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diff --git a/examples/training/data/newsdev2016.en b/examples/training/data/newsdev2016.en deleted file mode 100644 index 97e57211..00000000 --- a/examples/training/data/newsdev2016.en +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1999 +0,0 @@ -Brazil's Former Presidential Chief-of-Staff to Stand Trial -A federal judge on Tuesday accepted the charges filed against Brazil's former presidential chief of staff for his alleged involvement in a massive corruption scheme at state-owned oil company Petrobras. -The federal prosecutor's office said Jose Dirceu will face trial on the corruption, racketeering and money laundering charges filed earlier this month. -Fourteen other people will also be tried, including Joao Vaccari Neto, the former treasurer of Brazil's governing Workers' Party and Renato de Souza Duque, Petrobras' former head of corporate services. -Dirceu is the most senior member of the ruling Workers' Party to be taken into custody in connection with the scheme. -Dirceu served as former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's chief of staff between 2003 and 2005. -He was arrested early August in his home, where he already was under house arrest serving an 11-year sentence for his involvement in a cash-for-votes scheme in Congress more than 10 years ago. -Prosecutors have said that Dirceu masterminded the kickback scheme at Petrobras, accepted bribes while in office and continued to receive payments from contractors after he was jailed in late 2013 for the vote-buying scandal. -According to prosecutors, the scheme at Petrobras involved roughly $2 billion in bribes and other illegal funds. -Some of that money was allegedly funneled back to campaign coffers of the ruling party and its allies. -It also allegedly included the payment of bribes to Petrobras executives in return for inflated contracts. -'Miraculous' recovery for Peshawar massacre schoolboy -A teenager paralysed after being shot four times in Pakistan's deadliest terror attack has made a "miraculous" recovery following treatment in the UK. -Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, 13, had been told by doctors in Pakistan that he would never walk again. -At least 140 people, mostly children, were killed when gunmen stormed Peshawar's Army Public School last December. -Muhammad, who arrived in London last month for surgery, is being discharged from hospital later. -Exactly nine months ago, on an ordinary Tuesday morning, Muhammad sat in his first aid class listening to his teachers intently. -At the same time seven gunmen disguised in security uniforms were entering the Army Public School. -They were strapped with explosives and had one simple mission in mind: Kill every man, woman and child they came across. -"I can't forget what happened that day," Muhammad says with a severe stare. -We were sitting in the auditorium, we were asking questions... and then we heard heavy gunfire outside. -The terrorists moved inside and they started killing - our teacher was burned alive. -Muhammad described pulling four other pupils out of the auditorium as the carnage unfolded. -He said he then heard his friend, Hamza calling to him. -He said, 'oh brother save me'. -I held his hand. -That's when I was shot in the back, and he was shot in the head. -Most of the people killed in the attack were pupils -Hamza died in Muhammad's arms. -Muhammad recalled blacking out after that, and the next thing he knew he was in a hospital bed, paralysed from the waist down. -Doctors in Peshawar in northern Pakistan, and then Rawalpindi, close to the capital, told his family there was no treatment, and he would never walk again. -"Seeing him I felt like my soul had left my body," says Muhammad's father, Sher Khan -Those nine months were the hardest in my life. -But Mr Khan and his wife, Sherbano, refused to believe that their cricket-mad son would never be able to use his legs again. -They campaigned, and appealed for help on Pakistani TV, gaining the support of high profile people such as cricketer turned politician Imran Khan. -Finally, they were able to raise the funds to bring Muhammad to the UK and provide him with treatment at London's private Harley Street Clinic. -Consultant neurosurgeon Irfan Malik described Muhammad as "terrified" when he first arrived at the hospital. -"He'd spent the last [few] months lying on a bed, unable to move side to side," says Mr Malik. -He was weak, he had a pressure sore on his back. -He wasn't in great shape. -A vertebra at the base of Muhammad's spine was destroyed -Muhammad was shot in his shoulder, his hip, and his back during the attack, damaging his lower spine - leading to paralysis. -But during six hours of surgery, Mr Malik and his team were able to reattach nerve endings and reconstruct the damaged part of the spine. -Even Mr Malik was surprised at what happened next. -Exactly one week after the surgery Muhammad stood up and started taking steps and walking. -We were not expecting to get that sort of excellent result. -That was miraculous," he says. -Less than two weeks after his operation, Muhammad is ready to leave hospital and start the long road to recovery. -Muhammad has defied the odds and started to walk again -He says he wants to build his strength and continue his education in the UK. -But he says he is determined to return to Pakistan, join the army and help fight terrorism. -"I feel like I have a second chance at life," he says as he shows off pictures he's drawn of guns scribbled out next to school books and pens -Muhammad grows physically stronger every day but the psychological trauma he continues to endure is unimaginable. -"My anger is not diminishing" he says. -In my school little kids were killed. -What was their crime? -His mother, wiping a tear from her eye, caressed his head and said: "I can see my son walking again." -He'll be able to get on with his normal life. -'Super Voice' 4G service from Three offers better signal -Three is making use of a lower frequency 4G spectrum that can travel more widely -Mobile phone provider Three has launched a UK service it says will improve reception inside buildings and in rural black spots. -Its 4G Super Voice enables customers to make calls and send texts using a lower frequency spectrum. -Other networks are looking into introducing the technology, known as Voice Over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE). -It currently works on only the Samsung Galaxy S5, but recent iPhone handsets will be added in the coming months. -Three said up to 5.5 million customers would have access to the service by 2017. -Chief technology officer Bryn Jones said: "By the end of the year, one million of our customers will have access to better indoor coverage and be able to use their phones in more places than ever before." -Stars prepare for panto season -Pantomime season is big business for theatres up and down the UK, with many getting ready for this year's season now. -Some of the biggest names in showbusiness now take part in the yuletide theatre. -Matthew Kelly and Hayley Mills will be appearing in Cinderella - one as an ugly sister, the other as fairy godmother. -They reveal their panto secrets to BBC Breakfast. -Steven Wilson: 'If I don't do anything, I feel this creeping guilt' -Steven Wilson was recently the big winner at the Progressive Music Awards -Steven Wilson is often dubbed the hardest working musician in the world of progressive rock. -The multi-talented musician won three prizes at this month's Progressive Music Awards in London, including album of the year for Hand. -The Guardian's five-star review called it "a smart, soulful and immersive work of art." -Since the 1980s, Wilson has been the driving force in a number of musical projects, the best known of which is the rock band Porcupine Tree. -Now, ahead of two sell-out shows at the Royal Albert Hall, Wilson is releasing a vinyl-only double LP, Transience, to showcase the "more accessible" side of his solo output. -He tells the BBC about his love of vinyl, his busy schedule and explains how comic actor Matt Berry came to be his support act. -What does vinyl mean to you? -I grew up at the very tail end of the vinyl era, and at the time, I remember, we couldn't wait for CD to come along because vinyl was so frustrating. -You would buy the record, take it home, and it would have a scratch, and you would have to take it back again. -I love CDs, and for some kinds of music - classical for example - it is better than vinyl. -But the problem with the CD and digital downloads is that there's nothing you can really cherish or treasure. -Owning vinyl is like having a beautiful painting hanging in your living room. -It's something you can hold, pore over the lyrics and immerse yourself in the art work. -I thought it was just a nostalgic thing, but it can't be if kids too young to remember vinyl are enjoying that kind of experience. -Do you have a piece of vinyl that you treasure? -The truth is I got rid of 100% of my vinyl in the 90s. -All the vinyl I have is re-bought. -I started off from the perspective that I wanted to recreate the collection I had when I was 15, but it's gone beyond that. -The first record which I persuaded my parents to buy for me was Electric Light Orchestra's Out of the Blue. -If I still had my original copy, it would have sentimental value, but, alas, it's in a charity shop somewhere. -Steven Wilson hopes the album will be a doorway for potential new fans -Why release your new compilation Transience on vinyl? -It was originally conceived as an idea for Record Store Day, but we missed the boat on that. -My record company had suggested I put together some of my shorter, more accessible songs. -I got a bit obsessed by the idea to make something like "an introduction to Steven Wilson," and I was committed to it being a vinyl-only release. -Anyone who buys the vinyl does also get a high-resolution download. -Do you have a concern that the album won't show your work in a true light? -No - because although I do focus on more long-form pieces of music, there is one thing I have always valued above everything else: melody. -There is a lot of progressive rock which focuses on the technical complexity of the track rather than the melodic side. -Pink Floyd, the most successful progressive rock band of all time, have stood the test of time because the emphasis was always on melody and atmosphere. -What do you have in store for your Albert Hall shows? -I don't want to give away too much. -The repertoire will be completely different each night. -The first night is going to be a version of the Hand. Erase. show I've been doing this year - but on steroids - with a couple of guests. -The second night is going to be more of a trip into my history, which is more aimed at the fans have been following me for years. -How did it come about that Matt Berry is the support act on the second night? -Myself and everyone on the tour bus are massive fans of [Channel 4 comedy series] Toast of London to the point that we are quoting it endlessly. -I thought that I should check out Matt's music, so I picked up a copy of his Music for Insomniacs. -I chatted with him about our love of Mike Oldfield and asked him to play at the Royal Albert Hall. -I'm going to be incredibly star struck by my opening act. -You've been remixing albums by the likes of XTC, Tears for Fears and Yes. -How much does that influence your own work? -I don't consciously draw from that, but, inevitably, if you are deconstructing these classic albums they really get into your head. -My last solo album, The Raven That Refused to Sing, was without doubt the most old-school progressive album I've ever done. -I don't think it was coincidence that I had been remixing King Crimson, Jethro Tull and Yes almost exclusively for the previous year. -The current album, Hand. Erase., opened up a lot more because I'd been working on Tears for Fears and XTC. -You are often described as progressive rock's busiest musician. -Is that how it feels? -You can remove the word progressive. -I think I am probably one of the most work-obsessed people in the music business today, and I don't say that with any sense of pride because believe me it's a curse. -I think I get it from my father, who also had an incredibly strong work ethic. -If I don't do anything for a whole day, I start to feel this creeping guilt. -That's why the remix work has been such a gift to me because it means I don't have to be doing my own music all the time. -The music industry is a hard place to make a living for yourself. -I wouldn't recommend it to anyone as a profession now. -I work every day, and I'm not rich, but I make a good living. -I love what I do, it's a privilege, but if I was lazy about it, I don't think I'd be able to survive. -Transience is out in the UK on 25 September. -Steven Wilson plays the Royal Albert Hall on 28 and 29 September as part of his 2015-16 tour of Europe. -Contract sees jobs fly back to Skytrans -The new Skytrans has re-employed some of the airline staff who lost their jobs when the original Skytrans collapsed. -Reborn north Queensland airline Skytrans has secured a $25 million contract to transport natural gas company QGC workers, which has led to 18 staff getting their jobs back. -The Wild family-owned Skytrans went bust in January, after the Newman government awarded the subsidised routes that formed a large part of the airline's business. -The collapse led to several communities facing potential isolation, with federal LNP north Queensland MP Warren Entsch leading a chorus of criticism of the state LNP government. -Another company, Collings Aircraft Holdings, relaunched the Skytrans brand in March. -Skytrans chief executive Michael Thinee said the airline's contract with QCG had already created jobs. -"We have been able to re-employ 18 Skytrans staff back into full time employment as pilots and cabin crew," he said. -We are also pleased to welcome new staff who have direct logistics experience managing flight operations for QGC customers. -We have grown our workforce by 100 per cent in just five months, with 78 staff being employed in Cairns and now Brisbane. -The contract would see Skytrans expand its flight operations from its Cairns headquarters, which services Cape York and the Torres Strait, to also include a base in Brisbane. -Skytrans will operate 18 return flights per week for QGC staff and contractors from Brisbane to sites in Chinchilla and Taroom on its 36-seat Dash-8s from Monday, October 26. -QGC managing director Tony Nunan said Skytrans was awarded the contract after a competitive tender process. -"We're delighted that this contract will help a Queensland company to expand," he said. -The Skytrans contract maintains high quality and consistent flight services to support our operations and projects. -Liberal MP and new mum Kelly O'Dwyer told to express more breast milk to avoid missing votes in the chamber -More women likely for cabinet -Malcolm Turnbull's new ministry will be sworn in on Monday, with a strong indication there will be more women on the front bench. -One of the government's rising stars, Kelly O'Dwyer, has been advised to express more breast milk for her newborn baby to avoid her breastfeeding interfering with her duties in the parliamentary chamber. -The advice came from the office of the government's Chief Whip Scott Buchholz, who subsequently had to consult his Labor counterpart to find out how to better deal with a breastfeeding MP in accordance with the standing orders. -Liberal MP Kelly O'Dwyer with her daughter Olivia. -Under the standing orders - the set of rules which govern behaviour of MPs in the chamber - new mothers who are breastfeeding are given a proxy vote in the Parliament. -This means their vote is counted even though they are not physically in the chamber. -But the Whip was unaware of the exemption until he consulted the opposition's Chief Whip, Chris Hayes, about the matter. -The issue flared up on two occasions when Ms O'Dwyer was unable to attend a division and a speaking obligation because she had just begun breastfeeding. -On one of these occasions her office was asked whether the MP had considered expressing more milk instead of breastfeeding. -Queensland MP Scott Buchholz is the government's Chief Whip. -The pair have subsequently resolved the dispute. -Both declined to comment when contacted by Fairfax Media but sources separate to Mr Buchholz and Ms O'Dwyer told Fairfax Media the Member for Higgins was furious at being told to consider expressing more milk over breastfeeding her daughter Olivia, who was born in May. -The revelation comes as new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull works on the shape of his new cabinet. -Mr Buchholz, a Queensland Liberal National MP was promoted to the job of Chief Whip by former prime minister Tony Abbott, as part of the fallout from the attempted spill in February earlier this year. -Ms O'Dwyer, pictured with Labor's Amanda Rishworth and son Percy, is one of three new mums in the Parliament. -The former whip Phillip Ruddock was dumped just days after Mr Abbott stared down a spill motion to remove him as leader and was replaced with Mr Buchholz. -Another Abbott loyalist, Tasmanian Liberal Andrew Nickolic was also promoted and made a Deputy Whip. -Mr Nickolic has made headlines in recent days, after it was revealed he texted Mr Turnbull demanding he rule out a challenge to Mr Abbott's leadership. -Ms O'Dwyer returned to Parliament for the first time in August since giving birth to her baby Olivia in May. -She is one of three new mothers in the Parliament this year. -Labor's health spokeswoman Catherine King said on Wednesday that the proxy vote for breastfeeding mothers was introduced when her son was a baby. -"He is now [seven years old]," she tweeted. -The Whip should have known. -Ms O'Dwyer was promoted to the frontbench late last year and could be promoted under Mr Turnbull who on Wednesday said he wanted more women in his cabinet. -"There is no greater enthusiast than me to see more women in positions of power, influence, Parliament, ministries, right across the country," the Prime Minister told reporters at Parliament House. -Mr Abbott included just one woman in his first cabinet and after sustained pressure to boost female representation in the Coalition, promoted a second woman into cabinet in the December reshuffle. -Five things business wants from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull -Malcolm Turnbull: how will markets react? -BusinessDay columnist Mal Maiden examines what impact Malcolm Turnbull might have on Australia's business sector. -The business lobby could not shout its approval loudly enough on Tuesday as Malcolm Turnbull took the nation's reins as Prime Minister. -The key reason is that so much of what many of them would like to see had been taken off the table under the leadership of Tony Abbott. -Either that, or it had sunk into a negotiated standstill through Abbott's crash-or-crash-through political style. -With one voice the lobbyists talked about a hoped-for ability in Turnbull to make the public argument, to cut the political deal and get tough things done. -So what exactly are the nation's biggest companies, and their lobbyists, looking for in our new Prime Minister? -ChAFTA will be an early test of Turnbull's ability to overcome negative publicity. -Turnbull himself put the China free trade deal up on the tee as an early goal. -In his first speech to the media announcing the challenge, the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) was the focal point for his attack on Labor leader Bill Shorten. -In a speech in August, Turnbull decried "outrage outbursts of economic chauvinism" from Labor over the issue and raised concerns about a racial edge to the criticism. -"In the ChAFTA context the winners overwhelmingly outnumber the losers," he said in the same speech. -Business is pinning its hopes on his winning this debate. -Business legend Don Argus was quick to make this a key point, he was echoed by the Business Council of Australia (which represents the nation's 100 biggest companies), gaming billionaire James Packer and others. -Business wants this deal done and it will be an early test of both Turnbull's ability to overcome negative publicity and also to negotiate with the senate cross-bench. -Small Business Minister Bruce Billson supports the Harper Review recommendations. -This issue is shaping as a potential early rift with the business community. -The effects test is applied in big mergers and other contracts to decide whether consumers will suffer from a lack of competition. -It's called an "effects test" because it takes into account not only a company's actions and intent, but the effect that they have on competitors and the market. -How that test is worded is extremely important to the outcome. -The Harper review of competition law recommended a change to the effects test that will make harder for large corporates to squeeze smaller operators out. -Under Tony Abbott, the government was all set to side with the Business Council of Australia and the big retailers. -Turnbull has now signalled he wants to have a full cabinet consider what to do next. -The BCA has jumped straight out of the blocks to say consumers will pay higher prices if Turnbull takes up the Harper review's recommendations. -One irony is that business has also strongly urged the new Prime Minister to have a greater respect for cabinet process, which is Turnbull seems to be doing in allowing his Small Business Minister Bruce Billson (who supports the Harper recommendation) to makes his case to his colleagues. -Mediterranean diet could help prevent breast cancer -Spanish researchers tracked women between sixty and eighty years old. -Those eating mostly plants, fish, and olive oil appeared to *significantly* reduce the likelihood of breast cancer. -Terrence Howard challenges the times tables -Terrence Howard believes that we've got arithmetic all wrong. -The "Empire" villain told Rolling Stone that he does not believe one times one equals one. -"How can it equal one?" he said. -If one times one equals one that means that two is of no value because one times itself has no effect. -One times one equals two because the square root of four is two, so what's the square root of two? -Should be one, but we're told it's two, and that cannot be. -We lost you there, Terrence. -Unsurprisingly, Howard's teachers did not agree with his theory, and he subsequently left Pratt Institute, where he was studying chemical engineering. -"I mean, you can't conform when you know innately that something is wrong," he explained. -Howard calls his parallel take on math "Terrylogy." -The actor said he spends time cutting and re-forming scissors, wire, magnets and sheets of plastic to illustrate his one-times-one theory and other similar theories he has. -He told the magazine that he and his ex-wife Mira Pak would spend up to 17 hours a day creating these illustrations. -The Rolling Stone writer described Howard's creations as "building blocks but the shapes are infinitely more complex, in two dimensions and three, tied together by copper wire or held in place by magnets." -Howard said he hopes to inherit U.S. patent 20150079872 A1 ("Systems and methods for enhanced building-block applications"), among others. -The "Hustle and Flow" actor also said that Pythagoras, Einstein and Tesla would "lose [their minds]" if they saw Terryology. -"Since I was a child of three or four," he said, "I was always wondering, you know, why does a bubble take the shape of a ball?" -Why not a triangle or a square? -I figured it out. -Howard added that he hopes to change the course of education. -"This is the last century that our children will ever have been taught that one times one is one," he said. -They won't have to grow up in ignorance. -Twenty years from now, they'll know that one times one equals two. -We're about to show a new truth. -The true universal math. -We'll have to check up in 20 years. -Ariana Grande channels Britney Spears during Wheel of Impression -Ariana Grande nailed impressions of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera Tuesday during a visit to "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." -The 22-year-old pop star played Fallon's Wheel of Impression bit, taking on "Mary Had a Little Lamb" as Spears, and then showing off her vocal chops with an Aguilera-sounding rendition of "The Wheels on the Bus." -For his part, Fallon did a nice job channeling Sting and Aaron Neville. -The two also took turns doing versions of The Weeknd's "I Can't Feel My Face." -Grande has been on the press circuit this week. -Earlier in the day, she paid a visit to "Good Morning America" where she opened up about the doughnut licking incident. -Taco Bell hopes wine-serving 'Cantinas' will become urban hotspots -Looking for a swanky night out? -Consider Taco Bell. -On September 22, the Mexican style fast food chain will open up a new location in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood featuring a tapas-style menu of appetizers, a mural from a local artist, and even alcoholic beverages. -It's the first of the chain's 'Taco Bell Cantina' test locations, aimed at catering to a younger crowd increasingly concentrated in city centers. -Taco Bell, which has nearly 6,000 US locations, is rooted primarily in suburban areas and associated with cheap, quick eats, like the wildly popular Doritos Locos Taco. -With the average Taco Bell tab in the $7 range, the company has utilized drive-throughs and fast service to attract the quantity of customers needed to turn a profit. -But to cater to Millennials "seeking more urban environments to live, work, and play," according to Taco Bell, the test locations must follow a different model, with smaller footprints and pricier options. -To put in a drive-thru you need land. -Can you imagine buying an acre of land in a neighborhood like Wicker Park? -"You couldn't afford it," Neil Borkan, the Taco Bell franchisee who will operate the Chicago location told USA TODAY. -At the Chicago location, new menu items will be prepared alongside Taco Bell's traditional offerings in an open kitchen, where "you will literally be able to see the food" before it's prepared, Taco Bell's Chief Development Officer Meredith Sandland told the Associated Press. -The new location will also serve wine, beer, and frozen alcoholic drinks, echoing recent moves by many of Taco Bell's competitors. -Seventy-five Starbucks cafes now offer "evening" menus that include beer, wine, and small snacks. -Ten thousand out of Chipotle's roughly 1,900 restaurants offer alcoholic beverages. -Another Taco Bell Cantina location will be opened in San Francisco near AT&T Park later this month, according to the company, eschewing a drive-thru and parking lot for a patio and a pickup window. -Those changes in location, atmosphere, and additions all point to the fast food chain aiming to attract a clientele beyond those looking for late night junk food. -Taco Bell first set its sights on a higher quality food line in 2012, when it unveiled pricier Cantina bowls and burritos to compete with Chipotle, along with an accompanying ad campaign focusing on the new items' protein content. -If successful, the Cantina locations will be yet another step in that upscale push. -Taco Bell said it plans to add 2,000 locations in the US by 2022. -Ms. Sandland told the AP, "several hundred" of them will be "Cantinas." -They have heated up their phones in the middle of the night: Elton John courts Putin -Russian President Vladimir Putin telephoned Elton John on Monday night, just days after the British artist said publicly that he wants to meet the Russian politician to talk together about the Russian antigay legislation. -The British singer, a declared homosexual, tried unsuccessfully to obtain a meeting with Putin while he was in Russia in November 2014, a year after he defied the protests in this country and held two concerts in 2013 in a hectic period in the history of this state, after the adoption of controversial laws which ban "homosexual propaganda" among minors. -In 2014 in St. Petersburg, the British artist criticized these laws and stated the following in front of his fans: "Although I'm gay, I always felt that I am welcomed here in Russia." -If I were not honest about what I am, I could not write these songs. -They do not mean gay propaganda. -They represent the way I express life. -If we begin to punish people for this, then the world will lose its humanity. -Last Saturday, the artist revealed that he wants to meet with Putin to discuss this controversial issue. -So far, there is no clear information on the telephone conversation between the two personalities. -Cocos confessed everything in the National Authority for Property Restoration (NAPR) file -Businessman Dorin Cocos is trying to save himself from a stinging conviction, by "singing" everything to the judges and detailing how he gave millions of euros to the former members of NAPR Commission. -Interviewed yesterday before the High Court of Cassation and Justice in the case in which he is being prosecuted together with his son Alin Cocos, the former head of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism Alina Bica and former members of the Central Commission for the Establishment of Compensation within NAPR, Dorin Cocos seemed to have been hit by the lightning of sincerity. -He admitted all the allegations and told in detail to the judges how he helped businessman Stelian Gheorghe in the NAPR Compensation case, while asking instead to be judged more quickly and that his cooperation be taken into account. -Cocos stated that he has known Gheorghe Stelian since 2006 and that he befriended him after several real estate businesses. -He said that he met Sergiu Diacomatu in 2010 who told him he worked for NAPR. -Later I learned that (Diacomatu, n.r). is the vice president, and due to the fact that Stelian Gheorghe has a file pending at NAPR, I asked him to help us. -I promised him money, 2.5 million Euro, money that I said I will give in several instalments. -I also promised him political support to remain in office. -"Diacomatu told me then that he will help me, but that he needs support," said Dorin Cocos in the courtroom. -He stated that after this, through an acquaintance, he came into contact with Crinuta Dumitrean, who was then head of the Central Commission for Compensations, to whom he promised 800,000 Euro. -For the second case of Gheorghe Stelian, I knew that he wanted to get more than 300,000 Euro. -Diacomatu already had political support, I also gave him five million Euro. -To Crinuta Dumitrean one million Euro, to Bogdan Dragos I gave 800,000 Euro. -Please note that I gave all this money in instalments to make sure that the case will be settled. -"I only told them the following: solve the case, give compensations," said Cocos. -Asked why he came to do these things, Dorin Cocos said he received eight million Euro for the positive settlement of the second case of Gheorghe Stelian. -I received for the second case eight million euros