sense of touch, to be a lot worse than the star-nosed mole.

– The common mole is blind and mostly deaf, which means it relies on its nose to find dinner. Not a problem: A study at Vanderbilt University makes the case that moles smell in stereo. Researchers who watched a mole sniff out a meal determined that the little critter relied on signals from both nostrils to zero in on it. (This involved plugging one nostril and then the other, and mixing up the signals in other ways.) Some scientists have previously suggested that rats and possibly humans smell in stereo, notes National Geographic, but the Vanderbilt study seems to be the first to prove the concept scientifically. “The fact that moles use stereo odor cues to locate food suggests other mammals that rely heavily on their sense of smell, like dogs and pigs, might also have this ability," says lead researcher Kenneth Catania.

Marco Rubio Snoop Put Out a Dangerous Message With Mock Assassination Sen. Marco Rubio Warns Snoop Dogg About Mock Assassination Music Vid EXCLUSIVE Senator Marco Rubio's taking a shot at Snoop Dogg over his music video taking a more literal shot at President Trump. He says disagreeing with policy is one thing, but worries Snoop is now crossing into a dangerous area -- where he's potentially giving twisted people very wrong ideas.

– Florida Sen. Marco Rubio says Snoop Dogg shouldn't have shot a toy gun at a clown dressed as President Trump in a music video released over the weekend, the AP reports. The video shows Snoop shooting at the Trump character with a gun that releases a flag with the word, "bang." Rubio tells TMZ that "Snoop shouldn't have done that." He says "we've had presidents assassinated before in this country, so anything like that is something people should really careful about." He adds that if the "wrong person sees that and gets the wrong idea, you could have a real problem." The video is for a remixed version of the song "Lavender," by Canadian group BADBADNOTGOOD featuring Snoop Dogg and Kaytranada.

A series of attacks including car bombings in Baghdad, an explosion at a market and a suicide assault in a northern city killed at least 66 people Sunday across Iraq, officials said, the latest in a wave of violence washing over the country. Insurgents on Sunday unleashed a new wave of car bombs in Shiite neighborhoods... (Associated Press) Citizens inspect the site of a car bomb attack at a bus station in the Baghdad's eastern Mashtal neighborhood, Iraq, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. Insurgents on Sunday unleashed a new... (Associated Press) Coordinated bombings hit Iraq multiple times each month, feeding a spike in bloodshed that has killed more than 5,000 people since April. Meanwhile, in the northern city of Mosul, a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden car into a group of soldiers as they were sealing off a street leading to a bank where troops were receiving salaries, killing 14, a police officer said. At least 40 people died Sunday in attacks on mostly Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, according to an Interior Ministry official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name. Violence has spiked in Iraq since April, when the pace of killing reached levels unseen since 2008.

– Nine car bombs exploded in Baghdad yesterday, which, along with a suicide attack and other incidents killed at least 66 people, the AP reports—and, unfortunately, that didn't make it a particularly unusual day. The al-Qaeda affiliate group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has been pummeling the country with terrorist attacks that have in the Washington Post's words, "virtually erased the security gains made in the past five years." At least 5,300 Iraqis have died this year, including more than 600 this month, and 880 in September. It was a little more than five years ago that the US "surge" calmed Iraq by uniting moderate Sunnis against al-Qaeda. But after the US left, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki began marginalizing Sunni leaders, fanning sectarian tensions. Syria, meanwhile, has provided a perfect base for ISIS fighters; Anbar province, which borders Syria, has suffered seven major attacks in the past week alone, as fighters pass freely across the border. Maliki will ask for US help in the fight when he visits Washington in three days.

Late Wednesday, the stunning word came that vivacious entertainer Debbie Reynolds had passed away at 84 — one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher, 60, another cherished actress and author, died. The US actress, 84, had been rushed to hospital with a suspected stroke. Reynolds' son, Todd Fisher, said the stress of his sister's death was insurmountable. I loved & worked [with] both of these icons.” Carol Channing, who performed with Reynolds on stage, told the Press Association: “She was beautiful and generous. It seems like only yesterday she was having lunch here at the house and we were discussing the possibility of working together in a new show.” Actor Rip Taylor, who had also performed with Reynolds in Las Vegas, said: “I was blessed to work with this remarkable woman for 45, almost 50 years. Actor Rip Torn, who worked with Reynolds in her Las Vegas stage show, said: "I was blessed to work with this remarkable woman for 45 almost 50 years. That makes for a very rare bond and unique relationship. "She was generous to a fault, never caring who got the laugh from the audience. I will always love her.” In 2011, Reynolds and Fisher appeared together for an extensive interview on the Oprah Winfrey show. Love is everlasting pic.twitter.com/AeIVGaGl9k — Todd Fisher (@tafish) December 29, 2016 Todd Fisher, Carrie’s brother and Reynolds’ son, wrote: “This is a beautiful love story to witness in my 58 years. I can't believe this happened one day after Carrie. VPC The American Heart Association agrees, classifying broken heart syndrome as a medical condition also called stress-induced cardiomyopathy. It’s such a devastating 1, 2 punch,” tweeted Debra Messing. "It breaks my heart that she is gone," he wrote. Hollywood veteran Carl Reiner, who acted alongside Reynolds in the 1959 comedy The Gazebo, and later directed Carrie Fisher in the 1990 comedy Sibling Rivalry, tweeted: “How shocked we were to learn that Debbie Reynolds passed away just a day after her daughter Carrie.

– Hollywood is a sadder place with the loss of beloved star Debbie Reynolds, who died Wednesday, just a day after the death of daughter Carrie Fisher. The 84-year-old Reynolds is believed to have suffered a stroke at son Todd Fisher's home while planning her daughter's funeral, the BBC reports. Todd Fisher said the grief and stress of Carrie's death had been too much for his mother and the last thing she said was that "she was very, very sad about losing Carrie and that she would like to be with her again," per the Guardian. Experts say that in extremely stressful events like the death of a spouse or a child, it really is possible to die from a broken heart, with a surge of hormones creating a condition the American Heart Association calls stress-induced cardiomyopathy. Grief expert David Kessler tells USA Today that dying of a broken heart is not only "absolutely real," he believes it is "extremely underdiagnosed." Kessler, who worked with Fisher several times, says the condition is more often seen among couples who were married for many decades, but Reynolds and her daughter were so close that he "would not be surprised if part of this was broken heart syndrome." Some reactions to Reynolds' death: Bette Midler: "This is too hard to comprehend. Beautiful, talented, devoted to her craft, she follows Carrie, dead days ago." Debra Messing, Reynolds' "daughter" on Will & Grace: "So heartsick. Debbie went to be with Carrie. It's such a devastating 1,2 punch. She was my "mom" for years & I loved her dearly. A legend." Albert Brooks, who played her son in Mother: "Debbie Reynolds, a legend and my movie mom. I can't believe this happened one day after Carrie. My heart goes out to Billie." SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris: "We have lost a unique talent and a national treasure. Coming so close to the death of her daughter, Carrie Fisher, this is truly a double tragedy. Their imprint on our culture is profound and they both will live on." Co-star Rip Taylor: "I was blessed to work with this remarkable woman for 45, almost 50 years. That makes for a very rare bond and unique relationship. She was generous to a fault, never caring who got the laugh from the audience. I will always love her," he said, per Variety.

After amassing the data of 10,226 people from nine different countries, researchers compared the relationship between marital status and body mass index (BMI), and found that couples had a higher BMI than singles, contrary to what another study shows, according to a study published in the journal Social Science and Medicine. The researchers took data from respondents in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom and focused on potential reasons for weight gain by gathering data on eating behaviors and exercise regimens. While the differences in BMI were slight, they still highlight social effects on health. “Our findings indicate that couples are not healthier in every respect, as has previously been assumed,” said Jutta Mata, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of health psychology at the University of Basel, in a statement. According to the World Health Organization, a normal body mass index is between 18.5 and 25. Importantly, the effects of socio-economic status, age, and nationality are already taken into account in these results. Being overweight is having a BMI range of 25 to 30, and being obese is having a range from 30 and higher. The average BMI of the single man in the study was 25.7, with the average married man’s BMI being 26.3. In contrast, the single woman’s average index was 25.1 while the married woman’s average index was 25.6. The average height of a woman in the study was 165 cm (5-foot-5) and the average height of a man in the study was 180 cm (5-foot-11). The study showed a difference of 2kg, which equals to nearly 4.5 pounds difference. However, while the data show that couples have in general a higher BMI index, survey data from the respondents showed that couples bought more regional and unprocessed products and less convenience (fast) food. Moreover, married men were more likely than single men to buy organic and fair trade food. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are healthier, because married men as a whole do less strenuous physical activities, such as play sports. "That indicates that particularly men in long-term relationships are more likely to eat more consciously and, in turn, probably more healthily," says Jutta Mata, lead author of the study and Assistant Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Basel.

– Marriage doesn't just add to your happiness, but also to your waistline, according to a new study. But singles shouldn't boast just yet. German and Swiss researchers surveyed 10,226 people in nine European countries on their marital status and body mass index—a health indicator based on a person's height and weight—as well as their eating and exercise habits. The results, which factored in socioeconomic status, age, and nationality, show marriage really does make you pack on the pounds: an extra 4.5 pounds in average-height 5-foot-11-inch men and 5-foot-5-inch women, to be precise, reports Medical Daily. That number is based on an average BMI of 25.7 for single men, compared to 26.3 for married men. Single women had a BMI of 25.1, while the number was 25.6 for married women, per ScienceDaily. A normal BMI is 18.5 to 25; 25 to 30 is considered overweight. Though the risk of chronic illnesses like diabetes and cardiovascular disease climb with a person's BMI, the study doesn't actually show single people are healthier. Married men and women across Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom were found to eat better than their single counterparts. Married couples reported buying more regional and unprocessed foods and less fast food, while married men were more likely to buy organic and fair-trade food than single men. "That indicates that particularly men in long-term relationships are more likely to eat more consciously and, in turn, probably more healthily," the lead author says. But here's the downside: Married men also skimp on physical activity, the author notes, which suggests "couples are not healthier in every respect, as has previously been assumed." (This 1970s marital trend is on the rise.)

But look, she had a serious episode, a serious health episode,’’ Rove said Tuesday in an interview on Fox News. She was seen walking out of the Manhattan hospital for another series of tests but returned to the hospital shortly thereafter. The glasses Rove reportedly referred to are typically used by people with traumatic brain injuries -- but that's a broad category that includes concussions. We need to know what’s up with that.” The tabloid said Rove “repeated the claim a number of times to the audience.” The headline on the item read, “Karl Rove: Hillary may have brain damage.” According to news reports, Clinton was hospitalized for three days, not 30. Clinton, 66, was hospitalized for three days and was away from the State Department for a month during her illness, which began in December 2012 with a virus. While ill, she fell and suffered a concussion; in a follow-up exam, doctors discovered a blood clot located between her skull and brain behind her ear. The official diagnosis was a blood clot. “Have them stand up and say ‘No, she’s not going to be concerned at all about her health, this is not going to be a part of her calculation.’ They won’t be telling the truth.’’ Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said via e-mail that the former first lady’s health is “100%, period,” and he pointed out that when Clinton first fell ill, some politicos on the right accused her of fakery.

– Karl Rove insists he never said Hillary Clinton might have suffered brain damage, despite a headline to that effect today in the New York Post. "Of course she doesn't have brain damage," Rove tells the Washington Post, one of several interviews in which he was distancing himself a bit from the earlier story. "I never used that phrase," he said in an interview on Fox, notes USA Today. But the GOP strategist reiterated that Clinton did have a "serious health episode" after a fall in 2012 and will have to be more "forthcoming" about the details should she run in 2016. "This is going to be an issue," Rove tells Fox News. Here's what the New York Post quoted Rove as saying: “Thirty days in the hospital? And when she reappears, she’s wearing glasses that are only for people who have traumatic brain injury? We need to know what’s up with that.” News stories of the time had Clinton in the hospital for only three days, notes the Washington Post, while Fox News points out that the glasses she was wearing are often used by those who suffer concussions, and Clinton has said she suffered one. White House spokesperson Jay Carney laughed off the remarks today, with a dig at Rove's election punditry on Fox: "Dr. Rove might have been the last person in America on election night to recognize and acknowledge that the president had won re-election."

Remembering James Foley Working with the family and friends of James Foley, Arts '96, Marquette University has established the James Foley Scholarship in the J. William and Mary Diederich College of Communication. BOSTON (CBS) – A scholarship fund has been established for slain journalist James Foley at Marquette University.

– Future journalism of students at Wisconsin's Marquette University will get some help from a scholarship fund in honor of James Foley. The American journalist executed by the Islamic State graduated from the school in 1996, CBS News reports, and his family has helped establish a scholarship to "provide financial assistance for a communications student who otherwise would be unable to attend Marquette," per The Wire. A mentoring program will also be created "to help build upon the convictions that drove Jim's passion: to provide a voice for people whose stories would otherwise go untold," according to the family's statement. Meanwhile, his parents have released the last email from Foley's captors.

Southern right whale Image copyright SPL A baleen whale growing up to 18m in length Feeds on crustaceans like copepods and krill Global population may number about 15,000 Tends to live between 40 and 60 degrees South Scientists have demonstrated a new method for counting whales from space. It uses very high-resolution satellite pictures and image-processing software to automatically detect the great mammals at or near the ocean surface. The image covers 70 square miles including Golfo Nuevo, a circular gulf off the Argentine coast and an area where southern right whales are known to breed and raise their young from July through November. Currently, such work is done through counts conducted from a shore position, from the deck of a ship or from a plane. It turns out that these particular whales are quite easy to spot from space, said Peter Fretwell of the British Antarctic Survey. For this study, Fretwell and his colleagues purchased a single, massive image taken in September 2012 by the WorldView2 satellite. The key to using satellites to track animals is not the size of the animal but how much it stands out from its environment, he said. By looking at the same image in different wavelengths -- including one able to penetrate 50 feet beneath the ocean -- the researchers were able to spot 55 probable whales and 22 possible whales in the gulf as well as 13 whale-shapes underwater. A satellite orbiting Earth has spotted 55 southern right whales hanging out in the shallow waters off Argentina. But these methods are expensive and time-consuming, said Fretwell, and also often inaccurate. Image copyright Stephen roberts Image caption The southern right is the most abundant of the three right whale species To hear more about southern right whales and satellite counting, listen to Inside Science with Lucie Green on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday at 1630 GMT. Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

– Typically, scientists count whales from a ship's bridge or an airplane, but those techniques come with a number of downsides: They cost a lot of time and money and they can be inaccurate, the Los Angeles Times notes. What's more, "many marine mammal researchers have been killed flying in small planes while surveying whales," an expert says. Now, scientists have a potential solution to the problem. A team has successfully counted whales at or near the water's surface using satellite imagery, the BBC reports. They bought a single picture from the WorldView2 satellite, which can spot items just 20 inches long on Earth's surface. The image, showing 70 square miles, focused on a breeding area used by southern right whales off the coast of Argentina. Whales made up just a few pixels in the image. When scientists counted the whales themselves, they spotted 55 likely candidates—as well as 22 that may have been whales and 13 underwater shapes that looked like the animals, the Times reports. A computer program also counted the images, finding 89% of the probable whales. "As the resolution of the satellites increases and our image analysis improves, we should be able to monitor many more species," says a researcher, noting that "total population counts" should eventually be possible.

Japanese American internment [ edit ] Children at the Weill public school in San Francisco pledge allegiance to the American flag in April 1942, prior to the internment of Japanese Americans Grandfather and grandson at Manzanar Relocation Center In 1941, Lange was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for achievement in photography. Four decades out of elementary school, that's changed. It’s just part of the landscape of UH-West Oʻahu — just up the hill from the campus,” Belcher said. Belcher, now in his 50s, does archaeological work on the site of the Honouliuli National Monument, the site of an incarceration camp where some of Hawaii’s Japanese-American residents were held during World War II.

– There's one date that will live in infamy, per President Roosevelt, but Feb. 19, 1942, might qualify, too. It was on this day 75 years ago that FDR signed Executive Order 9066, which laid the groundwork for the internment of Japanese Americans. NBC News reports that some 80,000 native-born citizens were incarcerated in one of 10 hastily constructed camps along with some 40,000 immigrants. An apology was made by President Ford in 1976, and reparations for the "grave injustice" were authorized by Congress in 1988, Smithsonian reports. As the anniversary is marked, some of the best reading on the subject: "When I was in elementary school I never even heard that this had occurred." That's changed for William Belcher, who is now leading an archaeological effort to excavate the Honouliuli Internment and POW Camp on O'ahu. Read it at NBC News. Last summer, NPR reporter Lisa Morehouse traveled with Riichi Fuwa to what's left of Tule Lake camp, which sits just south of the Oregon border. "I wanted to see the place for the last time," the 98-year-old says. She looks at it through the lens of the forced agriculture that occurred there. In an editorial, the Los Angeles Times looks back on what it calls its "shameful response" to internment, which read in part, "The time has come to realize that the rigors of war demand proper detention of Japanese and their immediate removal from the most acute danger spots. It is not a pleasant task. But it must be done and done now. There is no safe alternative." You likely know Dorothea Lange for her famed Dust Bowl photos (especially this one) from the 1930s, but the War Relocation Authority hired her in 1942 to photograph the incarceration of Japanese Americans. Her photos were embargoed by the government for three decades. NBC News reports on her "misgivings" about what was happening. Read Executive Order 9066, which doesn't actually refer to Japanese Americans, at the National Archives, which also offers a history of the internment. Smithsonian has the story of Fred Korematsu, who fought against internment all the way to the Supreme Court (and told police he had minor surgery in an attempt to change his appearance).

– Elon Musk is working up plans for a battery factory so vast that Tesla Motors has come up with a new name for it: the "gigafactory." Tesla will invest between $4 billion and $5 billion in what it believes will be the world's biggest battery plant, Bloomberg reports, which would not only help it make cheaper, mass market cars, it would make it a major player in the energy industry. Tesla estimates that the factory will single-handedly drive lithium-ion battery prices down 30%, and it wants to put half a million electric cars on the street annually by 2020; that number is 35,000 currently. Rob Wile at Business Insider sees even bigger implications, predicting that Tesla "took the first step towards obliterating the power companies." The problem with renewable energies has always been storing power for less sunny and windy days; Tesla's move will make that much cheaper. Which is why Tesla might have a partner in another Musk-owned company, SolarCity Corp, and possibly Panasonic, which supplies Tesla's current lithium-ion cells. Construction should begin this year and wrap in 2017, Time reports, though it's unclear where: Tesla has named Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas as finalists, but expect a bidding war from states for the roughly 6,500 jobs the factory will create. Click for Tesla's outline of the gigafactory (PDF).

In addition, public health laboratories also report the influenza A subtype (H1 or H3) and influenza B lineage information of the viruses they test and the age or age group of the persons from whom the specimens were collected. However, genetic changes that classify the clades/subclades do not always result in antigenic changes.

– The warnings came early that this year's flu season could be bad, and reports starting to filter in from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that prediction may have been an accurate one. Per the CDC, public health experts from 36 states have submitted reports indicating "widespread influenza activity," with a large number of cases in 21 of those states, USA Today reports. Epidemiologists are pointing to the reduced efficacy of this year's vaccine as one factor for the flu's early kickoff, with just a 10% to 33% effective rate. "Any time there's a mismatch between the vaccine and the circulating strain of the flu, you're going to see more cases," says a University of Tennessee Medical Center infection expert. The CDC is recommending people not only get the flu vaccine, but also take neuraminidase inhibitor (NAI) antivirals if they do get the illness, Medscape reports.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is defending his new memoir, “Duty,” dismissing claims that it unfairly targets the Obama administration. Now Secretary Gates speaks for himself in his first television interview about his book.

– Robert Gates today took on the backlash that greeted his memoir, Duty, Politico reports, saying that his criticisms of the Obama administration were relatively restrained and justified. "My one concern was that over the course of 2010 and early 2011, the president began to have his own reservations about whether it would all work," he said. "I think that is not an unfair thing to say." Highlights of his interview with CBS' Sunday Morning: On Obama and Afghanistan: "It's one thing to tell the troops that you support them. It's another to work at making them believe that you believe as president that their sacrifice is worth it, that the cause is just, that what they are doing was important for the country, and that they must succeed. President Bush did that with the troops. I did not see President Obama do that. It was this absence of passion, this absence of a conviction of the importance of success that disturbed me." On the timing of the book: "[The book] deals with getting into wars [and] getting out of wars. With the experience and perspective of working for eight presidents, and having been secretary for four and a half years, I didn't think that waiting until 2017 to weigh in on these issues, and in a comprehensive and thoughtful way, made any sense." On that time he agreed with Joe Biden: "One time when I agreed with him on something—often Admiral Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and I would ride back to the Pentagon together from the White House—and Mullen turned to me at one point [and] said, 'You know that you agreed with the vice president this morning.' And I said, 'Yeah, that's why I'm rethinking my position.'" On Hillary Clinton: "The thing that I liked best about Secretary Clinton, other than the fact that she has a great sense of humor, was she is very tough-minded." Would she make a good president? "Actually, I think she would." On how he knew it was time to make an exit: "I became very emotionally caught up with the troops, and it got to the point where I couldn't speak to them, or about them, without choking up, and that was another reason why I thought it's time to go."