to solve the problem, but I was left with only 1.2 million. -In 2013 I also met Alina Bica. -"We never talked about money or lands" said Cocos. -He also said that "it was a known fact that all NAPR members agreed upon before the meeting." -I was not nervous about them giving a positive vote. -All the NAPR positions were given politically, but I personally did not help Diacomatu politically. -"I told him I would help him politically only to calm him", concluded Cocos. -Ponta brings the European Court of Justice to DNA (National Anticorruption Directorate) -Prime Minister Victor Ponta went to DNA yesterday for just five minutes, during which he submitted new documents in the file "Turceni - Rovinari". -Victor Ponta ran to DNA with a document of the European Court of Justice -Convinced that the case prosecutor will receive him for a discussion on the file in which he is being investigated for forgery under private signature, complicity to tax evasion and money laundering, Victor Ponta went on his own initiative to DNA, although the documents he had could have been sent though a lawyer. -It was not to be, as the prosecutor had no time and the Prime Minister left after five minutes, during which he left several documents at the Register's Office. -I wanted to submit (to the case, n.r) the resolution of the European Court of Justice of 3 September, which explains what happens to service contracts. -I say I performed works, the prosecutor says I did not, the European Court of Justice told us we should both mind our business because as long the taxes were paid, things are alright. -"From the point of view of the European Court of Justice, which is mandatory and certain for all European Union countries, there is no case here," said Prime Minister Victor Ponta, when he exited DNA. -Ponta also said that, in his view, the European Court's decision should apply, if we are EU members. -Until then, the Prime Minister expects the prosecutor to read the European Court's decision and to call him again for questioning, but also to give him a response to his demands, including the splitting of the file. -Iohannis is relishing his mandate without a TV -In today's Romania, there is no legal provision which forces you to watch television. -Not even to own such a device, since the television fee is added to the energy bill. -But if you're the president, things change radically. -This is due to the fact that it is basically implied that the Romanian president's job description states the president is up to date with everyday realities. -Each day, president Iohannis immerses himself in total silence in his office at Cotroceni -But, to the amazement of even the closest of his people at the Cotroceni Palace, Klaus Iohannis refuses to have a TV in the presidential office. -Even after failing to watching TV - any program, even German networks like RTL or Pro Sieben - the president also does not listen to any radio stations or read any newspapers. -In addition, he does not even receive the "negative monitoring" for example. His predecessor requested it as a priority. -Instead, Iohannis only enjoys receiving the news reports which put him in a positive light. -Beside this informational self-isolation, in which the only break is when he accesses Facebook, even more serious is the blockage the president is pushing the overall activity of the Presidential Administration towards, by being passive. -This happened because, although a lot of time has passed from the moment he was brought into service, Iohannis has yet to sign the loyalty statements for more than half of the employees of the Presidential Administration. -This is becoming a growing problem, both in terms of human and legal standpoints. -All is quiet and peaceful -The presidential entourage is already convinced that nobody and nothing can damage the "feng shui" of the presidential office. -A place of peace and quiet. -It's true that just after a minute to nine (no more, no less!) in the morning, the former mayor of Sibiu requires the presence of the officials. -This custom probably remained from the days when he was the mayor of the town near the Cibin river. -The fact that Iohannis does not want a television in his office has already given rise to countless legends, thus people in the Cotroceni Palace already tend to think that, by doing so, the president is trying avoid being monitored. -Especially since he does not own any radios. -But, at this rate, the next step is to meditate in the dark, because even the illuminating equipment can hide audio-video recording devices. -All is good -Furthermore, another oddity at the Cotroceni Palace is that only the "positive monitoring" regarding the president is delivered to the him. -That is, if there is any good news about Klaus Iohannis or his wife, the president will receive the information on his desk. -Good news or no news! -Even more interesting is that "negative monitoring" is forbidden, given that, for example, Traian Basescu was recognized not only for watching late night television shows he was criticized in, but asking that every morning the bad news be delivered with priority. -That does not necessarily mean this was of any help, but, as they say, the gesture counts! -At least no one can ever say he was not well informed from alternative sources. -Neither fired nor confirmed -After all, maybe the mystery of why Klaus Iohannis does not want to watch TV is going to be solved. -Until then, the resolution of the contractual situation of hundreds of employees from the presidential administration would be more important, irrespective of how it may be achieved. -In order to work, the employees are required to sign a statement of loyalty to the president in office, which must also bear his signature. -But, since December and until now, Klaus Iohannis has yet to sign for confirmation even half of these statements, although this was supposed to be done within 30 days. -So hundreds of people representing over half of the staff at the Cotroceni Palace are in an uncertain situation now. -Legally speaking, if the president does not personally sign their statement, they should be fired. -The thing is that all these employees did not received any negative opinion either! -So, after all, after the inspectors of the Court of Auditors will carry out an investigation, they will find that for over half a year, many hundreds of people have received their wages sailing close to the wind. -That is until the president decides if he is going to fire them or confirm their positions, the decision being strictly his own. -Teen was plotting to attack Pope Francis during US visit, authorities say -A teenager's ISIS-inspired plot to attack Pope Francis during his U.S. visit was more "aspirational" than operational, a law enforcement source confirmed to Fox News on Tuesday. -The 15-year-old was arrested in the Philadelphia area in August, when law enforcement authorities foiled the plot. -The plot is the same one Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, the Homeland Security chairman, referred to during an interview on Sunday, a source told Fox News. -"We are monitoring very closely threats against the pope as he comes into the United States," McCaul said on ABC's "This Week." -Pope Francis was not named as the specific target of the plot in an Aug. -14 FBI and Department of Homeland Security joint intelligence bulletin that said the teen planned to use multiple attackers, firearms and explosives to target a "foreign dignitary at a high-profile event." -The bulletin said the minor was radicalized via social media. -The teen may suffer from mental health issues, a law enforcement source told Fox News, though the source wouldn't detail specifics about the teen's condition. -McCaul on Sunday also acknowledged the potential for a so-called "lone wolf" attack nationwide and said he was briefed by the Secret Service "in a classified setting" about the pope's visit. -And with that comes a large security risk...But as that date approaches, I think we're all very vigilant to protect him as he comes into the United States. -Fox News' Matt Dean contributed to this report. -Medieval skeleton discovered in tree suffered violent death, experts say -Archaeologists in Ireland have unearthed startling details about the strange medieval skeleton found in the roots of a 215 year-old tree. -The beech tree in Collooney, Sligo, fell during a storm earlier this year, revealing the macabre sight of a skeleton trapped in its roots. -The Irish National Monuments Service brought in experts from Sligo-Leitrim Archaeological Services to excavate and analyze the remains, revealing a grisly tale. -"He had been killed violently," Marion Dowd, director of Sligo-Leitrim Archaeological Services, told FoxNews.com. -We have stab wounds in the upper chest and they were inflicted by a knife - we also have a stab wound in the left hand, which suggests that he was trying to defend himself. -The skeleton is of a young man between the ages of 17 and 20. -Radiocarbon analysis has dated the remains to between 900 and 1,000 years old. -"We don't know if he was killed in a battle or if this was a personal dispute," said Dowd, noting that the body was originally buried in a Christian fashion with its head pointing to the west. -"His family or community must have buried him," she added. -Dowd told FoxNews.com that whoever planted the tree was unaware of the grave. -"It's completely coincidental - the context is unusual," she said. -There are historical records that say there was a church and graveyard in the area, but there are no remains visible today. -Another aspect of the excavation is unusual - the young man's height. -"He's 5-foot-10," said Dowd. -For early medieval society that's pretty tall. -Feds spend $1.5M studying how babies think about food -The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has spent nearly $1.5 million studying how infants think about food. -The project, "Infants' and Children's Reasoning About Foods," is being conducted by the University of Chicago and so far has determined that young children would rather not eat food that someone has licked or sneezed on. -"Good nutrition is important for health and longevity, yet many Americans do not consume nutritionally sound diets," according to the grant for the project. -Evidence suggests that infants' and children's earliest patterns of eating have lasting consequences for health across the lifespan. -The premise for the study is that there is a dearth of research about how babies think about eating. -"Despite the complexity and significance of food selection, developmental psychologists have devoted surprisingly little attention to studying how infants and children perceive, learn, and reason about foods," the grant said. -The current proposal employs methods from cognitive development to test social influences on infants' and children's food choices and consumption. -The researchers characterize infants as having "limited knowledge in the food domain." -Children aged three to six years old are "more knowledgeable than infants and toddlers about foods" but are "notoriously picky eaters." -Former 'Star Trek: Voyager' actress charged with indecent exposure in Tennessee -A former actress on the "Star Trek: Voyager" television series has been arrested in eastern Tennessee and is accused of exposing herself to children. -Multiple media outlets report that 41-year-old Jennifer Ann Lien, who played "Kes" on the TV show, is charged with two misdemeanor counts of indecent exposure involving children under age 13, according to an arrest report. -Roane County Sheriff's Office deputies served the warrants Sept. 3 at Lien's Harriman home, where they say she was naked under a blanket on her couch. -Deputies say Lien refused their requests to get dressed. -Harriman Police Chief Randy Heidle says Lien also faces multiple charges, including aggravated assault, stemming from an April incident in which he says Lien rammed a police cruiser with her vehicle. -It is unclear if she has an attorney. -Police identify murder victim found in Epping Forest -A man whose decomposing body was discovered at a woodland beauty spot has been identified. -Hidir Aksakal, 53, was found close to Hollow Ponds in Epping Forest, north-east London, on 9 September. -The Turkish national lived in Margate, Kent, and had close links to the Green Lanes area of Haringey, north London. -He was last seen in Green Lanes early on Monday 17 August. -A postmortem revealed he was murdered, and detectives said the body could have been in Epping Forest for several weeks. -DCI Jamie Piscopo, from the Metropolitan police, said: "Mr Aksakal was well known locally as "Boxer Cetin" or "Cetin Boxer" and we are hopeful that those in the Green Lanes community may have information to help with our investigation. -Hollow Ponds is a busy and popular local beauty spot, with a cafe and a boating lake. -It is also surrounded by a busy roads. -We would like to speak to anyone who may have been in the area in the last several weeks, and may have witnessed any unusual or suspicious activity, to come and speak to us. -Super boss: six women on juggling motherhood and work -In the United States, unlike any other country in the world except Papua New Guinea, a centralized paid maternity leave policy does not exist. -Two weeks ago, when Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced she was pregnant with twins but would be taking very limited maternity leave and "working throughout" her time off, the 40-year-old was widely criticized for propagating a culture which expects superwomanhood or nothing. -But is Mayer, herself the epitome of a woman at the top, to blame for unrealistic expectations? -How are other women leaders coping? -Seema Patel, a lawyer and deputy director of San Francisco's Office of Labor Standards Enforcement, was taking her first steps at a government job in Washington DC a few years ago when her then boss sat her down with an unexpected piece of advice. -"I don't know anything about you," her boss said. -But if you have any plans to have a family in the future, start saving your leave right now. -Patel's employer was the federal government, and she didn't get a day of paid maternity leave as part of her work arrangement. -Back then, Patel was unmarried and very career-focused, and a family was the last thing on her mind. -But diligently, she took her boss's word for it. -She avoided using her sick days over the course of four years so that when she eventually did have her first child two years ago, she had accumulated enough to get three months paid time off. -When she had her second baby six months ago, Patel could not pull the same trick. -The four months she took off were entirely unpaid. -Patel says she experienced no pushback from colleagues, but it is the work structure she has an issue with. -"I find it extremely unsupportive for anyone trying to have family," she says. -It sends a message: your country does not value you becoming a parent. -Karen Choi, a vice-president at asset management firm Capital Group, says that any working woman who is a mother should be applauded. -Choi, who has four children including a six-month-old baby, describes juggling being a mother and a job "a constant struggle." -Secrets for keeping your head above water include having an "unbelievably supportive family" as well as a nanny and babysitter, accepting that there are some areas you are not going to be the best at ("Not everyone can be the Martha of home décor"), and simply getting through it. -Choi says she took more maternity leave with every child she had, starting with two and a half months with her first child, and taking six months off with her latest. -This makes her an exception, especially within her industry. -When your child is sick, has fever, is throwing up and you are up all night taking care of your child and knowing that the next morning you have to get your other kids to school and then you have to go to work ... -That's when it gets to be very challenging," she says. -Her firm was supportive, though, and she stresses her investment portfolio's performance did not suffer at all. -When she entered the finance industry after university, about 20 or so of her female college mates chose the same path, she says. -Today about 90% of them have left. -Women who exit jobs and then re-enter are likely to no longer be on track for peak earning positions, she says. -Staying is tough: "A sacrifice in the short term, but it pays in the long term." -If nothing else, her children have helped provide meaning for this sacrifice, she says, because all four of her children are daughters. -One of the things that keeps me going is the fact that I would like to be a role model to them. -The notion of being a role model to her four children is also what drives 48-year-old research scientist and professor Kelly Posner. -They know that their mom is out there literally helping to save lives. -Posner, who is the founder and director of the Center for Suicide Risk Assessment at Columbia University, says it is important for women to know that they can have a "big goal" career-wise and achieve it. -It is very important for women to believe that they can have a vision. -Most women do not allow themselves to think that," she says. -She once gave a presentation to 200 people, including government officials in Italy over a webinar while eight months pregnant. -Technology has also helped, she says, with the ability to stop the car and take a call after picking her kids up, or to answer an email on the go. -Juggling motherhood with a demanding career has been helped by an optimistic, problem-solving disposition, she says - an ability to get through things even when they feel impossible. -Jennifer Epps-Addison, 33, the executive director of Wisconsin Jobs Now and a mother of two, says that only being able to make career and motherhood work together thanks to private networks of help - like nannies - is wrong. -"You shouldn't have to get lucky or win the lottery to be able to succeed," she says, describing the systemic failure to support women and families - citing oppressively low wages, a flawed health care system and a lack of mandated paid maternity leave. -"As a society, we are not taking care of each other," she says. -We cannot even guarantee mothers who have just birthed a child to recuperate. -Epps-Addison, who was pregnant while attending law school, gave birth to one of her children while she was on a fellowship. -With a husband and offspring relying on the healthcare provided by the fellowship, the labor leader was only able to take two weeks maternity leave, she says, before returning to work. -Lisa Mosko, a fashion stylist and mother of two, says fewer women would be leaving their professions if more societal support were available in the form of company daycares, keeping to agreed-on schedules, and accepting that good work does not mean overtime. -On top of logistical constraints, Mosko says she has the added pressure of being in an industry where being a mother is sometimes synonymous with the epitome of unsophisticated ("mom clothes" being among the worst insults). -"Image is part of your job - it can make or break you," she explains. -Mosko's "constant negotiation" of making her multiple roles work in harmony involves keeping to her chic appearance, beautiful handbag on hand - but sometimes having a toy or two fall out of them. -Remembering men are fathers too might help society cut women some slack, she says. -People don't judge men for being bad dads as much as moms. -Shola Olatoye, the chair and CEO of New York's housing authority, which houses around 400,000 New Yorkers and employs over 11,000 people, says that talking about "balance" is not really what motherhood and career is about. -The notion of balance is a bit of a misnomer. -It's more like a seesaw," she says. -The mother of three, including one three-month-old, took just seven weeks maternity leave when she gave birth this year. -"It was a very important time for the agency," she explains. -She says she knew seven weeks wasn't enough, but her husband was able to take paternity leave and she has been able to have access to a flexible schedule that includes leaving early or coming in later so as to pump milk for her baby. -Indeed Olatoye, who goes on runs with her girlfriends every morning that end at 6am ("cheaper than therapy"), is still nursing. -On the job, she has tried to create an environment that is "parent-friendly," where coming in late because of a kid is fine, and answering emails does not have to be done from within the office walls. -"The concept and notion of family has changed and is changing so much," Olatoye says. -"The family is very different from what it was like 25, hell, 10 years ago," she says. -It's the workplace that has to adapt. -Russian pranksters say they fooled Elton John with Putin call -To cynics, it had seemed rather too good to be true: a phone call from Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, to Sir Elton John, singer and LGBT campaigner, about gay rights. -Unfortunately for John, it was, in fact, not true: despite an effusive Instagram post in which he thanked the Russian leader for having reached out to him on the issue, it swiftly became clear that, whoever had called him on Monday night, it had not been Putin. -The Kremlin had already denied all knowledge of the chat. -And on Wednesday two famous Russian pranksters stepped forward to claim that they, not the president, had been the foreign voices at the end of the telephone. -"We thought it wasn't likely that Putin would want to meet with him and call, at least not so quickly," said Vladimir "Vovan" Krasnov, who said he had impersonated Putin while his co-prankster, Alexei "Lexus" Stolyarov, had posed as the president's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. -"But it turned out that Elton John was really waiting for this call, and so he immediately believed it really was a conversation with the people who we said we were," he told told newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. -He said: "Thank you, you've made my day." -This day and this conversation has been the most wonderful and lovely in my life. -As if to complete John's embarrassment, the pair announced they would broadcast a recording of the conversation on Wednesday on a popular Russian late-night show. -John's representatives have not commented on speculation of a hoax. -At the root of the saga are comments that the singer made at the weekend, in which he called out Putin about his "ridiculous" attitude towards gay people while lobbying for LGBT rights in Kiev, criticising in particular a Russian law passed in 2013 which bans the spreading of "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations" among minors. -"I'd love to meet him [Putin], I'd love to sit down and talk to him," John told the BBC, saying that, though the idea was "probably pie in the sky," it was nonetheless worth a try. -Then, on Monday night, the singer elicited incredulity from some observers when he posted a social media message declaring that Putin had responded to his criticisms by picking up the phone. -He was, he said, "looking forward to meeting him [the president] face-to-face to discuss LGBT equality in Russia." -Alas for John, it was not Putin on the end of the line but Stolyarov and Krasnov, who have prank-called many Russian and Ukrainian celebrities and politicians. -Stolyarov, who speaks English well, had played Peskov and pretended to interpret for the two. -When asked about the possibility of a conversation, the real Peskov had told journalists on Tuesday that Putin would be "ready to meet with Elton John among others to give answers to all the questions that he might ask," but said that the Kremlin had not received any requests from the singer. -The Kremlin had reason to question the Instagram post's authenticity, he added, "especially because it's not entirely grammatically correct in English." -We don't think that Sir Elton John would have written so ungrammatically. -Even before the Russian duo went public with their hoax, local media had been speculating that John had become the victim of a prank. -Some people online had even identified Krasnov, who is known for fooling politicians with phone calls that he records and posts on his YouTube channel as Vovan222 as the culprit. -Prank-calling public figures and then publishing the recordings has become something of a phenomenon in recent years in Russia. -Stolyarov, who is often credited as the father of the genre, has developed a knack for pranking Ukrainian politicians. -He has been interviewed over the phone on Ukrainian television impersonating Anton Gerashchenko, the outspoken adviser to the interior minister, Arsen Avakov. -He played Gerashchenko so well that he spoke to the former Dnipropetrovsk governor Ihor Kolomoisky for more than six hours over several days last year. -Krasnov first came to prominence after the parliamentary elections of 2011, which sparked a huge street protest movement after reports of widespread fraud. -Pretending to be then president Dmitry Medvedev's aide, Arkady Dvorkovich, he convinced the electoral commission head, Vladimir Churov, that Medvedev intended to fire him. -Besides numerous Russian celebrities, his victims have also included the former USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev, Kiev mayor and boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, and Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko, whom he tricked into apologising for his athletes" drunken behaviour. -Last year, Krasnov reportedly called the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, pretending to be the son of the ousted Ukrainian leader, Viktor Yanukovych. -He was so convincing that the caller on the other end, whose voice sounded like that of Lukashenko, offered asylum. -John's initial statement that he wished to speak to Putin caused a huge reaction in Russia. -The St Petersburg lawmaker Vitaly Milonov, who helped inspire the gay "propaganda" law, told the Guardian that John should not distract Putin with such an "irrelevant topic" and that he was ready to meet the singer to explain Russia's position. -The newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets held an online readers' poll in which 39% of respondents thought Putin and John should meet, while 22% said such a meeting would harm Putin's reputation. -More people die from air pollution than Malaria and HIV/Aids, new study shows -More than 3 million people a year are killed prematurely by outdoor air pollution, according to a landmark new study, more than malaria and HIV/Aids combined. -Wood and coal burning for heating homes and cooking is the biggest cause, especially in Asia, but the research reveals a remarkably heavy toll from farming emissions in Europe and the US, where it is the leading cause of deaths. -The report warns that, unless action is taken, the number of deaths - already equivalent to six deaths every minute - will double by 2050. -"This projection should sound alarm bells for public health agencies around the world," said environmental health expert Professor Michael Jerrett, at the University of California and who was not involved in the research. -Most air pollution deaths are caused by tiny particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs. -These cause heart attacks and strokes, which account for three-quarters of the 3.3 million annual deaths, with lung cancer and respiratory diseases responsible for the rest. -The work did not include the effect of indoor air pollution, from cooking fires for example, which is estimated to cause an additional 3.4 million deaths a year. -The new work, published in the journal Nature, is the first study to single out different outdoor air pollution sources and estimate the number of premature deaths they each cause, considering road traffic, fossil fuel power stations and other sources. -The researchers used a detailed computer model of the global atmosphere to assess the impact of air pollution on different populations, including new information on how pollution affects people in China and India. -A third of all premature deaths were the result of using smoky fuels such as wood and coal for heating homes or cooking and using dirty diesel generators for electricity, all well-known hazards. -This domestic energy use causes half the 645,000 annual deaths in India and a third of the 1.4 million annual deaths in China. -But the research found that agricultural emissions of ammonia had a "remarkable" impact, according to Professor Jos Lelieveld, at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany, who led the research. -A fifth of all global deaths resulted from these emissions, which come mainly from cattle, chickens and pigs and from the over-use of fertiliser. -The ammonia reacts with fumes from traffic and industry to produce tiny particles and is the largest cause of air pollution deaths in the eastern US, Japan and in Europe. -"For London, agriculture is the main source," said Lelieveld. -Across the UK, 48% of the premature deaths were ultimately the result of agricultural pollution. -Traffic pollution was still important in developed countries, causing a fifth of deaths, despite crackdowns on dirty vehicles. -It only caused 5% of deaths across the globe as a whole, but this is likely to rise as more cars take to the road in developing countries. -Air pollution from power stations, mainly coal-burning plants, was significant globally, causing one in seven deaths. -It is the biggest single factor in the US, causing a third of the 55,000 annual deaths, compared to 16% in the UK. -Natural air pollution, mostly dust in arid regions, caused almost a fifth of global air pollution deaths. -This source is a major factor in some dry countries, accounting for 92% of deaths in Egypt and 81% in Iran. -"The overlap of high pollution and large populations takes a huge toll on public health, but little [was] known about the pollution sources that are responsible for premature deaths," said Jerrett. -The results are surprising and potentially important for protecting public health globally. -Currently it is assumed that all particulates are equally toxic. -But if those from fuel burning are more toxic, as some scientists suspect, the proportion of premature deaths attributable to farming emissions would be lower. -Even so, Jerrett said, "the finding is highly valuable ... because agriculture has generally not been seen as a major source of air pollution or premature death, and because it suggests that much more attention needs to be paid to agricultural sources, by both scientists and policymakers." -Dr Oliver Wild, an atmospheric scientist at Lancaster University in the UK said: "The study really brings home the need for air quality controls to avoid these additional deaths, particularly in heavily populated parts of Asia." -A statement of Victor Ponta makes relations with Hungary even more tense -Budapest asks Ponta to stop lying. The Romanian Prime Minister speaks of attitudes reminiscent of Nazism -Relations with