An ambitious plan by Maryland to catalog the “fingerprint” of every gun sold in the state -- making dealers fire a shot and send in the spent casing -- is being scrapped, literally. The idea was to build a database of "ballistic fingerprints" to help solve future crimes. "Obviously, I'm disappointed," former Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening, a Democrat whose administration pushed for the database to fulfill a campaign promise. "It's a little unfortunate, in that logic and common sense suggest that it would be a good crime-fighting tool." According to the Baltimore Sun, the hundreds of thousands of “fingerprinted” casings were stored in envelopes kept in boxes inside an old fallout shelter beneath the Maryland State Police headquarters in the Baltimore suburb of Pikesville, filling three massive rooms, each secured by a combination lock. Each shell was stamped with a barcode and then photographed by forensic scientists to create a database they hoped would yield matches to casings collected at crime scenes. Moreover, “the computerized system designed to sort and match the images never worked as envisioned… [and] in 2007, the state stopped bothering to take the photographs [of casings], though hundreds of thousands more… kept piling up in the fallout shelter.” It should be noted that New York also took part in this folly “just a few days after Maryland.” On August 9, 2000, the New York Times reported that Governor George Pataki (R) signed a law requiring “all new handguns… to be test-fired before they are sold, so that the telltale markings they leave on bullets and shell casings can be entered into a state computer database.” Yet, New York did not wait as long as Maryland before ending ballistic fingerprinting. With a bill, retroactive to show an ending date of October 1, the state of Maryland is ending its program to take ballistic fingerprints of firearms through shell casings after 15 years, $5 million spent, and no crimes solved. The scratches etched onto a casing can be matched to the gun that fired it, mapping a so-called fingerprint to the gun. The Maryland system was an expanded version of the successful but more limited federal National Integrated Ballistic Information Network started in the 1990s. New York followed Maryland's lead and created a similar database, but that state pulled funding for the project in 2012 when it, too, had no success. In 2008, the Justice Department asked the National Research Council to study the value of creating their own database similar to the one in Maryland and New York, but it was determined that it would not be a good use of funds. There have been 26 instances in the past 15 years in which Maryland's cache of spent casings helped investigators in some fashion, but in each case investigators already knew the gun for which they were looking, state police said. It is estimated that Maryland has approximately 300,000 such casings in an underground bunker waiting to be matched with a shell casing from a crime scene. When passed by Maryland lawmakers and signed into law by Governor Parris N. Glendening (D) in 2000, ballistic fingerprinting was sold to Maryland residents as a way for police to literally use discarded crime scene shell casings to find the gun that had fired them and, thereby, the person who possessed the gun at the time of crime. By 2004, when Maryland officials calculated an ineffective system had already cost the state $2.4 million, some legislators tried unsuccessfully to repeal the ballistic fingerprinting law. Obviously, this presents a serious problem with only one fired case or bullet from each gun.

– Since 2000, more than 300,000 bullet casings have piled up in an old fallout shelter in Pikesville, Maryland, the result of an ambitious program launched to catalog the casings in a database, which would then be used to help solve crimes, per the Baltimore Sun. But 15 years and $5 million later, the program has been deemed a failure—not a single crime was said to have been solved with the database's assistance—and the "ballistics fingerprinting" law was repealed on Oct. 1. Parris Glendening, whose administration set up the database while he was governor, is sad to see the demise of his brainchild. "Obviously, I'm disappointed," he tells the Sun. But a local gun-shop owner in Anne Arundel County describes the initiative as "a waste," and gun rights advocate John Lott tells Fox News, "[The] money … could have been better used for actual police and law-enforcement resources." Tech issues plagued the system from the get-go. Gun manufacturers had to fire every new gun made in Maryland, then send the casing to the three-room shelter nestled beneath Maryland State Police headquarters, the Sun notes. Each casing got a unique bar code and its picture taken before it was sealed up in envelopes and filed in boxes. In theory, it should've worked, since casing scratches can be matched back to the originating firearm, but the Maryland program was much larger than a successful federal program it modeled itself after, and the database software was so buggy that the Sun notes it "would sometimes spit out hundreds of matches" for one crime-scene casing. A similar program started in New York in 2000 shut down just two years later, per Breitbart. The Maryland law was brought up for repeal several times over the years, but police kept insisting it had potential—until the latest hearing, when its defenders gave up. The casings will now likely be sold for scrap.

(AP Photo/Shaam News Network via APTN)... (Associated Press) In this photo taken on a government-organized tour for the media, destroyed Syrian armored vehicles and police riot gear are seen inside a damaged Syrian police headquarters compound which was attacked... (Associated Press) ADDS DETAIL ABOUT BUILDING - In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a Syrian military intelligence building is seen damaged after was attacked by an explosion, in the northern... (Associated Press) ADDS DETAIL ABOUT THE BUILDING - In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian security forces gather in front of a damaged Syrian military intelligence building at a security... (Associated Press) This image from amateur video made available by Shaam News Network on Friday, Feb. 10, 2012, purports to show a dead body in Homs, Syria. The SANA news agency reported that "an armed terrorist group" had killed Brigadier-General Issa al-Khouli, who it described as a doctor and hospital director, in the Rukneddine district of the Syrian capital on Saturday. Violence in other parts of the country left at least 11 people dead as regime troops pushed into rebel-held neighborhoods in the restive central city of Homs and shelled the mountain town of Zabadani, north of Damascus. Also in Damascus, state media reported that anti-government forces had killed a senior Syrian military doctor outside his home. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Arif al-Hummoud, a commander of the Free Syrian Army, a name used by various armed groups, said that opposition fighters had carried out an attack on Friday morning but were not responsible for the blasts. Rights groups say at least four people were killed during Saturday's violence in Homs, and that three bodies of people who had been killed earlier were also recovered. Counter claims Elsewhere, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), an UK-based rights group, reported that 10 soldiers were killed in an ambush by army defectors on Friday in the Idlib area, near the Turkish border. Security forces opened fire on the protesters in several Aleppo neighbourhoods after Friday prayers, killing at least six people, according to the Local Co-ordination Committees, an umbrella organisation of anti-Assad activists.

– Here's yet another milestone that doesn't bode well for Syria: Gunmen killed a Syrian general as he left his home in the capital of Damascus today, reports AP. The attack on Brig. Gen. Issa al-Khouli marks the first time a high-ranking military official has been killed in Damascus, a sign that the violence that has plagued cities such as Homs might be headed there. In fact, fighting was reported today near the capital in Zabadani and Douma, reports al-Jazeera, in addition to heavy clashes and house-to-house raids in Homs and Hama. Click to read how some US officials agree with Bashar al-Assad that al-Qaeda is playing a role in the violence.

Jose Moran, 60, a custodian at the church for three years, went to lunch and returned just after 1 p.m. For a short time Monday afternoon, the Christmas manger at a New York City church might've been able to pass for the real thing: A newborn baby, with the umbilical cord still attached, was abandoned there. That's when, New York City police said, the custodian turned to a nativity scene in the front of the church and saw a newborn baby wrapped in towels laying in the manger. It was around 11:30 a.m. Monday when a custodian at the Holy Child of Jesus Church in the Richmond Hill section of Queens left the empty chapel to get lunch. Churches, police stations, firehouses and hospitals, are considered safe havens where unwanted infants under 30 days old can be left, no questions asked, according to the state’s Safe Haven Law. But the mother could face charges because she didn’t tell anyone where the baby was, police said.

– A janitor who heard a baby crying in an empty New York City church was astonished to find a real newborn baby in the church's Nativity scene with its umbilical cord still attached. Jose Moran tells the New York Daily News that he found the baby after returning from his lunch break on Monday, only about an hour after the manger was set up in the Holy Child Jesus Church in Queens. Police say the baby boy, who was found wrapped in a blanket, was brought to a hospital and found to be in good health. "At least whoever abandoned him brought him to a safe place and didn't leave him to die," Moran says. "I hope he finds the right home. He's a miracle baby." Police are trying to track down the newborn's mother. New York has a "safe haven" law allowing people to drop off unwanted newborns at places like churches, hospitals, and fire stations, reports the AP, but the mother could still face charges because the law requires authorities to be immediately informed of the baby's whereabouts. One of the church's parishioners has already offered to adopt the boy. "God works in mysterious ways," Father Christopher Heanue tells the Daily News. The infant was "a kind of gift to the church in a poetic way, so we'd love to see it stay in the community," he says. (Last year, Joseph proposed to Mary during a break from a Michigan church's live Nativity scene.)

Danish food safety officials ordered a cleanup and better food handling at Noma, one of the world's top restaurants, after more than 60 people fell ill with viral gastroenteritis from eating at the two-star Michelin eatery that has also hit top spot three times in the world's best restaurants list in Restaurant magazine. The report didn’t mention any sanctions on the restaurant, whose 20-serving menu, including wine, costs 2,500 kroner ($440).

– This might make it a little easier to get a table at Copenhagen's Noma, which has reigned as the No. 1 eatery at Restaurant magazine for three straight years: Sixty-three diners got sick over a four-day period last month, reports Bloomberg. Danish health officials ordered the restaurant to ramp up its food-handling procedures after what they termed a "massive" outbreak of diarrhea and vomiting, reports AP. Would-be diners typically have to make reservations months in advance and can expect to shell out $440 for a Nordic meal with wine. “We acknowledge that the internal procedures haven’t been good enough and because of busyness, employees didn’t check e-mails" from the first ailing customers, says a restaurant statement.

He said investigators located several notes to loved ones that Scott left in his car and at another location, but that they were not described in initial reports as suicide notes. A dive team with Los Angeles Port Police pulled the body from the murky water several hours later, Nordquist said.

– Top Gun director Tony Scott, who jumped off a Los Angeles bridge to his death yesterday, was suffering from inoperable brain cancer, an insider tells ABC News. Police got multiple calls about the jump yesterday around 12:35pm; a number of boaters witnessed the scene, TMZ reports. "He landed right next to our tour boat, and many of us saw the whole thing," says a cruise passenger. Scott left several notes to loved ones in his car and elsewhere, though early reports didn't label them suicide notes, officials say. The Vincent Thomas Bridge's highest point is 185 feet over the Los Angeles harbor, and the AP notes that it has seen a number of suicides. Scott was a daredevil in his free time, enjoying rock-climbing and speedy cars and motorcycles. But "the biggest edge I live on is directing. That's the most scary, dangerous thing you can do in your life," he once said.

Image copyright Renate007/Wikimedia Commons Image caption Deidesheim lies at the heart of Riesling country Police in southern Germany are looking for thieves who stole an entire vineyard of grapes from under their noses. The criminals made off with the field full of grapes by "running a professional harvesting machine over the entire vineyard", the police said, according to the local Rheinpfalz newspaper. The resourceful thieves struck at some point between teatime last Wednesday and sunset the following day, netting 1,600 kg (3,527 lb) of the white grapes used to make Riesling wine.

– Brazen thieves have swept into southern Germany and stolen 3,527 pounds of grapes—leaving an entire vineyard stripped bare, Newsweek reports. A police report issued Monday says the perpetrators used a professional harvesting machine to gather up $9,200 of grapes used to make Riesling wine. Amazingly, the vineyard in Rhineland-Palatinate sits beside a supermarket parking lot, but authorities say no one raised an eyebrow. "No one is surprised when a harvester drives through the vineyards in the fall," says a police source. It's nothing new, either: Between 1,300 and 1,700 pounds of grapes were stolen in the surrounding Bad Duerkheim district last year, per the BBC, and a Virginia vineyard allegedly had two and a half tons of grapes worth $50,000 stolen last fall. "I can handle losing a crop to Mother Nature, but to come in and take my crop in the middle of the night and steal what we’ve worked for eight months, that's disheartening," the vineyard owner tells the Washington Post. In Germany, vintners have blamed vineyard thefts on rivals: "The motive is jealousy," vineyard owner Stephan Altmann told Die Welt two years ago.

The plan was hatched in a subreddit dedicated to the show, which was hosted by shock jocks Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia until Cumia was fired for racist rants in 2014 (he was subsequently arrested for allegedly strangling a woman). hstevens@chicagotribune.com Twitter @heidistevens13 The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo By Amy Schumer, Gallery Books, 314 pages, $28 RELATED STORIES: Amy Schumer describes how she met her Chicago beau in her new book Watch Amy Schumer assume Chicago suburban accent on 'Tonight Show' Amy Schumer will stop in Naperville on book tour Amy Schumer talks relationship with Chicago beau in Vogue cover story Check out the latest movie reviews from Michael Phillips and the Chicago Tribune.

– Amy Schumer's new collection of essays, titled The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo, currently sits at the No. 2 spot on Amazon's bestsellers list, with Heidi Stevens at the Chicago Tribune describing it as "a brave, vulnerable tale" that's also "hilarious." Its Amazon rating of 2.8 doesn't quite reflect that. That's because trolls perusing a subreddit dedicated to the now-defunct Opie and Anthony radio show have set out to sabotage the comedian by leaving fake one-star reviews, reports the Week. "Do your part. Submit more reviews. It's still too high at 2.4 stars," one Redditor wrote on Tuesday. One recent one-star review reads simply, "Amy's book gets one half star because the book comes with a front and back cover.” Another notes, "Lena Dunham is fat." Except for a handful of two-star reviews, all others give the book five stars. "Ignore the low-life Redditors' fake, one star reviews. This is a great read," one reviewer writes. Another describes Schumer's "candid honesty and brilliant humor." If her book is any indication, Schumer will be ignoring the trolls. "I know my worth. I embrace my power. I say if I'm beautiful. I say if I'm strong. You will not determine my story. I will," she writes in the book.

During the NAFTA negotiations U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has acted as the lead official for the U.S. while Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland has filled that role for Canada.

– Canada, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in particular, were among President Trump's many targets in his freewheeling press conference Wednesday. Trump claimed that he had rejected a one-on-one meeting with Trudeau at the United Nations this week because talks to renegotiate the NAFTA deal are not going well, the Atlantic reports. "His tariffs are too high, and he doesn't seem to want to move and I've told him forget about it, and frankly, we're thinking about just taxing cars coming in from Canada," Trump said. "We're very unhappy with the negotiations and the negotiating style of Canada," he added. "We don't like their representative very much." Trudeau's office, however, tells the CBC that "no meeting was requested" and it will not comment further on the matter. Mexico has already signed a deal ahead of the Trump administration's Oct. 1 deadline, but talks with Canada have not gone as smoothly—possibly because Trump insists that any deal will be "totally on our terms," according to remarks leaked earlier this month. Sources tell CNBC that US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer might issue the text of the Mexico deal, with framework to add Canada at a later date, as soon as Friday. Trump told the press conference that he refuses to use the name NAFTA. "What we're probably going to do is go with the USMC, like the United States Marine Corps, which I love," he said, though he added that it might be just "USM," for the United States and Mexico.

JUST WATCHED FBI: Missing Philly woman found alive Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH FBI: Missing Philly woman found alive 02:26 JUST WATCHED Abducted Philadelphia woman found alive Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Abducted Philadelphia woman found alive 01:52 JUST WATCHED Philadelphia abduction caught on video Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Philadelphia abduction caught on video 03:12 Maryland Judge Darryl G. Fletcher didn't set bail, due to the severity and number of charges in Virginia. "And he brought my baby home," she said through tears. At the news conference, Keisha Gaither hugged the lead investigators on the case, Detective Jim Sloan, who she said had sat at her kitchen table for hours after her daughter's abduction and promised he would bring her home. (Published Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014) New Surveillance Video Released in Woman's Abduction The 22-year-old was rescued from the car of her alleged kidnapper, 37-year-old Delvin Barnes, in a Jessup, Maryland, parking lot Wednesday afternoon, officials said. She's back with her family and she's very, very happy about that," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey told CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront." Carlesha Freeland-Gaither, 22, was rescued by federal agents on Nov. 5 following her abduction in Philadelphia three days prior. Barnes' arrest was the result of determined police work, a family's dedication to finding a daughter, and sheer luck, including a credit report so bad it led a car salesman to put a GPS device in Barnes' Ford in case it had to be repossessed. Tim Jones, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special supervisory agent, told reporters in Maryland on Wednesday night that Freeland-Gaither was hysterical when she was found. Agents blocked his way and took him into custody. "Once she had time to process what had happened you could tell she was emotionally distraught," he said. As late as Wednesday afternoon, detectives believed the abduction may have had some connection to people from Freeland-Gaither's childhood in Maryland, but police later said they believed Barnes, who was charged in 2005 with the violent rape of an estranged wife in Philadelphia and who has a long criminal record, targeted her at random. The abduction was caught on video, showing a man stalking the woman, grabbing her, and dragging her into a waiting Ford Taurus. Barnes will be charged federally in the alleged kidnapping and assault, said Edward Hanko, special agent-in-charge of the FBI's Philadelphia division. Taken after visiting godson On Sunday, Freeland-Gaither went to the house of her mother's godson, her aunt Dayah Freeland said, and took a bus toward home. Story highlights Carlesha Freeland-Gaither, 22, is "doing about as well as you can expect" Delvin Barnes admitted to the abduction, according to a criminal complaint He waives extradition to Virginia, where he faces other charges; no bail set Freeland-Gaither was found 3 days later in Maryland; Barnes didn't know her An ATM transaction, a grocery store receipt, a GPS device planted by a concerned car dealer and videos -- including one that showed a 22-year-old woman manhandled, knocked to the ground, then forced into a car just blocks from her Philadelphia home. Freeland-Gaither kept fighting -- even breaking out one of the passenger side windows -- but she couldn't stop the car from speeding away. The video, which police released Monday and which was widely broadcast, shows the woman kicking out two of the car's windows. DevelopingNew Clues in Woman's Violent Abduction An intense manhunt ensued with the search quickly expanding from Northwest Philadelphia to Aberdeen, Maryland, where Freeland-Gaither's ATM card was used by a man early Monday morning. Detectives got a break in the case from a woman living in Havre De Grace, Maryland. In her driveway, the woman found a bag of trash that included a receipt from an ACME supermarket in Northeast Philadelphia, a bag of Herr's potato chips and shattered glass. In the video, he could be seen buying the same chips that the woman found, police sources said. "We worked tirelessly, around the clock, investigated every lead that we had, and we really appreciate the public coming forward giving us a hand, giving us all the information that we were able to sit there and work on," Philadelphia Police Northwest Detective Division Capt. James Smith said, "Right now, we're just taking it on as a stranger investigation." PassTime has about 1.5 million such units out on the road, but has been only asked by law enforcement 10 to 15 times to track them as part of a criminal investigation, according to Schwartz. The next morning, the woman begged Barnes to let her use the phone and call her parents. As she spoke to her mom, she was able to indicate she was in trouble and told her mother to call 911, according to investigators. Delvin Barnes, 37, is accused of abducting a Philadelphia woman and holding her captive for three days. "First thing I'm going to do is hug her," she said. The dealer had placed a GPS device in the vehicle because of worries about Barnes' bad credit, according to Charles City County Sheriff's Office Capt. That girl managed to escape after two days, walking 2 miles naked and burned into a business seeking help. A warrant was issued and he was charged with attempted capital murder, abduction, forcible rape, malicious wounding, malicious injury with acid, explosives or fire and intimate object penetration, authorities said. The family made their way back to Philadelphia early Thursday morning in an effort to help the young woman move past the assault and begin the healing process right away, at home. The 22-year-old nursing assistant was released early Thursday from Maryland's Howard County General Hospital, having been reunited with her family after a harrowing three days. (Published Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014) "Thank you so much for having us in your prayers, thank you for keeping me up. At the commissioner's side, a smiling Keisha Gaither, Freeland-Gaither's mother, thanked law enforcement officials and the public for her daughter's safe return.

– A woman whose violent abduction was captured on surveillance video in Philadelphia has been found alive and well in Maryland, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Carlesha Freeland-Gaither, 22, is in good condition, and police say her assailant, identified as 37-year-old Delven Barnes, is in custody. NBC Philadelphia reports that police rescued Freeland-Gaither from a vehicle on the side of a road in Jessup, Md., yesterday after Barnes stepped out of it. Authorities had identified it as the vehicle used in the abduction, tracked it to Maryland, and had it under surveillance. Philadelphia's police chief called Barnes a "vicious predator" and said he hoped he'd spend the rest of his life in jail. Authorities say Freeland-Gaither, a nursing assistant, did not know her assailant, with Philadelphia's police commissioner telling CNN it appears to be a "stranger abduction." A number of media sources are reporting that Barnes is wanted in connection with a violent incident in Charles City County, Va., and CNN details the "horrific allegations": Per a local police official, a 16-year-old girl who went missing on Oct. 1 was found naked and bleeding two days later, having allegedly been kept at Barnes' home where bleach and gasoline were poured on her. She remains in the hospital, where she is recovering from third-degree burns. Barnes is expected to be charged with abduction, forcible rape, and malicious wounding with a chemical in connection with that crime today. Meanwhile, Freeland-Gaither is back in Philly, reports the Times Dispatch.

LeBron's most serious historical competition comes, as it always does, from Michael Jordan, and his starring turn in the partially animated Warner Brothers corporate bonanza “Space Jam,” from 1996. James had the benefit of working with living, breathing, funny humans, and with a script that let him be a silly version of his real self—but even so, it is a pleasant surprise to see James, who is sometimes referred to as a kind of charmless basketball cyborg, display some Jordan-level charisma. Word of the deal immediately sparked speculation that it could mean that "Space Jam 2" could be in the works. (Photo: Andrew Toth, FilmMagic) LeBron James is going Hollywood.

– If you liked LeBron James in the new Amy Schumer film—critics did—get ready for much more. The NBA star has signed a deal with Warner Bros. that includes movies, TV, and digital content, reports USA Today. The deal with James' production company, SpringHill Entertainment, led to speculation that a sequel to Space Jam—the 1996 cult favorite with Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny—might be in the works, notes CNNMoney. If so, the studio wasn't saying. Details on the deal weren't announced.

Protesters began marching down Market Street, the city's main diagonal artery, toward the Ferry Building, blocking traffic in places. According to local news accounts, BART officers arrested four people on the Civic Center Station train platform not long after Monday's protest began. Monday's rush-hour protest was the latest in a series of online and street demonstrations against the transit agency since a BART police officer fatally shot 45-year-old Charles Blair Hill, a transient, at the Civic Center Station on July 3, allegedly as Hill wound up to throw a knife. BART authorities closed and re-opened the Powell Street station four times between 5:47 p.m. and 8:24 p.m., with the station remaining closed for a total of one hour and 38 minutes. Commuters had packed the Civic Center station earlier than usual for the evening rush-hour commute Monday afternoon, in an effort to get out of town before the scheduled 5 p.m. start of the protest.

– Some 45 people were arrested yesterday during the latest protest against San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit's decision to cut cellphone service to foil a demonstration earlier this month. The protests forced the closure of two stations at rush hour, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. BART police arrested five who were protesting at the Civic Center platform; city police busted 40 others when they refused to disperse from two street-level protests. Witnesses described shouting matches between the demonstrators and angry commuters facing chaos for the second time in seven days, the Los Angeles Times reports, and the Chronicle paints a picture of what commuters had to deal with: The Powell Station was opened and closed four times and the Civic Center station three times, as BART officials warily eyed the shifting protests. The BART board meets tomorrow to discuss the possibility of adopting a policy on when, if at all, the agency can cut its wireless network.