Hungary, already tensed after the announcement of the construction of a fence on the border with Romania, after the one on the Serbian border, saw a new depreciation following the statements made by Prime Minister Victor Ponta. On Monday, he accused the authorities in Budapest of treating the refugees with violence and "marking" them with serial numbers". -Hungarian diplomacy reacted harshly, talking about "extremist and false" statements. Victor Ponta strikes back and accuses the government officials of the neighbouring country to be "a disgrace" for Europe. -It should be noted that this it is not the first time Ponta has tried to strain the Romanian-Hungarian relations through statements made in delicate or electoral moments. -It all started in a statement made Monday by Victor Ponta, in which he tries to argue that Romania cannot receive more than 1,800 refugees. -The problem is our logistical problem as we want to treat those people as people, not as our Hungarian neighbours treat them with violence, "marking" them with serial numbers. -We do not agree with this. -Mr Basescu was put in charge of an ugly horrible feeling which exists in all societies, namely a xenophobic sentiment. -It's good to have debates, but the burden of solving the problem falls on us. -"We are going to treat those people like we would treat ourselves", said Victor Ponta on Monday, quoted by Adevarul. -It is not clear what Victor Ponta meant when he spoke of serial numbers, but the Czech Republic has recently been in the centre of criticism after writing numbers on the hands of the migrants in several trains, a gesture that recalled of the procedure used by the Nazis to identify the Hebrew prisoners in concentration camps. -According to the article of the MTI news agency and picked up by magyaridok.hu, Peter Szijjarto considered that the internal political crises which rocked Victor Ponta's position probably influenced him to make "extremist and false" declarations. -The Romanian charge d'affaires in Budapest was summoned to give explanations, reports Mediafax, citing MTI. -"Mr. Victor Ponta has recently made inappropriate statements about how Hungary manages the immigrant crisis", says the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. -Levente Magyar, Secretary of State for Foreign Trade and Foreign Affairs in the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed his "surprise" in connection with the "constant attempts of Victor Ponta to save his controversial moral position with anti-Hungary lies", emphasizes the diplomacy in Budapest . -"I do NOT want to respond to the challenges of some Hungarian government representatives - but please read the story below and you will understand the outrage that I feel as a man and an European citizen, in the context of mentalities and attitudes which have beeen seen in Europe only in 1930-1940 !!!", wrote Ponta on his Facebook page. -He says that, like other European politicians, he has the "duty" to attract attention and sanction the "constant behaviour of Hungarian government officials of the highest level" who are "a disgrace to the culture and values of the European Union" through their "anti-Semitic attitudes", " the way they treat all minorities and now the refugees crisis!" -"Barbed wire, aggressive laws, prisons and brutally will certainly not solve the problem - the only thing this behaviour accentuates is that in the heart of Europe, in Hungary there are policymakers who are no better than those in Syria, Libya or other countries from which the refugees are fleeing!", accused Ponta, saying that he believes in "solidarity, rational and sustainable solutions, and especially in the superiority of European values ". He also states that " what we have recently seen in Hungary is in total contradiction with these objectives and values!". -In the evening, Ponta was the guest of Antena 3, where the main topic was Hungary. -If Mihai Gadea called Viktor Orban the black sheep of Europe, a dictator, Ponta wondered what would happen if Hungarian soldiers would start firing or killing children and women, in a speech with several references to Nazism. -The president of UDMR (Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania), Kelemen Hunor, intervened in the debate . He considers that the Romanian authorities should not have an "emotional approach" in relation to Hungary's intention to build a fence on the border. -The leader of UDMR said that what needs to be understood is that this solution is not directed against Romania and the Romanian citizens, stating that the fence might even help our country avoid becoming a route heavily transited by migrants who want to enter the Schengen area, according to Agerpres. -Firstly, I want to emphasize, to state that we should not become hysterical, and take the whole issue as something against Romania and it should not be used to aggravate the not too good relations between the two governments, because it is not the case. -I think any sentimental, visceral approach is wrong. -"We need to see the rational side of the matter, see why did it come to this and we need to know how to say it. The fence is not against us, is not against Romania and the Romanian citizens and does not prevent free movement between the two countries, in the European Union", said Kelemen Hunor. -The West ignored in 2012 Russia's offer to overthrow Bashar al-Assad from ruling Syria -Russia has suggested more than three years ago the removal of President Bashar al-Assad, as part of a peace treaty, according to a senior official involved at that time in the closed door negotiations between Western countries and Russia, states The Guardian. -The former president of Finland and Nobel Peace recipient, Martti Ahtisaari, said the Western powers did not take advantage of that proposal. -From 2012 to present day, tens of thousands of people died and millions were forced to flee the country, creating the worst refugee crisis since the end of the Second World War. -Ahtisaari held discussions with representatives of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (US, UK, France, Russia and China) in February 2012. -He also said that during the discussions, the Russian ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, offered a plan that included, among others, the proposal addresses to Assad to step down at some point after the start of the peace treaties between the regime and the opposition. -He proposed three things: -One - the opposition should not be armed. -Two - we must initiate a dialogue between Assad and the opposition immediately. -"Three - we must find an elegant way for Assad to pull back," said Ahtisaari, recounting the Russian ambassador's position. -Ahtisaari also said that the United States, Britain and France were so convinced that the Syrian dictator would fall, that they ignored the Russian Ambassador's proposal. -"It was a missed opportunity in 2012," continued the former president of Finland. -Officially, Russia firmly supported Bashar al-Assad over the four and a half years of war, insisting that its removal may not represent a proposal in any peace agreement. -Assad believes that Russia will never abandon him. -Moscow recently began sending troops, tanks and military fly machines in Syria, in an effort to stabilize the Assad regime and confront the Islamic State extremists. -The Internet live program of Antena 3 will be available for a fee -Antena 3 has informed its viewers on Tuesday that starting November 1 its live program can be watched online for a fee on a monthly subscription basis. -In a "letter to the viewers", Intact's news channel said that "we do this with a heavy hart, and we wish you would stay with us in this new phase imposed by market conditions." -According to the same letter, the subscription will be 1 euro per month "for those of you who follow us online" and the TV station promised that the channel will be broadcast at a very good quality. -Antena 3 claims that "all these live broadcasts from within the county and abroad, campaigns, everyday news were and are possible due to a consistent financial effort which involved permanent upgrading and focus on quality". -We managed to sustain ourselves, given that online and offline retailers have not contributed for the content provided. -The announcement was made although the news television program is available by subscription on Antena Play online platform, where often recordings of Antena's shows were available. -Marine wildlife populations have halved in the last 40 years, report finds -The scale of the crisis facing the animals and plants of the sea is documented in detail by the study which claims that marine species around the world, including some that are critical to human food security, are in potentially catastrophic decline. -Unprecedented pressures on the global ocean ecosystem from several directions are combining to create a perfect storm of difficulties for virtually everything that lives in the sea, says the WWF's Living Blue Planet report. -Coral reefs are at serious risk of further decline (WWF) Some marine habitats such as mangroves and seagrasses, on which many other species depend, have seen significant declines, while whole populations of commercially valuable fish, such as mackerel and tuna, have plummeted by as much as three quarters since the 1970s, the report found. -Many coral reefs, often described as the tropical rainforests of the oceans because of their rich diversity of life, could be threatened with extinction by mid-Century if ocean acidity continues to worsen as a result of rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere - which causes a corresponding rise in carbonic acid in the sea. -"As well as being a source of extraordinary natural beauty and wonder, healthy seas are the bedrock of a functioning global economy," said Louise Heaps, chief advisor on marine policy at WWF-UK, who helped to compile the report. -"By over-exploiting fisheries, degrading coastal habitats and not addressing global warming, we are sowing the seeds of ecological economic catastrophe," Dr Heaps said. -The report, based on a review of the published scientific literature as well as the Living Planet Index, a database maintained by the Zoological Society of London, is one of the most detailed surveys of marine wildlife ever undertaken. -Nearly 20 per cent of total mangrove area has been lost between 1980 and 2005 (WWF) It investigated a wide range of wildlife, from fish, marine turtles and sea cucumbers - a worm-like animal with leathery skin - to sea plants such as mangroves and sea grasses. -The report found that seagrass coverage has declined by about 30 per cent over the past century while the total area covered by mangroves has dropped by 20 per cent between 1980 and 2005, primarily as a result of shrimp farming and other forms of aquaculture. -In the space of a single generation, human activity has severely damaged the ocean by catching fish faster than they can reproduce while also destroying their nurseries. -Profound changes a needed to ensure abundant ocean life for future generations," said Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International. -Some of the most dramatic declines have been in species fished for commercial gain. -For instance, some 58 populations of 17 species belonging to the Scrombidae family - mackerels, tunas and sardines - have fallen by 74 per cent between 1970 and 2010, with no signs of recovery, the report says. -We are in a race to catch fish that could end with people starved of a vital food source and an essential economic engine. -Overfishing, destruction of marine habitats and climate change have dire consequences for the entire human population, with the poorest communities that rely on the sea getting hit fastest and hardest," Mr Lambertini said. -"The collapse of ocean ecosystems could trigger serious economic decline and undermine our fight to eradicate poverty and malnutrition," he said. -Professor Ken Norris, director of science at the ZL, said: "These devastating figures reveal how quickly human beings are changing the wildlife in our oceans and are a stark warning of the problems we might face as a result." -Seagrasses: Vast underwater "meadows" that catch mineral-rich sediments and stabilise the seabed. -Coverage has declined by 30 per cent over the past century. -Mangroves: Known to exist in 123 countries, with almost half the coverage in just five nations. -Nearly 20 per cent of total mangrove area has been lost between 1980 and 2005, mainly due to human encroachment. -Coral reefs: Some of the most biologically rich and productive habitats on earth. -A quarter of all marine species live in or near coral reefs yet three quarters of them are currently threatened and many could be lost this century is ocean acidity continues to worsen. -Deep-sea habitats: Little is known about the deeper parts of the ocean, but the decline in the number of fish caught in these inaccessible locations over the past 40 years suggests they are also being affected by global changes to the sea. -Steven Gerrard denies racism claims allegedly made by former Liverpool team-mate El-Hadji Diouf -In an extract from his upcoming autobiography My Story, serialised by the Daily Mail, Gerrard criticises the Senegalese player for having "no real interest in football" and being the signing he "liked least" during his 17 years at the club. -In retaliation, Diouf has been reported to have responded to Gerrard's words on Senegalese radio station Groupe Futurs Medias, with translated quotes attributed to the striker stating that "Gerrard has never liked black people." -Gerrard's lawyers have moved to deny any claims he is racist. -In his latest book, Gerrard, who has publicised his low opinion of Diouf before, criticised his former team-mate's attitude and professionalism. -"I don't really want to waste time thinking about El Hadji Diouf but it's worth highlighting his wasted seasons at Liverpool as an example of how it can all go wrong," he writes. -"It seemed to me that Diouf had no real interest in football and that he cared nothing about Liverpool," he continued. -For example, the way he spat a huge globule of gunky phlegm at a Celtic fan in a Uefa Cup match at Parkhead in March 2003 summed up his contemptuous and spiteful demeanour. -Diouf proved to be controversial figure during his time at Anfield, with his most notorious night coming at Celtic Park. -The Senegalese forward was interviewed by police after the spitting incident and fined two weeks wages by his club, with the £60,000 amount being donated to a charity of Celtic's choice. -In his previous autobiography, published in 2007, Gerrard described Diouf as a lazy and self-interested character. -"His attitude was all wrong," Gerrard wrote at the time. -I felt he wasn't really a***d about putting his body on the line to get Liverpool back at the top. -Diouf, who now plays at Malaysian club Sabah, has also criticised Gerrard publicly in the past, as well as attacking Gerrard's long-standing friend and team-mate Jamie Carragher. -In 2012, Diouf called Gerrard 'egotistical' and claimed that nobody at Anfield likes player who led his side to Champions League victory in 2005. -Diouf is also quoted as saying that Gerrard is "jealous." -He said: "Gerrard is just jealous of me. -He hasn't achieved what I have done in football. -When I came to Liverpool, I came up with the status of boss and he lives there. -I am respected in world football, the greatest football experts have appointed me among the seven best players in the World Cup, the top 100 players of the century. -Several big players do not belong. -Everywhere I go out of my country, they worship me - while Gerrard will get abuse whenever he leaves his home city of Liverpool. -From hero to hoofer: Alek Skarlatos' speedy path to 'Dancing With the Stars' -Alek Skarlatos doesn't just fill the heroic-man-in-uniform quotient for this season's "Dancing With the Stars." -He's also a hunky young, athletic guy who's self-effacing and zeitgeisty, producers said. -"There are a lot of categories he checks off, and we're always looking for that of-the-moment booking," said the ABC show's co-executive producer, Deena Katz. -I swear he's going to get an agent out of this. -He's so charming. -There's just something about him. -Before he was a contestant on the hit hoofing show - but only a few weeks before - Skarlatos made international news for taking action in the face of grave danger. -He and his two childhood friends Spencer Stone and Anthony Sadler overpowered a gunman armed with an AK-47 on a packed train from Amsterdam to Paris. -The trio is credited with stopping what could have been a mass killing by a suspected terrorist. -Skarlatos, a 22-year-old Army National Guardsman who grew up near Sacramento, has since received a call from President Obama, a Twitter shout-out from Donald Trump and a dinner date with Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with decorations from the U.S. military and the French government. -Though he might've anticipated a few local accolades - there was a parade in the young men's honor in Sacramento on Friday -- he didn't expect the breadth of well wishes or the "Dancing With the Stars" invitation. -"Never in a million years did I think I'd get that offer," Skarlatos said Saturday during a break in dance practice with his partner, Lindsay Arnold. -It's all brand new and crazy to me. -While he admitted to being "a little nervous" before Monday night's show, he handled his first foxtrot like a professional, earning scores that put him near the top of the competitive heap. -Judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Julianne Hough said he gave one of the standout performances of the night. -Katz and "DWTS" executive producer Rob Wade said they like to keep a spot open on the show for last-minute contestants, such as Skarlatos, who have vaulted into the public eye. -In this case, Katz heard about the three American friends on vacation who tackled a shooter mid-attack on a 500-passenger train and immediately thought about getting one of them on the dance competition. -She scoured social media, tracked down family members and started sending messages to Skarlatos. -When he appeared on "Good Morning America" to discuss the incident, during which Stone and several other passengers were injured, Katz worked with the sister ABC program to cut through the media firestorm. -She made her "five-minute elevator pitch," and then waited anxiously to learn if Skarlatos would agree to be on "DWTS." -"It was touch-and-go there for a while because this is so out of his element," Katz said. -He was just serving in Afghanistan not long ago, and now we're asking if he's ready to cha cha. -Skarlatos, who's taking a short leave from the National Guard, hadn't even watched an entire episode of the show until recently. -He was on the fence about participating, mainly because he didn't want to be singled out. -The series couldn't accommodate all three friends. -But producers had an ace-in-the-hole: Noah Galloway, a military vet and double amputee. -They encouraged Skarlatos to call Galloway, fan favorite competitor and finalist from last season, and ask about his experience. -That may have been the tipping point, along with Katz's relentless "stalking" and "psycho texting," she said. -"Noah's a great guy, and I wanted to know how the military would be portrayed and how my friends" images would be protected," Skarlatos said. -He told me I should do it. -So after that conversation, I said yes. -Skarlatos, an avid sportsman and history buff, has never danced before, and Arnold has said in interviews that she's been trying to get him to loosen his rather stiff military posture. -But Katz said she's confident he will adapt and that viewers will respond to him. -He'll get so much love in the beginning because people are proud of him and what he's just done. -"How can you not root for him?", Katz said. -But that'll only last a few weeks. -He'll have to dance to keep going. -Skarlatos, who's single and plans eventually to become a police officer, said he's enjoyed himself so far in the completely unfamiliar arena. -Scheduling has been the toughest battle, with frequent trips to Los Angeles between his media whistle-stop tour and various awards ceremonies. -He'd said in late August, on returning to the U.S. just after the train takedown, that he wanted some R&R at home with his family. -"That lasted about a day and a half," he said. -I think I've been home about four days total. -There's a risk in snagging a newsworthy person who isn't accustomed to being in the spotlight, executive producer Wade said. -And the show wants to make sure the contestant can do well and have some fun. -"This is a lot of pressure, and we want people to have a good experience," Wade said. -"We'd never want Alek to say, "What have I gotten myself into?" -Fingers crossed he has a good time. -The McDonald's McRib is back. -For those who wait all year for the pork patty shaped like a mini rack of ribs, here's your chance to go nuts. -But is it harder to find this year? -CNBC is reporting that only 55% of the McDonald's franchises in the country are offering the seasonal special. -Last year, 75% of the restaurants served the McRib. -"For the 2015 McRib promotion there are nearly 8,000 participating restaurants," McDonald's spokesperson Lisa McComb told The Times in an email. -There are a little more than 14,300 locations of the fast-food restaurant in the U.S. -But according to McComb, it's the individual franchise owners who decide on serving the McRib or not. -"This participation isn't significantly different than last year," said McComb. -Owner/operators are free to offer the menu items they feel their local customers will want. -And if you're still wondering what a McRib is, McDonald's attempted to explain its ingredients last year with a mythbuster video. -According to the video, the McRib patty is made with pork, water, dextrose and preservatives. -The sandwich will be available at participating McDonald's locations through the end of the year. -There's also a McRib locator website (not affiliated with McDonald's), that can help. -People can report McRib sightings on the website and look for the sandwich near them. -However, a quick search on the website shows the nearest McRib to Los Angeles is in Sebastopol in Sonoma County, spotted last Saturday by Aidan Briggsonian. -Sometimes, I just can't fight the craving for BBQ chicken pizza. -Keith Richards hints at new Rolling Stones recordings -Keith Richards is back in the spotlight with a new solo album and documentary feature, but soon the rest of the Rolling Stones might be joining him in the studio. -Richards announced that he and the rest of the Stones -- Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood -- recently met up in London and made, as he put it, "definite plans to record." -Richards was speaking as part of the iHeartRadio ICONS series with interviewer Jim Kerr on Tuesday night. -A potential new Stones album would be the group's first LP since 2005's "A Bigger Bang." -But the band has been far from idle. -They've toured stadiums extensively in recent years, and played several small shows around L.A., including stops at the Echoplex and Fonda Theatre. -At the latter, they revisited their 1971 classic LP "Sticky Fingers." -Richards has been particularly busy this year, collaborating on a documentary feature "Keith Richards: Under the Influence" scheduled for a Sept. 18 release on Netflix. -This year he also released a solo album "Crosseyed Heart," his third solo outing in a five-decade career. -The Times' Randy Lewis described Richards' new album in an early interview with the guitarist: "As always, Richards' ragged voice is an instrument that's more serviceable than distinguished...." -Yet Richards gets emotions across in the album's 15 songs, and that's always been what rock 'n' roll is about. -In the interview, Richards said that the band will likely get into the studio after a South American tour early next year. -He didn't offer other details, but judging by their recent shows the band still has plenty of life left in it. -Toronto Film Festival: Jason Bateman on childhood, adulthood and 'The Family Fang' -Jason Bateman has already navigated a few tricky transitions in his career with a low-key charm that has made it look far easier than it must have actually been. -Once a child actor on such television shows as "Silver Spoons," as an adult he reemerged as a deadpan everyman on TV's "Arrested Development" and in films such as "Horrible Bosses." -His first film as director was the very acerbic comedy "Bad Words," in which he also starred. -The film was picked up out of the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013. -Bateman was back in Toronto earlier this week with his second film as director, the tonally ambitious "The Family Fang," an adaption of Kevin Wilson's popular 2011 novel with a screenplay by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire and starring Nicole Kidman alongside Bateman as troubled siblings. -The film is playing the festival looking for U.S. distribution. -Many notices for the book pinned it as a comedy with deeper emotional currents; the film recasts the story somewhat by emphasizing its darker, more dramatic heft. -In an interview here Tuesday, Bateman said he always saw the material as more dramatic than comedic. -"I never read the book in that way," he said. -From the book, the subject matter and themes were always very dramatic and very human. -I thought that Kevin was addressing something that was pretty emotional in a very entertaining way. -So that was always the order that I saw things, a drama that had some moments of levity and comedy and eccentricity. -Monday night's world premiere screening was introduced by the festival's director of programming, Kerri Craddock, who expressed particular enthusiasm for Bateman's late-'80s/early-'90s sitcom "The Hogan Family" -- "I haven't met a lot of "Hogan Family" fans," Bateman noted dryly when he came onstage. -Yet it was directing a few episodes of that show that got Bateman, now 46, into the Director's Guild at the age of 18. -The story of his new film revolves around a family with the last name of Fang. -The parents, Caleb and Camille (Christopher Walken and Maryann Plunkett), are performance artists of moderate reputation, best known for the way in which they used their children Annie and Baxter in their pieces, such as staging a bank robbery over lollipops or being purposefully terrible street musicians. -Annie (Kidman) and Baxter (Bateman) have subsequently struggled to find their own identities in adulthood. -Annie is an actress of some notoriety, though as much for her public meltdowns as her performances, while Baxter is a struggling novelist and magazine journalist. -When Caleb and Camille disappear under mysterious circumstances, Annie and Baxter are suspicious that this is just another stunt, and they set about trying to discover the truth about their parents and find out some new truths about themselves. -It is perhaps not difficult to see what in that storyline of child performers moving forward with their adult lives may have spoken directly and deeply to Bateman. -"My upbringing as a child was very atypical," Bateman said. -Started acting when I was 10, my parents being my manager, there's a lot of overlap in this film from the way in which I was brought up. -So this was something I certainly didn't see as some kind of surface piece of entertainment. -"It's something I had a full connection to and a deep understanding of," he added, "and although I didn't try to drag any of my own personal baggage into it, I certainly had a clear idea of what a version of this film might look and feel like if it were to represent children who had a nontraditional upbringing." -The project began with Kidman, also a producer on the film, acquiring the rights to Wilson's book. -When Wilson declined to write the adaption himself, Lindsay-Abaire, who adapted his own "Rabbit Hole," which Kidman starred in, was brought on. -Bateman, as he says, raised his hand for the chance to direct and costar. -(Kidman, currently onstage in London in a production of "Photograph 51," was not in attendance at Monday's premiere. -The book's author was among those in the audience.) -In the Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney called Bateman's film a "smart, tart adaptation" that "thumbs its nose at the clichés of the over-trafficked dysfunctional family genre to dissect the sometimes lifelong quest of children to understand their parents in ways that are funny and bittersweet, poignant and often bracingly dark." -In Variety, Justin Chang called the film "a sharply drawn portrait" and that Bateman "shows marked progress and deepening maturity as a filmmaker with this cleverly structured but never arch or mechanical adaptation." -After the film on Monday, as Bateman and Walken stepped onstage for a Q&A, there was a standing ovation for the much-beloved Walken. -Of observing Bateman as director and actor, Walken said during the Q&A that "I was impressed every day. -I couldn't believe it, the ease with which he went back and forth between directing the movie, which is a handful, and playing the scenes. -His focus and concentration, really, it's amazing. -In one dialogue scene in particular, Bateman stands on a staircase in the family home in the back of the frame, obscured in darkness, just a shadow in profile, while Kidman is closer to the camera and seen more clearly. -It's not hard to imagine Bateman the actor debating with Bateman the director over the fact he can't be seen. -"Directing films is incredibly exciting to me," Bateman said. -All my decisions come from that place, it's never to serve me as an actor. -To have the privileged position of being the guy who is responsible for shaping the entire experience for an audience as opposed to being just one instrument in that orchestra, being an actor, it's all-encompassing. -Regardless of whether that ... actor wants a close-up. -Bateman said in the Q&A that when he read the script, he immediately thought of Walken to play the part of Caleb, but also that he hoped for composer Carter Burwell for the score. -Best known for his long-standing relationship with the Coen brothers, Burwell also scored two other films at the Toronto festival, Charlie Kaufman's and Duke Johnson's stop-motion-animation story of love and isolation, "Anomalisa," and Brian Helgeland's telling of the 1960s English gangster twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray in "Legend." -Burwell composed the score for Todd Haynes" upcoming "Carol" as well. -"Things that have an oblong or obtuse tone are very interesting to me," Bateman said, expanding on the idea on Tuesday. -Navigating those tones and delivering an audience, hopefully seamlessly, somewhat elegantly, from one tone to the next throughout the film. -Carter has made a career and an incredible reputation as somebody who can navigate the most complicated of tones. -Both as director and actor, with "The Family Fang," Bateman has taken another bold step in a career that is full of self-aware reinvention and determination, a mix of comedy and drama, lightness and dark. -As Bateman said while finishing his introduction to the film at Monday's world premiere, "It turned out exactly the way I wanted it to, for better or worse." -Festival is Oscar-buzzing about this tale of the Boston Globe's investigation into pedophile priests -Have you won $240,000 in the lotto? -A X-LOTTO ticket worth more than $240,000 has been left unclaimed for a month. -The unregistered X-Lotto draw ticket was bought at Ingle Farm Shopping Centre on Montague Rd on Saturday, August 15. -Alongside the winning ticket sold in South Australia, there were 16 other winning entries across Australia, which shared in X-Lotto's estimated $4 million division one prize pool. -SA Lotteries is urging anyone who purchased a X-Lotto entry at Ingle Farm Lotteries Kiosk to check their entries as soon as possible. -The winning numbers in X-Lotto draw 3555 on Saturday, August 15, were 36, 23, 12, 6, 28 and 26. -The supplementary numbers were 43 and 27. -Ingle Farm Lotteries Kiosk manager Kath Venables said she was eagerly waiting to hear the good news that the outlet's winner had checked their X-Lotto ticket. -"We've been busy spreading the word because someone out there is our division one winner and they may have no idea it's them," she said. -Major Crime detectives search house on Beadell St, Burton, where missing man Daniel Hind was last seen -Mr Hind's sister Chelsea Hind said the wait for information about her missing brother was frustrating, particularly because police had been given two different accounts of his movements on the night he was last seen. -She said her family had been asking police to search the home since her brother's disappearance. -"We were hoping they were going to search the house, we weren't told they were going to do it," she said. -Ms Hind said her family also wanted those who knew what had happened to her brother to speak up and be truthful with the police. -"We just want to know where Daniel is, and what he did that night," she said. -There are four of us kids and quite a few extra family members and about half think he's alive somewhere and the other half don't think he is. -Either way, we want him home for some closure. -Bulgaria to Add 635 Km Motorways by 2022 -Bulgaria's government plans to build 635 kilometers of new motorways and repair 17,000 of existing main and secondary roads until 2022. -Completing the construction of Hemus, Struma, Maritsa, Cherno More and Kalotina motorways, all of them parts of pan-European transport corridors, is among the priorities in a road infrastructure development plan approved by the government on Wednesday. -The plan aims to create a sustainable road infrastructure in Bulgaria and integrate it into the European transport network as well as ensure high road safety and efficient management of road transport, the government said in a statement. -Bulgaria Is Transit Country for Trafficking in Cultural Goods from Syria -Bulgaria is a transit country for the illicit trafficking of stolen cultural goods from the Middle East due to its key geographic location, according to Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova. -Speaking Wednesday at a conference on the fight against looting of Syria's cultural heritage, Bachvarova reminded that Bulgaria's national legislation had been adjusted to the new circumstances, featuring an emphasis on the ban on cross-border trade from Syria and Iraq. -Bachvarova, as cited by the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA), stated that the efforts of the competent units of the Interior Ministry and most of all the Chief Directorate "Combating Organized Crime" (GDBOP) were focused on preventing the illegal smuggling and sale of Bulgarian cultural objects. -She declared that Bulgaria was a country with a rich history, with recent surveys placing it third, after Italy and Greece, by trafficking of cultural goods and objects. -Bulgaria's Interior Minister said that the trafficking in cultural objects and the destruction of historical sites located in zones such as Iraq and Syria was a phenomenon that was gaining momentum and was described as an exceptionally serious war crime. -She insisted that concerted and decisiove actions were necessary to stop the ongoing deliberate destruction of history. -UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova noted that footage of illegal archaeological excavations in Syria showed that the country was plagued by industrial scale looting. -The participants in Wednesday's conference agreed that Syria's cultural heritage was seriously endangered and that the international community had to unite to stop the illegal trafficking of cultural goods from the war-torn country. -Aerojet Rocketdyne says new AR-1 engine timetable could slip -Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc on Tuesday said it expected to complete its new AR-1 rocket engine by 2019 to replace a soon-to-be banned Russian engine, but the date could slip if it does not receive enough U.S. government funding. -Aerojet Vice President Julie Van Kleeck declined comment on reports that Aerojet has offered $2 billion to acquire United Launch Alliance (ULA), a 50-50 rocket launch venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co. -Analysts say the bid is a strategic move by Aerojet to shut out rival Blue Origin, a company owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, that is developing a new engine favored by ULA for use in its new Vulcan rocket. -ULA has said Blue Origin's engine program is about two years ahead of Aerojet's work on the AR-1 engine, a claim Aerojet disputes. -Work on the new engines gained urgency after U.S. lawmakers passed a ban on use of Russian RD-180 engines for launches of U.S. military or spy satellites following Russia's annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine last year. -Van Kleeck said the company was testing hardware for the engine, which is being designed with 3D-printed parts to fit into both ULA's Atlas 5 rocket, now powered by the RD-180 engine, and the new Vulcan rocket that ULA is developing at a cost of about $1 billion. -Aerojet says it would be less costly and risky to integrate its engine into the Atlas 5 rocket than to develop a wholly new engine and rocket, as ULA currently plans. -Van Kleeck said Aerojet planned to begin testing full scale engines in 2017, followed by certification in 2019, but the date could slip if the company did not receive enough funding from the Air Force in contract awards expected late in the first quarter of fiscal 2016, which begins Oct. -She said the company was eager to see how the Air Force split funding of about $160 million among rival bidders. -She said Aerojet was also exploring other private funding options for the engine but gave no details. -The Air Force competition is a public-private partnership, with each of the bidders asked to provide one-third of the funding, with the Air Force to provide a two-thirds share. -Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, and Blue Origin, both of which are privately held, have self-funded their engine work, and say they are not necessarily looking for government funding. -Brewer AB InBev seeks $275 billion tie-up with SABMiller -Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI.BR), the world's largest brewer, has approached rival SABMiller (SAB.L) about a takeover that would form a colossus producing a third of the world's beer. -A merged group would have a market value of around $275 billion at current prices, and would combine AB InBev's dominance of Latin America with SABMiller's of Africa, both fast-growing markets, as well as their breweries in Asia. -"The real attraction is Africa, where AB InBev has no presence, as well as some add-ons in Asia and Latin America," said Societe Generale analyst Andrew Holland. -AB InBev and other top brewers are trying to move into new markets as they look to shrug off weakness in North America and Europe, where consumers increasingly choose craft beers made by independent players or wine or spirits. -SABMiller, the world number two and maker of more than 200 beers including Peroni, Grolsch and Pilsner Urquell, said on Wednesday it had been informed that AB InBev intended to make an offer which it would have to do by Oct. 14 under British rules. -AB InBev, controlled by 3G Capital, a private equity fund run by a group of Brazilian investors, confirmed its approach. -3G, known for its focus on cost cuts at the expense of marketing, has previously orchestrated takeovers of Burger King, ketchup maker Heinz (KHC.O) and Kraft Foods. -A source close to SAB said it was too early to say what it would do since no offer has been made. -"At this stage, we're in wait and see mode," said the source. -Speculation about a merger, likely to raise antitrust concerns in markets such as the United States and China, has swirled for years. -The timing of the approach, after more than a decade of acquisitions by AB InBev, follows a roughly 15 percent drop in SABMiller's share price since August. -"It's exactly the moment they've been waiting for," said Morningstar analyst Phil Gorham. -It makes sense financially for the first time in years. -AB InBev will have to pay at least 40 pounds ($62) per SAB Miller share, and maybe as much as 45 pounds, according to analysts - implying an overall price of up to $130 billion, including SABMiller's debt. -That would make it the biggest M&A deal of 2015, already shaping up to be a record year since the 2008 financial crisis in terms of deal volume, and one the five largest takeovers since 1980. -Shares in SAB closed up 19.9 percent at 36.14 pounds, giving it a market capitalization of $90 billion. -AB InBev's were up 6.4 percent. -Rivals Heineken (HEIN.AS), Carlsberg (CARLb.CO) and Diageo (DGE.L) also rose on speculation SAB might seek another merger as a defence strategy, as it did last year when it offered to buy Heineken, but was rebuffed. -Since then it has combined its African soft drink bottler with that of Coca-Cola (KO.N), and in recent weeks there has been speculation about it combining with Diageo or Australian drinks firm Coca-Cola Amatil (CCL.AX). -The global beer market share of AB InBev, maker of Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona, was 21.1 percent in 2014, while SABMiller's was 15 percent, according to industry experts Plato Logic. -AB InBev's target for its net debt to core profit (EBITDA) ratio is 2 times, from around 2.5 currently. -It is likely to reach that by 2016, the earliest any deal could realistically be completed, and so has room to borrow to fund any takeover. -When it bought Budweiser-maker Anheuser-Busch in 2008 for $52 billion, the largest cash takeover in history at the time, it let the ratio rise to beyond 5 times. -Going that high again might allow it to raise as much as $100 billion in debt. -AB InBev's controlling families own just over half of the company, while SABMiller's two top shareholders are cigarette maker Altria (MO.N) and the Santo Domingo family of Colombia. -Altria on Wednesday declined comment on the AB InBev approach, but on Sept. 9, its CFO Billy Gifford said at an analyst conference that it regularly evaluates its SABMiller investment "and at this time we believe maintaining the asset is in our shareholders' best interests." -The Santo Domingo family could not immediately be reached for comment. -Neil Dwane, European chief investment officer, equity, at Allianz Global Investors, which holds shares in both companies, said AB InBev had faced increasing pressure to return excess cash to shareholders. -ABI is paying a high price but accretion to earnings from low debt costs would be something in the region of 15 percent. -However, we think the return on this deal could be a relatively disappointing 8 percent after 10 years," Dwane said. -There are significant antitrust hurdles to any combination, particularly in the United States, where the companies would have about 70 percent of the beer market. -"The costs that could be saved in the distribution operations are high - and the antitrust hurdles are higher," said Erik Gordon, professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. -A deal would allow Molson Coors to acquire the 58 percent of the joint venture owned by SABMiller according to the operating agreement that governs it. -A change in control at SABMiller would automatically give Molson the right to acquire an additional 8 percent and name a new CEO at the venture. -Denver-based Molson would also have the right of first and last offer for the remaining 50 percent stake. -A Molson spokesman declined to comment on whether the company would be interested in a bid, but Molson shares surged more than 12 percent to an all-time high. -Any merged group may also have to sell interests in China, where SABMiller's CR Snow joint venture with China Resources (0291.HK) is the market leader. -Heineken, Carlsberg or China's Tsingtao could be potential buyers. -Plato estimates that after disposals, the combined group could end up with a 28 percent global market share. -AB InBev is being advised by Lazard, while SABMiller is being advised by Robey Warshaw, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. -Pakistani police accuse former air force pilot of helping al Qaeda -Pakistani police have arrested a former Air Force pilot who later donated funds to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, police told Reuters on Wednesday, in a rare case targeting those who financially contribute to militancy. -The suspect, Syed Sheaba Ahmed, was detained in the southern city of Karachi. -He paid for the treatment of injured Taliban militants at a hospital in the eastern city of Lahore, police said. -He also influenced two militants involved in an attack on a busload of minority Shi'ite Ismaili Muslims in May that killed 45 people, senior police officer Naveed Khawaja from the provincial Counter Terrorism Department told journalists. -He will be charged with terror financing, said Khawaja. -"Ahmed has also been financing Afghan Taliban, we are still in the process of ascertaining if he has been providing financing through his businesses or someone else is behind him," the officer said. -"Ahmed was also providing financial assistance to AQIS," Khawaja said, referring to Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, a branch of Al Qaeda that was founded a year ago. -The arrest is a rare success for Pakistan's police force, struggling with militancy and corruption as well as crime. -After Taliban gunmen massacred around 150 people, mostly children, at an army-run school in December, the government vowed to crack down on militancy. -Attacks have fallen sharply as the military has also pushed further into the lawless tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. -But militant groups remain a threat, and many have followers in Pakistan's cities, which fall under the control of the chronically under-trained and under-funded police force. -Ahmed, 52, used to give sermons at a mosque in Karachi's upscale Defense Housing Authority neighborhood. -His public sermons were moderate, but privately he encouraged radicalism, police said. -He previously studied at the Pakistan Air Force College in Sargodha city, and left the Pakistani Air Force in 1998, another security official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. -He later went into the paint and chemicals business. -Rapper Rick Ross loses 'Everyday I'm hustlin" copyright claim -NEW YORK Rapper Rick Ross cannot copyright the words "Everyday I'm hustlin'," a U.S. judge has ruled, putting an end to his claim against music group LMFAO for selling T-shirts with the similar catch-phrase "Everyday I'm shufflin'." -In a ruling released on Tuesday in Miami federal court, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said Ross's slogan, a prominent part of his 2006 debut hit "Hustlin'," is a short expression that courts have repeatedly said cannot be copyrighted. -Williams' order puts a dent in a copyright infringement lawsuit that Ross, whose real name is William Leonard Roberts II, filed against LMFAO in 2013. -Ross alleged the Los Angeles-based electropop duo, made up of Stefan Gordy and Skyler Gordy, copied "Hustlin'" for their own 2010 chart-topping "Party Rock Anthem," which contains the lyric "Everyday I'm shufflin'." -The hip hop star said LMFAO's song was "an obvious attempt to capitalize on the fame and success of Hustlin'." -He also sued Kia Motors for using "Party Rock Anthem" in an advertising campaign. -In the complaint, Ross claimed LMFAO violated his copyright by selling T-shirts and other merchandise bearing the shufflin' slogan. -In her order on Tuesday, Williams said that "Hustlin'," as a song, is protected by copyright. -But Ross' three-word slogan, is made up of ordinary words and cannot be copyrighted, she said. -The judge compared it to other music catch-phrases from the past, such as "you got the right one, uh-huh," "holla back," and "we get it poppin'," saying it is a "short expression of the sort that courts have uniformly held uncopyrightable." -The judge did not rule on whether LMFAO's song itself was an unauthorized copy of "Hustlin'." -A trial is scheduled for October. -Lawyers for Ross and LMFAO could not immediately be reached for comment. -The case is William L. Roberts, II et al. v. Stefan Kendal Gordy et al, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, No. -Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Andrew Hay -Dr. Carson closing on Trump in latest GOP presidential poll -Political novice Ben Carson is gaining on bombastic frontrunner Donald Trump among Republican primary voters, according to the latest 2016 presidential race poll. -Carson has gained 17 points since last month, while Jeb Bush has fallen by seven points. -Following Trump's 27-percent support in the latest CBS/New York Times poll, Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, comes in at second with 23 percent, followed by Bush, television personality Mike Huckabee, and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, each at six percent. -Support among Republican primary voters rose from early August to early September for Trump, Carson, Ohio Governor John Kasich, and former Hewlett Packard executive Carly Fiorina. -Support for the latter two remains in the single digits, though. -Jeb Bush, the former Florida Governor and latest Bush family standard-bearer, dropped seven percentage points in a month, while Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker fell eight points. -Walker has two-percent support in the latest poll. -Carson pulled in more support from college graduates than Trump (29 percent to 21 percent), while Trump led Carson in voters without a college degree (30 percent to 19 percent). -Men were more likely than women to support Trump, while women were more likely than men to go for Rubio. -Thirty-seven percent of poll respondents said their mind was made up as to which candidate they will support in their respective state's primary vote. -Those who said they knew who they will vote for were twice as likely to support Trump as opposed to Carson. -It is too early to tell for 63 percent of Republican primary voters. -Further results from the CBS/NYT poll, conducted from September 9 to 13, will be released later Tuesday ahead of a Republican presidential debate. -Carson's rise in this poll mirrors the ascension of underdog Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders over longtime frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. -The latest CBS presidential nomination tracker has Sanders up by 10 points and 22 points in Iowa and New Hampshire, respectively, among likely Democratic primary voters. -Ban sex robots, says leading ethicist -A leading robot ethicist has launched a campaign calling for a ban on the development of sex robots. -Dr Kathleen Richardson, a robotics expert at De Montfort University in Leicester, England, warns that sex robots could contribute to the systemic dehumanization of women and children. -"Sex robots seem to be a growing focus in the robotics industry and the models that they draw on - how they will look, what roles they would play - are very disturbing indeed," she told the BBC. -Richardson explained that her Campaign Against Sex Robots is not anti-sex, but rather anti-exploitation. -Technology is not neutral. -It's informed by class, race and gender. -Political power informs the development of technology," she told the Washington Post. -That's why we can do something about it. -These robots will contribute to more sexual exploitation. -Though the sex-bots currently being manufactured are still relatively primitive, Richardson is worried they are the first step to something more sinister. -It's a new and emerging technology, but let's nip in the bud. -The industry certainly appears to be picking up steam. -The sex doll company True Companion launched Roxxxy, the "world's first sex robot," several years ago. -However, anxieties over AI's potential dangers are not uncommon, even among industry bigwigs. -Just this spring, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk wrote of the "the risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five-year timeframe. -Theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking, warned "the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race," in an interview with the BBC last December. -Britain to welcome first Syrian refugees - RT UK -Britain will accept its first refugees fleeing the Syrian war in the next few days, Home Secretary Theresa May has announced. -They will be cared for under the government's expanded resettlement program. -Refugees seeking asylum will arrive from camps which border the war-torn country. -They are the first of the 20,000 refugees the UK plans to take by 2020. -Speaking in the House of Commons, the home secretary said the government is "working at speed" to secure more arrivals. -In welcoming vulnerable refugees to the UK it is imperative that we have in place the support and help that they need and deserve. -I know that honorable members and the general public are keen to know more detail on the numbers and when people are expected to arrive. -May said the government needed to make further plans to ensure the refugees had adequate provisions when they arrive. -I must underline that the scale of the expansion needs careful and meticulous planning to ensure we get it right. -I and the Minister for Syrian refugees Richard Harrington will continue to update the House on that point. -But I am pleased to tell the House that we are looking forward to welcoming the first wave of new arrivals in the coming days and are working at speed to plan for even more in the coming weeks. -Prime Minister David Cameron drew the ire of MPs and campaigners when he unveiled the government's refugee plan, with many saying the figure was too low. -Cameron told the House of Commons earlier in September that the UK would "live up to its moral responsibility" and take in 20,000 refugees from camps in the Middle East by the next general election. -He added that refugees would not automatically be given full asylum, but instead a humanitarian status which would allow them to apply for asylum after five years. -But critics noted that the figures amounted to only 12 refugees a day, with former Liberal Democrat MP Paddy Ashdown saying the measures were "derisory." -Ashdown further revealed that children taken in by the scheme would be deported when they turned 18 if they are not granted asylum. -Celebrities and high-profile public figures also came together to condemn the measures. -In a signed letter, big names including Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, Jamie Oliver and Keira Knightley said the response to the crisis was "too little, too late." -"A responsibility that should be shared with our European neighbors and not simply shouldered by the countries closest to the turbulence driving people from their homes," they wrote. -Ruble rallies amid global uncertainty - RT Business -The Russian ruble strengthened on Wednesday, trading at 65.66 to the US dollar and 73.98 to the euro on the Moscow Stock Exchange as of 10:00 GMT. -Overall, the Russian currency has gained seven percent since its lowest rate of 71 rubles against the greenback on August 24. -Analysts say the ruble's rebound is on the back of investor reaction to current global market turmoil caused by struggling China, the US Federal Reserve's possible interest rate hike and overreaction to cheap oil. -Brent futures were up 61 cents Wednesday at $48.36 per barrel. -West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trading 72 cents up at $45.31 a barrel. -READ MORE: US interest rate hike likely by end of 2015 - US Fed -"Volatility is likely to prevail, fueled by uncertainty about China and the timing of the Fed's rate hike, which will continue to set the tone for oil prices and for the ruble," Piotr Matys, a London-based emerging markets foreign exchange strategist at Rabobank, told Bloomberg. -Experts also point to another factor for the Russian currency's surge. -Russian oil majors Lukoil and Rosneft whose contracts are linked to the US dollar have started buying rubles. -Global markets are holding their breath ahead of the Fed's decision on Thursday on whether to raise the interest rate or stay put. -Markets are betting against what would be the first US rate hike in nine years and are trading higher on Wednesday. -Nasa and the UK work together on drone traffic system -NASA is already working with the US government and companies like Google, Amazon and telecoms company Verizon on developing a database which will allow drone pilots to reserve blocks of airspace for flights. -There is nothing yet in place at the EU level. -The collaboration comes as a result of widespread anxiety about the possibility of a mid-air collision between small drones and commercial aircraft. -A new Forrester report vividly described the potential fallout. -"Imagine thousands of drones operated by hundreds of businesses delivering products or capturing data in dense urban areas like New York City, Chicago, or San Francisco," the research says. -Without a common set of technology protocols and rules of the air, chaos could reign. -According to Detta O'Cathain, a Baroness in the House of Lords, the concern has escalated in the wake of reports of near misses, and the operation of drones over football stadiums and close to nuclear power stations, and the Eiffel Tower. -"More than 400 calls made to the Metropolitan police were regarding incidents involving drones over the last two years," O'Cathain said. -The big idea: to build a system to track and trace all drones, especially those flying below 500 feet, irrespective of whether they were flown by commercial or leisure pilots. -"As more small drones are flown commercially at low altitude beyond the sight of the pilot, or even flown completely autonomously, some sort of air traffic management infrastructure to separate flights will be required to ensure the safety of complex operations, for example, package delivery in cities," she said. -According to Nasa, this drone traffic management system will incorporate services such as airspace design, severe weather and wind avoidance, congestion management, route planning and re-routing - similar to the rules in place for road traffic, such as signals and lanes. -They expect to have a working prototype by 2019. -The drone industry is set to explode in the European Union over the coming years. -"We are already seeing small, innovative UK SME companies using this technology to great effect in the energy sector, agriculture and media industries," Lord Tariq said. -More than 670 permissions for commercial drone operations in the UK alone were granted by the Civil Aviation Authority in 2014. -The European Commission estimated that the drone industry could generate 150,000 jobs in the EU by 2050. -Dislike button: Why Facebook wants to know what makes you sad -"A Look Back" is similar; compiling your highlights and key moments (on Facebook). -But what will it mean for those thronging multitudes within Facebook's virtual borders that now outnumber any country? -An empathy button will, first, of course, allow Facebook to understand you better. -Facebook's enormous value - around $240 billion at last count - is due to the unthinkably large mound of consumer data that it sits on. -Every interaction, post, like and friend you make is put together to build a remarkably rich, and constantly updating picture of who you are, and what you're interested in. -This is predominantly of value to advertisers, who can use all of this information to carefully sculpt who sees their adverts on Facebook to those they judge to be most interested in them. -An empathy button adds another layer of data, and certainly opens the door to other kinds of advertisers to use that platform. -Whilst a sports company goes after those who "like" a national football team, charities and campaigners will certainly wish to target those who "empathise" with the refugee crisis, for instance. -It will also probably change what you see on your News Feed. -Facebook uses incredibly clever and sophisticated algorithms to winnow down all the enormous universe of content that you could see, into the much smaller feed of what you do actually see. -This algorithm crucially depends on what you've found interesting in the past, and especially what you've liked. -There is, no doubt, a fear within Facebook that lots of meaningful but unhappy posts are missing the algorithmic cut because people don't feel comfortable liking them. -However, if Facebook understand more about what you find upsetting or unsettling, they could also take a decision to take these kinds of posts out of the News Feed. -Facebook has previously conducted experiments to understand how what you see in your News Feed affects your emotional state, and especially how this transfers from person to person. -Academics call this "emotional contagion" and although it sounds spooky, it was probably simply an attempt by Facebook (and openly published with their consent) to understand better how their platform works and whether they can tweak algorithms to share more stuff. -Whatever happens to the empathy button, it will be Facebook's decision. -The truly striking thing is how the decision of a single company to add a single button to their service can cause so much bubbling speculation. -The reason it can is because the decisions that Facebook makes - whether involving the visible buttons we see, or the invisible algorithms working away underneath - now have profound consequences over us. -We now live meaningful parts of our lives in the digital world, and go there to find everything from love to comfort, to a new job. -On the other hand, Facebook is a company, and one that is fighting a constant struggle for survival within the fiercely Darwinian world of technology and social media. -The decisions they make - new