A photo posted by Kendall Jenner (@kendalljenner) on Jun 21, 2015 at 10:06am PDT PHOTOS: Justin Timberlake & Other Famous Parents Celebrate Father's Day Her younger sister Kylie, 17, also posted a childhood family photo writing, "Happy Father's Day my little light of sunshine. I'm glad I had a dad who was there on my birthday," Kate told Vanity Fair back in 2000. Thank you 🙏 Happy Fathers Day I love you to the moon and back.

– Just because we haven't heard from Charlie Sheen in a while doesn't mean all is well in his world. Yesterday, Sheen celebrated Father's Day by tweeting, apparently about ex-wife Denise Richards—mother of his two daughters—"D Richards is a heretic washed up piglet Shame pile. Happy Father's Day!!!" That's according to Time, which notes that Sheen later deleted that tweet as well as one apparently referring to second ex-wife Brooke Mueller: "Brooke M is a sexy rok star whom I adore." But he kept online a super vulgar open letter he wrote to Richards that calls her, among other things, a "doosh phace." Richards' Father's Day tweet to Sheen, for comparison: "Happy Dad's Day! @charliesheen have a great trip in Mexico! Kids were disappointed u weren't here for it- Hey we'll celebrate when u r back!" Another celebrity who took to social media to rant on Father's Day: Oliver Hudson. The actor, son of Goldie Hawn and brother of Kate Hudson, shared a picture on Instagram of himself and his famous sis, as children, with their dad, Bill Hudson. But the caption wasn't exactly sweet: "Happy abandonment day..." The Huffington Post reports that both Kate and Oliver have spoken out about their estranged biological father before, with Kate calling Hawn's longtime partner, Kurt Russell, her real dad. She Instagrammed a photo of herself and Russell yesterday with the caption, "Pa, just simply..... Thank you. Happy Fathers Day I love you to the moon and back." (Here's what two of Caitlyn Jenner's kids Instagrammed on Father's Day.)

Until the Nordic Orion, however, the passage was travelled mostly by icebreakers, tugs and small cargo ships hauling supplies to northern communities, as well as adventurers undertaking the journey in rowboats and even Jet Skis. "The Northwest Passage is more than 1,000 nautical miles shorter than the traditional shipping route through the Panama Canal and will save time, fuel and reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but even more importantly increase the amount of cargo per transit 25 percent," it said. Nordic Bulk Carriers, the Danish operator of the ship, estimated that the route saved around $80,000 worth of fuel. LONDON A large freighter completed a voyage through the hazardous Arctic Northwest Passage for the first time this week, showing the potential for cutting shipment times and costs as global warming opens new routes.

– Sure, scientists are nearly positive that humans are heating up the planet, but there's an upside: more efficient shipping. For the first time, a major freighter has crossed the Northwest Passage in the Arctic, reports the Toronto Globe and Mail. The 735-foot Nordic Orion achieved the feat this week when it entered Baffin Bay. Doing so shaved 1,000 nautical miles off the usual route through the Panama Canal and saved the freighter's Danish operators about $80,000 worth of fuel, reports Reuters. The fact that the ship burned less fuel than normal might be a small silver lining for environmentalists—until they see its cargo: coal, and lots of it, bound from British Columbia to Finland. And because the freighter didn't have to pass through the shallow Panama Canal, it was able to carry 25% more of the stuff, reports the National Post. The feat is expected to speed up international talks on shipping regulations for the passage, which until now had been mostly theoretical, notes the Globe and Mail.

One of Mr. Page’s vocal cords was paralyzed after a viral infection 14 years ago, and the second was left with limited movement after a cold last summer. Voice specialists said that it was extremely rare for a patient to experience paralysis or limited movement in both vocal cords, and that, as of now, the condition could not be reversed. "Thankfully, after some initial recovery I'm fully able to do all I need to at home and at work, though my voice is softer than before," Page wrote. Page wrote in a post on his Google+ page that his doctors speculate it's virus-based nerve damage from a terrible cold he suffered 14 years ago, though they can't pinpoint a definitive cause. because I choose my words more carefully,” he added, referring to Sergey Brin, who founded Google with Mr. Page didn't say why he ultimately revealed his condition, or why he chose Tuesday to do so. But Page revealed on Tuesday that he's perfectly healthy, and his raspy voice is due to vocal cord paralysis. Page's voice issues surfaced last June, when Google (GOOG) announced he had "lost his voice" and would skip the company's upcoming quarterly earnings call and other events. Page also said that he is funding a "significant research program" through the Voice Health Institute, and he included a link to a survey seeking data from vocal cord paralysis sufferers.

– Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page has broken his silence about the condition that prevented him from speaking publicly last summer, sparking fears he may have had an undisclosed, life-threatening illness. Page says he is in good health, but his left vocal cord has been paralyzed since he caught a bad cold in 1999, and the second one was paralyzed by another cold last summer, CNN reports. Paralysis in both cords is extremely rare and experts say the condition—which has left Page with a weak, raspy voice—can't currently be reversed, the New York Times reports. In a post on his Google+ page, Page said he also has the thyroid condition Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and it's not clear whether it is related to his vocal cord problems. "Thankfully, after some initial recovery, I’m fully able to do all I need to at home and at work, though my voice is softer than before," he wrote, adding that Google co-founder Sergey Brin says Page is "probably a better CEO because I choose my words more carefully." Page says he is funding a Voice Health Institute research program to help people with the same condition.

It’s not yet clear where McCotter fits into the field, or what expectations he has for the campaign.

– Thaddeus McCotter is officially in the GOP race for president, but you'll be forgiven if you missed today's campaign launch. The conservative Michigan congressman announced at a small music festival, and the news got little coverage. Or bemused coverage: "Perhaps announcing a presidential candidacy at a music festival in a park in Whitmore Lake, Mich., on a holiday weekend was not the best timing to garner national media coverage," writes Andrew Malcolm at the Los Angeles Times. McCotter gave a 10-minute speech—“What we need in Washington is someone who understands that the wave of the future is not big government, but self-government"—then jammed with the band on guitar. Politico notes that he's a favorite of conservative bloggers and radio hosts not only because of his Tea Party ethos but his droll sense of humor. Can that possibly overcome his huge deficit in name recognition and fundraising? "Never underestimate Thaddeus," his mom tells the Detroit News. His campaign website is here.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Violinist Wuilly Arteaga playing the Venezuelan national anthem amid the protests earlier in May Venezuelans have rallied online to help a violist who had his instrument broken during a protest. Wuilly Arteaga has become a regular fixture at the country's street demonstrations, calmly playing classical tunes amid the chaos. "I was playing in the middle of the protest when National Guard vehicles approached us and one of the guards grabbed my violin by the strings," Arteaga told Colombian news channel NTN 24.

– Wuilly Arteaga has played his violin through weeks of anti-government protests in Venezuela, his songs enduring even as he was forced to dodge tear gas canisters hurled in his direction. But on Wednesday, the music was silenced. Arteaga—often seen playing Venezuela's national anthem on the front lines—says his violin was broken by the National Guard during a skirmish, reports CNN. "I was playing in the middle of the protest when the National Guards' motorcyclists came up and grabbed the violin by its strings," the 23-year-old says, per the BBC. He adds he held on and was dragged down the street by the motorcycle before an officer finally wrestled the violin from his grasp. His leg injured, Arteaga says he pleaded with the National Guard to return the violin and another officer eventually did. But Arteaga's reaction wasn't one of joy or relief. In a video, Arteaga—dressed as usual in the colors of the Venezuelan flag—is seen crying while holding a scuffed violin with its strings broken. Supporters have since reached out on social media with offers to buy him a new instrument, reports the BBC. It isn't clear when his music might return to the protests, but Arteaga previously told NPR, "There is no better time than now to be playing my music in the streets … This is the place we need it most, where we need music to have hope." Read more about the hellish situation in Venezuela here.

Story highlights Suspect contacted children online pretending to be Canadian singer Police are urging parents to be vigilant when it comes to online use (CNN) A man who allegedly posed as singer Justin Bieber online has been charged with more than 900 child sex offenses, including rape. The 42-year-old man allegedly used multiple platforms -- including Facebook and Skype -- to communicate with his victims, Australian police said in a statement Thursday. "This investigation demonstrates both the vulnerability of children that are utilising social media and communication applications and the global reach and skill that child sex offenders have to groom and seduce victims," Detective Inspector Rouse said. "The breadth of offences committed in this instance are frankly horrendous and I want to recognise the efforts and commitment of the investigative team at Taskforce Argos to keeping children safe."

– A man who reportedly pretended to be Justin Bieber online has been charged with more than 900 child sex offenses in a case police in Queensland, Australia, call "frankly horrendous." The 42-year-old Brisbane law professor was charged with grooming and exploiting children last fall and was charged with another 931 offenses, including rape, this week after cops found a huge amount of child exploitation material on his computer, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports. "The breadth of offenses committed in this instance are frankly horrendous," says Queensland Detective Inspector Jon Rouse. Investigators believe his crimes go back at least 10 years. Police say the man, who's already in jail and will be back in court next month, used platforms like Facebook and Skype to communicate with his victims, pretending to be the Canadian singer to persuade children under 16 to send him explicit images, CNN reports. "The fact that so many children could believe that they were communicating with this particular celebrity highlights the need for a serious rethink about the way that we as a society educate our children about online safety," Rouse says. The Courier Mail identifies the suspect as Gordon Douglas Chalmers, who was refused bail after his arrest in November when he refused to let investigators access his online accounts.

"While the San Andreas GPS data has been publicly available for more than a decade, the vertical component of the measurements had largely been ignored in tectonic investigations because of difficulties in interpreting the noisy data," study lead author Samuel Howell, a doctoral candidate in ocean and earth science and technology at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, said in a statement. “Using this technique, we were able to break down the noisy signals to isolate a simple vertical motion pattern that curiously straddled the San Andreas fault.” The GPS records, which were studied by a slew of research teams from University of Hawaii at Manoa, University of Washington and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, also reveal nearly 125-mile long "lobes" of motion that straddles the fault system. A new analysis of GPS data has revealed previously undiscovered movement along the San Andreas Fault, which forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American plate and spans much of California.

– Scientists have detected previously unknown movement along the San Andreas Fault, although the discovery doesn't change the two most important facts: There will be a major quake along the California fault at some point, and nobody knows just when it will happen. The analysis of GPS data found that large areas of land along the fault, including the Los Angeles Basin, are rising by 2mm to 3mm a year—which NBC San Francisco notes counts as major movement in seismic terms—while other areas, including Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, are sinking. The motion makes it seem like the huge 125-mile lobes of land along the fault are "doing the wave in slow motion," reports Live Science. Lead study author Sam Howell of the University of Hawaii tells the Los Angeles Times that the movement is the result of a buildup of seismic energy, which will eventually be released in an earthquake. He says they happen along the fault roughly every 150 years, and while the last major one was 159 years ago, stress has been building up in some areas for centuries longer. The movement will help researchers "understand more about how the fault is behaving and the effect it's going to have in the surrounding region," he says, though it won't be any help in predicting an exact date for the next quake. "It's pretty much impossible to say when the next one will happen." (The director of the Southern California Earthquake Center says the southern part of the fault "looks like it's locked, loaded, and ready to go.")

Is the person serving your kids Mister Softee an evil murderer? No, probably not. Photo via Flickr user Martin Kelley If you want to sell soft-serve out of a truck, be prepared to be treated like a criminal. In Tucson, Arizona, prospective ice cream men must get their fingerprints taken by the cops before being granted a license. In Napa, California, regulations state that you must be both “interviewed and fingerprinted by the Napa Police Department.” All around the country, in fact, people who want to sell frozen treats have to check in with law enforcement first. Don Knabe, the chairman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, is completely on board with this trend—in fact, he wants LA County, population 10 million, to subject every ice cream truck driver within its borders to the same screening process applied to those seeking to conduct commerce involving “explosives, weapons, and adult businesses.” That means “inkless electronic fingerprinting,” which can be used to generate “a report of criminal history” and kept in a database forever. Knabe plans on introducing the measure this May. Why is he doing this? According to his spokesperson Cheryl Burnett, the supervisor’s interest was sparked by a call from a nervous constituent. “A resident in Hacienda Heights said that her son was followed home by an ice cream vendor and threatened,” Burnett explained. “He subsequently checked out clean by the sheriff's department, but parents still have concerns.” Outside the realm of “concern” there are only a few isolated incidents of ice cream men committing violent crimes: In 2012 a 14-year-old girl in Raleigh, North Carolina, was allegedly abducted and assaulted by a driver, and in 2013 a 72-year-old vendor in the LA area was arrested in 2013 for allegedly violating a court order that required him to stay away from kids. If there’s an epidemic of popsicle-dealing pedophiles, it hasn’t made the news. Still, just because the threat has not materialized does not mean it never will; it is, like almost anything in life, possible. “It would be easy to have a child walk inside the van and disappear from sight,” Burnett told me. “The potential exists for a serious situation. We have an ordinance that keeps these vendors 1,000 feet from schools, but there is concern that is not enough.” The vendors I spoke to said they would be happy to oblige should they be asked to give over their prints—but then, what ice cream truck driver would want to be quoted by name opposing a criminal background check? Nastasha Case, the CEO of LA-based ice cream company Coolhaus, said that she didn't have a real problem with Knabe's proposal, as many cities in the LA area already require fingerprinting of vendors. Besides, “I have nothing to hide,” she said. “Better safe then sorry!” “How bad could a finger scan be?” asked Rick Gaez of Good Times Classic Ice Cream. But while not terribly concerned about having his own prints on file, he told me he was still a “a little conflicted.” “I want kids to be safe, but I don't know if that will help,” he said. “That seems like such a waste of time and resources.” Gaez also wondered if requiring fingerprints might just be a way for some local governments to “hassle immigrants for something [they] see as an eyesore.” Many food vendors in LA County are Latinos, and if you don't like them—or if you just don't like the music they play—one way to get some off the streets is by making them to register with the cops, which can scare off even those without criminal records, particularly if they’re worried about their legal status. “Many people enter the ice cream vending industry because they found other avenues of business ownership closed to them—often because they cannot obtain traditional financing from a bank,” said Chris Long, president of the International Association of Ice Cream Distributors and Vendors. While he said his organization supports “sexual offender checks,” those checks shouldn't single out ice cream vendors or “produce an excessive time or fiscal burden,” as that could pose an insurmountable hurdle to those seeking to enter the not particularly lucrative business of selling ice cream from a truck. Does this Flinstones-themed truck hide EVIL? Again, it's unlikely. Photo via Flickr user satanslaundromat Again, all this scrutiny is totally unnecessary—there’s no violent crime wave being caused by ice cream men or anyone else. From 2007 to 2012, LA County experienced a 30 percent drop in reports of serious crimes like murder and rape (though it should be noted that the vast majority of rapes are never reported). Since 1982, the crime rate has dropped 61 percent. But we are taught to be afraid of each other by television, the police themselves, and now social media. One example of this effect in action: In May 2013, police in Menomie, Wisconsin, were forced to issue a statement denying a rumor circulating that men in a white van selling ice cream were trying to abduct kids. Local news station WEAU quoted one example of the hysterical Facebook posts going around: ATTENTION MENOMONIE AREA RESIDENTS!! There are a couple of guys in a white conversion van with MN plates that has ice cream stickers on one side and Superman/Captain America stickers on the other side. They are said to be going around Menomonie and Western Wisconsin trying to abduct women and children. This is NOT a joke, or rumor...some children in Downsville ran inside to their mom saying that the men tried to get them to go inside the van. Please keep your eyes on your children & pay attention to your surroundings!! “Again,” the station reported, “police and deputies say this is a legitimate ice cream truck, and no women or children are in danger.” But fear is a powerful thing, particularly when stoked by those in power who would love to have everyone's fingerprints on file—and now have the technological capacity to pull it off. “Fingerprinting is becoming a more common part of the background checks conducted on people who work with children and other vulnerable populations,” the Boston Globe reported in October 2013, after the practice spread across the state of Massachusetts. “These are positions that involve some amount of public access and public trust,” Belmont, Massachusetts, police captain Peter Hoerr told the Globe. Hoerr helped write a measure in his town requiring ice cream truck drivers, door-to-door salespeople, and others to be subjected to fingerprinting and background checks in order to get a business license. “This kind of checking for licenses could not have been an option ten years ago,” he said. In the past, it would have been a burden for local police to be inundated with so many fingerprints from people unlikely to ever be implicated in a crime. It used to take an expert hours to manually examine two sets of prints, but now those prints can be stored digitally and checked against a national criminal database in a matter of seconds. As far as the police are concerned, there is no downside. They want to fingerprint entire groups of people for the same reason police departments in small towns get a tank: because they can. And the political class is always willing to hand the police more powers, imagined threats to our children trumping concerns about civil liberties. As Wellesley Selectwoman Terri Tsagaris said in the Globe article, “there are some people who are concerned that it could become intrusive,” all this fingerprinting of people who haven't committed any crimes, but “I think that we decided we would rather err on the side of safety.” But why stop with ice cream trucks? What about people who live near a school? Or a park? Or anyone who can ever potentially come in contact with a person under 18—should we not have their fingerprints and retina scans and DNA swabs on file, just in case? Family members are statistically more likely to harm a child than a complete stranger, so we can't forget about them, either. Or even better, we could decide it's not worth giving the police more power to address problems that exist only on your Aunt Kathy's Facebook. Charles Davis is a writer in Los Angeles. His work has been published by Al Jazeera, Inter Press Service, the New Inquiry, and Salon.

– Overreach or a necessary precaution? Los Angeles County supervisors might require ice-cream truck vendors to undergo background checks before they can drive around ringing bells and selling frozen treats to kids, reports the LA Times. The supervisor behind the push, Don Knabe, says his measure is vital to protect children because such vendors typically find many of their customers at parks or similar places where kids are often unsupervised. "We could be unknowingly permitting dangerous individuals to come into contact with innocent children," he argues. But at Vice, Charles Davis sees it as needless fear-mongering. If there's a supposed crime wave happening in LA or anywhere else involving ice-cream vendors, he'd like to hear about it. "Why stop with ice cream trucks?" he wonders. "What about people who live near a school? Or a park? Or anyone who can ever potentially come in contact with a person under 18—should we not have their fingerprints and retina scans and DNA swabs on file, just in case?"

Image copyright Kenneth Kong Image caption The logic question posted by Mr Kong is now known as 'Cheryl's Birthday' A school maths question posted on Facebook by a Singaporean TV presenter has stumped thousands, and left many asking if that's really what is expected of Singaporean students. This genre of logic puzzles is baffling in large part because people rarely act this way. Cheryl separately gives two new friends some details about when she was born, including a list of 10 possible birth dates. The question asks readers to guess the birthday of a girl called Cheryl using the minimal clues she gives to her friends, Albert and Bernard. Their rejection was that "since Bernard did not say that he does not know when Cheryl's birthday is, then how did Albert know that Bernard does not know?" Why don’t Albert and Bernard just blurt out what Cheryl has told them? Image copyright facebook But it later emerged it was for students aged about 15 taking part in last week's Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiads (Sasmo). It was posted online Friday by a Singaporean television presenter and quickly went viral — perhaps because the problem was initially misidentified as one intended for 10- and 11-year-olds. — mrbrown (@mrbrown) April 14, 2015 So when is Cheryl's birthday? — Songhua (@songboh) April 12, 2015 There was so much attention focused on this problem that the Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiads organizers released a statement clarifying who the problem was intended for, so that “Singapore parents will not start to worry so much.” [The inside story of the ‘white dress, blue dress’ drama that divided a planet] The question is actually from a test given to students who are sophomores or juniors in high school — not middle school kids.

– Never mind the color of that dress: When is Cheryl's birthday? The latest viral puzzler to stump the Internet started out as a question for students in Singapore and spread around the world after it was posted here, reports the Washington Post. Students were asked to determine the birthday of a girl called Cheryl, who had given new friends Albert and Bernard a list of 10 possible dates and told one boy the month and the other the day. The puzzler was initially identified as one for 10- or 11-year-old students, causing mild alarm for Singaporean parents, but it turned out to be a question for high school sophomores and juniors at the Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiads. "It's a really difficult question for younger kids, so that's why people were so shocked at first ... but now that people know it's for older students, they just think it's quirky," the Singapore TV presenter who first posted it tells the BBC. The math competition posted the answer here. At the New York Times, Kenneth Chang provides a detailed explanation while wondering, "Why is Cheryl so coy about revealing the month and day, but not year, of her birthday? What else is Cheryl trying to hide?" (A Tacoma man developed incredible mathematical abilities after being beaten up outside a karaoke bar.)

SALT LAKE CITY — A Moroni man has died from rabies, the first death of its kind in Utah since 1944. Other family members are also getting vaccinated, though the supply of vaccine is limited within the state. We took him off of all of his sedatives on the 25th...it was time for him to wake up...only he didn't wake up. The doctors no longer feel that there is anything that they can do to help him, and our family has had to make the very hard decision to have him removed from life support on Sunday. "My dad has always been a giver," Crystal Sedgewick, Giles' daughter who set up the page said. "During the final 24 hours that he was still able to speak with us, he was in a delusional state, and he still couldn't stop talking about all the people that he needed to help and favors that he had yet to follow through with." Just over 2 weeks ago, my dad was experiencing back pain. From there, it can be less than a week until a person is in a coma.