buttons included - will be those they judge to stay afloat in this race. -I think many people can empathise with that; and soon they'll have a button to do so. -Biometric wristbands predict outbursts in people with autism -Through ten years of research in America, Dr Goodwin and his team have established that body signals may be able to predict these sometimes violent changes before they happen, giving carers the opportunity to take appropriate action. -The autistic children we're working with can't tell us what's going on. -They can't say they have a headache, or 'it's too loud in here' or 'I don't like this teacher'," he said. -If we want to understand them, we need to look at what their body is telling us - and we need to do this in a gentle, unobtrusive way. -For instance, a simple visualisation of colours in an app could denote the level of agitation - red could be used as a warning of behavioural change, and blue could be used to denote under-arousal, allowing a carer to understand when the person is bored and lacking stimulation. -Data from the wristbands could also be collected over time and saved on a secure server, allowing carers to understand the bigger picture of how the person responds to different situations, and to understand what interventions work best. -I need to be clear that we are not reading minds. -Bio sensors aren't magic - they still need a human to interpret them. -He added that his team would be working with manufacturers to further develop this technology so that it can be autism-specific. -The research has been welcomed by Jane Carolan, director of client services at Wirral Autistic Society, which will be showcasing the technology at its Autech 2015 conference on autism and technology in Manchester on 1 October. -When you work with people with severe autism, as we do, you see the dramatic difference that assistive technology can make to their quality of life. iPad apps are now, literally, giving a voice to people who have never spoken. -Robots are helping autistic children learn to play peek-a-boo. -"Who knows where this innovation may lead us," she said. -Assistive technologies can be truly life-changing and we feel it is part of our mission as an autism charity to ensure everyone has access this information and is part of the debate about how we want to support people with autism in the future. -France to target Isis in Syria 'in coming weeks' -French warplanes will launch air strikes against Isis targets in Syria in the coming weeks, the government announced on Wednesday, just days after President François Hollande said the intervention was "necessary." -France will carry out its first air strikes on the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria "in the coming weeks," Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Wednesday. -The French air force has been carrying out reconnaissance missions over Syria since September 8, and strikes will follow "in the coming weeks, as soon as we have clearly identified targets," Le Drian told France Inter radio. -On Tuesday, Le Drian told parliament the Islamic State had made "very significant progress" in Syria, especially in the northern region of Aleppo. -"There is an extremely strong offensive taking place on the small town of Marea, which if it succeeded would wipe out what we still call the Free Syrian Army or the national Syrian coalition, or what is left of it," he said. -France has been part of a US-led coalition bombing Isis positions in Iraq for the past year, but Hollande changed strategy last week to expand action to Syria as political pressure mounts over the jihadist threat faced by France. -The United States, Canada, Turkey and Gulf states have already been involved in strikes on Isis militants in Syria. -iOS 9 Ad Blocking Feature Will Make Your Phone Way Faster -The newest version of iOS 9 launches Wednesday packed with a bevy of new features. -One of the most useful for iPhone owners - and worrying for online publishers - will be the ability to easily block ads while surfing the web. -The new functionality will allow users to download third-party extensions that block cookies, banner ads, pop-ups and other types of advertisements while using Apple's mobile Safari browser. -In tests ad-blockers have been shown to load news sites like the New York Times up to twice as fast, according to Reuters. -They also help users conserve data usage and battery life. -Users will have multiple ad-blocking options, including the apps 1Blocker, Blockr and Crystal. -AdBlock Plus, a popular ad-blocking tool on desktops, has also released its own iOS web browser that limits ads; its maker has plans to release a Safari extension in the future. -People using ad-blocking software are likely to run into a few hitches. -Advertising still shows up within apps (which is where Apple makes its money on iOS). -A growing number of media sites, including Hulu and The Washington Post, are also attempting to stop people visiting their site from using ad blockers. -Still, the use of ad blockers on desktop computers rose about 48% last year. -Their rise presents big challenges for online media, which has largely been offered to customers for free and financially supported by advertising for decades. -One report says ad blocking could cost online publishers almost $22 billion in ad revenue this year alone. -To enable ad blocking in iOS 9, users must download an ad-blocking app, then go to Settings -> Safari -> Content Blockers to enable a content-blocking extension. -Obama talks terrorism, migrant crisis with Spanish king -President Barack Obama welcomed King Felipe VI of Spain at the White House Tuesday, where the pair discussed a wide range of topics -- but perhaps nothing more than the importance of international cooperation. -Obama and the king addressed the fight against the Islamic State as well as the growing migrant crisis in Europe -- which has already seen hundreds of thousands escape their homeland for the West. -"Spain has worked hard to deal with this issue in the past with North African migrants that oftentimes are engaged in very dangerous travels, and human trafficking that takes place," Obama said. -Obviously, that's gotten worse over the last several months. -Obama also stressed the importance of cooperation, particularly as the Spanish territory of Catalonia is set to vote in elections later this month. -"As a matter of foreign policy, we are deeply committed to maintaining a relationship with a strong and unified Spain," Obama said. -The commander-in-chief also told King Felipe that he would like to visit the country sometime before he leaves office in 2017. -"We welcome you with open arms," Felipe replied. -First lady Michelle Obama took the queen on a tour of the White House grounds and talked over tea. -It was the royal couple's first visit to the United States since assuming the throne. -After leaving Washington, they were scheduled to visit South Florida. -'Luke Cage' series adds Alfre Woodard to ensemble -Renowned actress Alfre Woodard has joined the cast of the upcoming Netflix drama Marvel's Luke Cage, opposite Mike Colter as the series' superpowered title character. -Woodard will play Mariah Dillard, "a local Harlem politician -- and cousin to recently announced Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes, played by Mahershala Ali -- who is looking to bring a new era of change to the streets she grew up on," a news release said. -Her personal life and professional career are thrown into turmoil by both Harlem's newest hero Luke Cage, as well as her cousin Cottonmouth's nefarious acts. -"Alfre has an incredible, unique, and intimidating presence on screen that makes her perfect as a leader of the Harlem community," Executive Producer/Head of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb said in a statement. -We couldn't be more excited that an actress as celebrated and talented as Alfre has decided to join us on this adventure. -The series is to premiere in 2016. -Cheo Hodari Coker will write the first two episodes in addition to serving as showrunner and executive producer. -Woodard, 62, is known for her work in the TV shows Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, L.A. Law, Desperate Housewives and The Practice, as well as in the films Primal Fear, The Forgotten, The Family That Preys, 12 Years a Slave and Annabelle. -Luke Cage is one of the four Marvel dramas in the Netflix franchise. -Also set to air soon are Jessica Jones and Iron Fist, as well as Season 2 of Daredevil. -'Scream Queens' and 'Empire' to make same-day global debut -Fox predicts a heavy outpouring of good fortune ahead of the premieres of two of its most anticipated shows: Scream Queens and Empire. -The first season of Queens and the second of Empire will reportedly air on all Fox International channels within a day of their domestic debuts. -The strategy is a trend among high-profile domestic series, Variety reports, because of the global social media traffic it warrants. -"Hollywood is waking up to how instrumental it is to harness the collective voices of outspoken international fans, especially for water-cooler shows like Empire and Scream Queens," Fox International channels President Hernan Lopez said, according to Deadline. -"We can't wait to roll out these incredibly exciting series to fans around the world," Lopez continued. -The viewers we serve every day are driving the success of a show in its premiere window and all the way through its lifecycle. -The next season of Empire, which is scheduled to feature famous guest stars like Mariah Carey and Vivica A. Fox, premieres Sept. -The new Scream Queens -- starring Emma Roberts and Ariana Grande -- airs the next day, Sept. -British royals to attend world premiere of 'Spectre' -Prince Harry and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will attend the world premiere of the latest James Bond installment, Spectre in London next month. -Kensington Palace announced the news Wednesday via Twitter, designating the premier the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund's annual Royal Film Performance. -According to a press release from producers, Spectre is just the third Bond film chosen as a RFP since 1946. -Previously, Die Another Day (2002) and Casino Royale (2006) were also chosen for royal premieres. -This year's event takes place Oct. 26 at the Royal Albert Hall in London and will benefit behind-the-scenes workers in British film and TV industries as a charity event. -The premiere will also be attended by the film's cast including leading man Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Lea Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie harris, David Bautista, Monica Bellucci and Ralph Fiennes. -Director Sam Mendes and producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson will also stride the red carpet alongside the royals. -Spectre will reach U.S. theaters in November. -Christie Brinkley and John Mellencamp spark dating rumors -Model Christie Brinkley and musician John Mellencamp were spotted enjoying dinner together Monday, sparking romance rumors in the process. -The pair met for a meal at the Bowery Hotel in New York City where photographers captured the outing and a smiling Brinkley. -The 61-year-old supermodel was seen wearing denim jeans, sneakers and a yellow jacket while the 63-year-old rock star wore ripped jeans with a peacoat and boots. -Last year in October, Mellencamp was reportedly back together with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, actress Meg Ryan. -Mellencamp praised the You've Got Mail star on NBC's Today show saying how she was "an angel sent to me, and I'm very happy." -He also added, "nothing's over 'till it's over." -In August, Brinkley's youngest daughter, Sailor Brinkley Cook recently modeled for Seventeen magazine following in the footsteps of her mother. -Arctic mosquito swarms are big enough to take down a caribou -Many studies have highlighted species made more vulnerable by a warming climate, but global warming has proven a boon to some. -One of those species is the arctic mosquito. -According to researchers at the Dartmouth College, warmer temperatures in the arctic have enabled mosquitoes there to emerge earlier in the year and grow to larger sizes, thus boosting population sizes. -In a new study, arctic researchers at Dartmouth's John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding used their field observations to model the effects of temperature changes on arctic mosquitoes. -Their analysis predicts a 50 percent increase in the survival rate of adult mosquitoes with just a 2 degrees Celsius temperature rise. -Mosquitoes may be small, but they're a significant member of the arctic food chain and ecosystem. -The new analysis -- detailed in a new paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B -- aims to help biologists better predict how a growing mosquito population might affect the caribou they feed on, the birds and insects that feed on them and the plants they pollinate. -To build their model, Dartmouth scientists combined their field results with results of their lab experiments, which looked at how temperature affects the insect's growth and susceptibility to predation. -While a rise in temperature makes developing mosquitoes more vulnerable to diving beetles, it also gives them a head start in the spring and makes their larval development faster and more efficient -- a net positive. -More mosquitoes likely means a growing population -- but only as big as the insects' food sources can sustain. -The ability for mosquitoes to turn their improved survivability rate into an improved reproductive rate depends on their ability to secure a blood meal. -Antidepressant use during pregnancy does not affect child -Three new studies show the use of antidepressants by pregnant women does not have neurodevelopmental or behavioral effects on their children. -The studies showed that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, carry an increased risk for postpartum bleeding, however researchers said depression poses a greater risk for women and their children, which requires it to be addressed. -"These studies add to a growing body of evidence about the safety of taking antidepressants during pregnancy," John Thorp, deputy editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which published all three of the studies, said in a press release. -While there are some increased risks, the evidence so far seems to be that the risks of untreated depression outweigh the risks of taking them. -The Norwegian Institute of Public Health conducted a study on motor development of children whose mothers were treated with SSRIs by analyzing data on 51,404 children from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, looking at the effects of SSRI use on motor skill development at age 3. -The researchers found 381 mothers had used SSRIs while pregnant, and 159 of them were treated with the drugs for a prolonged period. -While exposure to SSRIs was weakly associated with a delay in motor development, researchers wrote in the study that the association was "not to the extent that the delay was of clinical importance." -A group of researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia conducted a review of data on 49,000 women in the Danish National Birth Cohort to find the effects of SSRI use on children's behavior by age 7. -The study found that untreated depression in pregnant women was associated with increased risk for problem behavior. -In the 210 children whose mothers were treated for depression with SSRIs there was no increased risk for behavioral problems, as compared with 231 children who were more likely to have behavior issues such as hyperactivity, inattention, and peer problems. -The same group of Australian researchers also found in a separate study that mothers are more likely to experience bleeding after giving birth if they were treated with SSRIs. -The review of medical data for 30,198 women who gave birth at a teaching hospital in Adelaide between 2002 and 2008 showed the risk for postpartum hemorrhaging increased by 5 percent, from 11 to 16 percent, if women were treated with SSRIs. -The risk of a severe hemorrhage or postpartum anemia also doubled, the researchers reported. -The researchers said that while the study linked SSRI use to the increased risk, there is a large number of variables -- from drugs used during delivery to the limited amount of information researchers had about specific medical conditions of the women -- which all could have an effect on the potential for bleeding. -"It is possible that the women who took antidepressants late in pregnancy were those with the most severe illness and it is this which is responsible for the increased risk of postpartum haemorrhage and not the antidepressant," said Dr. Luke Grzeskowiak, a professor at the University of Adelaide. -Based on this study alone we do not recommend that women stop taking medication for depression during pregnancy, but are closely monitored in order to reduce the risk of any potential increased risk of bleeding as much as possible. -Matthew indicted on murder charge in killing of Va. Tech student -The man accused of killing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham has been indicted on a charge of first-degree murder in the slaying of a Virginia Tech student who went missing in 2009, authorities announced Tuesday. -A grand jury in Albemarle County, Va., on Friday indicted Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr., 33, of Charlottesville, in the killing of Morgan Harrington, officials said. -Matthew also has been charged with abduction with intent to defile. -Each charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. -Harrington, 20, disappeared outside a concert in Charlottesville in 2009, and her remains were discovered three months later. -Her parents said the news of the indictment was a relief. -"It's something we've been working for determinedly and diligently for six years," said Gil Harrington, Morgan's mother. -I am very pleased to know that when you take a life, there should be consequences to that act. -The dominoes of consequences have been set into motion for Jesse Matthew. -Police have said a forensic link connected the cases of Harrington, Graham and a 2005 sexual assault in Fairfax County. -In June, Matthew was convicted of the last crime and is awaiting sentencing in that case. -He remains in jail in Charlottesville. -Jesse Matthew to face capital murder charges in U-Va. student's death -Harrington had traveled to U-Va. on Oct. 17, 2009, to attend a Metallica concert with friends. -The group became separated when Harrington left Charlottesville's John Paul Jones Arena to use the bathroom and could not get back inside. -She was last seen trying to catch a ride around 8:30 p.m. outside the arena. -At the time, Harrington was wearing a black T-shirt for the band Pantera. -After her disappearance, Harrington's purse and cellphone were discovered in the parking lot of the arena. -Family and friends began a massive search for Harrington, an education major who wanted to be a teacher, and Metallica publicized her disappearance on its Web site. -In November 2009, the T-shirt she was wearing was found near a row of apartments in Charlottesville. -Then, in January 2010, her body was discovered in a remote hayfield on a farm southwest of Charlottesville. -Around the time of Harrington's disappearance, Matthew had worked as a cab driver in Charlottesville, although it's unclear whether that period overlapped with the date when Harrington disappeared. -Police said a significant break in Harrington's case came with Matthew's arrest in Graham's disappearance last year. -Officials familiar with the investigation said the cases are linked by DNA evidence. -Investigators have not detailed publicly any new evidence that might have led them to charge Matthew in Harrington's slaying now. -Capital defender Douglas Ramseur, who is representing Matthew in the Graham case, declined to comment. -The announcement of the charges comes two days after the one-year anniversary of Hannah Graham's disappearance on Sept. -That case has similarities with Harrington's: Both were young college students who disappeared after nights out in Charlottesville. -Graham, an 18-year-old from Fairfax County, was last seen walking with Matthew on a downtown mall near the U-Va. campus. -Matthew was arrested in that case weeks later after a nationwide manhunt. -Graham's body was discovered in October. -Matthew is scheduled to stand trial in Graham's capital murder case in July. -In the early days of Graham's disappearance last fall in Charlottesville, Gil Harrington became a presence at rallies and vigil for the missing U-Va. student. -Harrington said that she has endured speculation and criticism in the media about her daughter that she says must be silenced by the new charges against Matthew. -"It validates that along this path there's been some "Why was she wearing a mini-skirt?" and "Was she asking for it?" kind of talk, and that kind of questioning and characterization doesn't hold up when it's clear there was a predator on the prowl," Harrington said. -In the Fairfax County case, Matthew was convicted of sexually assaulting a young woman in 2005. -The woman, who was 26 at the time of the attack, told jurors that a stranger came up behind her as she was walking home from a grocery store on a September evening. -She said he carried her to a grassy area, beat and choked her, and then sexually assaulted her. -"I was thinking, "This is going to be the end, keep screaming, keep screaming," " the woman testified. -I feared this is going to be the end of my life. -Matthew suddenly ran off, the woman said. -A prosecutor told jurors that Matthew may have been startled by the lights of a car pulling into a nearby parking lot. -He was charged years later after DNA linked him to the case. -Matthew is scheduled to be sentenced in October. -Matthew is scheduled to make his first court appearance in the Harrington case in Charlottesville on Wednesday afternoon. -Dan Harrington, Morgan's father, said he will likely be in Charlottesville on Wednesday and will visit the bridge where his daughter was last seen. -"We have at least taken another step today," Dan Harrington said. -Did Jon Snow die or not? -Actor Kit Harington gives us a clue -Actor Kit Harington gave an important clue about the fate of his character in the series Games of Thrones, Jon Snow, who was killed at the end of season four. -In an interview with Dutch magazine Humo, he said he knows the length of his contract with HBO, according to Digital Spy. -Asked how many seasons he will star in, he said he could not talk about this topic. -Let's just say that the series will be a part of my life for some time, I'll probably have more than 30 years when it will end. -But one thing is certain. -"When I will leave Games of Thrones, that will be the time I will bury myself into full-length film projects" said the actor. -The series returns on the small screen next spring. -Games of Thrones fans sparked hysteria after the end of season four when Jon Snow's character was stabbed, and numerous theories were launched, according to which he will be somehow brought back to life. -Moreover, the Romanians created a Facebook event called "Jon Snow's Alms" 40 days after the end of the season, which gathered more than 36,000 supporters. -Good news for Romania from the European Commission -The European Commission decided on Tuesday to resume payments for Romania under the "Economic competitiveness" and "Environment" programs, both interrupted in early April 2015. -According to a press release of Romania's Representation of the European Commission, following this decision, approximately 120 million euro will be transferred to the Romanian authorities in the near future. -I am pleased to announce the release of these payments and I appreciate the efforts of the Romanian authorities to improve the management and control systems of the two programs. -It is important that the Romanian authorities made an effort to identify the weaknesses and solve the problems. -"I hope that the measures taken will reduce the risk of errors and irregularities in the future," said European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu. -"The extremist statements made by Gianni Pitella are incorrect", stated the head of the Hungarian diplomacy. -Peter Szijjarto urged European Socialists to stop their "campaign of lies" against Hungary. -Referring to the statements made by Harlem Desir, the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, on the fence built by Hungary, Szijjarto stressed that Budapest "supports a common European strategy for immigration", insisting however that national borders should be protected. -Romania wants to hit the jackpot at the World Rugby Championship -The Romanian national rugby team is ready to surprise everyone in the World Cup which begins on Friday in Britain. -"The Oaks" have decided to win two matches in Group D. -"We want to win two matches, against Canada and Italy", said Mihai Macovei, the captain of the Romanian team. -The Romanian national team is part of Group D in the World Cup in England, along with France, Ireland, Canada and Italy. -Romania's first match of the 2015 World Cup will be played against France, on September 23. -Refugee crisis: JHA with no solution -European Council President Donald Tusk announced that on Thursday he will take a decision on the possible convening of a European Union summit on the migration in Europe. -German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Austrian counterpart Werner Faymann called on Tuesday for a European Union summit next week to solve the refugee crisis. -In a joint press conference in Berlin, Merkel said that Germany, Austria and Sweden cannot manage alone the refugee crisis. -The head of the German Government has expressed her support for the recent decision taken by Berlin to impose border controls due to the massive influx of asylum seekers, noting that the measure aims to facilitate the registration of refugees. -In turn, Slovakia - which opposes the European Commission's proposal to redistribute refugees between member states based on compulsory quotas - called for an extraordinary EU summit. -Interior ministers from EU states, meeting in Brussels on Monday evening, failed to adopt the new proposal for the emergency redistribution of 120,000 refugees among the Member States of the European Union submitted by the European Commission on September 9. -The first point of the plan, represented by the emergency resettlement of refugees mechanism, provides quick redeployment of 54,000 refugees located in Hungary, 50,400 in Greece and 15,500 in Italy. -Charlie Hebdo, new controversial caricatures -The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo causes controversy again after the publication of some caricatures mocking the response of predominantly Christian European countries to the wave of immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries affected by wars. -In its latest issue, the publication draws attention and criticism again on social networks, writes Reuters. -One of the drawings shows a heart-breaking image of Aylan Kurdi, the drowned Syrian boy, whose body reached one of the Turkish beaches, after a failed attempt of his family to cross the sea by boat from Syria to Greece. -The drawing from Charlie Hebdo shows a child in shorts and T-shirt, face down on the seashore, near a billboard which offers two children's menus at the price of one. -"So close to succeed" is the message accompanying the drawing. -Another drawing, also the work of a cartoonist who survived the attack on the editorial office in Paris, in January, is accompanied by the message "Proof that Europe is Christian." -The drawing also shows a figure similar to Jesus walking on water, while a smaller character wears shorts and is with his feet upside down in water, the first saying "Christians walk on water", and the second "Muslim children drown". -The French magazine has become a symbol of freedom of expression, after it was the target of an attack by Islamic militants in January, as a result of repeated threats for mocking Prophet Mohammed. -A supermarket chain with branches in Romania, fined drastically in Russia -The French supermarket chain Auchan was fined more than 370,000 dollars by Russian officials, being accused with food safety violations. -Anna Popova, head of the Russian consumer protection agency Rospotrebnadzor, said that the fines total more than 25 million rubbles, i.e. 372,000 dollars, reports Associated Press, quoted by US News. -However, the reasons for these fines were not revealed and Auchan did not make any comment. -In addition, the French supermarket chain is accused by the Russian agency for agriculture, which claims that some meat products have been found to be contaminated with bacteria such as E. coli and Listeria. -Food controls come at a time of tension between France and Russia on the enlargement of the European Union's sanctions and France's decision to cancel an agreement for the supply of Mistral ships to Russia. -Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted to the news that Hungary may build a metal fence at the border with Romania. -The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the news about this decision came up short and that this is not a politically correct gesture. -The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs declares, in a press release to Ziare.com, that it was informed by the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on this intention shortly before being publicly announced. -In turn, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed in a timely and urgent manner the competent decision making bodies of Romania about this situation. -The Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that raising a fence between two member states of the European Union which are also strategic partners is not a politically correct gesture, in accordance with the European spirit. -This position has already been communicated to the Hungarian side, it is mentioned in the press release. -Hungary is making plans to build a metal fence on the border with Romania, in the context of the immigrants crisis, declared on Tuesday the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Peter Szijjarto, quoted by Mediafax. -"The measure is necessary because human traffickers transiting Serbia change their routes, and there is the possibility they head towards Romania", said the head of the Hungarian diplomacy. -"The fence would start at the border between Hungary / Serbia / Romania and continue for a reasonable distance if the pressure of migration moves to Romania," said Szijjarto. -In late August, the press reported that non-EU immigrants transiting Serbian territory in their way to the EU were trying to bypass the fence built by the Hungarian authorities by its eastern end at the common border between Serbia, Hungary and Romania. -In this context, non-EU immigrants discovered they can bypass the