– Gary Giles and his wife, Juanita, would often use their hands to catch the bats that would end up flying around inside their home in Moroni, Utah, and they never had any issues. "The bats would lick our fingers, almost like they could taste the saltiness of our fingers, but they never bit us," Juanita Giles tells KSL. But things started going south with Gary Giles' health in mid-October, when he first started experiencing neck and back pain, and he headed to the ER on Oct. 19. He was treated and sent home with meds, but soon he was wheezing and feeling numbness and tingling, and he was rushed by ambulance to the ER. He died at the age of 55 Sunday, surrounded by his family, and doctors say the cause of death was rabies, likely from the bats. It's Utah's first death from rabies in almost 75 years. On a GoFundMe that has raised more than $7,300 to help the family pay for medical and funeral costs, one of Giles' daughters explains her dad was transferred to the ICU on Oct. 20, and the family was told he was in a coma on Oct. 26. He was taken off life support Sunday. A Utah Department of Health epidemiologist tells KSL contracting rabies is rare, and that bats are the most common cause in Utah, but that once symptoms pop up—and they can take three to 12 weeks to emerge—it's usually fatal. He adds people may not even feel the bat's tiny claws or teeth puncturing the skin. "I've always thought bats were kind of cute," Juanita Giles tells KSL, adding she and her husband would sometimes "wake up in the night and they would be walking on our bed." She adds: "I had no idea the kind of risk we were at." (A New Jersey woman strangled a rabid fox.)

FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2013, file photo, a man cleans a Ferrari 458 Speciale at the 65th Frankfurt Auto Show in Frankfurt, Germany. Video being shared online shows the aftermath of an accident on Saturday,... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2013, file photo, a man cleans a Ferrari 458 Speciale at the 65th Frankfurt Auto Show in Frankfurt, Germany. Video being shared online shows the aftermath of an accident on Saturday, August 6, 2013, when a driver backed into a nearly $300,000 Ferrari 458. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein,... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2013, file photo, a man cleans a Ferrari 458 Speciale at the 65th Frankfurt Auto Show in Frankfurt, Germany. Video being shared online shows the aftermath of an accident on Saturday, August 6, 2013, when a driver backed into a nearly $300,000 Ferrari 458. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein,... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2013, file photo, a man cleans a Ferrari 458 Speciale at the 65th Frankfurt Auto Show in Frankfurt, Germany. Video being shared online shows the aftermath of an accident on Saturday,... (Associated Press) GREAT FALLS, Va. (AP) — One driver may be giving her insurance company an expensive bill after she accidently backed into a nearly $300,000 Ferrari while attempting to parallel park outside a Virginia coffeehouse. Video being shared online shows the aftermath of the Saturday accident in Great Falls, near Washington, D.C. It shows the rear of the woman's Mercedes convertible sitting on the hood of a Ferrari 458 Speciale with a car alarm blaring. It happened at a weekly meeting of local car enthusiasts. One man asks the woman who was behind the wheel of the Mercedes: "Are you serious?" Fairfax County police say they helped the drivers exchange information, but no one will be charged. The Ferrari 458 lists for more than $290,000 and tops out at over 200 miles per hour.

– One driver may be giving her insurance company an expensive bill after she accidentally backed into a nearly $300,000 Ferrari while attempting to parallel park outside a Virginia coffeehouse, the AP reports. Video being shared online shows the aftermath of the Saturday accident in Great Falls, near Washington, DC. It shows the rear of the woman's Mercedes convertible sitting on the hood of a Ferrari 458 Speciale with a car alarm blaring. It happened at a weekly meeting of local car enthusiasts. One man asks the woman who was behind the wheel of the Mercedes: "Are you serious?" Fairfax County police say they helped the drivers exchange information, but no one will be charged. The Ferrari 458 lists for more than $290,000 and tops out at over 200mph.

But after posting a picture of the discovery on Facebook, Dennis Fabricius Holm quickly found that the item may have a lot more significance than he had initially thought. “This is a sensational find that dates from the first half of the 10th century BCE,” Beck told DR. “There is a near identical figure, found in Sweden, which has been dated to this period.” The discovery of Christian artefacts from this period in Denmark is particularly remarkable as it predates the Jelling Stone, the giant carved rune stone from the year 965 that is considered to be the earliest Danish representation of Jesus on the cross. It’s different from its siblings in being decorated on the reverse and having no thumb, but to my eye there’s little else this fragment could be from.

– Denmark's Dennis Fabricius Holm got off work early on March 11 and decided to go for a stroll with his metal detector near the town of Aunslev. "Suddenly I hit upon something," he tells national broadcaster DR, per the Local. "Ever since I turned over the clump of earth and saw the cross, I've been unable to think of anything else." Holm had indeed made "an absolutely sensational discovery," says archaeologist Malene Beck of the Ostfyns Museum. The 1.5-inch-tall pendant, complete with gold threads and filigree pellets, features the image of an open-armed man and is almost identical to a silver crucifix found in Sweden, visible here. A release speculates it was worn by a Viking woman. The Independent calls it "one of the most well preserved Christian artifacts found in Denmark," but its date, AD900 to AD950, is what most intrigues experts. Christian missionaries were known to be in Denmark in the eighth century, but the oldest known depiction of Jesus on a cross in Denmark—on what is known as the Jelling Stones—didn't appear until AD965. It was believed to signify the start of the conversion of the Danes, most of whom were Christian by 1050. But since the pendant predates the Jelling Stones by at least 15 years, it "can therefore help to advance the time when one considers that the Danes really were Christians," Beck says. "The person who wore it would undoubtedly have adhered to the Christian faith." She adds the find is so significant that the history books will need to be rewritten. "I have not yet grasped that find's influence on Denmark's history," Holm tells TV2. "It is hard to comprehend." (Last year, a man with a metal detector uncovered Nazi-era treasure.)

Madonna was reportedly texting up a storm while attending the New York Film Festival premiere of 12 Years A Slave last week and reacted in a rather spectacularly annoyed manner when asked to stop (‘It’s for business … enslaver!”). When this video first hit the Internet a couple years ago, it became a viral sensation (and yes, the voicemail is real, the story behind it here): Until she apologizes to movie fans, Madonna is banned from watching movies @drafthouse.

– Madonna made headlines last week for texting while watching the premiere of 12 Years a Slave at the New York Film Festival. And as a result, she's not welcome ... at a theater chain based in Texas. The CEO of the Alamo Drafthouse chain, known for its awesome no-talking-no-texting rules, tweeted Friday: "Until she apologizes to movie fans, Madonna is banned from watching movies @drafthouse." Tim League tells Entertainment Weekly he is indeed serious about the ban, but added, "I don't think it really affects her life that much." He says the whole thing started out as a joke and a way of pointing out that texting while watching movies is rude, but "now that it seems to have taken hold, sure, I’m going to enforce it." Click to see how Madonna responded when she was called out on her texting.

– A second shooting is making headlines Wednesday, this one across the country from the morning assault near DC. Police in San Francisco say multiple people have been shot and killed at a UPS facility in the city, reports ABC7. Authorities say a UPS employee opened fire during a morning meeting for drivers. Three employees were killed and two others injured. Authorities say the shooter shot himself in the head when confronted by police, later dying at the hospital, the Los Angeles Times reports. A UPS spokesperson says the shooter was wearing his uniform at the time of the incident. No motivation for the shooting has been given.

Crimen injuria is a crime under the South African common law. It is defined as the act of “unlawfully, intentionally and seriously impairing the dignity of another.” Racial insults using racially offensive language and emotional or psychological abuse are considered as the crimes under crimen injuria.

– Vicky Momberg didn't just say the slur one time to black police officers. She said it nearly 50 times, and that rant has now earned her a three-year prison sentence, with one year suspended. The BBC calls the South African ruling a "landmark" one, as it's the first time there a white person has been sentenced to prison for racism. Her conviction and sentencing arose out of an incident that happened in Johannesburg in February 2016, when Momberg made an emergency call to say she'd been robbed. When black cops showed up to help her, she didn't like that, and hurled the word "kaffir"—an offensive word often used to describe blacks during the era of apartheid—at them a total of 48 times in what the BBC deems a "rage-filled, vitriolic assault." Someone caught her diatribe on tape, and it soon went viral. "I do not want a black person to assist me," she can be heard saying in the video (edited version here), per BuzzFeed, before threatening to run the cops over and shoot "everybody." Momberg was convicted in November of crimen injuria, the use of racial or other emotionally damaging insults that "unlawfully, intentionally, and seriously [impair] the dignity of another." Momberg's lawyers argued she'd gone through an "emotional storm" after being robbed, per the BBC, and that she should be sent to rehab, not a jail cell. Many online celebrated Momberg's sentence, though some agreed she needs help. One commenter on Twitter called her a "hateful racist" but noted that "paying damages to the cop she insulted & community service in a black community" would have served as a more "restorative justice" than prison time. Momberg's attorney says she'll appeal the conviction and sentence.

It’s a good looking home, which is why the Schwartzes of nearby village Cedarhurst may have copied it. BUILD YOUR OWN: Long Island couple sues neighbors for copying their mansion https://t.co/KW59ZTXO5G pic.twitter.com/pevWEYnfnJ — New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) July 7, 2016 In what might be the snootiest case of copyright infringement ever recorded, a Long Island couple is suing another wealthy Long Island couple for allegedly copying the design of their custom mansion, according to the New York Daily News. Rivka Fortgang, an interior and exterior home designer from Five Towns, and her husband, Seth are now suing to block the mansion on Villa Place in Cedarhurst from being built because it will look nearly identical to their own home on Auerbach Lane in Lawrence, just a mile away. The Fortgangs “constructed their unique home from the ground up, creating a visually distinctive and unique exterior stucco façade” in 2005 and copyrighted the original architectural drawings under the name “Fortgang Residence I,” according to the suit, filed Thursday in Long Island federal court. The couple claims the firm Pereiras Architects Ubiquitous and property owners Daniella and Ari Schwartz accessed their exclusive plans in property records last August through the Lawrence buildings department — without their permission. The facade of the home consists of a pair of outset banks of windows that straddle the front door and another set of windows above it, beneath a gabled roof that has a trio of peaked attic windows. Daniel Schloss, the lawyer for Daniella and Ari Schwartz who are building the Cedarhurst mansion, argues in court papers that the Fortgangs' design features are not so special that they are covered under the Copyright Act. “We note that the exterior façade of the Fortgang resident consists of several windows, rather generic gables, and entry way doors,” attorney Daniel Schloss wrote in a court filing. Schloss also noted that the Villa property is “literally in another town and separated from the Fortgang residence by several major thoroughfares and commercial districts.” The accused copycats agreed to temporarily halt construction “pending certain changes and amendments to its exterior façade elements,” court papers show. But Rivka Fortgang claims that the copied building is hurting her reputation, and the Schwartz family has agreed to postpone construction on the home until the matter can be settled. The Fortgangs' lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.

– In 2005, Long Island couple Seth and Rivka Fortgang built their dream home in the village of Lawrence and copyrighted the architectural plans to ensure that it remained truly one-of-a-kind. Now Rivka, an interior and exterior designer who envisioned the whole project, says her business and reputation are suffering because a nearly identical house is being built in Cedarhurst just a mile away, reports the New York Post. Among the Fortgangs' accusations, per their copyright infringement lawsuit: "There is no doubt that [Daniella and Ari Schwartz] have accessed and intentionally copied the plans of the Fortgang residence" by way of the Lawrence Buildings Department with the intention of aping the design. Atlas Obscura observes that the locations of the window and gables do seem similar. The Schwartzes have thus far responded through their attorney, Daniel Schloss, and contend that while the design features being shared are too "generic" to be covered under the Copyright Act, they are temporarily postponing construction "in the interests of professional courtesy," reports the New York Daily News. The Fortgangs' attorney hasn't commented beyond the lawsuit. Real estate website Zillow puts the Fortgang house, which is 4,400 square feet and features 5.5 bathrooms, at $1.48 million. (Check out where this reclusive heiress hid the architectural plans of a mansion she never spent a night in.)

Bernie Sanders arrives at a campaign rally at the Wisconsin Convention Center on April 4, 2016 in Milwaukee, Wis. | Getty Bernie Sanders wins Wisconsin Democratic primary Bernie Sanders has won the Wisconsin Democratic primary, according to three television networks. While Sanders remains a powerful force in the Democratic primary, a win over Hillary Clinton would do little to significantly cut into her delegate lead.

– Just one state voted Tuesday, but there was still plenty at stake in Wisconsin for both parties—and it was a good night for Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders. On the Republican side, Cruz scored an easy victory over Donald Trump and John Kasich, reports CNN. With 97% or results in, Cruz has 48%, Trump 35%, and Kasich 14%. On the Democratic side, Sanders comfortably defeated Hillary Clinton 56% to 43%. Wisconsin has 42 delegates at stake for Republicans, and even though it's not winner-take-all, the Cruz victory will be a boost in his quest to keep Trump from securing the necessary number of delegates ahead of the GOP convention. "Tonight is a turning point," Cruz told supporters after the race was called. "It is a rallying cry." He's winning, he added, because his campaign is uniting the Republican party. Sanders, meanwhile, can now boast of winning seven of the last eight contests, with delegate-rich New York up for grabs on April 19, reports Politico. In his own speech to supporters, Sanders emphasized the "momentum" of his campaign. "Real change never, ever takes place from the top on down," he said. "It always takes place from the bottom on up." For Democrats, 86 delegates were at stake on Tuesday. The AP reports that turnout was projected to be about 40% of eligible voters, the highest in a presidential primary in the state since 1980.

On a whole, Barnes & Noble's done a nice job here on the industrial design front, creating a tablet that's easily held, thanks in part to a slim width (7.7 x 5 x 0.43 inches to the Fire's 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.4) and light weight (11.1 ounces to the Fire's 13.9). But while you might not mind handing off a $200 tablet, you don't necessarily want to put all of your content into your kids' hands. The Nook also scored a solid 1,271ms score in our SunSpider testing. Plus, the Nook has a physical home button (like the iPad’s), a feature I wish every tablet had. The soft-touch back is where you’ll find the speakers, there’s also a micro-SD card slot along the bottom edge for storage expansion and an audio jack along the top edge. We prefer the spread-out placement of the stereo speakers on the Fire HD, which make it a bit harder to accidentally muffle the sound while holding the tablet during a movie -- not that the sound on the Nook HD is all that much to write home about, SRS TruMedia or no. (Update: Barnes & Noble contacted us to clarify that the HD+ has two speakers, they're just both behind a single grille.) Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble‘s new Nook HD, which arrives in the retailer’s stores this Thursday, competes with Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD about as directly as it’s possible for one product to rival another. Like on the iPad, the home button is a great “just press this if things get confusing” solution for the ever-evolving tablet interface. Profiles As evidenced by the lock screen, Barnes & Noble is really pushing the profile feature this time out -- and it's not hard to see why. However, I found it easy to add additional ones: A tap on the welcome message at the top of the screen displays all the user profiles associated with the device and the option to create more. At the top, you've got tabs which can be added to with the click of a plus sign. With a simple tap of the profile photo at the top of the screen, you can choose to switch to a new profile almost instantly. Each profile opens to a simple and intuitive home screen that offers a carousel (the latest interface metaphor craze) of recently viewed items (books, movies, games, apps, newspapers, magazines). Chrome is now the default Web browser and all (aside from Google now) Google service apps -- Gmail, Magazines, and Books, etc. At the very top of the page is a welcome and a “your Nook Today” button. Overall, the interface is much cleaner and intuitive than the Nook Tablet’s; however, I still have a few problems with navigation. All apps, music, videos, books, and magazines available on Google Play can now be downloaded directly to the Nook HD tablets. As for music — well, Barnes & Noble isn’t getting into that business itself, so it has no direct equivalent of Amazon’s well-stocked music store. Shop The Nook Shop design is fairly straightforward, offering up a rotating carousel of featured content in the upper left, with a list of pages of different content (book, magazines, movies & TV, et al) to its right. Barnes & Noble also doesn’t have a counterpart for Amazon’s $79/year Prime membership, which lets you stream a growing library of video and borrow books at no extra charge. Now, screen warping occurs to some extent on nearly every tablet; however, if you’re just holding the Nook HD while reading a book or watching a movie, you’ll likely have no cause to apply enough pressure to your Nook HD for this to be a problem. The Nook HD's higher resolution screen makes movies and games look sharper than on any other small tablet. If looking at a magazine for example, there’s no built-in navigation to view all magazines and you’re forced to use the home button and then navigate to another piece of content if you want to switch. If you’re doing your price-comparison math down to the last nickel, take note that the Nook HD comes with an AC adapter; with the Fire HD, that’ll cost you an extra 10 bucks. Priced (ad-free) at $199 for an 8GB model and $229 for 16GB, it's a great little piece of hardware for those looking for a reader that can also handle casual gaming and high-def videos. There are notifications in the center that you can tap to read (rather than the customary notification pull-down), the time, WiFi indicator, batter listing and settings icon.

– Barnes & Noble's Nook HD is by no means a world-changer, but most reviewers think those in the market for a modestly priced e-reader would be well advised to give the $199 device a close look. Dig into the source links for more details, but here are some bottom lines: Lance Ulanoff, Mashable: "It’s feature rich, fast, fluid, has an excellent interface, and is well worth $200. It’s the obvious choice for previous Nook owners and deserves serious consideration for those in the other e-reader and mid-sized tablet camps who may be considering jumping ship." Eric Franklin, CNET: It "can’t match competing tablets in media library breadth, but as long as you're not looking for bells and whistles, its sharp screen and comfortable body make it an ideal tablet choice for reading books and magazines. " Harry McCracken, Time: "With its featherweight form factor, sharp screen, and pleasant user interface, the Nook HD ... keeps Barnes & Noble in the cheap-tablet game it helped create with its original Nook Color. Anyone who’s got $199 to spend on a tablet should give this Nook a look." Brian Heater, Engadget: It's got a "great little screen" and "snappy performance," making it a "fine little tablet for the price." But "in a space where the Kindle and Nexus have been crowned champions, asking people to make the leap feels like a bit of a hard sell."

PHOENIX (AP) — Federal authorities allege that a former youth care worker at a Phoenix-area facility for immigrant youths sexually abused eight teenage boys, one of several cases brought to light in recent weeks as thousands of immigrant children remain detained around the country. Authorities charge that Pacheco performed sex acts on two boys and touched six others, all between ages 15 to 17 at the time. Court documents show Levian Pacheco faces several charges stemming from incidents that allegedly took place between August 2016 and July 2017 at a Southwest Key facility in Mesa. He said Southwest Key and the Health and Human Services department, which is in charge of caring for immigrant youths, take every incident seriously "and there is a never ending process to improve care and standards." His federal public defender, Benjamin Good, said, “We are looking forward to defending Mr. Pacheco in court.” Trump administration officials have repeatedly asserted that the shelters are safe, even fun, places for kids. But there has been increasingly intense scrutiny of the federally funded, privately run shelters after the administration separated some 3,000 children from their parents at the border and sent them to shelters and foster homes across the country. ProPublica published a report in July saying police responded to at least 125 calls reporting sex offenses at shelters that primarily serve immigrant children since 2014. One of those calls resulted in the conviction of a Tucson shelter worker for molestation. ProPublica only discovered Pacheco’s case while trying to find additional information about a vague reference to a molestation case in Arizona inspection records. On Tuesday, an employee at a Southwest Key facility in Phoenix, Fernando Magaz Negrete, was arrested on allegations that he sexually abused a 14-year-old girl by kissing her and rubbing her breast and crotch, according to Phoenix news outlets. And The Nation reported Friday that a 6-year-old girl who had been separated from her mother was allegedly fondled by a boy at another Southwest Key facility in Glendale, Arizona in June. “Any allegation of abuse or neglect is taken seriously.” In response to questions from ProPublica, Jeff Eller, a spokesman for Southwest Key, wrote in an email that he was unable to comment on specific cases. The report detailed a 2015 incident at a Tucson, Arizona, Southwest Key facility in which authorities said an employee touched a 15-year-old Honduran boy's penis from outside his clothing. Court documents also state that Pacheco is HIV-positive and that some of the teens opted to be tested for the virus.

– While the controversy surrounding immigrant children separated from their parents at the US border continues to swirl, the AP reports on troublesome news out of a shelter outside Phoenix. Per federal authorities, Levian Pacheco, who used to work for Southwest Key's Casa Kokopelli facility in Mesa, has pleaded not guilty to nearly a dozen sex offenses against at least eight immigrant boys, as originally detailed in ProPublica. Pacheco, 25, who court documents indicate is HIV-positive, is accused of performing oral sex on two of the teen boys, one of which he tried to anally rape, as well as of groping a half-dozen other teens through their clothes. The incidents were alleged to have taken place between August 2016 and July 2017. All of the victims were unaccompanied minors, though it's not clear if they were separated from their parents or came to the US alone. ProPublica goes into disturbing detail on accusations from each of Pacheco's eight alleged victims; records indicate "a couple" of the boys have requested HIV tests. ProPublica also documents other alleged instances of sexual abuse, fondling (by workers and other children), and runaways at sites run by Southwest Key, the biggest immigrant youth shelter operator in the US. The AP notes one of those cases: A former Southwest Key worker at a different facility than the one Pacheco worked at has been accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl. The alleged incident involving Fernando Magaz Negrete is said to have taken place June 27 in the girl's bedroom. In a statement, Southwest Key addresses the abuse allegations, outlining its hiring process and how it educates kids to protect themselves, noting, "Our number one priority ... is to keep the children in our care safe."

Although officials have not described a motive in the shooting death of a Jeannette teen Wednesday, the young man charged with murder in the case is said by police to have paused to take a phone camera self-portrait of himself and the victim after the shooting and sent it to another young man. Authorities say Maxwell Marion Morton took the picture after killing high school junior Ryan Mangan, 16, on Wednesday in Mangan’s home in the Pittsburgh suburb of Jeannette. He was arraigned before District Judge Joseph R. DeMarchis of Jeannette, was denied bail and is being held in the county jail. The investigating officers’ affidavit outlines what they believe happened: Rebecca Murtland, Ryan’s mother, first contacted police at about 6 p.m. Wednesday saying she had found her son dead, with a gunshot wound in the face. The criminal complaint also says that the mother of a third boy says her son received a Snapchat photo from Morton, which shows Morton in the photo with the victim after he had been shot in the face. “It also depicts a black male taking the ‘selfie’ with his face facing the camera and the victim behind the actor.” The affidavit went on to say that across the top of the selfie was the name “Maxwell.” The Tribune-Review said the selfie showed Mangan as he was found dead at the scene. The criminal complaint describes it as a “selfie.” The photo apparently also had the name “MAXWELL” written across the top. According to court documents, 16-year-old Maxwell Morton was taken into custody and is now facing criminal homicide charges. The woman also said her son received messages from Maxwell, stating, “Told you I cleaned up the shells” and “Ryan was not the last one.” The investigating officers said the photo depicts the victim as he was found at the crime scene. Authorities said Morton confessed to shooting Mangan with a 9 mm handgun that was found in the basement of Morton's home.