fence in the localities Majdan / Rade (Serbia) - Beba Veche (Timis, Romania) - Kübekháza (Hungary). -The Hungarian government allocated 22.2 billion forints (71.8 million euros) to build a controversial metal fence at the border with Serbia, for a distance of 175 kilometres and for special accommodation centres necessary for immigrants. -The fence initiative is criticized by the European Union and Serbia. -There is no need, it will stay there -The coffin with the body of Corneliu Vadim Tudor will not be placed in Romania's Senate, despite the politician's widow wish. -According to a press release issued to Ziare.com, the Senate's Permanent Bureau has discussed on Tuesday a request made by Doina Vadim Tudor, regarding the placement of the body of the former senator Corneliu Vadim Tudor in the Senate's seat. -"From the receipt of this letter until the time of its analysis, in the Permanent Bureau, the body has already been deposited in a place of worship and it will remain there, the Permanent Bureau considering that there no need for it to be moved from there to the Senate", the Senate of Romania notes. -PNL (Liberal National Party) Senator Teodor Atanasiu said that this request "is not in agreement with the geographical position of Romania somewhere in Europe." -In addition, according to Agerpres, the senators held a moment of silence in memory of the former PRM (Great Romania Party) leader, at the proposal of UNPR (National Union for the Progress of Romania) Senator Serban Mihailescu. -Corneliu Vadim Tudor died Monday evening at around 6:30 p.m.. -The PRM President passed away in the Emergency Centre of the Army's Cardiovascular Diseases Clinic. -The MEP will be buried on Thursday at 12:00 at Ghencea cemetery and he will receive military honours. -Vin refugiatii in Romania? -The mayors of the border towns asked about accommodation -The Mayors of the border towns from Arad county are questioned by the police and border police for accommodation for potential refugees who could arrive in Romania, but also for the gendarmerie, if they are to be deployed on the border. -The Mayor of Nadlac, Vasile Ciceac, said he had meetings on this topic. -The discussions were held including with farmers in the area, who were asked to report the presence on any foreigners near the border. -I had discussions with the border police, national police and local police, but also with the farmers in the area. -We all need to be more vigilant in the coming period. -"We have asked the farmers, who work on the arable lands during this time, to be alert and report any movement," said the mayor. -Migrants crisis erupts in Hungary: Armour-clad vehicles and water cannons at the border -Like the other mayors from the border with Hungary, he said that the police demanded information on accommodation available in case of a wave of refugees. -We were asked how many people we can accommodate. -In our town there is no space for refugees. -We believe that such special centres should not exist at the border, because they are more difficult to control, as the migrants are tempted to flee, because they are not interested to remain in Romania. -The best thing would be to be set up such centres in areas far from the border" stated the Mayor of Iratosu commune, Papp Atila Iosif. -In turn, the mayor of Dorobanti commune, Vincentiu Almasi, said that he was asked about accommodation places for both the refugees and the intervention forces if they were to be deployed in the area. -The police asked if we can accommodate gendarmes too. -We can find places in the Cultural Centres, but we cannot accommodate refugees. -"We have also been asked about the length of the border with Hungary. They are probably working on an action plan," said Vincentiu Almasi. -He added that at the local police station, "starting Tuesday, when Hungary has sealed its border with Serbia, a permanent activity was established". -"There is always a police officer in the station, and people know they have to report if they see any foreigner in the area," stated the mayor. -Pilu City Hall representatives said they can accommodate no more than a hundred people in the Cultural Centre, and the information was provided to the police, at their request. -In addition, the Mayor of Curtici city, Nicolae Aanitei, said there are accommodation spaces in the former headquarters of the local Public Finance Directorate, but improvements are necessary. -Moreover, a former barrack of the Border Police could be equipped to accommodate refugees. -The representatives of the Press Office of Arad County Police Department did not comment on the questioning of Mayors during this time, confirming only that "in the border towns of Arad county the patrolling activities were intensified." -The Army Club commander announces radical measures against Becali's Steaua -The Army Sport Club commander, Colonel George Boroi announces a series of radical measures to be taken against Gigi Becali's Steaua. -Although the two sides have negotiated a reconciliation, Boro says the Army will have its own football team, which will take over the historic record of the "red-blue" team. -The team that won the Champions Cup is on break for now. -"This is not a historical break, it's just a competition break, because we have no team, but things could change next year," said Boroi to Sport.ro. -At the same time, he announced that the lawsuit requesting damages from Becali's team will continue. -The period to which we refer by the High Court of Cassation and Justice's decision is clearly established. -We must recover the damage from FC Steaua, the team which used the Steaua brand without its owner consent - namely CSA Steaua. -The continuity of the section is also very clear, which has actually continuously belonged to the Army. -"So Steaua Bucuresti football team, in one way or another, but in a legal form, must exist as the one to continue the performances it has so far in its record," says George Boroi. -Becali's Steaua and the Army Club are in an opened war since late last year, when the Supreme Court ruled that the soldiers are the owners of the brand "Steaua". -Simona Halep injured at the US Open: The first statement of the Romanian tennis player -Simona Halep was injured at the US Open, as the world's second player acknowledged on Wednesday. -Number two WTA revealed that she suffered a muscle stretch, and currently is undergoing specific treatment. -I've had a little stretch and I am under treatment. -"I hope to return as soon as possible," said Halep at a press conference. -Simona Halep has performed in the last two matches of the US Open with a bandage of considerable size over her left thigh, complaining of muscular problems. -Immediately after returning to Romania, the tennis player from Constanta paid a visit to the sports medicine clinic with which she has been collaborating from some time. -After specialist investigations, Simona was prescribed treatment. -Halep is to return to competitions next week when she will play in China at the Guangzhou tournament. -The region "full" of millionaires -Asia-Pacific millionaires will form this year the group with the richest people in the world, thanks to their fortunes accumulated in China and India, according to a study released on Wednesday by RBC Wealth Management and Capgemini. -According to this document, in 2015 the cumulative fortunes of Asia Pacific millionaires will exceed the total of 15.800 billion dollars recorded in 2014 and the fortunes of the North America's millionaires, which currently represent the richest people in the world, with a cumulative fortune of 16,200 billion dollars, according to AFP. -The study states that the Asia Pacific region already has the highest number of very rich people, known in financial jargon as High Net Worth Individuals, HNWI, with 4.69 million of such individuals in 2014 compared to 4.68 million in North America . -HNWIs are people who can invest at least a million dollars, without taking into account the value of real estate and other possessions. -"In the future, HNWIs fortune is expected to grow further in the Asia Pacific region than in any other region of the world, most of the new fortunes coming from the emerging economies of China, India, Indonesia and Thailand," mentions the study conducted by Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management. -The report estimates that China and India account for nearly 10% of the global HNWI wealth and are responsible for 17% of global growth of new fortunes after 2006. -China, the world's second largest economy after the US, had in 2014 a total of 890,000 millionaires with an accumulated fortune of 4.500 billion dollars and an increase of 17.5% and 19.3% compared to 2013. -In turn, India has the fastest growing number of millionaires, 26.3%, up to 198,000 persons, while their accumulated fortune grew by 28.2% to 785 billion dollars. -An incompetent worker mounted a traffic light system upside down -In Suceava, workers installed a traffic light upside down, so instead of being notified that they have to wait 4 seconds, passers-by receive the 'h' message that they do not know how to decipher. -But no worries, as everyone crosses the street on the red light, Adevarul informs. -Everyone crosses as they feel like it. -Two boys were on the point of being hit by a car because they crossed the street on the red light. -"Policemen from the Traffic Department should be here to help, until people get used to this," said a woman for the quoted source. -The traffic light was recently installed in front of Great Square in the centre of Suceava, but passers-by do not seem at all eager to take it into account, more so than the information received seems incomprehensible. -After 6 comes 8 followed by an L, instead of the 9-8-7 series. -If the worker did his job properly and there was someone responsible enough to give his approval to finish the work, then this absurd situation would not have existed. -The Head of Street Administration and Road Signalling Service of Suceava City Hall admits candidly that he was there when the lights began to operate, but he did not realize something was wrong. -We have commissioned them, but we did not realize there was an error. -"I, myself, was there when they were commissioned," said Stefan Vasincu, promising that the problem will be solved in the shortest time. -Thank God it can be remedied, because there are cases in which the same type of incompetent workers have made irreparable damage. -For example, when working on the Giurgiu-Ruse pipeline, a worker wandered the milling drill which was digging the tunnel under the Danube, nobody knows where, probably underground, buried, since nobody found it, as claimed even by the Minister of Economy, Mihai Tudose. -The police used water cannons on immigrants -Hungarian guards used on Wednesday water cannons and teargas against immigrants at the main Hungarian border with Serbia. -Although Hungary has closed the border with barbed wire fence and introduced tough measures against illegal immigrants, including arrest, refugees continue to gather at the Serbian-Hungarian border, according to The Guardian. -Water cannons were put into operation when the immigrants managed to enter through the barbed wire fence at the Röszke border crossing point. -Hungarian police said that the use of water cannons was a measure to control the crowd, who was throwing water bottles. -There are no reports of any injuries, but some people were crying after the use of teargas. -The Greek publication Enikos writes at the same time that two German companies refuse to deliver barbed wire to Hungary. -The country has already raised the fence on the border with Serbia and on Tuesday announced its intention to raise one at the border with Romania, an initiative strongly criticized by Bucharest. -German companies argue that barbed wire is very dangerous and can cause cuts that can become infected. -It is used to secure prisons or military facilities, but should not be used against people seeking shelter, said the companies' representatives. -In parallel with the Hungarian border confrontations, Croatia has mobilized to provide buses to the immigrants to transport those who come at the country's border with Serbia. -The Croatian Interior Ministry confirmed that buses were sent to the border to bring immigrants to the reception centres. -373 people entered into Croatia from Serbia, including 73 children, added the Ministry. -Tsipras about the Greek drama - why he agrees with the third agreement with EU -The purpose of the former Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras was to save the country from even more austerity and fundamentally change its relationship with the EU leadership in Brussels. -Eventually, the leader of Syriza party made Greece enter into a third loan agreement, which results in more years of austerity and reform, according to Euronews which publishes an interview with him. -Now, however, Tsipras asks the Greeks again to entrust him with the prime minister position, during an election which he says will strengthen his political position. -Our goal was to get an agreement, not to exit from the Eurozone or the dismantling of the Eurozone. -"Now for the first time, the possibility for the restructuring of Greece's debt remains open," said the former Greek Prime Minister. -Now we have an agreement that can be described as strict. -"Although I knew from the beginning that any compromise would have ended in an agreement," said Tsipras. -He believes that the financing part of the agreement represents a great success for the Greek Government, showing that the country's financial needs are covered until 2019. -"Alexis Tsipras also states that Greece "definitely needs reforms", adding that the reform should begin with the state. -Tsipras announced his resignation on August 27, thus paving the way for early elections in September, after seven stormy months at the lead of the Athens Executive, during which he approved a third saving loan for Greece. -A broken neck and first degree burns after the electronic cigarette exploded in his face -A man aged 23 from Georgia suffered first degree burns, fractured neck and finger and a hole as big of a coin in his palate, after an electronic cigarette he was smoking blew up in his face. -James Lauria was taking a short smoking break at his job when the incident that put him for a week in intensive care occurred, writes The Daily Mail. -Laura, who was connected to a respirator, suffered burns to his hand and cornea and a front tooth broke into his gum. -I was at work and things were calming down so I went out for a second, as I always do. -"Suddenly, it exploded and I was on my way to hospital in an ambulance, that's the last thing I remember," said Lauria. -Six weeks after the accident, Laura still cannot swallow solid food and he is on a liquid diet while he recovers at his parents' home. -The electronic cigarette that caused the man's wounds is in the custody of the police who are conducting an investigation regarding the incident. -Cargo Honoris Concert at Patria Cinema -The series of events "Cargo - 30 years" continues with a new really special show - "Honoris Cargo", which will take place on December 11 at Patria Cinema in Bucharest. -The concert is the culmination of an anniversary year, full of events, year in which the "Cargo 30 years" project was presented across the country. -The story follows its course and, in December, a new project comes to highlight the beauty of Cargo's music. -Artists and special guests will come to pay tribute to the most beloved rock band in Romania. -Tickets for the show "Honoris Cargo" can be found on www.iabilet.ro and iaBilet network (Muzica, Uman, IQBOX, Perfect Tour, Vgeneration, ZebraPay) at the following prices: -Earlybird offer: the first 100 General Access tickets - 60 lei, namely 90 lei for VIP (first rows in front of the stage) -After this offer is finished, tickets will cost 70 lei General Access and 100 lei VIP -On the day of the concert tickets will cost 80 lei for General Access (the VIP tickets will surely be sold by then) -All tickets are seating seats and there are only 200 VIP seats and 600 seats with General Access. -The seats are filled in in the order of arrival. -Balcony tickets are also General Access. -Exchange rate: the leu loses another battle -On Wednesday, the leu lost another battle with majour currencies, continuing its downward trend. -The National Bank of Romania quoted the Euro at 4.4239 lei/unit, up 0.10% in comparison to Tuesday's session. -The dollar also continues its upward trend, adding 0.72% to the threshold of 3.9362 lei/unit on Wednesday. -The Swiss franc is also in its fourth day of consecutive growth, quoted at 4.0405 lei/unit. -The pound had significant increase, from 6.0289 lei/unit as it was quoted on Tuesday to 6.0647 lei/unit on Wednesday. -The price of gold has also increased, reaching 5.5380 lei/unit. -A Star Trek actress, in prison because she took off her clothes in front of children -Actress Jennifer Lien, known from the Star Trek series, where she acted for three seasons as Kes, was arrested for indecent exposure in front of children. -The incident that took her to jail, where she has been since September 3 - bail being set at $ 2,500 - took place in front of her house in Tennessee. -The star began to quarrel with a neighbour, Carey Smith, due to one of her children who was crying, informs the Mirror. -At one point during the dispute, the actress lifted her shirt and showed her bust, and then, before entering the house, she take off her pants as well. -When the police arrived, Jennifer refused to get dressed. -Moreover, she threatened to kill the police officers and was taken by force to the car. -It's not the first time the actress aged 41 has problems with the police; in April, she was again arrested for offences which also included attacks. -Jennifer interpreted Kes since 1995 and then she starred in "American History X" a movie that also starred Edward Norton. -She gave up acting in 2002, when her first child was born. -She is married to writer and filmmaker Phil Hwang. -They are being targeted by machineguns of the West. -Stop supporting terrorism! -Syrian President Bashar al Assad gave a rare interview to the Russian media, in which he speaks about the refugees and accuses the West of supporting terrorists and that the immigrants are being "targeted". -"The West weeps for them and yet the West has supported terrorists even from the beginning of the crisis, when it was said that this is a peaceful uprising," said Assad, in an interview with Russia Today. -The leader in Damascus states his Western counterparts say that the situation in Syria is the same as the Islamic State terrorism, "but it's happening because of the Syrian government, the Syrian regime or the Syrian president". -As long as this propaganda continues, there will be more refugees. -So it is not that Europe has not accepted or embraced them as refugees, is about not treating the cause. -If you are worried about them, you are no longer supporting terrorists. -That's what we think about the crisis. -"That is the core of all the issues regarding refugees", said the Syrian leader. -Assad continued to accuse Western countries and the way they treat refugees. -The West is now weeping for the refugees with one eye and targets them with a machine gun with the other eye, because those refugees have actually left Syria due to terrorism, in principle because of terrorist crimes and secondarily because the results of terrorism. -"When you have terrorism and the destruction of the infrastructure, you will no longer have basic living resources, and as a result many people leave because of terrorism and because they want to earn a living somewhere in this world", says Bashar al Assad. -"If you ask any Syrian today what he wants, the first thing he would say would be 'We want security and safety for every person and every family'", said the Syrian President, adding that political forces, whether they are part of the Government or not, "should unite around what is wanted by the Syrian people". -The Syrian President believes that the dialogue in his country should continue "to reach a consensus", which cannot be implemented "unless Syria overpowers terrorism". -"I would like to take this opportunity to ask all forces to unite against terrorism, because this is how the political objectives can be achieved, objectives that we as Syrians, want to achieve through dialogue and political action", said Bashar al Assad. -He also spoke about one of his country's allies, Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that, in the context of the Ukraine crisis, he was transformed from a friend of the West to its foe. -Bashar al Assad compares the situation in Syria to that in Russia, once again accusing the West of falsifying reality in both cases. -Watch what happened in the Western media after the blow in Ukraine. -What happened? -President Putin was transformed from a friend of the West into an foe and was characterized as a tsar. -He is portrayed as a dictator who suppresses the opposition in Russia and who came to power by undemocratic means, despite the fact that he was elected in democratic elections, and the West itself has acknowledged that the elections were democratic. -Now, they are no longer democratic. -"This is Western propaganda", said the leader in Damascus. -Last but not least, he included Russia on the list of friendly countries - and regional partners - with which Syria is ready to cooperate in the fight against terrorism, along with Iran and Iraq, "as they faces the same kind of terrorism". -Instead, Bashar Assad criticized Turkey, another neighbouring country, President Recep Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, saying that " they cannot make even a move without coordinating first with the United States and other Western countries. " -In addition, Syria's President accuses the "international coalition" led by the United States, which fights against terrorism: "In fact, since this coalition began to operate, the Islamic State has begun to expand." -In other words, the coalition has failed and has no impact in the field. -Meanwhile, countries such as Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Western countries that provide coverage for terrorism, as France, the US and others cannot fight terrorism. -You cannot be against terrorism and fight terrorism at the same time. -"But if these countries decide to change their policies and realize that terrorism is a scorpion - if you put in your pocket, it will sting you - then we have no objection in cooperating with all these countries, since it is a real coalition not a fake one, which fights against terrorism, ", said the leader in Damascus. -Autumn? -No way. -Over 30 degrees -The weather will be pretty warm on Wednesday, especially in the West of the country, where temperatures will pass 30 degrees. -Bucharest will register 26 degrees at noon. -Two degrees less will be at the seaside, while in the mountains we will have 26 degrees in Brasov. -There will be 21 degrees at Moeciu, 23 in Bran, 23 at Paraul Rece, 20 in Predeal and 20 Busteni. -The weather will be somewhat warmer in the West of the country, where the air temperature will go over 30 degrees. -31 degrees will be registered in Satu Mare, 29 in Zalau, 30 in Cluj Napoca, 31 in Oradea, 28 in Alba Iulia, 30 in Arad, Timisoara and Caransebes. -The sky will also be clear in the East, where meteorologists announce 27 degrees in Botosani, 25 in Suceava, 23 in Piatra Neamt, 26 in Iasi, Vaslui and Bacau, 25 in Focsani and 26 in Galati. -In rest of the country, there will also be 30 degrees in Targu Mures, 28 in Sibiu, 26 in Ramnicu Valcea, 25 in Pitesti, Targoviste and Ploiesti, 26 in Braila, 25 in Tulcea, 26 in Slobozia, 27 in Calarasi and Giurgiu, 26 in Slatina and 28 in Turnu Severin. -Map of the countries with the biggest price reductions and Romania's position among them -The collapse of oil prices caused great losses last year to the workers in oil production, shareholders of energy companies and countries heavily dependent on this resource. -But there is also a positive effect: gasoline's price has decreased enormously. -A map compiled by Bloomberg shows that during October 2014 - July 2015 in nearly all the 76 countries considered, fuel prices have decreased. -The most significant price reduction at the pump is observed in Venezuela. -In this country, diesel oil got cheaper by 97%, so you can fuel 24 SUVs with less than one dollar. -At the opposite side is Saudi Arabia, where the price is kept steady by the state. -The cost of diesel oil varies from country to country, depending on the refining conditions, changes in terms of taxation, and exchange rate fluctuations. -For a more accurate comparison, Bloomberg has turned the average price of each state into US dollars. -The situation in Romania -Bloomberg data show that, in the second quarter, the average price of a gallon of gasoline (approx. 3.8 litres) was $ 5.49. -Thus, we ranked 27th among the countries with the most expensive fuel. -But we should not worry about this position. -Compared to the last quarter of 2014, gasoline got cheaper in Romania as well. -Then, the average price of a gallon was $ 6.14, which means a price reduction of 10.6%. -However, neighbouring countries rank better. -In Bulgaria, a gallon of gasoline costs 4.92 dollars and in Hungary - 5.20 dollars. -The Germans are plotting the fate of immigrants in the middle of the night: What Merkel promised -German Chancellor Angela Merkel promised Tuesday night that the federal government will further support the 16 States of the federation in receiving and distributing tens of thousands of migrants who enter the country via southern Europe. -After a meeting of nearly 4 hours with the prime ministers of the 16 federal states, Merkel said "the most important thing now is to create an orderly and transparent process to deal with the large numbers of refugees", notes DPA agency. -She added that the federal government will create 40,000 places for initial arrivals and distribution centres. -"Such pivotal points are needed" she said. -The whole country should provide a massive boost to deal with the crisis, Merkel added. -The States' prime ministers demanded more help than the 6 billion euros agreed by the government coalition at a federal level over a week ago. -Thuringian Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow from the Left Party demanded "at least a double amount, and regarding the arrangements, they should be accelerated", during some comments for a local newspaper. -In turn, Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer insisted that migrants be quickly integrated into German society. -"We need a national pact between all the players, not just the federal government, states and municipalities, but also business, trade unions and civil society," she said. -Dreyer also asked that the bureaucracy in handling refugees and migrants be accelerated. -She noted that Switzerland has completed the processing within 48 hours and the Netherlands in 11 days, while Germany took more than 5 months. -Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer expressed similar ideas. -Until now, Bavaria carries the heaviest burden, with the largest number of migrants who have arrived after crossing the border with Austria. -Seehofer, a strong actor on the federal scene as head of the Christian Social Union (CSU), a key component of the federal government coalition, has clashed publicly with Merkel after the Chancellor announced an open door virtual policy at the beginning of the month, states DPA. -Mircea Lucescu makes a scandal after the humiliating defeat by Real Madrid -Lucescu was extremely angry at the end of the match with Real Madrid, lost by Sahtior Donetk 0-4. -The Romanian coach was completely upset with the arbitration, saying that Sahtior lost because it was deprived. -Before the match I said one thing, that I want to be respected. -Unfortunately, in matches against majour European teams we are always disadvantaged by the referees. -There are two totally different attitudes. -We are given a yellow card immediately, while the top teams are not. -In addition, the first penalty was given for no reason! -The ball hit Darijo on the back without touching his hand. -A game of such level should not have been influenced by the referee. -"I regret the fact that arbitration has ruined the game," Mircea Lucescu said at the press conference. -"Madam, what is that awful smell"? -It was the pieces of her dismembered husband -A murder of an extraordinary sadism terrified the residents of Târgu Frumos and Roman. -Yesterday morning, in the early hours, the merchants of Târgu Frumos were the witnesses of terrifying scenes in the square outside the main entrance. -Besides the three bins, forensics had "assembled" the pieces of what appeared to be a man's body. -His body was cut into pieces but his head, internal organs and genitals were missing. -In the end, it turned out to be the body of a former officer who was murdered by his wife, a geography teacher. -"Ziarul de Iasi" chatted leisurely with the taxi driver who unknowingly helped the criminal to carry the bags containing the body. -His story make you hair stand on end. -A taxi driver in Târgu Frumos alerted the police yesterday about the fact that a woman was carrying three bags that emitted a terrible smell, after pieces of the body had been found in the market dumpster. -Similar to an American movie, the man himself unknowingly helped to carry the bags filled with human remains which emitted a terrible stench. The criminal was his customer. -The taxi driver exclusively recounted the story for "Ziarul de Iași". He told us the shocking situation he went through, unwittingly helping a murderer hide the evidence. -He himself carried the bags containing the sliced body pieces of the geography teacher's husband. -She came in Târgu Frumos to hide evidence of the crime, as far away from her home in Roman. -Maybe it's lamb. -I had no way of knowing. -Uncle Mihai, as he is known by his pals who work as taxi drivers in Târgu Frumos, rocketed to stardom overnight in the small town he lives in. -He'd seen American movies throughout his life, but never believed he would ever be the witness of the discovery of such a sadistic murder, and see the body pieces with his own eyes. -He recounts that on the night of Monday to Tuesday, he was waiting as usual for the arrival of the regular coaches which transited the town. -He was near the junction of the roads which lead to Roman and Pașcani. -The cabbie says he saw the killer in his rear-view mirror, sitting next to the bags which contained human remains, leaned against the road sign indicating the nearby localities. -She arrived with the Massaro bus, at 1.30 at night. -The coach left her ten meters from the crosswalk of the road leading to Pașcani, exactly in front of the milestone. -The bags were leaning against the road sign. -After the coach left, I backed up the car ten meters and stopped next to her. -I opened the trunk and