– A Pennsylvania teenager is behind bars after allegedly shooting a classmate in the head and taking an incriminating selfie of himself with the body, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports. According to court papers, 16-year-old Maxwell Morton sent the image to a friend via SnapChat, an app that deletes messages after a few seconds—but that friend saved the photo right away. And "the photo had the name 'Maxwell' across the top," says a police affidavit. Morton is also accused of sending text messages about the 16-year-old victim, Ryan Mangan, that read, "Told you I cleaned up the shells" and "Ryan was not the last one." Morton reportedly confessed to the killing after police found a 9mm pistol tucked away under his basement stairs in Jeannette, Pa. But his motive isn't clear, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes. "His name's never out there for being bad. I'm shocked," says a mom whose son was best friends with Morton; she suspects an accidental shooting. Her son tells CBS Pittsburgh that it "definitely makes it harder, not being able to know what really happened. Not being able to ask him and not being able to talk to him." A professor in California puts the selfie down to "criminal pathology rather than technology," saying criminals like "validating their power and self of self-importance" by bragging about their deeds. Morton was arraigned Friday on murder and other charges as an adult, and held without bail, Fox News reports.

The State Department has urged U.S. citizens in China to report any "symptoms or medical problems" they notice while in the country to a medical professional after a government employee experienced "subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure." The employee was brought to the United States for medical evaluation and on May 18 the Embassy learned that the clinical findings of the evaluation showed mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). Symptoms to be attentive for include dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, fatigue, cognitive issues, visual problems, ear complaints and hearing loss, and difficulty sleeping.

– A weird and singular case in China, where a US government employee stationed in the city of Guangzhou returned to America in April after reporting "subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure." An evaluation suggested the employee, stationed at the US Consulate there, had a "mild traumatic brain injury," a finding conveyed last week to the US Embassy in Beijing and one that spurred a State Department health alert issued Wednesday. The State Department's health advisory noted the cause of the symptoms is unknown. Both the State Department and Chinese government are investigating the case, reports CNN; the employee began reporting symptoms late last year, and no other American personnel are known to have experienced anything similar. "While in China, if you experience any unusual acute auditory or sensory phenomena accompanied by unusual sounds or piercing noises, do not attempt to locate their source. Instead, move to a location where the sounds are not present," recommends the State Department. US officials made no reference to Cuba, where similar reports have been made in relation to two dozen Americans, reports CBS News.

But South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) concluded that the latest missile still lacked re-entry technology although it flew as far as an ICBM does, Rep. Yi Wan-young of the Liberty Korea Party and Rep. Kim Byung-kee of the ruling Democratic Party said following the spy agency's parliamentary report on the July 4 launch. (ATTN: UPDATES throughout with more info) SEOUL, July 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has yet to fully secure the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) as it remains unknown whether the country's recently fired ballistic missile successfully re-entered the atmosphere, lawmakers said Tuesday quoting the spy agency. JUST WATCHED Footage emerges of North Korea's ICBM launch Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Footage emerges of North Korea's ICBM launch 00:47 Zhao said he believes the only way to know Pyongyang's operational capability is if the country actually fielded a nuclear warhead atop a missile.

– China appears to be tired of the US and other nations blaming Beijing for not reining in North Korea. "The 'China responsibility theory' on the peninsula nuclear issue can stop," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, per Reuters. He didn't name names, but he said that "certain people, talking about the Korean peninsula nuclear issue, have been exaggerating and giving prominence" to China's role. (President Trump has been among them.) Geng said other nations must step up, too, and the Wall Street Journal reports that the US is preparing to do just that, but in a way that surely won't please Beijing. The report says the Justice Department is readying its own sanctions against North Korea, with the target being Chinese businesses and banks thought to be bankrolling the regime. Specifically, the feds may go after a network run by a Chinese national named Chi Yupeng, who is one of the biggest importers of North Korean products into China. The Justice Department, citing information from North Korean defectors, says Chi's network funnels money to the North's military. All this is playing out in the wake of Pyongyang's July 4 launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile—North Korea celebrated the feat as only North Korea can—but South Korea's Yonhap News Agency is now raising a key doubt about that launch. The South's spy agency does not believe that the North has figured out how to keep an ICBM stable as it re-enters the atmosphere after launch. Without such a system, the North wouldn't be able to mount a warhead, nuclear or otherwise, and expect it to survive the re-entry process, explains CNN.

Because of their high amounts of caffeine and sugar, dangerous arrhythmias can easily develop in the hearts of young people who drink them. Cripe's father said he was a good son who would never touch alcohol or drugs and he hopes the teen's death will save other lives by showing the dangers of excessive caffeine.

– A shocking incident out of South Carolina has experts discussing how much is too much when it comes to a perfectly legal substance: caffeine. After consuming three highly caffeinated beverages in a two-hour period, 16-year-old student Davis Allen Cripe collapsed and died in April, reports WYFF 4. Richland County Coroner Gary Watts has now confirmed that the cause of death was a caffeine-induced cardiac event. According to the State, after Davis drank a large Diet Mountain Dew, a McDonald’s latte, and an energy drink within a two-hour period, he collapsed in class. He was pronounced dead at the hospital just over an hour later. Cripe’s father Sean says his son was healthy at the time of his death, and Davis’ autopsy revealed no pre-existing heart conditions. "It was so much caffeine at the time of his death, that it caused his arrhythmia," Watts says. “Davis, like so many other kids and so many other people out there today, was doing something [he] thought was totally harmless, and that was ingesting lots of caffeine,” Watts says, adding that because caffeinated drinks affect people differently, it’s difficult to gauge an exact limit. Consumer Affairs reported in 2015 that the issue is especially relevant to teens, with nearly 31% of 12- to 19-year-olds consuming energy drinks regularly. Of 5,448 caffeine overdoses in 2007, 46% occurred in people under 19, and those with underlying heart problems are especially vulnerable. In a tearful press conference Monday (see video above), Sean Cripes urged parents and teens to learn from what happened to his son, who was known for loving music and giving out hugs. “It wasn't a car crash that took his life,” Sean says. “Instead, it was an energy drink." (Another teen died after drinking three energy drinks within a 24-hour period.)

CBS Most Americans believe the massive federal budget deficit is a very serious problem that will create hardships for future generations, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll. So how do Americans propose to address the deficit? After a productive lame-duck session of Congress late last year, in which Mr. Obama won a number of concessions from Republicans in return for extending the Bush-era tax cuts on high incomes, the poll showed that nearly eight out of 10 Americans believe Mr. Obama will try to work with Republicans to get things done — including 77 percent of independents and 57 percent of Republicans. They said the required reductions, including for Medicare and Social Security, would be deeper than anything the public would accept. Given four options for reducing the deficit tied to Medicare, 48 percent said they would prefer to raise premiums for high-income Americans; 21 percent said they would prefer to raise the age for people to receive benefits; 16 percent wanted to raise premiums for all; and nine percent favored covering fewer treatments. Similarly, if Social Security benefits must be changed to make the program more financially sound, a broad majority prefers the burden fall on the wealthy. Asked what Congress should focus on, 43 percent of Americans say job creation; health care is a distant second, cited by 18 percent, followed by deficit reduction, war and illegal immigration . Thirty percent say the bad economy has reduced their wages or benefits, while roughly 70 percent say it has not. Forty-one percent say they are very concerned about household job loss in the next year, compared to 36 percent who said as much in October. Obama Approval Rating Up to 49 Percent Poll: More Want to Keep Health Care Law Than Want to Repeal It Poll: Americans Remain Split on Gun Control Poll: Many Want Congress to Focus on Jobs, not Health Care Read the Complete Poll Watch Washington Unplugged's political roundtable with CBS News Director of Surveys Sarah Dutton and CBS Evening News Senior Producer Ward Sloane here.

– Some 56% of Americans want the massive federal budget deficit dealt with now instead of when the economy improves, according to a New York Times/CBS poll, and 62% say they would prefer the deficit be addressed through spending cuts, rather than higher taxes. That preference, however, changed when respondents were asked about specific cuts to Medicare or Social Security—the two government programs that touch the most people, and are expected to be the biggest causes of future deficits. Some 55% of respondents said that if Medicare, Social Security, or the military needed to be cut, they would prefer the ax falls on the Pentagon. The findings highlight the difficulty President Obama and Congress will have reaching a consensus on ways to reduce the deficit. House Republicans have called for slashing $2.5 trillion in spending over the next decade, but their plan hasn't specified where most of the cuts will come.

(Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post) Yahoo on Thursday reported the largest data breach in history — affecting at least 500 million user accounts — months after first detecting signs of an intrusion that the company blamed on "state-sponsored" hackers. “They should be hearing this from Yahoo, not only that we had this problem -- but also about what to do.” In confirming the attack on Thursday, Yahoo said user account information was stolen from the company’s network in late 2014 by what the company called a “state-sponsored actor.” The data may have included names, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and passwords. Yahoo users who haven't changed their passwords since 2014 especially should immediately change not only their passwords but also their security questions, the company said. (Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images) SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo said Thursday an investigation had confirmed information associated with at least 500 million user accounts was stolen from the company in late 2014.

– Yahoo broke the news to half-a-billion users Thursday that hackers breached its system and thus might know their passwords, security questions, phone numbers, and dates of birth. Yes, that's a "b" as in billion, making this the largest data breach ever, notes CNET. The company is blaming "state-sponsored" hackers for the 2014 breach, without offering specifics. Related coverage: What should users do? In addition to changing passwords and security questions, they might consider enabling two-step authentication. See Recode and USA Today for advice. The danger of the hack? The data "could be useful ammunition for any hacker attempting to break into Yahoo accounts, or interested in exploring whether users might have used the same security questions/answers to protect themselves elsewhere on the web," writes security expert Graham Cluley on his blog. Yahoo got wind of the breach when it heard in July of this year that someone was trying to sell account credentials for 280 million users on the black market. It looked into the allegation and found that the truth was actually much worse. See Bloomberg. Might this screw up Verizon's deal to buy Yahoo for $4.8 billion? In short, maybe. Yahoo isn't saying whether it learned of the hack before announcing the Verizon deal in July. For now, Verizon is saying only that it has "limited information and understanding of the impact." See the Washington Post. Did Yahoo move too slowly in alerting people? “Consumers should be not be reading in the news something Yahoo hasn’t told them,” says an official at the Consumer Federation of America. More at CBS News. Yahoo's message to users is here.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Nick Higham reports on the life and career of Peter O'Toole Actor Peter O'Toole, who starred in Sir David Lean's 1962 film classic Lawrence of Arabia, died on Saturday aged 81, his agent has said. He was being treated at London's Wellington hospital after a long illness, his agent added. O'Toole's daughter Kate said the family was overwhelmed "by the outpouring of real love and affection being expressed towards him, and to us". He received an honorary Oscar in 2003, having initially turned it down. In a letter the actor asked the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to delay it until he was 80, saying he was "still in the game and might win the bugger outright". But when he finally clasped his statuette, he said: "Always a bridesmaid, never a bride, my foot." O'Toole's agent said he was "one of a kind in the very best sense and a giant in his field". Image caption O'Toole was 30 when he played Lawrence of Arabia Film critic Barry Norman described him as a "true movie star", who had "tremendous charisma". Prime Minister David Cameron said: "My thoughts are with Peter O'Toole's family and friends. His performance in my favourite film, Lawrence of Arabia, was stunning." Irish President Michael D Higgins added: "Ireland, and the world, has lost one of the giants of film and theatre. "I was privileged to know him as a friend since 1969. I spent part of 1979 in Clifden where we met almost daily and all of us who knew him in the West will miss his warm humour and generous friendship." Broadcaster Michael Parkinson told Sky News it was hard to be too sad about the news of his passing, and smiled as he said: "Peter didn't leave much of life unlived, did he?" Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Barry Norman: "He was acting right until the end... acting was his life" Actor, director and broadcaster Stephen Fry tweeted: "Oh what terrible news. Farewell Peter O'Toole. I had the honour of directing him in a scene. Monster, scholar, lover of life, genius …" Writer and actor David Walliams recalled his memories of the actor, saying: "Matt & I had drinks with Peter O'Toole in LA a few years ago. He was hugely entertaining. The greatest company. A legend on screen and off." Actress Sheridan Smith also tweeted her tribute, saying: "So sad about the death of the incredible Peter O'Toole :( He saw a play I did last year & sent me & all the cast presents after. A true gent!" Comic Eddie Izzard added his voice by saying: "Your work will be remembered", while actor and writer Simon Pegg said the actor was "a true great". Actor Eddie Marsan hailed O'Toole's determination, tweeting: "'Waiting for the right part - you could wait forever. So I turn up and do the best I can.' That's an actor for you. R.I.P. Peter O Toole." The Shield star Michael Chiklis added that O'Toole was the "original, hard drinking, classic, actor's actor", saying: "The piercing blue eyes of Lawrence of Arabia will never fade", while fellow US actor Neil Patrick Harris added: "Lucky to have worked with him for a month in Prague. Wonderful man, remarkable talent." Journalist Piers Morgan also paid tribute, tweeting: "RIP Peter O'Toole. Spent one of the funniest days of my life with him at Lord's a few years ago. A brilliant actor & crazy, hilarious man." O'Toole began his acting career as an exciting young talent on the British stage and his Hamlet in 1955 at the Bristol Old Vic, was critically acclaimed. Image caption O'Toole is seen backstage at the opening night of Hamlet at the Old Vic theatre in London in 1963 He hit international stardom when Sir David cast him as British adventurer T E Lawrence, the World War One soldier and scholar who led an Arab rebellion against the Turks. Playwright Noel Coward once said that if O'Toole had been any prettier, they would have had to call the film "Florence of Arabia". Lawrence of Arabia earned him the first of eight Oscar nominations, with his second coming for 1964's Becket, in which he played King Henry II to Richard Burton's Thomas Becket. Burton and O'Toole's shared love of drinking garnered many headlines along with their performances. O'Toole played Henry again in 1968 in The Lion in Winter, for which he received his third Oscar nod, opposite Katharine Hepburn. His five other nominations were for Goodbye, Mr Chips in 1968, The Ruling Class in 1971, 1980's The Stunt Man, My Favorite Year [1982] and finally for Venus in 2006. Image caption Peter O'Toole starred with Audrey Hepburn in 1965's comedy How to Steal a Million Other performances included leading Shakespearean parts, comic roles in adaptations of PG Wodehouse and his famed starring role in 1989 in Keith Waterhouse's stage play Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell. It was a comedy about his old drinking pal Jeffrey Bernard, who wrote The Spectator magazine's weekly Low Life column. O'Toole also had a reputation for riotous behaviour following bouts of drinking, but in the mid-70s he was diagnosed with pancreatitis and was warned by medics that more alcohol would prove fatal. He had yards of his intestinal tubing - "most of my plumbing" - removed and he gave up drinking. "If you can't do something willingly and joyfully, then don't do it,'' he once said. "If you give up drinking, don't go moaning about it; go back on the bottle. Do. As. Thou. Wilt." 'Waiting for the right part' It was sometimes tough finding good roles, but he told the Independent on Sunday in 1990: "I take whatever good part comes along. "And if there isn't a good part, then I do anything, just to pay the rent. Money is always a pressure. And waiting for the right part - you could wait forever. So I turn up and do the best I can." In 1980 he starred in a critically panned production of Macbeth, but it was a sell-out after a drubbing from critics brought in audiences of curiosity seekers. "The thought of it makes my nose bleed," he said years later. Last July, after a career spanning 50 years and at the age of 79, O'Toole said he was retiring from the stage and screen. However, last month it was announced he was being lined up for a role as a Roman orator in Katherine of Alexandria, a film scheduled for release next year.

– Actor Peter O'Toole, the legend of stage and screen perhaps best known for Lawrence of Arabia, has died at the age of 81, his agent confirms to the BBC. The Brit was nominated eight times for an Oscar but was win-less in his lifetime, though he did begrudgingly accept an honorary Academy Award in 2003. In 2012, the then-79-year-old announced his retirement from acting, saying that, "It's time for me to chuck in the sponge. To retire from stage and screen. The heart for it has gone out of me; it won't come back."

In the past we've joked about the (supposed) fact that the song "Happy Birthday" remains under copyright, due to a copyright originally held by sisters Mildred and Patti Hill, the claimed original authors of the song. The lyrics were: "Good morning to you / Good morning to you / Good morning dear children / Good morning to all." Amazingly, however, the legitimacy of the copyright has never been determined in court, and it now generates over $2 million per year.

– A New York filmmaker is on a mission: To make what's regarded as the world's most often performed song one that can be belted out free of charge. Filmmaker Jennifer Nelson and her company, Good Morning to You Productions, have filed a class-action lawsuit against the publishing branch of Warner Music, which claims ownership of "Happy Birthday to You." She wants the song put in the public domain and Warner/Chappell to return the licensing fees it has earned off it—pegged at about $2 million a year, according her lawyer. Nelson herself paid Warner/Chappell $1,500 to use the song in a planned documentary about the tune, reports the Los Angeles Times. Tech Dirt applauds the move as a long time coming, writing that "as we've been pointing out for years, the song is almost certainly in the public domain." It outlines a series of issues with the copyright, beginning with the fact that the sisters credited with writing it more than a century ago "appear to have written neither the music nor the lyrics." The complaint reads: "Irrefutable documentary evidence, some dating back to 1893, shows that the copyright to 'Happy Birthday to You,' if there ever was a valid copyright to any part of the song, expired no later than 1921." Click for the full complaint.

After Reddit effectively consumed itself this weekend over the firing of beloved AMA coordinator Victoria Taylor, redditors have been clawing at themselves for a chance to hear Taylor’s side of things.

– Reddit's ex-talent director is speaking out for the first time since she was unceremoniously fired last week. In a post on Reddit (obviously), Victoria Taylor, who ran "Ask Me Anything" interviews, writes that her weekend was "interesting, to say the least" but gives no details on why she was let go. Instead, she says she's figuring out what's next for her and thanks the Reddit community for its support and for showing that "your voices matter." In a since-deleted post on Quora—Gawker has a screenshot—the site's business and community leader Marc Bodnick did probe the reasons behind her departure. After speaking to "someone close to Reddit," he wrote that Taylor was hesitant to experiment with new AMA formats, including video, which management wanted. Bodnick also confirmed Reddit fired Taylor without notifying moderators, who were peeved. In a New York Times op-ed, two moderators explain exactly why they were upset and shut down the AMA subreddit. First, Reddit removed Taylor "without warning or providing alternative resources," they write. They say they first learned of her termination when an AMA guest turned up at Reddit's New York office to find "a canceled appointment and no backup support. Our team got a panicked message—and we had no real idea what was going on." While interim CEO Ellen Pao has put the issue down to miscommunication, the moderators say there was no communication at all. "Moderators and AMA guests were left stranded" by a move that shows "a reckless disregard for the company's own business and for the work the moderators and users put into the site," they write. "Dismissing Victoria Taylor was part of a long pattern of insisting the community and the moderators do more with less." (Many Redditors are unhappy with Pao.)

Young Mother and Air Force Veteran Mysteriously Vanishes: 'She'd Never Leave Her Daughter,' Says Friend The surveillance video is unremarkable: Tricia Williams Todd, a 30-year-old Air Force veteran, mother and nurse, purchases some groceries at a Publix in Hobe Sound, Florida. Her car was found near her home in Hobe Sound, about 25 miles south of Port St. Lucie, with the keys in the ignition and her purse inside, it said. There is no hard evidence that a crime occurred, Snyder said, and a ground search will be scaled back but the investigation will continue. There has been no activity on her phone or credit cards that has been discovered, Snyder said. She smiles happily and chats with the clerk.That was the evening of April 26 – the last time that Todd was seen in public.Later that evening, Todd met her ex-husband, who was spending time with their 2-year-old daughter. Todd has never been out of contact for an extended period of time since having the child, Snyder said.

– Police have now conducted a "long and detailed interview" with the ex-husband of missing Florida mom Tricia Todd, but they say they're no closer to figuring out her whereabouts. "Nothing in [Steven Williams'] lengthy interview … nor his polygraph exam indicated that he was involved or had any additional information about Tricia Todd's disappearance," Martin County Sheriff William Snyder tells NBC News. "It's a very, very perplexing and mystifying case." Todd, an Air Force veteran and hospice nurse, was reportedly last seen by Williams early on April 27 when she dropped off medication for their 2-year-old daughter, per People. She didn't show up for work the next morning or to pick up the child later in the afternoon. Williams, who was filmed buying gas at 1am on April 27, told investigators he bought fuel for Todd because her car was running low. Authorities say that checks out: Todd's car had only a few gallons inside when it was found near her Hobe Sound home with the keys in the ignition. There has been no activity on Todd's phone or credit cards. "That's a circumstantial case that there was an abduction," says Snyder, noting a ground search will be cut back after nothing was discovered within a 5-mile radius. A friend says simply Todd "would never have left her daughter on purpose. That baby was her entire world." Todd's brother will file a motion for temporary custody of the child while Williams is on military duty in North Carolina, per WPTV. (This is the last known photo of Todd.)

Last November, Los Angeles Unified School District lawyers fighting a civil lawsuit argued in court that a 14-year-old middle school student was mature enough to consent to having sex with her 28-year-old teacher, and that she bore some responsibility for what happened. Lawyers and advocates for sexual abuse victims criticized Wyatt's strategy of blaming the 14-year-old girl for agreeing to the sexual relationship. They also said the case highlights a little-known conflict in California law: while the age of consent is firmly set at 18 in criminal cases, at least two appellate court rulings have found that in civil cases, it is possible to argue that a minor can consent to sex with an adult. When notified, officials said, the district immediately removed the teacher, Elkis Hermida, from the classroom; he was subsequently convicted on criminal charges of lewd acts against a child and sentenced to three years in prison in 2011. During the three week civil trial, district lawyers denied that L.A. Unified had any knowledge of the relationship, argued the girl knew what she was doing when she chose to have sex with Hermida and suggested the girl was to blame for her situation, not LAUSD. The district's general counsel said Friday it is removing attorney W. Keith Wyatt from future legal matters because of inappropriate remarks he made about the case. The district had claimed it had no knowledge of the relationship and wasn't responsible.