after I loaded a bag, I asked: -I saw she was an older woman, and I wanted to help her. -I thought she was taking some meat to the market to sale it. It thought it was lamb. I had no way of knowing. -I thought she was trying to trick somebody into buying that smelly meat. -She was trying to lift bag by herself, and I rushed to help her. -I put my hand on top of the bag, near the portion were it was tied. -"She told me to drop her off at the gate of the market, when I picked her up at the bus stop" said Uncle Mihai. -The smell was so bad I could hardly sit in the car. -He added that the woman said absolutely nothing, and as a result, he didn't ask her anything. -I said nothing until we reached our destination because I was angry that she put a carcass in my car. -When she unloaded the bags out of the car, I noticed that the smell was even worse. -She took the bags out of the trunk. -When I got back into the car, I backed up a couple of meters to turn the car around, and I realised I couldn't breathe because of the smell. -I left the car trunk open and I drove around so the smell would go away. -At the bus stop I didn't notice if she was helped by someone with the bags, because lights were coming from behind and I couldn't see in the mirrors. -"There were two plastic bags and a raffia one", added the man. -Seeing the woman's strange behaviour, he says he started to get curious. -In my mind, I realised that something was wrong. -After she took her bags out of the car, I left for the hospital, towards the town hall, and when I returned, I specifically looked to see what the woman was doing with her luggage. -In the meantime she had pulled the luggage behind the fence, near the bins inside the market. -Then I left again. -A minibus and a bus arrived from Italy causing some agitation. -I saw the woman going to the drivers and trying to board the buses, to disappear, but perhaps that the drivers didn't want to take her because they only do international routes, and do not accept occasional passengers. -The woman was very agitated, pacing back and forth. -At one point, the woman entered a Peco gas station and, out of curiosity, I asked an employee what she had done inside. -The employee replied that she washed her hands. -Then I asked him if he knew were the police patrol was, because I had seen it some time ago. -I've searched and found the police coming towards the market. -I showed them the woman and told them that something was suspicious about her. -"Then I left, I had a ride to Belcești" added Uncle Mihai. -He told us that the woman became agitated after leaving the bags in the bins. -In my opinion, it was suspicions that the bags were gone, and I was curious what she did with them. -When police approached her and asked her what she was doing there, pointing towards me and saying that I warned them she had a suspicious bag. -Then the woman went to the garbage cans and showed them the bags. -"I returned to where she hid the bags around 3 a.m. when I gave statements to police and prosecutors at the scene", concluded the cabbie. -Neamt prosecutors, who are investigating the case, say that the teacher aged 64, Ana Zaharia was caught by the cameras of a gas stations in Roman at 0.55, boarding a bus with the three bags. -She arrived in Târgu Frumosat 1:30. -According to the investigators, she killed her husband, with whom she was married for four years, with a knife, then cut his body into pieces inside the house. -The man's name was Gheorghe Zaharia, and was a reserve officer. -On Sunday evening, the woman placed the body parts in two plastic bags, transporting the bags to the bus station, and hiding them. -The other night, she transported one more bag, then decided which direction to take. She chose the Bucharest - Iași coach. -Last night, prosecutors still did not know where the woman hid her husband's internal organs or genitals. -The head was found wrapped in newspapers and bags in a closet in the woman's apartment. -She was retired, like her husband. -Until yesterday, prosecutors hadn't learned the motif for killing her husband in cold blood. -Most likely, the teacher will undergo a psychiatric expertise, and the body will be examined by the forensic experts to formally determine the cause of death and any other relevant details. -The City Hall took over the national roads in the municipality, after they had been taken over by the Government years ago to be asphalted with money from the national budget during the 2004 electoral campaign. -The decision was enacted yesterday by the Local Council (LC), and in order for it to be implemented a Government Resolution is needed. -Some sources say that the transfer of the management right from the Regional Directorate of National Roads was a condition for that institution to grant approval for the General Urban Plan (GUP). -City Hall took over a network of 11 km of roads. -However, a legislative amendment which was enacted in July 2015 compelled the municipality to take over the national roads crossing the city. -An approval from the National Roads cannot be issued unless it complies with the law, so it was necessary to approve this point. -The National roads fall upon our administration as of today. -"Of course, a government resolution has to be issued as a consequence of the City Council's decision" said Acting Mayor Mihai Chirica. -The National roads crossing the city are DN 24 and DN 28. -National Road 28 crosses Iasi on the arteries: Păcurari road, Munteni street (at the traffic light, Moara de Foc, Străpungerea Silvestru, Silvestru street, bd. Nicolae Iorga, bd. Primăverii, Calea Chișinăului, Țuțora road until the exit from the city towards Tomești - Albița. -The other national road, DN 24, includes Bucium road, bd. Socola (until the traffic lights) Bucium Street (until Base 3), Calea Chisinaului, bd. Tudor Vladimirescu, bd. C.A. Rosetti and exit onto Cârlig-Sculeni. -Radu Gyr and Eliade -Continuing the description of some sheets in the youthful political sympathies "file" of Mircea Eliade which, as briefly as they are presented, exceed the size of a newspaper article and must be disseminated as a series, I think the friendship between Radu Gyr and Mircea Eliade deserves to be evoked, one of the most vehement counts used by the detractors of the great Romanian scholar. -A less humorous description would hopefully be helpful in the real debate that the recent law, called "anti-legionary", ought to provoke in the Romanian intellectual environment. -By critically analysing various verses which spoke of Eliade's enrolment in the Legion through the "Axa" Nest and Radu Gyr, Florin Țurcanu discusses these issues in the volume called Mircea Eliade. -Prizonierul istoriei (The prisoner of history) (Bucharest, 2003), is another hypothesis we are very interested in because we want to understand the resumption of the epistolary contacts between Radu Gyr and Eliade in 1968, after Ceausescu had played the "balcony scene" in August of that year. -Relying on documents signed by Radu Gyr after he was pressured during the Security Police investigation in 1941, the documents kept in the Romanian Intelligence Service archives today (FD, file 573, F.15) and a prosecution note from 1938, Florin Țurcanu says that "Eliade will not join their group, but the so-called "legionary family" called Luminita (The light), a group of intellectuals, especially writers, led by poet Radu Gyr". -Because there are no verifiable data regarding the Luminita nest, those that were exiled considered that the existence of this "legionary family" was questionable. What needs to be discussed is the context in which this information was recorded on file. -Leaving aside the surprising kindness of the Romanian Intelligence Service to provide Mr. Țurcanu with secret files, the most obvious thing is that, at the time, the target of the Security Police was "commander" Radu Gyr. Eliade was mentioned in the note of 21 March 1938, in the context in which Armand Calinescu, the Minister of the Interior was given free hand to take all necessary measures so that king Carol could be able to impose royal dictatorship, suspending parliamentary life and eliminating the main political force of the Legionaries which started to receive an unexpected popularity (the "Totul pentru țară" (anything for the country) party ranked number 3 in the elections of 1937). -Eliade's arrest was made as a result of this note, cited by Țurcanu : "Mircea Eliade, writer and journalist, registered in the legionary movement in 1935 in the group of writers and poets under the leadership of Professor Radu Demetrescu Gyr". -As for me, I see this note as a thin bureaucratic cover for the repression of 1938 and is likely that such superficial notes have been made hastily for the great majority of the Legionaries or active public supporters who had to be arrested, but also had to be tied to an important legionnaire leader. -Once Radu Gyr was in custody in February 1941, after the suppression of the legionary rebellion, he wrote the statement mentioned above, which merely confirms the first retrospective method of banal bureaucratic cover in any policing, authoritarian regime. -It would have been interesting if Țurcanu would have provided more details about the content of quoted file no. 573. -Was the file made for Eliade or Radu Gyr? -The file in question must have been created based on the documents issued by the Security Police, but processed by the State Security Directorate to be used against one or the other. -We are talking about an equivocation, just as when using the term "member" of the Movement, known only by someone who knows the composition of the internal structures of this radical organization based on a religious foundation which is a preceding, trial stage in which the one at issue behaves as an active sympathizer in the probation period of three years before becoming a fledged "comrade". -Also, all these secondary forms of organization like intellectual clubs or circles, social gatherings, discussion groups with the peasants, youth and student organizations revolved around a nest. The people in these groups were families, not the nest itself as a cohesive form of political organization and action. -Such nuances completely evade the uninformed reader making Eliade's "member" status (which may be plausible) understood and used literally to designate political enrolling in the nest. -The invocation of such subtle interpretation certainly cannot conceal the public support of the Guard and the clear sympathy for the Captain which spirited Eliade during 1935-1940, regardless of the wake of Nae Ionescu. -Public support of a cause you believe in does not necessarily mean the actual political enrolment especially since, as a rule, this kind of intellectuals have a kind of superiority in comparison to the actual activists and join the politics only when they are directly offered the highest privileges. -As much as I was able to form an opinion about the type of Eliade's thinking at that time, when he was the "leader of the young generation," I find it hard to believe that he could have accepted the hierarchical rigors of a legionary nest. -And Radu Gyr's intellectual ascendancy was not comparable to that of Nae Ionescu, though! -Not to mention that every legionnaire "file's" main element is the anti-Semitic and violent public activity, both worthy of being stigmatized, non-existent in case of Eliade, at least until proven otherwise. -As for the correspondence between Eliade and Gyr between 1968 - 1969, Mircea Handoca, an enthusiastic defender of Eliade, tries to penalize the statements of Florin Țurcanu (based however on some archive documents, even if they should have been seriously dissected and contextualized) with a questionable argument. -In his volume "Noi glose asupra lui Mircea Eliade" (Bucharest, 2006), Mircea Handoca finds that "no line in the correspondence between Mircea Eliade and Radu Gyr contains any allusion that would support that classification." -When Radu Gyr somehow managed to be released alive from the communist mines in 1968, he couldn't risk making any allusions in his letters, as they were obviously intercepted by the censorship. -I think that Mircea Handoca was trying to emphasize that the tone of the letters sent by Radu Gyr was one of respect, admiration and affection without any doubt regarding the ascendancy of Eliade. -There is really no suggestion that Radu Gyr would have ever been the superior of Eliade. -Being smart, the poet who was forced to write for Glasul Patriei (The voice of the Motherland), unveils from the outset his embarrassment by signalling Eliade (who knew exactly what the mission of that publication was and was constantly denigrating the exile of people with liberal ideas) in his signature, after the writing "your old friend ", telling him about what to expect. He is visibly relieved and happy when his friend responds affectionately after almost three decades of being apart, when the "cunning time" has alienated them. -There is no doubt that, beyond the "mission" he was tasked with (to persuade Eliade that now he could easily return to the new Romania at least to see his mother and friends) which he skilfully fulfills in a cold manner and in short sentences, delimited in paragraphs to suggest their foreign body character, Radu Gyr only shows his interest in literature. -There were no question of esoteric allusions, exquisitely suggested political complications or any evocation of the youth years other than in a cultural manner. -It's hard to believe that Radu Gyr was the legionnaire superior of Eliade, but until this version is strengthen with less circumstantial evidence like that offered by Florin Țurcanu, this correspondence shows shards of memory which testify a mutual appreciation between characters who left their different but constant marks on our culture and, beyond the terrible trials of their lives, found the spirit of the interwar civilization and education. -Important human and cultural and, why not ?, exemplary documents which evoke friendship and mutual respect beyond the "time period" destiny of the authors. -In the early 70s, Eliade finally gives up his refugee status and obtains US citizenship and under the pretext offered by health problems and the catastrophic flooding in the country, announces the Socialist Republic of Romania authorities, through the embassy (with which he had a sporadic correspondence in order to get a passport for his sister) that he cannot accept the invitation to return to the country. -The result was predictable: he once again indexed, the "Toladot business" is carried out in Israel, the books sent to his family and friends (Fragments d'un journal, Gallimard, 1973) are ceased by the censorship and he never sees his mother again. -Among all his friends who remained in the country, he only sporadically writes to Noica, although, as evidenced by the Chicago personal archive, surprisingly many individuals or Romanian institutions manage to send him messages. -It is clear why Radu Gyr never received permission to write to him after 1969. -After 1977, when Ceausescu's regime once again tried to convince Eliade (by official invitation, being approached by Noica, translations etc.) Radu Gyr had already passed away. -New coach, foreign players -Because of the scarcity of local volleyball players, Penicilina Iasi tested Serbian, Montenegrin, Bulgarian and Polish players in tournaments. -The players from Iasi participate in training tournaments under the command of coach Dan Gavril -Demoted from the women's volleyball A1 Division in the first half of the year, Penicilina Iasi retained its place in the first division due to the disbandment of Stiinta Miroslava, freshly promoted to the first division after a disputed qualification tournament which took place in the town of Iasi county. -The news took the leadership of the group from Iasi by surprise. They found themselves without a head coach (after the departure of Rares Puni, who was now a deputy coach for Stiinta Bacau) and lacking multiple player. Some of the players were retired, like Cristina Lungu and stopper Diana Studineanu, and some were transferred, like Ana-Maria Berdila (to the champion Volei Alba Blaj) and sisters Maria and Iuliana Fica. -Naturally, until the resumption of the championship scheduled on October 10, there was and still is time to complete the lot. -Firstly they found a new coach, Dan Gavril, who came from the men's team LPS Piatra Neamt, and had worked in recent years with Penicilina. He is going to sign a contract with the group led by Vasile Stanga. -Two players from the Stiinta Miroslava, Raluca Pichiu and Tatiana Diaconita were also included in the team, and some foreign players from Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Poland were tested. The ones closest to being transferred were the Serbian player Katarina Jovanovic (from Amiens, France) and Montenegrin Jelena Cvijovic (Zrenjanin). -Earlier this month, Penicilina led by Dan Gavril conducted a training camp in Gura Humorului, then participated in a tournament held in Lugoj whose prize was Banat Cup. The players from Iasi achieved a win (3-0 with Universitatea Cluj) but they have also suffered two losses, 0-3 with CSM Lugoj and SCMU Craiova. -Next week, during 23-25 September, Penicilina will participate in another tournament in Craiova. -We are trying to form a valuable team for the new championship. -We have a skilled and experienced coach, but the number of players in Romania is quite low and therefore we resort to foreign volleyball players, especially after it was decided that teams can use any number of foreign players. -This decision will affect the younger generation of athletes from clubs in Romania. -"We hope to be ranked 5-6 at the end of the season, even if it is going to be very hard," said Vasile Stanga, President of ACS Penicilina Iasi. -Emotional meeting. -Twins reunited after almost 70 years -The twins George Skrzynecky and Lucian Poznanski, aged 69, were born at the end of the Second World War in Germany, after their Polish mother had just been released form a labour camp. -As she was too sick to take care of them, the twins were sent to Poland for adoption, and thus the two brothers were separated from the one who gave birth to them, but also from each other. -For decades George and Lucian did not know about each other's existence. -At the age of 17, George discovered documents showing that he is adopted and that he has a brother. -In the 60s, he asked the Red Cross to help him find his brother, but they found no evidence to lead them to Lucian. -Only in 2015, thanks to the "Restoring Family Links" Program of the Red Cross, the twins were reunited, and the moment was more than emotional. -BBC reporters surprised this episode. -Ten children from Iasi brought home four medals from a sportive dance competition in Stuttgart -Two gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze medal were won by the children from Iasi at the German Open Championship in Stuttgart, an international sportive dance competition organized by the German Sportive Dance Federation and the Sportive Dance World Federation. -Five pairs from Iasi who train at the Dance Energy Club participated in the event and danced together with 9,000 other athletes from 20 countries. -The 10 children from Iasi participated in five different categories (juvenile 1, juvenile 2, junior 2, youth and amateur). -The pairs who returned home with medals were: Răzvan Andrei Zaharia and Ana Maria Tarzianu (two gold medals and one silver medal), Vlad Constantin Donosa and Otilia Stefana Galvan (bronze medal). -Other three pairs have also managed to occupy leading places: Bogdan Stelian Duminica and Sara Maria Dolniceanu, Vlad Ene and Antonia Ioana Iosub Cujba and last but not least Andrei Andrei Emilia and Raluca Elena Ionita. -As a coach I wanted enormously to reconfirm the results of this March, this reconfirmation being necessary both for us as teachers and for the athletes, in terms of their future evolution. -The fact that we were able to make the anthem of Romania sound twice this year in the German Open and return home with four medals, makes us very happy and gives us hope and confidence that we can promote both the club and the athletes at the highest level. -"All this would only be achievable with the help of few important elements: commitment, respect, trust and a lot of work", said Andreea Ramona Manolache, the coach of the children in the Dance Energy Club. -Romania was represented this year by 34 clubs, obtaining a total of 9 medals, thus qualifying our country on the 4th position out of the 20 participating countries. -We would also like to add that four of the medals were brought to Iasi. -6 ways to get rid of stress in under a minute -Very few of us can afford to run for a weekend in the mountains to get rid of stress. -Some of us do not have the time, the others - the finances and others both. -But there are solutions available to everyone who want to escape a little from stress. -They do not involve increased costs nor special time allocated, according lyla.ro. -Everyday worries are inevitable, but it depends on us how we face them and the attitude we have towards them. -Instead of grinding on the inside and feel as if an implosion occurs in your mind, you should try instead the following relaxation methods which only take a minute. -Breathe deeply -Breathing exercises are not just for soloists and yoga practitioners. -They work for any person, and the adjustment of breath in a tense moment helps the release of endorphins in the body, a process that leads to a state of relaxation, informs Livestrong. -Be childish -We know that we have passed childhood and we cannot afford being cuddled when we feel like it. -But that does not mean we cannot go in a corner of the office building or anywhere we know we're alone (even behind the building) and scream from the top of our lungs. -You can get rid of nerves and negative energy accumulated during the day with a few strong screams. -Imagine a beautiful place -We know that this is worthy of a psychotherapy session, but psychologists use it often for a reason. -Imagining a beautiful place that inspires calm and detachment from the daily frenzy could alleviate the nervous state. -This is, indeed, about self-suggestion, process which can really change lives, both for better or worse. -It all depends on what we self-suggest. -It is best to think of an idyllic place that warms our soul. -Listen to music -Put your headphones on and listen to relaxing music. -Please note however that we are not talking about your favourite music, because if this happens to be heavy metal, you might find it difficult to relax. -Listen to soft relaxing tunes without lyrics to find your balance when you become angry. -Peel an orange -Does it sound strange to peel an orange when you are nervous? -Well, it doesn't! -For it is not the fruit itself as it does not contain miraculous substances or Xanax to totally calm us (occasionally too much). -It's all about aromatherapy! -The smell of the orange, during peeling, stimulates the brain to produce endorphins, the hormone of well-being. -Pat an animal -Those who have pets around, be it at home, be it the one who stays near your working place, take a few seconds to pat it. -According to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases in the US, patting animals can lower blood pressure. -Hora and rock with a violin and guitar -Two musicians in love with instruments somewhat rivals but partners in this acoustic project sing Enescu, Vivaldi, Bach, Piazzolla, Brahms, Mancini, Brubeck, Jobim, Django, Zeppelin, Purple, Queen, Floyd, and famous pieces of Romanian folklore by combining the violin and guitar. -The acoustic project belongs to musicians Cristian Horia and Emilian Florentin Gheorghe and is named WHEN Violin Meets Guitar, according to hotnews.ro. -Florentin: "We have found each other, and we have enjoyed very much since then playing together, having a virtually unlimited repertoire". -We thought that this is the moment when a violin met a guitar. -Cristi: "From the first meeting we discovered that what we play sounds very good and that, in terms of the human component, things are working". -Each of us learned the repertoire of the other under way and, what is very important is that the sounds of the two instruments fit. -Florentin: "I know there is a gap between the classical musicians and the rest." -I think many people can listen to classical music. -And secondly we can still play Queen, Deep Purple, our old rock songs and of course, jazz. -We want to find the bridge between genres, we want to offer a kind of music that might make those who listen only to classical music listen also to rock music and those who listen only to rock music get to like classical music as well. -And we were surprised to be told at the end of a concert that people never imagined they will hear something like that and that they might like it. -Cristi: "When we find young people - and we find increasingly more - who know who Pink Floyd was, it seems like a formidable thing for us." -Students from Iasi spent more time in traffic than at school on the first day of school after the holiday -Hundreds of Iasi citizens were "trapped" yesterday morning in the hellish traffic from several areas. -The City Hall announced today that Mangeron Boulevard (Bahlui street, left embankment) will be closed between Tudor Vladimirescu and Podu Ros. -The heads of City Hall failed to achieve their promise to perform works for the smooth flow of road traffic with the onset of the school year. -One of the assurances given by the municipality at least twice in recent weeks, was the reinstatement of the roundabout from the International Railway Station area. -Although only a few interim elements had to be installed and the last deadline for the performance of the works was the past weekend, the roundabout was inexistent yesterday. -The drivers nerves were stretched to the maximum on Nicolae Iorga and Cantemir streets, given that another promise of the City Hall was broken: the transfer of the customs service from Nicolae Iorga Street to Tehnopolis "no later than the end of August", although this transfer is discussed since 2012. -Currently, Acting Mayor Michael Chirica says that the problem from the International Railway Station is more complicated. -The roundabout will be made at the appropriate time, we must consider the trams traffic in the area, and we also need an approval from the National Roads. -"It's not like Zimbru where there is time for the tram to turn in the roundabout, but we will solve it somehow," said Chirica. -One solution, according to him, would be stopping the tram with a traffic light stop before the turn. -Problems in traffic were also in the intersection of Podu Ros. -The car line on Sfantul Lazar Street stretched until the Romanian Secret Service headquarters. -"I waited several minutes to get out of Podu Ros," said one of Iasi citizens. -In September the trams should have passed on Podu Ros to CUG if the rehabilitation project "Development and Rehabilitation of South Functional Artery" was completed within the initial execution term (July 31, 2015). -In that case, there are two projects which complement the initial one. -"We have obtained European funding for new works, like an expansion, as the original version of Nicolina passage was too narrow" commented Chirica. -The latest deadline for reintroducing tram traffic is October. -Yesterday, people from Iasi reported traffic problems especially in areas like Pacurari, Center (Targu Cucu, Independenței, Armenian Street) or the intersection of Base 3. -Adomniței could return as head of the County Council. -Tomorrow we will know for sure. -The Court Judges will decide tomorrow whether the legal restrictions pending trial and prohibitions of the suspended President of the County Council will be maintained. -The Magistrates of Iasi Court settled yesterday a new hearing in the "Album" case in which the suspended President of Iasi County Council is also a party. -At the end of yesterday's hearing, the magistrates decided to give their resolution sometime tomorrow on the measure of the judicial review currently imposed against Adomniței. -The latter wants the substitution or revocation of this measure, which has kept him away from the seat of head of the County Council for several months. -In case of a favourable solution and if it will be maintained by the superior court, Cristian Adomniței may resume his position as the president of the County Council. -Adomniței was indicted by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), being accused of favouring the offender and forgery after, according to the prosecutors, he tried to mask an audit which discovered a number of irregularities regarding the acceptance of a public contract entered into by the County Council and the company Laser Co. -Adomniței allegedly tried to hide the fact that the institution he managed had not accepted more materials to promote the Iasi county, although the records shows that these materials have been received by the County Council. -He is prosecuted with three Managers of the County Council and the manager of the company Laser Co. -Other 3500 Iasi citizens are expected to vote until September 25th -The City Hall is prepared to distribute other surveys, if the 12,000 forms will be finished. -The people from Iasi have only ten days to express an opinion on the replanting of linden trees on Stefan cel Mare pedestrian crossing. -According to municipal officials, 8,500 of the 12,000 questionnaires distributed to district centres and three additional points in the city (Copou Park, Alexandru cel Bun Esplanade and the City Hall) have been filled out to date. -A record number of Iasi citizens came Sunday in front of the City Hall. -According to the representatives of the civic group "Iași loves linden trees", 530 Iasi citizens voted in 140 minutes or almost four votes each minute. -Instead, throughout Monday, about 440 Iasi citizens came in the same place. -Group volunteers say that many Iasi citizens criticise the inefficient advertising and popularization of public consultation. -Therefore, they called yesterday to internet users to print an information poster provided by the group and stick it on building entrances. -Volunteers also said that at the additional point in Copou park, the last forms were filled out by the people of Iasi on Sunday. -We will provide forms from the district centres, where not many are being filled out. -"We will make further additions when all 12,000 forms will be filled out," the municipality spokesman Sebastian Buraga said yesterday. -"The Linden Survey" will end on September 25, and if the majority of the people of Iasi's vote is in favour of replanting the trees then the City Hall will plant silver lindens this fall. -The people from Iasi may express their opinion in the district centres of Dacia, Frumoasa, Tătărași, Nicolina and Păcurari, as well as in the additional points mentioned above. -The Heads of The City Hall decided the cutting of linden trees