– The LA school district is taking flak for going after one of its own middle-school girls in court over a sexual abuse case. Attorneys for the district argued that the 14-year-old should be held responsible for a sexual relationship with a teacher and thus deserved no money for emotional trauma. They also presented the girl's sexual history in court—and won the case. Consider this quote from one of those attorneys, Keith Wyatt, to KPCC: "She lied to her mother so she could have sex with her teacher. She went to a motel in which she engaged in voluntary consensual sex with her teacher. Why shouldn't she be responsible for that?" Critics contend that the answer is obvious: An eighth-grader can't consent to a sexual relationship with a 28-year-old teacher. Or as a non-district attorney puts it in the Los Angeles Times: "The belief that middle-school children can consent to sexual activity is something one would expect to hear from pedophile advocates, not the second-largest school district in the US." The issue was a no-brainer in criminal court, where teacher Elkis Hermida was convicted of lewd acts against a child and sentenced to three years in prison. But as KPCC points out, the age of consent isn't as clear cut in civil cases. Critics of the Los Angeles Unified School District just wish it weren't a school district that exploited the discrepancy. Meanwhile, Wyatt's quote has caused so much outrage that the district says it will no longer use him for legal matters, reports AP.

Jules, a patron of charity wolfconnection.org, said: “I live up in the mountain with my mutts. Never ever did we discuss Kristen!” PHOTOS: Kristen's grumpy faces Noting that she is a “huge supporter of gay rights,” Jules went on to acknowledge that she briefly spoke about Stewart’s personal assistant Alicia Cargile, whom The Mirror claimed is Stewart’s girlfriend. PHOTOS: Stars and their moms In the interview, conducted by Sharon Feinstein, Jules reportedly outed her daughter, supposedly saying, “What’s not to be accepting about her now having a girlfriend? She also asked me about my views on gay rights, which I was happy to express. I’ve met Kristen’s new girlfriend, I like her.” PHOTOS: Kristen's best red carpet looks The only problem with the quotes? Kristen Stewart’s mom, Jules, is denying a new story in British tabloid The Mirror, which printed an interview with her that began trending over the weekend. We all knew she was unique and had ‘it’, she’s always been very intelligent, intuitive and observant so she’s the perfect actress.” And she denied claims Kristen is “miserable and angry”, insisting: “She’s not unhappy at all.

– Kristen Stewart is or isn't dating her female assistant despite a report that she definitely is dating her female assistant—got that? The Mirror quotes Stewart's mom, Hollywood script supervisor Jules Stewart, as saying that 25-year-old Kristen is dating her assistant, Alicia Cargile: "What’s not to be accepting about her now having a girlfriend?" Jules reportedly says. "She’s happy." But in Us Weekly, Jules says it's all hype: "Never ever did we discuss Kristen! ... I said, 'Yes, she’s a lovely girl,'" adds Jules of Cargile, but that's all. Yet Mirror journalist Sharon Feinstein is taking exception to Jules' remarks and plans to upload audio of the interview.

"Your honor, the defense requests that you judge a sentence that allows him to have a life," defense attorney David Coombs said. U.S. soldier Bradley Manning was sentenced Wednesday to 35 years in prison for giving hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, the largest such leak in the country's history. After she finished reading the verdict and excited the courtroom, several Manning supporters reportedly yelled, "We'll keep fighting for you, Bradley" and "You're our hero." In a remarkably sustained criticism of the proceedings and the result, Coombs suggested the trial was unfair, said the trial never should have been secret, and said murderers and child molesters he'd represented had received shorter sentences. Manning was found guilty on virtually all other charges under the Espionage Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the code of military justice. Lind already had agreed to reduce Manning's sentence by 112 days after ruling that the harsh treatment he was subjected to in the brig at the Marine base in at Quantico, Virginia, was out of line. Amnesty International and the Bradley Manning Support Network have announced an online petition asking President Barack Obama to pardon Manning Military prisoners can earn up to 120 days a year off their sentence for good behavior and job performance, but they must serve at least one-third of any prison sentence before they can become eligible for parole.

– Bradley Manning has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for his infamous leaking activities, according to multiple reports. He will also be dishonorably discharged and forfeit all pay and allowances, the Guardian reports. Manning will get credit for the time he's already spent in jail, which amounts to 1,294 days, or 3.55 years. His sentence falls short of the 60 years the government had sought, according to CNN, but the defense had wanted a 25-year term. Manning will be eligible for parole after serving a third of the sentence, the AP points out. The entire hearing lasted less than two minutes, with the judge, Col. Denise Lind, declining to explain the reasoning behind her sentence. Manning showed no visible emotion. As he was led from the courtroom, supporters shouted, "You're our hero," and "We'll keep fighting for you, Bradley." Defense attorneys had fought for a "sentence that allows him to have a life," the Verge reports, while prosecutors had argued that a lengthy sentence would deter others. "He betrayed the United States," one prosecutor said yesterday, "and for that betrayal he deserves to spend the majority of his remaining life in confinement."

The tests were requested by the European Research Group on Environment and Health in the Transport Sector (EUGT) — a now defunct organization founded by German carmakers Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW. Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks called the experiments "abominable" and expressed shock that scientists had agreed to conduct them. FRANKFURT — In 2014, as evidence mounted about the harmful effects of diesel exhaust on human health, scientists in an Albuquerque laboratory conducted an unusual experiment: Ten monkeys squatted in airtight chambers, watching cartoons for entertainment as they inhaled fumes from a diesel Volkswagen Beetle. Reports by German newspapers Stuttgarter Zeitung and Süddeutsche Zeitung said humans had been exposed to a gas found in diesel fumes during an experiment "sometime between 2012 and 2015" requested by a group funded by German carmakers. Daimler, manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz cars, said on Sunday "we are appalled by the extent of the [EUGT] studies and their implementation". Share Carmakers used humans for gas test Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink http://p.dw.com/p/2rhmB Carmakers used humans for gas test Not to be tolerated Reacting to the accusations, Volkswagen said in a statement "we are convinced that the scientific methods chosen at the time were wrong." German automakers had financed the experiment in an attempt to prove that diesel vehicles with the latest technology were cleaner than the smoky models of old. The company admitted to installing software in vehicles that enabled them to cheat on emissions tests. "We strongly condemn the tests," the company said, adding that it had had no say in the testing method and the measures taken by the EUGT were "against Daimler's values and ethical principles."

– Could carmakers replace cable companies in the battle for the title of Most Reviled Industry? This news out of Germany could certainly help. The BBC reports German carmakers funded research that involved having humans and monkeys inhale diesel exhaust fumes to gauge the health impact. The research was done at the behest of the European Research Group on Environment and Health in the Transport Sector (aka EUGT), which was exclusively funded by Volkswagen, Daimler, and BMW until they did away with the group in 2017. In a lengthy article published Thursday, the New York Times dug into the monkey side of things, reporting on a 2014 experiment in an Albuquerque, NM, lab in which 10 monkeys sat in airtight chambers for four hours as fumes from a diesel Volkswagen Beetle were piped in, all as cartoons played for entertainment. It was supposed to provide ammunition against a 2012 classification by the WHO that diesel exhaust is a carcinogen, but the results were both "deliberately manipulated" and inconclusive. Over the weekend came the news that the tests didn't stop at monkeys. German newspapers reported 25 adults were exposed to fumes over a number of hours as part of a look at "short-term nitrogen dioxide inhalation by healthy people," per Deutsche Welle, which reports the subjects were examined by Germany's Aachen University Hospital. Daimler on Sunday said it is "appalled," per the BBC, and a rep for Angela Merkel said the tests "cannot be justified ethically in any way." The hospital noted in a statement that the study "served to optimize job security, for example for truck drivers, vehicle mechanics, and welders," Deutsche Welle reports.

There were nearly a dozen failures in the Secret Service’s rings of security that helped Omar Jose Gonzalez, 42, get inside the White House and deep into the East Room, according to a Department of Homeland Security review, a summary of which was obtained Thursday by The Washington Post. Layer after layer of security measures that were supposed to block an intruder from getting into the White House all failed in stunning succession on the evening of Sept. 19, according to an internal review of a fence jumper’s breach. Omar Gonzalez, the man charged in the incident, could have been stopped by a Secret Service officer who was stationed on the North Lawn with an attack dog, the review said. In one example, a canine handler who was supposed to help chase down and tackle anyone who breached the White House compound was in a van on a personal cellphone call at the time and did not hear any radio traffic about a fence jumper. An executive summary was obtained by The New York Times.The review of the Sept. 19 breach is part of a much broader investigation of the Secret Service being conducted by the deputy secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post The Secret Service is under scrutiny after a man scaled the White House fence and made it all the way into the East Room. Authorities had arrested him and discovered he had a map of the White House and multiple weapons and ammunition. “The officer was unable to reach Gonzalez before he entered the bushes and, as a result, went around the bushes toward the North Portico only to find that Gonzalez had already entered the White House.” An officer stationed at the North Portico door could not hear on the radio what was occurring and had an obstructed view. With his gun drawn as he watched Gonzalez run up the steps, the officer let the intruder walk past him because he assumed the front door was locked; it was not. Omar J. Gonzalez allegedly got inside the front door of the White House before getting caught. The emergency communication system by the entrance had been muted. As the officer stationed there tried to lock the doors, Mr. Gonzalez “barged through them and knocked her backward.” She told him to stop but he continued on to the East Room. “After attempting twice to physically take Gonzalez down but failing to do so because of the size disparity between the two, the officer then attempted to draw her baton but accidentally grabbed her flashlight instead,” the report said. Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said the agency has already put in place or is in the process of implementing changes to fix the problems highlighted in the report.” “The entire Secret Service workforce is dedicated to ensuring that we provide the highest level of protection to the people and facilities we protect,” Donovan said.

– Homeland Security has wrapped up a review of the incident in which a man armed with a knife scaled a fence and got inside the White House, and one detail as relayed by the New York Times stands out above all others: The intruder "could have been stopped by a Secret Service officer who was stationed on the North Lawn with an attack dog. But the officer did not realize that an intruder had made it over the fence because he was sitting in his van talking on his personal cellphone." A close second is probably the officer stationed outside the North Portico doors who initially couldn't figure out what was going on because of garbled radio chatter, reports the Washington Post. When he eventually saw the intruder running toward the White House, the officer drew his weapon, took cover behind a pillar ... and then let the man proceed to the doors because he assumed they were locked. They were not. The officer also thought that if he emerged from the pillar, the attack dog might have mistakenly gone after him.

– The future of Robert Mueller was the talk of the town on the Sunday morning talk shows, with politicians on both sides of the aisle weighing the need to protect the special counsel following a report Trump tried to fire him in June. "It’s pretty clear to me that everybody in the White House knows that it’d be the end of President Trump’s presidency if he fired Mr. Mueller,” New York quotes Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham as saying on ABC's This Week. He says he would be willing to pass legislation to protect Mueller. CNN reports Republican Sen. Susan Collins agrees, saying on State of the Union that "it certainly wouldn't hurt to put that extra safeguard in place given the latest stories." And according to Politico, Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy told Fox News Sunday he "100%" supports Mueller. “I told my Republican colleagues, ‘Leave him the hell alone,'" he says. On the other hand, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on NBC's Meet the Press he doesn't think "there's a need" for legislation protecting Mueller, and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin surprisingly agreed on State of the Union that such legislation would be "premature." The White House's Marc Short wouldn't say on Fox News Sunday if Trump would even sign a bill protecting Mueller. Here are two of the other hot topics from Sunday morning: Nunes Memo: McCarthy said on Meet the Press that a memo regarding the investigation into Russian election interference and Trump campaign collusion compiled by Rep. Devin Nunes should be made public, the Hill reports. Republicans claim the memo includes evidence that the FBI and Justice Department abused surveillance powers. But according to ABC News, Graham told This Week someone "without a political bias" needs to look at the memo first, and Gowdy downplayed its significance to Fox News Sunday. Immigration: Manchin discussed the White House's recent immigration plan on both Meet the Press and State of the Union, Reuters reports. Despite House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi decrying the plan as a way to "make America white again," Manchin said it's a "good starting point" and thinks Congress can use it to "find a pathway forward."

Image copyright AFP Image caption Financial magazine Forbes says Mohammed Dewji is worth $1.5bn (£980m) The man said to be Africa's youngest billionaire has been kidnapped by masked gunmen in Tanzania's main city Dar es Salaam, police say. Mohammed Dewji, 43, who is said to have a fortune of $1.5bn (£1.1bn) and is the president of MeTL Group, which operates in about 10 countries across sectors ranging from agriculture to transport and food, was abducted as he entered a hotel gym. Three people have been arrested in connection with the incident and two of the abductors were believed to be foreign nationals, police added. The abduction of Tanzania’s top billionaire, Mohammed Dewji, may have been the first incident to have happened in the East African nation but similar occurrences have also happened in South Africa, Nigeria and Mozambique this year, data show. In 2013, he became the first Tanzanian to be on the cover of Forbes magazine, and was named Forbes Africa person of the year in 2015. Mr Dewji is also a major sponsor of one of Tanzania's biggest football teams, Simba. He promised in 2016 to donate at least half his fortune to philanthropic causes, Forbes said. Mr Dewji served as a ruling party MP for a decade until 2015. Image copyright EPA Image caption Police officers inspect Mohammed Dewji's vehicle after his abduction Mr Dewji, a fitness enthusiast, had no security guards with him and had driven to the gym on his own, Dar es Salaam regional police commissioner Paul Makonda told reporters. By Mnaku Mbani @mnaku28 mmbani@tz.nationmedia.com Dar es Salaam. Although Tanzania has seen a wave attacks and abductions of opposition politicians and perceived government critics, this is the first time a businessman of Mr Dewji's standing has been kidnapped in the country.

– A man reported to be Tanzania's only billionaire and the youngest one in Africa has been kidnapped in what the BBC is calling a "huge shock." Mohammed Dewji was seized by masked gunmen Thursday morning as he entered a hotel gym in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam, considered to be very safe. It's the sixth abduction of a billionaire in Africa this year, but the first in Tanzania, reports the Citizen. "This kind of incident is new here," regional commissioner Paul Makonda says, per the AFP, adding "initial information indicates he was kidnapped by whites travelling in two vehicles." Three people have been arrested, though police are on the lookout for more abductors, said to have fired shots into the air before driving off with the 43-year-old father of three, who was without bodyguards. A former employee says Dewji has "always been incredibly relaxed in his approach to security" despite huge fame, per the BBC. He transformed his family's retail business MeTL into a company with diverse interests in some 10 countries, reports the AFP. A former legislator who attended Georgetown University, Dewji previously vowed to donate half his fortune to charity; Forbes puts his worth at $1.5 billion.

Janet Hubert — best known for playing the original Aunt Vivian on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from 1990 to 1993 — took to Facebook on Monday to voice her opinion on Jada Pinkett Smith saying she will not watch or attend the Academy Awards because of a lack of diversity among this year's nominees. "First of all, Miss Thing, does your man not have a mouth of his own with which to speak?" "The second thing, girlfriend, there's a lot of sh** going on in the world that you all don't seem to recognize. People are dying, our boys are being shot left and right, people are hungry, people are trying to pay bills, and you're talking about some…actors and Oscars. It just ain't that deep." And I find it ironic that somebody who has made their living, and made millions and millions of dollars from the very people you're talking about boycotting just because you didn't get a nomination, just because you didn't win. Hubert believes the boycott is really because Pinkett Smith's husband and Hubert's former co-star, Will Smith, was not nominated for his role in Concussion.

– Janet Hubert, who played the "original" Aunt Viv on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from 1990 to 1993, has a message for former co-star Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, the Week reports. Pinkett Smith recently announced she'd boycott the Oscars over the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' failure to nominate any black actors for the second year in a row, but Hubert isn't impressed with her activism. "Girlfriend, there's a lot of s--- going on in the world that you all don't seem to recognize. People are dying, our boys are being shot left and right, people are hungry, people are starving, people are trying to pay bills, and you're talking about some motherf-----' actors and Oscars. It just ain't that deep," says Hubert, who thinks Pinkett Smith is only boycotting because her husband wasn't nominated for Concussion, in a Facebook video. Speaking of which, "maybe you didn't deserve a nomination," Hubert says, turning her attention to Will Smith. She alleges that the Fresh Prince cast once wanted Smith to help them negotiate raises, and he refused. "Well, karma must be a b----, because now here you are. Here you are, and you've had a few flops. And you know, there are those out there who really deserved a nod," like Idris Elba, who is "an incredible actor. You are not. ... Just because the world don't go the way you want it to go doesn't mean that you can go out and ... start asking people to stand up and sing 'We Shall Overcome' for you. You ain't Barack and Michelle Obama." Click to watch the rant in full.

Is that what he says to SamCam at home?" Miss Eagle, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said afterwards: ‘I don’t think any modern man would have expressed himself in that way. She added: "I have been patronised by better people than the Prime Minister... But asked if she wanted an apology from Mr Cameron, she said: "The Prime Minister is reponsible for what he says in the Commons. It is up to him as to whether he wants to annoy 51 per cent of the population.’ Miss Harman, a long-standing campaigner for equality, said: ‘Women in Britain in the 21st century do not expect to be told to “calm down, dear” by their Prime Minister.’ Ed Miliband responds during PMQs. Labour's Caroline Flint accused Mr Cameron of using the word "dear" to "put women down", and said she had been on the receiving end of the same tactic from Communities Secretary Eric Pickles in the chamber last December, when he told her to "just get behind the programme then, dear". Clearly no offence was meant.’ Anna Bird, of gender equality campaign group the Fawcett Society, said: ‘There are four times as many men as women in the House of Commons.

– Brits are in a snit after an admonition by Prime Minister David Cameron to a top female official to "calm down, dear" during a public parliamentary session. Cameron made the comment to Angela Eagle, the "shadow" chief secretary to the Treasury from the opposition Labor Party, as she was challenging him. Eagle says Cameron has insulted 51% of the population with his "sexist" comment, reports the Telegraph. "I don't think any modern man would have expressed himself in that way," she added. But a film director who created a popular car insurance ad using the "catch phrase" years ago has come to Cameron's defense, saying the comment has "become part of the nation's language," and it's a "totally harmless bit of fun," he added. "The prime minister has used it before, which shows he's in touch with the British public." Labor Party officials are calling on Cameron to apologize.

Armed with this information, I phoned Sonic, which responded within an hour that it was indeed investigating “a potential incident” at some Sonic locations. FILE - This Monday, March 9, 2015, file photo shows a sign for a Sonic Drive-In in Holmes, Pa. Sonic says there's been some "unusual activity" on credit cards used at some of its drive-in restaurants.... (Associated Press) FILE - This Monday, March 9, 2015, file photo shows a sign for a Sonic Drive-In in Holmes, Pa. Sonic says there's been some "unusual activity" on credit cards used at some of its drive-in restaurants.... (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — Sonic says there's been some "unusual activity" on credit cards used at some of its restaurants. The fast food chain said in a statement that its credit card processor told them about the incident last week and that it's now "working to understand the nature and scope of this issue." Sonic said that it is working with third-party forensic experts and law enforcement officials on the incident. Last year Wendy's announced that hackers were able to steal customers' credit and debit card information at more than 1,000 of its U.S. locations.

– Anyone who's recently eaten at a Sonic Drive-In may have had their credit or debit card number stolen and put up for sale online, Krebs on Security reports. It's currently unclear how many restaurants or customers were affected, but Sonic serves approximately 3 million customers per day at nearly 3,600 locations in 45 states, according to Bloomberg. The AP reports Sonic was informed of "unusual activity" on cards used at some of its restaurants by its credit card processor last week. “We are working to understand the nature and scope of this issue, as we know how important this is to our guests,” the fast-food chain said in a statement Wednesday. Krebs on Security reports it found a batch of stolen credit and debit card numbers that had recently been used at Sonic for sale online. The credit and debit card numbers of millions of Sonic customers are potentially there as well. News of the breach was followed by a 4.4% drop in the price of Sonic shares Wednesday. It was the worst stock decline for the company in two months. In the last major fast-food breach, credit and debit card numbers were stolen from customers at more than 1,000 Wendy's locations last year. (Troubles for Equifax were compounded by a fake website.)

– Here's the perfect gift for that struggling, maybe not-so-gifted actor on your shopping list: Acting class, taught by none other than Samuel L Jackson. As Time reports, the Hollywood icon is making a foray into teaching his craft, via online learning portal Masterclass, which makes it not only accessible, but relatively affordable at $90. Included are 21 videos, workbook with lesson recaps, assignments, and supplements; students can ask Jackson questions via video, though it's up to him what he responds to. Jackson joins the likes of Steve Martin, Ron Howard, Usher, Steph Curry, Judy Blume, and Thomas Keller, all of whom teach their craft on the website.

“To me, it was just another incremental infringement on our constitutional rights.” The American Civil Liberties Union’s New Hampshire chapter challenged the law on behalf of Rideout and two other voters. Rhode Island: According to the rules established by the Rhode Island Board of Elections, “Electronic recording of the election process is allowed inside the polling place as long as it is done outside of the railed or enclosed voting area.

– If you live in New Hampshire and want to take a picture of your Election Day ballot to post on Facebook so your friends can argue over your judgment, that's your call. So says a federal appeals court that overturned a ban on ballot selfies, ruling that the 2014 decision nixing them was unconstitutional, WMUR reports. The decision notes "core political speech," as represented by such a pic, is "highly protected" by the First Amendment, and that banning the selfies "is like burning down the house to roast the pig," per NBC News. "Ballot selfies have taken on a special communicative value" in which voters can show who they're throwing their support behind, the ruling adds. Flouting the ban could have led to a fine of up to $1,000. The state had argued the selfies can lead to voter intimidation, but the court disagreed, calling that fear "an unsubstantiated and hypothetical danger." Not that everyone followed the original ruling, which was challenged by the ACLU's state chapter. One of those selfie rebels: state Rep. Leon Rideout, who has posted his ballot pic on social media. "To me, [the ban] was just another incremental infringement on our constitutional rights," he says. Even Snapchat weighed in with a friend-of-the-court brief, per Ars Technica, noting selfies encourage "younger voters [to] participate in the political process." The ACLU's legal director applauds the court's decision, saying more focus should go toward legit cases of vote buying and coercion rather than toward "innocent political speech." The court's conclusion? "A picture is worth a thousand words." Other places covered by the ruling: Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico. (NBC and the Huffington Post detail which states allow ballot selfies, though some laws are murky).

“He was just a really, really, really sweet guy,” said Jeff Ayers, a manager at the store who has known Mr. Babbit for years. Mr. Babbitt was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center, where, the police said, he was eventually declared brain dead and died on Monday morning. Officials say Redrick is charged with second and third degree assault, but those charges may be upgraded. Mr. Marten, who is black, has also gone by the alias Martin Redrick and listed a different birth date, the police said. “He was as good as good can be,” said Audrey Feifer, 75. Many neighbors wonder who will care for her now.

– The death of a man who suffered a skull fracture and brain hemorrhage in Manhattan after being punched has been ruled a homicide, NY1 reports. Jeffrey Babbitt (some outlets use the spelling "Jeffery Babbit"), 62, was walking in Union Square around 3pm last Wednesday when Lashawn Marten allegedly punched him in the face in an apparently random attack, the New York Times reports. Marten, who is also reportedly known as Martin Redrick, said he wanted to "punch the first white man I see," police say. When two men came to help Babbitt, who hit his head on the pavement when he fell, Marten allegedly hit them, as well. Marten was arrested and charged with three counts of assault, but in light of Babbitt's death yesterday, those charges will probably be upgraded by a grand jury, which is hearing the case today, police say. Marten was allegedly yelling racist threats as he walked out of the subway station before the attack. Police are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime, Gothamist reports.

Nothing blocked the orbit of "Gravity" at the box office this weekend. 2 With $26 Mil UPDATED: Paul Greengrass' Somali pirate pic reverses a dry spell at the box office for star Tom Hanks; Robert Rodriguez' "Machete Kills" -- starring Mel Gibson -- flops. After 10 days in theaters, the picture starring Sandra Bullock has already raked in $123.4 million in the U.S. and Canada and is on its way to grossing at least $250 million domestically. ALSO: 'Gravity' to crater newcomer 'Captain Phillips' at box office Charlie Sheen changes name to Carlos Estevez for 'Machete Kills' Tom Hanks, Paul Greengrass navigate challenges of 'Captain Phillips' His 2011 romantic comedy "Larry Crowne," which he directed, co-wrote and starred in, tanked with just $35.6 million in domestic ticket sales. Meanwhile, Robert Rodriguez's "Machete Kills," the only other film that hit theaters nationwide this weekend, flopped with an embarrassing $3.8 million. PHOTOS: Billion-dollar movie club The movie, acquired last year for $2 million by Open Road Entertainment, stars Danny Trejo as a spy who teams up with the U.S. president (Charlie Sheen, credited as Carlos Estevez) to ward off a terrorist attack on the Capitol.

– What goes up must come down—but it hasn't happened yet for highly lauded 3D thriller Gravity, which topped the box office for a second weekend with $44.3 million in ticket sales. Tom Hanks-led Somali pirate flick Captain Phillips sailed in to No. 2, grossing a seaworthy $26 million in its debut weekend, the LA Times reports. But it was a far less successful maiden voyage for Machete 2, which flopped with only $3.8 million, putting it at No. 4. It was bested by Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2, which scored $14.2 million in its third weekend, per the Hollywood Reporter. And coming in at No. 5, Runner Runner and Prisoners tied with $3.7 million apiece.

One night this past August, Jeffrey Tanenhaus, a corporate-event planner, checked out a Citi Bike from a dock near Gramercy Park and began a journey to cross the country on the blue, one-piece, aluminum-frame utility bike. Tanenhaus, who took the maximum $1,200 fine for not returning the Citi Bike, has already traveled nearly 1,780 miles — and may end up in San Diego instead of Los Angeles, as he originally planned, because of weather concerns. When it didn’t, I ended up leaving in early August,” he said Saturday from Blythe, California, during a phone interview The 2,700-mile journey spanned 17 states and cost Tanenhaus the $1,200 late fee charged by Citi Bike for exceeding the maximum 45-minute limit. “Both my job and the lease on my apartment were ending, and I couldn’t stomach the thought of getting ‘just another job.’ I was out of options in New York, and I thought of the great American road trip: What if I scaled up and used a Citi Bike?” How did you choose this particular bike? “It’s been the most amazing thing that I’ve done in my life,” he said.

– What does it take to get from New York to California? "Just WiFi, water, and a working bicycle," Jeffrey Tanenhaus tells WNBC-TV. The New Yorker rolled into the Golden State at the city of Blythe last week after riding 2,700 miles across 17 states—mostly along historic Route 66—on a distinctive blue Citi Bike he checked out in Manhattan on Aug. 6. Citi Bike is a fee-based bicycle sharing system. Speaking to New York magazine from Albuquerque this month, Tanenhaus said his job as a corporate event planner (to which he used to commute on a Citi Bike) and his apartment lease were both ending, and he "couldn't stomach" getting "just another job. I was out of options in New York, and I thought of the great American road trip." But, he tells New York, "I didn't expect to get very far—down the Jersey Shore at the most." Along the way to California, Tanenhaus saw the Washington, DC, sights; the Grand Canyon; and the gravesite of Col. Harland Sanders (think KFC), among other things. In the Southwest, wind and frigid temperatures were a challenge. Gusts up to 40mph forced him to sometimes push the bike, the New York Post reports. Strangers helped out, providing rides and allowing Tanenhaus to couch-surf or bunk in RVs. In October, Tanenhaus had to detour to a hospital after an angry Oklahoma driver punched him in the face. And he took a break in November, flying back to New York for Thanksgiving. Tanenhaus tells the Post that he plans to knock around Joshua Tree National Park for a while, and then reach Santa Monica, the end of Route 66, by mid-January. As for the bike, Tanenhaus has been billed $1,200 by Citi Bike ("which I thought was fair"). He tells New York he wants to get it back to the "ecosystem from where it came," which means disassembling it and taking it back to NYC on a train. (This bike ride down the Atlantic coast ended with a man being murdered.)

(Photo: Custom) A woman missing from a Carnival cruise ship fell overboard, Carnival officials said. The Coast Guard said in a statement that it was searching for 33-year-old Samantha Broberg, who was reported missing from the Carnival Liberty about 200 miles off the coast of Galveston. “We knew it wasn’t going to end well when the last few updates the announcer said, ‘Would you please just keep this family in your thoughts and prayers.’” The ship had left on a four-day cruise to Cozumel, Mexico, about 10 hours earlier.

– Coast Guard ships and planes are searching the Gulf of Mexico for a woman believed to have fallen overboard from a cruise ship 10 hours after it left Galveston. Officials say that after 33-year-old Samantha Broberg was reported missing on the Carnival Liberty, a ship-wide search was carried out. A review of security camera footage found that she had apparently fallen off the ship at around 2am Friday, KHOU reports. "Authorities were notified, including the US Coast Guard, which is initiating a search effort in the area where the ship was located when the individual was last seen," Carnival said in a statement. "We are keeping our guest and her loved ones in our thoughts during this difficult time." The cruise ship left Texas on Thursday for a four-day cruise to Cozumel, Mexico, reports the Dallas Morning News.

The glass “Skyslide” nearly 1,000 feet above downtown Los Angeles attached to the west’s tallest skyscraper hasn’t been open yet for a month, but it’s already the target of a personal injury lawsuit over a broken ankle. The managers and operators of the 72-story U.S. Bank Tower slide have been sued by a woman who says she broke her right ankle after coming down the glass-enclosed attraction on the side of the tallest building on the West Coast. Gayle Yashar, 57, alleges negligence in the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court against OUE Skyspace LLC and Legends Hospitality LLC. Fifty-seven-year-old Gayle Yashar and husband Morty Yashar of Woodmere, New York, seek unspecified damages. The suit claims the design doesn't allow rider to slow down enough before reaching the end and a stack of mats in the runout area created a gap that trapped riders' feet.

– Who would've thought a slide made of glass attached to the side of the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast could be dangerous? That's the claim being made in a lawsuit filed by two New Yorkers who visited Los Angeles earlier this month, My News LA reports. The 45-foot-long "Skyslide" opened last month on the side of the US Bank Tower, running between the 70th and 69th floors nearly 1,000 feet above the street, notes the AP. Gayle Yashar, 57, claims she broke her ankle while coming down the Skyslide July 3; she's suing for negligence, while her co-plaintiff and husband, Morty Yashar, is suing for loss of consortium. Her lawyer says you can hear her ankle crack on video taken during her ride. The couple is seeking unspecified damages from OUE Skyspace LLC, which owns the building. The lawsuit claims the slide's design doesn't allow riders to slow down before it ends. It also states that mats stacked near the end of the slide "increased the risk of serious injury for an ankle fracture which was far beyond the risk assumed by the uninformed and unsuspecting riders." (Slide down this sand dune and it will start "singing.")

A small study led by investigators at MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has found evidence that daily treatment with sulforaphane - a molecule found in foods such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage - may improve some symptoms of autism spectrum disorders. The study enrolled 44 young men, ages 13 to 27, who had been diagnosed with moderate to severe autism spectrum disorder. Study lead author Kanwaljit Singh, MD, MPH - of MGHfC, the Lurie Center and UMass - says that among the 40 participants who returned for at least one evaluation, the average scores for each of the assessments were significantly better for the 26 participants receiving sulforaphane than for the 14 who received a placebo. "We believe that this may be preliminary evidence for the first treatment for autism that improves symptoms by apparently correcting some of the underlying cellular problems," study author Dr. Paul Talalay, a professor of pharmacology and molecular sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said in a statement. Before the trial, the participants' caregivers and physicians assessed the individuals' autistic traits using two standard scales, with higher scores on each scale corresponding with lower abilities in verbal communication and social interactions. After 18 weeks of treatment, the average scores on two assessments - the Aberrant Behavior Checklist and Social Responsiveness Scale - of those who received sulforaphane had decreased 34 and 17 percent, respectively - indicating improvement in factors such as irritability, lethargy, repetitive movements, hyperactivity, communication, motivation and mannerisms. Even at the 4-week visit, some caregivers reported a noticeable behavioral improvement, and by the end of the study period, both study staff and family members correctly guessed the assignments of many participants. These observers correctly guessed that these participants had been taking the extract and not the placebo, even though they were still blinded to which treatment the participants were receiving, said study author Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, now a professor of pediatric neurology at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. "But it's important to note that the improvements didn't affect everyone — about one-third had no improvement — and the study must be repeated in a larger group of adults and in children, something we're hoping to organize soon," Zimmerman said in a statement. Assessments using the Clinical Global Impression scale indicated that 46 percent of sulforaphane recipients exhibited noticeable improvement in social interaction, 54 percent in aberrant behaviors, and 42 percent in verbal communication.

– A chemical found in veggies like broccoli may help cut down on symptoms in people with autism, a study finds. With the help of parents and caregivers, researchers assigned autism "scores" to 44 males with the disorder, ages 13 to 27; higher numbers on two different scales were linked to more severe symptoms. Twenty-six subjects received the chemical, called sulforaphane, for 18 weeks, while others got a placebo. The scores of who took sulforaphane dropped by 34% or 17%, depending on which scale was used, LiveScience reports. They showed, for instance, less irritability and less trouble communicating. In 17 of the participants, changes were noticeable enough that family and medical workers were able to guess that they were on the real treatment rather than the placebo. Approximately a third of subjects showed no improvement. "This is by no means a 'cure,' but sulforaphane may ameliorate symptoms of autism," a researcher says. The study follows reports that kids with autism show fewer symptoms when they have a fever, he says; sulforaphane can have an effect on cells that mimics what's seen in a fever. In addition to broccoli, sulforaphane is found in cabbage and cauliflower, a press release notes. But just eating tons of the vegetables wouldn't likely produce the same results, researchers say. Studies have shown a 30% increase in the disorder in just two years.

Migrants possessing valid documents and a train... (Associated Press) Migrants wait to board the train that will take them towards Munich, Germany at the Keleti Railway Station in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, Aug. 31, 2015. Police acted shortly after authorities announced over station loudspeakers that all trains would be stopped from leaving for an indefinite period of time. Police in Vienna said Tuesday that 3,650 migrants arrived Monday from Hungary at the city's Westbahnhof station, with most continuing on toward Germany. "WE ESCAPED DEATH" Austrian authorities have stopped hundreds of refugees and arrested five traffickers along the highway from Hungary where the abandoned truck was found near the Hungarian border. Many of the migrants had entered Europe through Greece and then traveled north through Macedonia and Serbia before reaching Hungary.

– Amid scenes of chaos in Europe and fresh attempts to seal borders, the people of Iceland have asked if they can do more to help. Some 10,000 people out of a population of 330,000 have as of Monday joined a campaign to urge the government to accept more Syrian refugees—and even offered space in their homes, the Telegraph and AFP report. "I think people have had enough of seeing news stories from the Mediterranean and refugee camps of dying people and they want something done now," says author Bryndis Bjorgvinsdottir, who launched the campaign Sunday after the Icelandic government said it was only able to help 50 refugees. What one resident had to say: "I'm a single mother with a 6-year-old son ... We can take a child in need. ... We have clothes, a bed, toys and everything a child needs. I would of course pay for the airplane ticket." More on the crisis: All trains from the main station in Budapest, Hungary were halted today, the day after thousands of people, including many Syrians fleeing the civil war, were allowed to board trains north to Austria and Germany without the proper documents, the AP reports. When trains from Budapest arrived in Vienna last night, overwhelmed authorities allowed the passengers to disembark and disperse. Thousands of Austrians outside the station carried signs welcoming them and some had brought food for the hungry travelers. "They have been traveling so long and must be very hungry and they have been treated so shabbily,” a social worker tells the New York Times. "We felt we had to do something," she says. "It's a small thing but maybe it will help." Hundreds more people arrived in Germany last night on trains from Budapest last night. The country is the preferred destination of many and chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that the European Union's open-borders agreement could be in danger if other countries fail to take their fair share of refugees, Reuters reports. EU rules state that refugees should register in the first country they arrive in, but this protocol has been widely ignored and Germany says it has now been suspended for those fleeing the Syrian conflict, reports the BBC. (Police say they have found out how 71 people found dead in an abandoned truck in Austria died.)

USA TODAY The number of Americans living in poverty fell to 40.6 million from 43.1 million, lowering the poverty rate to 12.7% from 13.5% and placing it just marginally above the prerecession level. Those in the top fifth saw incomes increase 4.4%, and the top 5% realized a 5.6% gain.

– By at least one measure, the great recession that started in December 2007 was officially recovered from by the time President Obama left office, the New York Times reports. According to Census Bureau figures released Tuesday, the median household income in America in 2016 was $59,039—an increase of 3.2%. That puts the median household income above where it was in 2007 before the recession hit. "Real median household income has finally completed its nine-year slog of digging out of the ditch," one economist tells USA Today. And the Washington Post reports last year's median household income was the highest on record—beating out the previous high set in 1999. However, the Census Bureau changed its methodology in 2014, so the record isn't definitive. Median household income is one of the most important signs of how the middle class is doing, and the Census report shows good progress by low- and middle-income Americans in the final two years of the Obama administration. The Census attributes the gains in 2016 to a lot of Americans finding full-time or better-paying jobs. Also in 2016, the number of Americans living in poverty dropped from 43.1 million in 2015 to 40.6 million. However, inequality remains a problem. The median income for white households in 2016 was about $65,000; it was $39,500 for black households. Meanwhile, Asian households had a median income of $81,400 and Hispanic households of $47,700.

“Teslaquila coming soon,” Musk tweeted on October 12th, along with a picture of a label bearing the phrase, “100% puro de agave.” The thing is, you can’t just go ahead and produce tequila — the spirit is only supposed to be made in Mexico, and its production and name are tightly-controlled by that country’s Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT). According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website, Tesla has filed an application to trademark “Teslaquila” as a “distilled agave liquor” and “distilled blue agave liquor.” Similar applications have been filed in Mexico, the European Union and Jamaica. “If it wants to make Teslaquila viable as a tequila it would have to associate itself with an authorized tequila producer, comply with certain standards and request authorization from Mexico’s Industrial Property Institute,” said the CRT in a statement. “Otherwise it would be making unauthorized use of the denomination of origin for tequila.” Denomination of origin is a serious business for many countries, the U.S. included (Tennessee whiskey can only come from that state,) and it is most frequently applied in cases of booze and cheese.

– Elon Musk could be in for another fight, this one over tequila. The Tesla co-founder recently announced his intentions to get into the booze business by launching "Teslaquila," a distilled agave liquor. But Mexico's Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT) is opposing Tesla's application to trademark "Teslaquila," arguing that the word is too close to the word "tequila," which is a protected word. Denomination of origin rules stipulate that tequila has to be made in the Mexican states of Guanajuato, Jalisco, Michoacan, Nayarit or Tamaulipas, and dictates other requirements as well, Reuters reports. If Tesla "wants to make Teslaquila viable as a tequila it would have to associate itself with an authorized tequila producer, comply with certain standards and request authorization from Mexico’s Industrial Property Institute," CRT says in a statement. "Otherwise it would be making unauthorized use of the denomination of origin for tequila," and customers might confuse it with actual tequila. Fortune notes similar rules are in place for champagne (which must come from the Champagne region in France), feta cheese (which must come from Greece), and other food and drink products. (Oprah's favorite tequila is expensive—very expensive.)

Delaney "Laney" Brown, the eight-year-old girl from West Reading, Pennsylvania who inspired a community and touched hearts across the world, has passed away quietly with her loving family by her side. At first it was hundreds of people, then thousands. We will miss her smile, her laughter, and the way she would light up any room she was in. Laney was a wonderful, kind, and loving child, who brought so much joy to our lives. "I mourn for us, who now have to live in a world without her." A statement posted on the Team Laney Facebook page Wednesday morning said, "Our little angel on earth earned her pink glittery angel wings in heaven. She took her last breath at home in her bed at 3:10 surrounded by all her family and friends." Nearly 10,000 people helped to fulfill one of Laney's dying wishes by gathering on the streets of West Reading on Saturday to sing Christmas carols, demonstrating the true spirit of the holiday season. Those who couldn't be there have been showing their support on the Team Laney Facebook page. "Yours is a great courage and love story.

– A Pennsylvania girl who inspired thousands of Christmas carolers to sing for her over the weekend died of leukemia this morning, reports WFMZ. Laney Brown, 8, had a Christmas wish to hear carolers, prompting an estimated 10,000 people to cram onto her street in West Reading on Saturday night. She couldn't make it outside, but her family posted a photo of her with two thumbs up. The night before, she talked via video with her idol Taylor Swift, another of her wishes, notes CNN. "She took her last breath at home in her bed at 3:10 surrounded by all her family and friends," says a post today on her Facebook page. "I miss her so much already."

06:40 Colombia is just waking up to the news of the Nobel peace prize for President Juan Manuel Santos. It comes as a surprise for many Colombians who believed his chances had been scuttled by the rejection of the peace deal his government had hammered out with Farc rebels after four years of talks in a referendum on 2 October. According to Kristian Herbolzheimer, of peace consultancy Conciliation Resources, given the “toxic dynamic” of local politics after the referendum, the prize’s consequences domestically are “unpredictable”. Critics of Santos had derided the president for allegedly being motivated by winning the Nobel prize in his search for peace in Colombia. Last night someone who voted no in the plebiscite told me she was happy because the result of the vote meant Santos wouldn’t get the prize. Carlos Holmes Trujillo, a member of the opposition Democratic Centre party and the committee designated to search for a way out of the crisis, told local radio that the prize is “a well-deserved recognition by the international community of the efforts he has been making for peace”. The former president Álvaro Uribe, who campaigned vehemently against the peace deal with the Farc and has been a constant critic of Santos, has been tweeting since 5am (11am UK time) but has made no mention of the peace prize for his arch-rival. Also no reaction yet from Farc leadership who are in Havana. César Rodriguez Garavito, the director of Dejusticia, a Colombian thinktank, says the Nobel prize will boost efforts to reach a new peace deal. Those who led the campaign for rejecting the peace accord in last week’s referendum are in talks with the government to make changes to the agreement that will make it more palatable to the half of Colombian voters who rejected it. “It doesn’t change the results of the plebiscite, but it reminds the parties that what is at stake is the end of the war, not political calculations,” said Garavito. “It’s a recognition of the titanic efforts to reach peace.”

– Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for what the Nobel Committee calls "his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end," the AP reports. Santos and Rodrigo Londono, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia left-wing rebel group, signed a historic deal late last month to end a 52-year conflict that had killed more than 220,000 people—only for voters to reject the deal in a shock referendum result the following week. A Nobel Committee spokeswoman said that despite the rejection, Santos "brought the bloody conflict significantly closer to a peaceful solution," and the committee hopes the prize will help give him the strength to keep striving for peace. The Syrian White Helmets, volunteer rescue workers who operate in rebel-held areas of Syria, had been considered the favorite to win the prize, the Guardian reports. "Congratulations to the people and President of Columbia. We sincerely wish them peace," the group tweeted.

Saturday's shooting, which occurred after an officer responded to a trespassing call, remains under investigation. Only one — the 2012 shooting of Danielle Willard by West Valley City police — was deemed unjustified, and the subsequent criminal charge was thrown out last month by a judge.

– Police watchdogs have their antennae up at the latest report coming out of Utah: A Salt Lake Tribune review that pored over 300 homicides in the state has found that the most killings there over the past five years weren't at the hands of child abusers, drug dealers, or even gang members—they were from law enforcement. The report, which analyzed homicides since 2010, reveals that deadly force by police accounted for the second-highest number of homicides in Utah—45 deaths, or 15% of all homicides—with only domestic violence responsible for more. This review comes on the heels of a South Jordan man being shot to death by police over the weekend in a horse corral, the Tribune reports. This year alone there have been 13 homicides involving cops. Of the deadly encounters between police and citizens over the period of the report, county prosecutors considered only one to be "unjustified"—and manslaughter charges against that detective were dismissed in October, the Tribune notes. While the training manual for Utah recruits states, "Officers may use any force available provided they can justify the reasonableness of force used," the ex-chief of police in Omaha notes the nuances, telling the Tribune, "Sometimes the line between 'is it legal and is it necessary' becomes difficult to distinguish." (Deadly force was used in the weekend shooting of a 12-year-old Cleveland boy.)

Forty-two states and the District of Columbia already have waivers from No Child Left Behind’s “most troublesome and restrictive requirements”—flexibility granted several years ago by the Obama administration in exchange for states’ commitment to “setting their own higher, more honest standards for student success.” This means that most of the country’s students have already been learning under a system that eschewed much of No Child Left Behind’s most obvious and onerous aspects—and looks a lot like the system envisioned in Every Student Succeeds. The overthrow of No Child Left Behind, which has been up for reauthorization for years, is certainly cause for excitement.

– Goodbye No Child Left Behind, hello Every Student Succeeds Act. Congress on Thursday overhauled the former into the latter, and President Obama signed it into law, reports CNN. The big talking point out of the bipartisan deal is one summed up by David Kirp in an op-ed at the New York Times: The new act "shifts, for the first time since the Reagan years, the balance of power in education away from Washington and back to the states." And "that’s a welcome about-face" in Kirp's view. He rounds up a litany of teach-to-the-test criticisms about the original Bush-era law, arguing that it's done more harm than good and was long overdue for the scrap heap. "Good riddance." This end-of-an era sentiment is common in coverage, writes Alia Wong at the Atlantic, who cautions that the reform isn't as sweeping as headlines suggest. "For all the breathless hype, the legislation seems unlikely to produce many changes that are actually visible on the ground," writes Wong. For one thing, 42 states already have waivers from the No Child Left Behind requirements deemed the most odious. And while the new act does have promising new elements, including funding to expand access to preschool, Wong thinks that "all the applause and whoops and back-patting" are a little much. The piece concludes with a link to another op-ed by Conor Williams, who calls the new act a "brilliant piece of political posturing" at the74million.org. "It takes a relatively simple federal accountability system, removes the teeth, and layers on a bunch of vague responsibilities for states," he writes. "Just because something is a compromise doesn’t mean that it will do good things for children." Click for the full posts from Kirp, Wong, or Williams.

The Republican presidential hopefuls meet on Tuesday for their second foreign policy debate in 10 days, with Newt Gingrich looking to extend a campaign surge that has propelled him to a lead over Mitt Romney in polls for the 2012 race. The debate, the 11th of the year for the Republican candidates, comes barely more than a month before Iowa kicks off the state-by-state nominating fight. A CNN/Opinion Research poll on Monday showed Gingrich, a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, with a 4-point national edge over Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who has hovered near the top of polls all year.

– Tonight’s GOP debate in Washington will focus on foreign policy—though, as Politico notes, “foreign policy isn’t going to decide the 2012 presidential race.” The topic just “isn’t where the interest has been for voters or the media,” a strategist tells the Economic Times. Even so, there will be lots of things to keep an eye on, particularly since we have a new not-Mitt-Romney frontrunner: Newt Gingrich. Gingrich has the most to lose, with the Washington Post noting that he's the fifth contender to top the polls this year. He has performed well in previous debates—in fact, debate performance is largely what resurrected his campaign—but he'll have to live up to a higher standard now that he’s seen as a serious candidate. Longtime observers expect him to do well, since foreign policy is one of his strengths. Mitt Romney has focused on his ability to create jobs; tonight he will have to prove that he is strong enough to compete with a president who oversaw Osama bin Laden’s death, Moammar Gadhafi’s ouster, the Afghanistan surge, and the Iraq draw-down. After his embarrassing Libya gaffe, Herman Cain will have another shot to explain his position—and if he wants to recover, he’ll have to prove he actually knows something about foreign policy. Jon Huntsman, the only candidate with foreign policy experience, could get a chance to shine—but his positions so far haven’t resonated with voters. Will his message—opposition to US foreign entanglements—finally break through tonight? Previous debates have not showcased many policy clashes between candidates—but this time, look for quite a few differences when it comes to how we should deal with Iran’s nuclear program, Pakistan, an Afghanistan withdrawal, waterboarding, and more. The 8pm debate airs live on CNN. Click to see why Gingrich thinks he’s the best debater of the bunch.

On Monday, a number of disappointed crowd members filed a class-action suit against the “Elastic Heart” artist, seeking to compensate all ticket holders for the August 11 concert. Concert-goers who paid NIS 344 for lawn seats in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park were dismayed when the entire concert ended after just 65 minutes, an unusually short length for a major production. But that wasn’t the only thing that upset fans, many of whom spent hours getting to the venue, waiting for the show to start, and battling traffic on the way home afterward.During the show, the megatron screens usually devoted to portraying the on-stage performance aired a polished, prerecorded video instead.The footage featured famous actresses such as Kristen Wiig, of Bridesmaids fame, and Gaby Hoffman, from the hit Amazon series Transparent, as dancers, even though they were absent from the actual stage.Although the video was meant to complement what was happening on stage, the sync was imperfect, even as the colors and lighting were vastly superior to the stage show.As a result, the vast majority of concert-goers (with the possible exception of people who shelled out for expensive front-row “golden ring” tickets) experienced in essence a movie screening on the lawn of the Yarkon, complete with live backing vocals from a bewigged Sia and a distant stage show they couldn’t see. Even the live vocals felt impersonal, as the artist never once addressed the crowd, mentioned what it was like to be in Tel Aviv, or bantered in any way.Those downtrodden crowd members also complained that the “Chandelier” artist put on a lackluster show, standing toward the back of the stage throughout the performance while wearing the signature wig that predominantly covered her face.The suit against Sia and Tandi Productions – the firm that brought her to Israel – reportedly calls for a nearly NIS 8 million sum to be paid as nominal reparations to all of the concert’s ticket holders.

– Sia may hide behind her fake bangs when she's performing, but her coif likely won't shield her from the $2.1 million class-action lawsuit just filed against her and an Israeli production company. Disgruntled concertgoers who forked over around $90 for tickets to the Australian singer's Aug. 11 concert in Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park were upset when the concert ended after only 65 minutes—and now want "nominal reparations," as the Jerusalem Post puts it. They may have expected a longer show in that particular venue, as the New York Daily News notes Bon Jovi played in the same park last year for more than two hours. To add impersonal insult to injury, the complaint also alleges Sia didn't interact with the crowd at all and that the large-screen monitors around the park showed a prerecorded video starring Kristen Wiig and Gaby Hoffman instead of what was going on onstage. (People didn't seem too thrilled at what they got out of a class-action complaint against Ticketmaster.)

The world's longest aircraft - the Airlander 10 - has been damaged after nosediving on landing during its second test flight. HAV, the developer, said all the crew were "safe and well". Live: For more on this and other stories from Bedfordshire The company has denied claims from a witness that a line hanging down from the vehicle hit a telegraph pole about two fields away from its landing. The vehicle had just completed its planned 100-minute flight when it nosedived as it came in to land. It claims it could be used for a variety of functions such as surveillance, communications, delivering aid and even passenger travel. The company hopes to be building ten of them per year by 2021.

– The world's longest aircraft is likely going to have a similarly lengthy repair bill after a bit of a bumpy landing on Wednesday during its second test flight in the UK, the BBC reports. The $33.1 million, 302-foot-long Airlander 10—officially named the Martha Gywn, but called "the Flying Bum" by some for its "pert, round back," per the Independent—was returning to the Cardington airfield in Bedfordshire when an eyewitness said a line hanging from the plane hit the pole and caused the plane to slow-mo its way into a nosedive, inflicting damage to its cockpit. A rep for manufacturer Hybrid Air Vehicles refutes the pole claim, but says the company is assessing what happened and tells the Independent the crew is safe and no injuries have been reported. (The Airlander had its maiden voyage less than a week ago.)

Tiger Woods race row: Sacked caddie causes outrage with 'black a***hole' outburst at awards dinner Steve Williams posted an apology on his website Woods' management said comment was 'regrettable' By Emily Allen Last updated at 4:37 PM on 5th November 2011 Tiger Woods' former caddie Steve Williams has apologised for causing outrage at an awards dinner when he made a racist remark about his former boss. While attending a "caddie of the year" event in Shanghai, where he won "Celebration of the year" thanks to his ridiculous behavior following Adam Scott's win at the Bridgestone Invitational—including claiming the victory was the greatest of his career—Steve Williams was asked why he made such an absurd statement and said "I wanted to shove it up that black arsehole." Asked what the celebration was all about, the 47-year-old New Zealander said: ‘It was my aim to shove it right up that black a**ehole.’ Centre of storm: Steve Williams stunned guests at a gala dinner with a racial slur when accepting a prize for 'best celebration' The comment was met with a mixture of laughter and shock at the ceremony, with some players turning to each other with eyes widened and jaws agape. 'I have never seen so many jaws drop in one room at the same time,' said one caddie who was present. I was standing next to a European Tour official who said, “Thank God he is not on our tour”.’ Approached early the next morning at breakfast, Williams was stunned to learn that British tabloids had gone with the story. He said he thought the quote was probably taken out of context. Steve issued a statement and apologised and he did the right thing." He then posted a statement on his website saying: 'I apologise for the comments I made last night at the annual Caddie Awards dinner in Shanghai. 'Players and caddies look forward to this evening all year and the spirit is always joking and fun. I now realise how my comments could be construed as racist. Blast: Williams and Tiger Woods worked together for more than 10 years 'However I assure you that was not my intent. I sincerely apologise to Tiger and anyone else I have offended.' Mark Steinberg, Woods' agent at Excel Sports Management, was with the golfer when he heard the news. He said: 'It's a regrettable comment, and there's really nothing that Tiger can do or say. He's just going to move on.' Williams was on stage to receive his award for "celebration of the year" when Scott won the Bridgestone Invitational in Ohio in August, weeks after Woods sacked him. He shot birdie-birdie-eagle on the final three holes to find himself three strokes back of the lead going into the final round of the World Golf Championship. It is understood that players, caddies and senior golf figures will ask Scott to consider Williams's position for this week's Australian Open in Sydney – where Woods is also due to play – and the following week's Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne.

– Tiger Woods' old caddy shocked the professional golfing world yesterday by calling Woods "that black arsehole," Deadspin reports. Accepting an award for "best celebration" yesterday in Shanghai, Steve Williams was asked why he called Adam Scott's win at the Bridgestone Invitational the greatest victory of Williams' career. "I wanted to shove it up that black arsehole," said Williams, filling the room with shock and laughter, the Daily Mail reports. Naturally, the backpedaling came swiftly. Williams posted a apology on his website, saying, "I now realize how my comments could be construed as racist. However I assure you that was not my intent." Golfer Adam Scott, facing pressure to fire Williams, said, "It's not an issue for me," and called the remark "all in good spirits," the Guardian reports. Wood's agent said it was "sad it's come down to this. It's a regrettable comment, and there's really nothing that Tiger can do or say. He's just going to move on."

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have been discussing plans for the meeting for months. READ MORE: Canada, U.S. to co-host summit to discuss diplomatic response to North Korea threat Freeland couldn’t say what Canada’s specific role would be but she said convening the meeting was an important step “in terms of showing the unity of the international community in applying pressure on North Korea.” Canada offers what amounts to a less stressful setting for the talks, a senior government official said Wednesday on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The meeting, which will be co-hosted by the United States, will potentially involve the foreign ministers of close to two dozen countries. “By discussing the various options out on the table, by listening to ... local wisdom of the regions and especially (to those) who live a bit closer to Korea than we do, you can come up with some better ideas,” Andrew Leslie, parliamentary secretary to Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, told reporters.

– It's not just Hawaii that's prepared for a nuclear attack by North Korea. America's neighbor to the north has set aside two classified bunkers, including one to be used by members of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Cabinet, in case Canadian officials get an evacuation order or otherwise find Ottawa to be "unviable," according to documents obtained by CBC News. The sites aren't identified in the August 2016 documents, which make up part of the government's emergency contingency plans, but they're described as being on military bases. Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan says he's "very mindful" of North Korea's nuclear program and takes such threats "extremely seriously," particularly as experts suggest Canada could be hit by a missile aimed at the US. But Sajjan maintains a diplomatic solution is possible. Canada could play a key role in that regard: Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says Vancouver will host an international meeting on North Korea in January, reports Reuters, noting Japan, China, and South Korea will be invited. As many as two dozen countries may attend, reports Global News, citing a government source who describes the location as neutral, given that Canada is a non-nuclear power. "These are the kinds of things where Canada can, I think, play a role that the United States has chosen not to play this past year," Trudeau said last week when asked about Canada's push for international cooperation to address the crisis. The US, however, will co-host the meeting, designed to show "the unity of the international community in applying pressure on North Korea," Freeland says.

Speaking after Israel's envoy in Paris was summoned to the French foreign ministry, Hollande said he was "extremely concerned" by Israel's announcement that it would build 3,000 new settler homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, after a de facto UN recognition of Palestinian statehood. An official in the office of the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said: "Israel will continue to stand by its vital interests, even in the face of international pressure, and there will be no change in the decision that was made." On Wednesday evening, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's foreign policy adviser told his Israeli counterpart that Germany would abstain in the following day's vote at the United Nations General Assembly on whether to grant the Palestinians the status of a "non-member observer state." The five-square-mile project would largely cut off the West Bank from Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, which Palestinians hope to make the capital of their state.

– Israel resisted international pressure today and vowed to plow ahead with its plan to expand settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, the Guardian reports. France, Britain, Sweden, Spain, and Denmark summoned Israeli ambassadors to protest the plan, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn't budge: "Israel will continue to stand by its vital interests, even in the face of international pressure, and there will be no change in the decision that was made," he said. In related news: French President Francois Hollande criticized the plan to add 3,000 new homes to Israeli settlements, but said he didn't "want to shift into sanctions mode," Ynet News reports. "We are more focused on persuading." Washington reiterated its opposition to Israel expanding settlements in the so-called E1 corridor, a roughly 5-square-mile area that borders Jerusalem, reports the Jerusalem Post. A US State Department spokesman said building in E1 is "particularly sensitive" and "especially damaging to efforts to achieve a two-state solution." In reaction to Palestine's new UN status as a "non-member observer state," Israel said yesterday it would hold back about $100 million in tax revenues from the cash-poor Palestinian Authority, the Los Angeles Times reports. Israel said it plans to use the money to repay part of Palestine's debt to an Israeli electricity company. Der Spiegel reports that Israel's national security adviser was offended when German said it would abstain rather than voting its customary "no" on the UN vote over Palestine. Germany said it blamed Netanyahu's unbending approach to the peace process. Relations between the two countries "have rarely been as bad as they are now," reports Der Spiegel.

Lee Lightsey, the owner of Outwest Farms in Okeechobee, and guide Blake Godwin were hunting over the weekend when they discovered the gator in one of their cattle ponds, Godwin told Fox 13. The largest alligator they had taken before was just over 14 feet and this one was bigger than that, Godwin said. Nine-year-old Mason said this wasn't his first hunting trip, and it was "not scary at all" to hunt such a huge animal. I took that picture (referring to the photo of Mason laying on the alligator), the photo is real." - Two hunters at a Florida farm say it's the largest alligator they've ever captured in the wild: nearly 15 feet long. The gator measured just under 15 feet and weighed in at over 800 pounds. The company has been guiding hunts for alligators, wild boar, and turkey in Florida for 18 years and Lightsey says on his website he's been hunting all his life. They plan to donate the gator's meat to charity and have the alligator taxidermied for display at their hunting shows and expos.

– An alligator hunting company found one of the biggest alligators you'll ever see, caught by Outwest Farms owner Lee Lightsey in a pond on his ranch in Okeechobee, Fla., CNN reports. Lightsey says he was out hunting that day with his 9-year-old son, a guide, and two other hunters when they spotted the creature—said by the Lightseys to be almost 15 feet long and weighing in at more than 800 pounds, per Fox 13—in one of the ponds that their cattle drink from. Lightsey shot the gator as it started to emerge from the water about 20 feet away, and they used a tractor to drag it out of the pond, the New York Daily News reports. "We determined that he was in fact attacking our livestock as they came to drink," Lightsey says. The image of his son, Mason, posing next to the alligator has gone viral, already shared nearly 6,000 times on Facebook alone. "It is hard to believe that something this big exists in the wild," the guide who was on the hunt tells Fox 13. The farm says the alligator meat will be donated to charity, and the gator stuffed and displayed at future hunting shows. (Maybe the beast kept burglars at bay.)

Le Journal de Montreal reported Wednesday that Quebec court Judge Jean-Paul Braun made the comments earlier this year during the sexual assault trial of taxi driver Carlo Figaro, who was eventually found guilty of attacking her in his cab. During the trial, Braun commented on the victim's appearance, saying she was "a bit overweight, but she has a pretty face." He went on to say she was possibly even “a little flattered” because “maybe it’s the first time he’s interested in her.” Braun said the victim was perhaps a bit naive, although she didn’t expect to be groped during the taxi ride. Article Continued Below The trial heard that Figaro licked the girl’s face and grabbed her before she was able to get out of the vehicle. When asked about Braun's comments Wednesday morning, Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée told reporters they were "unacceptable" and that she would be filing a complaint with Quebec's magistrates council. Braun convicted Figaro, 49, last May of sexual assault and the cabbie will return to court in November for a sentencing hearing. He is appealing the verdict. The council must first evaluate whether a complaint will be accepted and, if so, an investigative committee would examine the facts before determing whether there would be any eventual sanction. A spokesperson for the Quebec court also declined to comment, referring questions back to the magistrates council. In response to complaints about judges’ comments in other jurisdictions, Ontario also made sexual assault training a requirement for provincial judges in May.

– Taxi driver Carlo Figaro was found guilty of sexual assault in a Quebec court earlier this year, but not before the judge in his case made some questionable comments about the 17-year-old victim. The BBC reports a complaint has been filed by a provincial minister against Judge Jean-Paul Braun. Per the CBC, the teen victim had testified the 49-year-old Figaro had assaulted her while she was his passenger in 2015, stopping the cab near her home and proceeding to touch her body through her clothes, unbutton her shirt, and lick her face. "You could say she's a little overweight, but she has a pretty face, huh?" Braun said during the May proceedings, per a recording heard by the French-language Journal de Montreal. Braun also reportedly said she may have been a "little flattered by Figaro's attentions—he noted Figaro "looks good," is well-mannered, and wears brand-name cologne—and mused on the different levels of consent required for kissing versus grabbing someone's buttocks. However, Braun conceded that even if the teen, who he stated in his ruling had a "voluptuous" figure, had initially been flirty, she'd also shown she didn't offer consent for Figaro to do much of what he did. Justice Minister Stephanie Vallee filed a complaint against Braun to the local magistrates council and told reporters Wednesday his comments were "unacceptable." Figaro, who denies sexual contact happened, is appealing. His sentencing date is in November, per the Toronto Star.

RCMP officers combed the streets and woods of this normally tranquil city Thursday... (Associated Press) A youth rides his bike past a trailer where murder suspect 24-year-old Justin Bourque resides in Moncton, New Brunswick, on Thursday, June 5, 2014. Bourque is wanted after three Royal Canadian Mounted... (Associated Press) An emergency response team member runs past a trailer where murder suspect 24-year-old Justin Bourque resides in Moncton, New Brunswick on Thursday, June 5, 2014. CP Live coverage Suspect captured in deadly Moncton shooting Police have apprehended the suspect in the shooting deaths of three RCMP officers in Moncton, New Brunswick. Moncton resident Michelle Thibodeau told CBC News and other media that Bourque was arrested in her backyard in the northwest part of the city where the shooting occurred and which had been on lockdown while the manhunt for the suspect was underway. 1 of 2 wounded officers released from hospital Alward asked people to also remember the two officers who were wounded and all of the emergency services staff who helped during the shooting and subsequent manhunt. Mr. Bourque, who had no previous brushes with the law, was wearing military camouflage and carrying two high-powered rifles along with other weapons in a photo taken on Wednesday that police circulated. A motive for the shootings was not known, and Bourque's neighbors described a withdrawn man who collected guns and was an avid hunter of birds, deer and moose.

– After a manhunt that lasted more than 24 hours, police say that the man believed to have shot three Canadian Mounties dead is in custody and that residents of Moncton, New Brunswick, can safely leave their homes. A police spokesman says Justin Bourque, 24, was arrested just after midnight, the CBC reports. The northern part of the small city had been locked down since three officers were killed and two others wounded Wednesday night. Bourque—described by neighbors as a withdrawn man who loved hunting—was spotted three times during the massive manhunt, which involved police officers from across Canada, but still managed to elude capture for more than a day, the AP reports. No motive is known. Police caught up with Bourque on a street of homes around half a mile from where the rampage began, reports the Globe and Mail. "He was in my backyard. I saw him arrested in front of my eyes. He is alive," one witness tweeted."The SWAT team arrived at my house and unloaded and started screaming in my backyard for him to surrender and he did. I watched it happen." Another witness says she heard the suspect yelling, "I'm done" after police shouted at him to give himself up. Canada's governor-general says today is a day to remember the sacrifices of the three Mounties killed, the force's first deaths in the line of duty since 2007, CTV reports.

Incident, in which car mounted pavement and members of public apparently detained driver, being treated as traffic accident Eleven people have been injured after a minicab driver struck pedestrians outside the Natural History Museum in west London, sparking a major security alert. Police said the incident was a road traffic investigation and not a terrorist-related incident. Photographs showed a dented silver car and a man being pinned to the ground outside the museum.

– Multiple injuries were reported Sunday afternoon after a car drove onto the sidewalk outside the Natural History Museum in London, the Guardian reports. According to the BBC, the injuries in an area popular with tourists are said to be minor. Officials say 11 people were treated for injuries with nine being transported to the hospital. "We heard a horrible thudding noise and a car engine," says a man who was waiting in line for the museum at the time. "Everyone started running and screaming inside." Photos from the scene show a dented car and a man being held on the ground by other people, the AP reports. Police say one man was arrested. "When it calmed down we ... saw a gentleman on the floor being restrained by police," a witness tells the BBC. Police have determined the incident was not terrorism-related but instead a "road traffic collision."