on Stefan cel Mare Street in early 2013, an action that resulted in a fine of 60,000 lei for the municipality. -The decision was taken unilaterally, without consultation with the population, and led to the spontaneous establishment of the civic group "Iași loves linden trees", an online community comprising approximately 13,500 people. -Online, a petition initiated by the civic group for the replanting of linden trees was signed, until yesterday evening, by over 9,100 supporters. -RECORD number of students enrolled at USAMV! -920 students in the 1st year -The university has 920 students enrolled in the first year. -The Representatives of the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine "Ion Ionescu de la Brad" (USAMV) stated that this year were admitted more candidates than ever before in the history of the institution of higher education, since its establishment. -We are very pleased with the results of this year's admission. -We have the largest number of candidates ever admitted in the university's history, nearly 920 students in the first year. We have never reached such a number. -"We also had candidates with higher average marks and we filled our scholarships for the Bachelor's and Master's programs" said Prof. Ioan Țenu, vice-rector in charge of teaching. -He also said that the university has registered a considerable number of paying students, occupying 20% of its seats, a figure significantly higher than in other years. -While the results of the Romanian language study programs have been published, admissions still continue for the English program at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, who put up 50 seats and for which the fee is 5,000 Euro. Officials are now waiting for a response from the ministry regarding the confirmation of students' files and study visas required. -For the autumn session a total 120 files were submitted for the 14 scholarships and 209 paid seats available for the Bachelor's programs. -Most files were submitted at the Faculty of Agriculture,75, 23 were submitted at the Faculty of Horticulture and 22 at the Faculty of Animal Husbandry. -For the master's program, 18 files were submitted in the autumn session for the 150 paid seats proposed by USAMV, seven of which for Agriculture, five for Horticulture and six for Animal Husbandry. -Drivers fear their car wheels will get stuck in the cracks on the Tudor Vladimirescu bridge -The Bridge over Bahlui on Tudor Vladimirescu Boulevard remained as full of depressions as when "Ziarul de Iasi" wrote about its problems 10 days ago. -Our daily newspaper reporters presented at the time that the asphalt began to sink at the line demarcating the two lanes and deep cavities appeared, some even 20 centimetres deep, through which the concrete plates representing the primary infrastructure of the bridge can be seen. -Moreover, the asphalt started to crack on each side of the axis, and there are signs that the depressions will increase. -At the time, the acting mayor Mihai Chirica said that the bridge has no structural problems, a technical expertise being performed recently in order to start a project to rehabilitate the bridge and tram rail, in the amount of 5 million euro. -Mayor Chirica stated that the area affected by cracks and cavities will be signalled, and asphalt rehabilitation works will be performed soon. -But so far the only measure taken was the installation of some posts and a signalling lane, without even a simple filling. -During this period, we focused more on the opening of the school year and the works necessary for this purpose. -"A punctual expertise of the bridge is under way which we expect to be ready in about a week with the necessary details for the intervention. I think that in no more than two weeks we could move on to rectify the situation" said the Acting Mayor. -At the beginning of the school year -Yesterday, my eldest son, Ștefan, started school. -Preparatory school year, as he attempts to improve the situation. -I do not know whether to rejoice or let melancholy overwhelm me; I passively tend towards the latter. -Firstly, I feel it's only been three weeks, not three years since I first took him to the kindergarten. -Although relieved, no normal parent feels joy that his children grow up. -Secondly, because I perfectly remember the same day from my childhood; it was then when a story began which, ironically, has not ended to this day. -I wasn't what you would usually call a conscientious student. -On the contrary, I would say. -But I always liked school. -So much that I chose to continue attending, even if as a teacher. -When I decided that's what I want to do my whole life, I knew it was not an easy job. -And it's not one where the stake is small. -That's because, like all of us, I myself encountered all kinds of teachers: better or worse, nice or obnoxious, smarter or downright idiotic. -Unfortunately, there are people with other callings in this craft. -I think they are toxic because they violate the enthusiasm and even the mind of a young man willing to develop. -When I was a pupil I was lucky to have a few exceptional teachers. -These encounters can be decisive if they happen at the appropriate time. -Who believes that the role of the person behind the desk is to trivially transmit information is entirely wrong. -This can be done by anyone; any student can search from information by himself, we only live in the era of transparency. -A good teacher shapes the mind of his students. -He forms them, he influences their way of thinking. -Sitting behind the desk is not a privilege, as a lot of people believe, but a great responsibility. -Young people are very picky, demanding, unforgiving and always willing to look for flaws in those who are front of them. -Their age and temperament demand it. -As teenagers, we all thought we knew everything, we had unwavering certainty about anything. -When we grow up, we realize that all we have is doubts. -Therefore, the role of a teacher is to shake the teenager out of his categorical self-sufficiency and make him think. -That is to learn, to doubt, to ask questions. -To discover answers on their own, even if the answers are provisional. -To get involved in everything he does. -To discreetly direct him towards profitable models. -It's very difficult, especially because the student often thinks the teacher is his enemy. -Someone who is just waiting to catch him off guard and penalize him. -This entitles him, the eternally misunderstood, rebellious student, obliged to fully live the callings of his age, to look with suspicion towards the person behind the desk. -He can't naturally just accept the attempts to discipline him. -Teenagers don't just let others place them in their place, they do not accept restrictions. -Or, if they give the impression that they do, they somehow retaliate. -And unfortunately, when a rigid person is behind the desk who imposes respect through hardness and does not communicate, students take vengeance on the taught subject. -There are thousands of such adolescents who miss encountering great writers, for instance, due to the lack of tact of the Romanian teacher. -There are thousands of such students who think that history is a sequence of data, that mathematics is all that can be more tiring for their immature minds. -I always urge my students: if you encounter a teacher you cannot stand, who doesn't know how to communicate, do not let him get drive you away from literature. He should drive you towards it. -How did it happened that I myself became a teacher? -I had a very good teacher in secondary school. -He opened my mind to some texts which spoke to the pubescent student and he understood. -In high school I also met a university professor who opened his library door to me. -I looked at him and saw man from another world: his house's walls were covered with shelves crammed with books. -I lost myself in his library and dreamed about owning one myself. -Now I do, but if fate hadn't crossed our paths, maybe I would have decided to become a football player. -Or an engineer or a lawyer or who knows what. -I do not think such encounters are coincidental. -I do not believe in chance. -It is vital to bump into the man who is going to take you by the hand and lead you towards his own vocation. -That person is often the teacher. -Now, my experience helps me to only talk about what it means to teach literature. -The only thing is that literature cannot be thought. -There is no such thing as a literature professor, as there is a math teacher. -How can you fix the ineffable in concepts? -You can, at best, approximate it, without claiming that you convey unquestionable truths. -The man behind the desk can be a guide at most, telling you what to read. That's something else. -But above all, he can create the opportunity for some miraculous encounters between a reader and some books. -These are encounters that can change the life of the student. -These are encounter that can open his mind, who can raise the scales from his eyes, as someone once said. -Therefore, the literature teacher should firstly make his students understand (feel) that between literature and life there can never be a divorce. -Quite the contrary! -A great conversationalist, Alexandru Paleologu states something that is apparently paradoxical: "The more literature there is, the more life exists, not the other way around!" , and he was right. -Therefore, a good teacher prepares you for life, he does not make you a specialist in a field which is open anyway. -Fortunately, we have always something to learn. -Us teachers too; or better said mostly us, the teachers. -Most times, a great truth only repeats itself due to inertia: not only do disciples have something to learn from their masters, but also vice versa. -Ideally, the teacher should be a master and the student an apprentice. -As any successful young man, he leaves his master when he discovers his own path. -The truth is that few of them find it. -But the master was the one who lit the spark. -I do not think there is greater happiness for a thoroughbred teacher than to endure as many such separations as possible. -Bogdan Crețu is the director of Institute of Romanian philology "A. Philippide", Romanian Academy, Iasi subsidiary and Associate Professor doctor at the Faculty of Letters of the "A.I.Cuza"University. -The FIFA investigation is extended -The justice system in the US and Switzerland will conduct new arrests -US and Swiss authorities have announced they would open formal criminal investigations of new individuals and organizations in the investigation referring to the FIFA corruption scandal, informs the international media. -U.S. attorney general Loretta Lynch announced on Monday in a press conference in Zurich, that the scope of the investigations regarding the corruption in the football world has been expanded. -"Based on our cooperation and on the basis of new evidence, we will conduct additional prosecutions against some new individuals and organizations", said Lynch. -In May, several senior members of FIFA were arrested in Switzerland as part of this corruption case. -Many of them have already been extradited to the US. -"We hope that other prosecuted individual will be extradited to the US", added Lynch. -The attorney general of Switzerland, Michael Lauber, also present at the press conference, said that his institution has seized several properties, including houses and land in the Alps, as well as financial assets as part of the investigation carried out in conjunction with the USA. -"We haven't even reached the end of the first half yet", said Lauber. -Until now, a large amount of information has been confiscated, namely 11 terabytes. -However, 121 bank accounts are still being investigated. -The investigators' eye was caught by a contract to assign the media rights to the 2010 world cup in South Africa and the 2014 world cup in Brazil. -FIFA is facing a huge corruption scandal, after the US justice department indicted 14 people, including two FIFA vice presidents and seven court officials. -The detainees are being investigated for bribery and receiving other benefits, starting from the early 90s until today, totalling more than 150 million dollars. -Following this scandal, the Swiss Joseph Blatter announced in early July that he resigns from the presidency of FIFA after being re-elected for the fifth time. -Fight like in the movies at the theatre -In the Supekombat gala in Milan, the fighter from Iasi, Catalin Morosanu will fight James "the beast" Wilson -On October 2nd, a number of Romanian fighters, including "the Scorpion", Catalin Morosanu will participate in the Superkombat gala held at Linear 4 Ciak of Milan, the last before the final of November, is stated in a release of MEDIAFAX. -We were impressed with the atmosphere from last year, and as promised, we return this fall with a new five-star gala. -Since we chose a unique location, a theatre, we promise to give you a fight like in the movies. -Eight Romanian fighters will participate in the event. -Next to the already established stars, we will have another gala opening, which will include the best fighters of the new generation, including Romanians Cristi Spetcu, Cristian Stancu and Amansio Paraschiv. -"We will soon announce the complete programme", said promoter Eduard Irimia. -Catalin Morosanu will participate in the Superkombat World Grand Prix Final Elimination and fight American James Wilson, known after participating in 2012 in the last heavyweight matches held in Japan and numerous awards from bodybuilding contests. -I cannot wait to fight in Italy. -I've seen Wilson, he's a real beast, but I'm going to demolish him! -I'm still upset because last year I couldn't fight in the final, so now I will take revenge on him. -"I'll turn him from beast to kitten", said Morosanu. -Unbeaten in 2015, brothers Andrei and Bogdan Stoica will have their last fights in Italy before fighting for the world titles in the grand final on November 7. -Last year, both have won by KO in Italy, and now promise to be successful once again. -I am happy to go back to Italy, the atmosphere of last year was incredible. -"I cannot wait to reunite with the fans and I promise them I will make an unforgettable show", said Andrei Stoica, the world champion. -In Milan, Raul Catinas will fight an opponent which will be later determined. -A little girl envied the Queen of England to her birthday, but also scolded her in her letter -A little girl from Great Britain sent a letter to Queen Elizabeth inviting her to her birthday. -However, the six year old girl congratulated the queen on her long reign, but did not forget to mention that she was not allowed access when she visited the Buckingham Palace with her family. -The letter did not go unnoticed, and the girl received a response from the representatives of the Royal House. -The queen thanked her for the invitation, but apologised because she could not attend the event on September 27, and even wished her a good time together with her family and friends. -Corneliu Vadim Tudor and Adrian Paunescu were invited together to a talk show shortly before the poet Adrian Paunescu died. -Both writers died due to a heart disease. -Adrian Paunescu's fate and that of Vadim Tudor are similar. -Both were writers and politicians, and both died at approximately the same age due to a heart disease. -Adrian Paunescu at 67 years old, Vadim Tudor at the age of 65. -Corneliu Vadim Tudor and Adrian Paunescu were invited together in 2010, shortly before Adrian Paunescu died, at a talk show of Realitatea TV. -Full of verve, Vadim Tudor mocked Gheorghe Flutur and criticized Elena Udrea, Minister of Tourism at the time, for the situation of Romanian tourism. -At one time, Vadim Tudor said, with a smile on his face, to Adrian Paunescu: "I'm envious of your posthumous glory, Adrian". -Paunescu, also smiling, then replied: "It's not too appreciative what you just said to me." -Adrian Paunescu died on November 5, 2010, at the age of 67. -Corneliu Vadim Tudor died today, September 14, 2015, at the age of 65. -Two UNCONSCIOUS people after an ACCIDENT in Dumbrava -An accident has happened Monday night around 19:00 in the locality of Dumbrava, Iasi County. -A cyclist was hit by a Volkswagen. -The rider was not noticed by the driver. -Fortunately, both have a stable condition. -Following the impact, the car's windshield and mirror were broken. -Two injured individuals are unconscious at the time of transmission of this news. -A SMURD (Mobile Emergency Service for Resuscitation and Extrication) crew is on its way to provide medical assistance to the victims and transport them to the hospital. -Police are on site. -A Syrian artist turned "Super Mario" into a refugee -A Syrian artist has created a refugee version of the popular game "Super Mario", evoking the predicament of his countrymen on their way to Europe. -Instead of presenting the adventures of Italian plumber Mario in the Mushroom Kingdom, the modified video game centres around "refugee Mario". -The character attempts to pass human smugglers and then border police on his way to a refugee centre in the European Union. -The artist settled now in Istanbul uses the pseudonym Samir al-Mufti for security reasons and said he made the video game centred around refugee Mario after his friends ventured into a perilous journey to Europe to escape the horrors of war. -In Craiova Detention Centre, the youngest student is 15 years old and he is in the 1st grade -The Minister of Justice Robert Cazanciuc stated at the opening of the school year at Craiova Detention Centre that the youngest student is 15 years old and that he is in the 1st grade, and the oldest is 25 years old and in the XIth grade. He also added that that they could have had another life if they had gone to school. -I chose to attend the opening of the school year in one of the National Penitentiary Administration's Centres to draw the attention on some lesser known facts. -The youngest student, aged 15, is enrolled in the 1st grade and the oldest is 25 years old and is enrolled in the XIth grade. -"There are complicated subjects which society is keen to discuss at this time, we are all oppressed by our own worries and problems, but we should not overlook the lesson that these 100 young people from Craiova Detention Centre offer," said Minister Robert Cazanciuc on Monday at the opening ceremony of the school year. -The Minister of Justice pointed out that lack of education, motivated in many cases by the lack of financial resources, can lead to tragedy, stating that the youth in this centre might have had another chance in life if they had followed the natural school course of every child, if they had the opportunity to learn not only how to write, to read, but also to receive a set of moral values, to find out what it means to abide by the law and the consequences of not doing so. -"The role of the prison system is not to permanently isolate from society the people who break the law, to imprison them behind high walls, but to try to re-educate and prepare them so that when they return into community they have more chances of reintegration" added Cazanciuc. -The minister said it is necessary to invest in schools, hospitals, and roads, but investments must also be made in the prison system because in many cases, the imprisonment conditions are at the limit of humanity and if there is a lack of money and personnel, it will be difficult to speak of reintegration of convicted persons. -We work very well with the Ministry of Education and through this partnership, every year, over 2000 people in the prison system graduate school training courses. -Obviously, we will not change overnight what has not been done in 25 years, but we have made great strides. -"For all these efforts we also need the support of society, and this support cannot come unless we prove that we do our duty, that through your work these teenagers have an opportunity and do not pose a threat to society" said Cazanciuc. -The Minister of Justice wished both the students and educators good luck, showing that success comes only through the combined efforts of all the parties involved. -"And because today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, I would like to invite all students and teachers to visit the mausoleums of Soveja, Mărăști, among other objectives, to understand what the young people's fight for ideals means," stated Robert Cazanciuc. -A Russian went to vote accompanied by a bear -Doctoral schools caught with more than two plagiaries to be dissolved! -Petition of prestigious academic persons from Iasi and the rest of the country -Over 200 researchers, academics, staff and students in the country have signed a petition launched by the Academic Society of Romania in which they request the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, to evaluate, sanction and even dissolve the Romanian doctoral schools "which allow and promote academic imposture". -The signatories of the petition launched on September 10 include teachers and professors in Iasi. -Among the academics who have signed the petition from the academic field of Iasi, is Prof. Liviu Antonesei, PhD. -Nationally, the petition was signed by former ministers of Education, such as Mircea Miclea, literati who are also university professors such as Andrei Plesu, Aurora Liiceanu or Alina Mungiu-Pippidi. -"Although the Education Law provides for the evaluation of doctoral schools, this has not been done so far, resulting in a lack of concrete sanctions for doctoral schools flagrantly violating ethical standards of scientific research and which do not produce relevant and internationally recognized performance" is stated in the petition. -In the said petition it is specifically required the compliance with the National Education Law, the evaluation of doctoral schools and suspension of operation for any doctoral school in which more than two plagiaries are found, until the assessment and remedy of the situation. -The last requirement is the suspension of operation for any doctoral school where the minimum number of scientific advisors provided by law who meet the criteria of the National Scientific Research Council in 2011 for eligibility to IDEA type projects grants does not exist. -Do you respect less a general without a PhD, or a politician, or an intelligence agent in the Middle East? -"Why are there not in Europe other academies which have PhD organized by secret services? And why do top military members who obtain their PhD do this in autonomous institutions, where the quality is verified by academics?" stated Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, president of the Romanian Academic Society, initiator of the petition, who also comes from Iasi. -This can be filled in by all interested parties on the website of the Society, and the final signatures will be submitted by the organization to the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research. -We are not looking for 3 men with money, but 10,000 men who want to get involved. -The "Pentru Iasi" party, founded by young IT managers with no political affiliations, made its debut the day before yesterday in Copou Park. -The chairman of the "Pentru Iasi" Initiative Group gave an interview to "Ziarul de Iasi" -Iasi will have a party exclusively dedicated to the development of the city. -A group of entrepreneurs and managers with no political affiliations established the For Iasi party last week, an organization which will propose candidates in the local elections of 2016. -Currently, the core of the party consists of IT specialists, but the founder of the he party says that the organization welcomes all the individuals who want to be involved in the modernization of the city. -The party was announced on Saturday in Copou park, and the event was attended by over 200 supporters, nearly all of them being young people. -The special guest of the event was Nicușor Dan, the president of Salvați Bucureștiul Association. -He was the surprise of the local elections in 2012 when, as an independent candidate, he managed to obtain 10% of the votes of Bucharest's citizens in the race for mayor. -"I think the people in the "Pentru Iasi" party are very adequate to be appointed in the public administration of Iasi". -I believe in this initiative, I think is has a chance for success, and I think it is better suited for a smaller community than that of Bucharest. -"I will always support "Pentru Iasi""said Dan Nicușor. -ZDI: Why haven't you left Iasi to work in an IT company from abroad? -Andrei Postolache: My reasons are rather sentimental and emotional. -I was away in many short business trips, I have also lived in Cluj for a year. -I have always come back, because I felt that this is my home. -ZDI: Why did you decide to start a political party? -Andrei Postolache: We've reached a certain maturity, we are a group of people who got to know each other for a while. -We met in a professional context and began discussing ways in which we could get involved. -In the beginning, our involvement was a little shy, we got engaged in smaller projects, with NGOs, various municipal or charitable actions, and somehow things evolved naturally and organically and now we happened to decide that we need to get involved more. -ZDI: Name three concrete projects to streamline the local public administration! -Andrei Postolache: The first project consists of a minimum informatization of the City Hall activities so that the various departments, institutions and administrations are able to better cooperate. -But, more importantly, to be able to publish transparent data about the detailed activities: budgets, reports, projects, etc. We are talking about information organization. -The second project would be transparency because it leads to efficiency. -If you have a project in a particular neighbourhood, it is important to publically consult the affected people. -If we are talking about efficiency, we must not forget public transportation. We have the worst busses in the country. -We must purchase new means of transportation. -ZDI: Today, a city's image is very important. -How would you promote Iasi? -Andrei Postolache: You board a plane and search for investors. -There are conferences, industry events where you can "sell" the city. -You have to want to do it and know how to do it. -And here we have an advantage: our background is business and we have brought customers to Iasi. -What is the brand of Iasi? -Andrei Postolache: In my opinion, this city needs to be technological, in one way or another. -We already have the IT industry and we need to expand it, to get involved in medicine, robotics, 3D printing, to continue in this spirit and merge these elements. -I think the brand should be in the area of science, and I'm referring to the modern brand of the city. -Of course, Iasi's brand is already history, and it should not be changed. Iasi should remain a cultural city. -I see two elements in balance: culture and technology. -ZDI: How will you compensate for the lack of experience in public administration, as well as the lack of traditional party structures that still win elections in Romania? -Andrei Postolache: The administration is a form of management which means organization, planning, communication, working with people and developing projects. -We have experience in management. -We do not want traditional structures, we are not interested in those. -We want to involve the people. We will talk to everyone, and we do not intend to remain present only on Facebook. We're not an online party. -We do not want "volunteers" who were forced into buses and brought to us. -That means we rely on people who really want to get involved and help, and we believe that there are enough people like this. -ZDI: Should the mayor of Iasi be more concerned with the national and international promotion of the city, or is it necessary for the scope of the concerns to be continuously municipal in nature? -Andrei Postolache: You can't have one without the other, it will not work. -The first things that you need to solve are the problems of the day, the emergencies. -Or, if you do not make your city known, if you do not draw money to the city, at some point you are going to run out of money and you won't be able to build streets for example. -You need both things simultaneously and you need competent people around you. -The mayor shouldn't do everything. -We must give up the chief/mayor model who drives his fist through the wall and solves everything. -No. -We are a team. -The mayor is the coordinator of an orchestra. -ZDI: Will you try to attract business men from the IT industry to the party to financially support the organisation? -Andrei Postolache: We are seeking people who want to do something good, to have a spotless reputation, to have integrity and honour. -From this point of view, we have no other filters. -We are not looking for three men with money, we're looking for 10,000 men, or, why not, 300,000 men who want to get involved and do something for the town. -Interview by Alex ANDREI -Andrei Postolache has been working in the IT industry for nearly 15 years. -In July 2015 he founded Introspecials. Before this was a director of the Endava international concern for seven years (2008 to 2015), where he led a team of 300 people. -He spent another four years (2003 - 2007) at Synygy. -The company that he founded along with another IT specialist provides management consulting services. -The Tractor "Scrappage" Program, a failure -The General Manager of SC IRUM SA Reghin, Mircea Oltean, said that the program to stimulate the renewal of the national park of tractors and agricultural machinery, initiated in 2011, also called the Tractor Scrappage Program, was a failure due to bureaucracy. -Regarding the Scrappage program, there were some attempts in recent years, but it turned out to be a failure, because the documentation was very laborious and complicated for an ordinary farmer and the approvals took too long, so people gave up. -Through that program about 10 pieces were sold. -"The need of tractors for the Romanian agriculture would be 300,000 pieces," said Mircea Oltean. -According to him, IRUM Reghin is the only company that produces several hundred tractors annually, being the largest company of this kind in Romania, and that greater competition is exercised by foreign companies, who know the Romanian market needs. -It is a huge competition with those coming from abroad, all global manufacturers have set their sights on Romania, I know what I am saying, and they have special policies. -"There is huge cram at all the fairs, all the manufacturers come with all sorts of variations" said Mircea Oltean, who said that IRUM Reghin manufactures around 500 agricultural tractors and forestry tractors a year. -Through the Tractor Scrappage Program, initiated in 2011, those who own old tractors or other self-propelled means of transport, such as harvesters, could hand them over and receive in exchange a voucher for 17,000 lei. -The red flag has been risen -The internal ballot of the Labour Party looks spectacular and politically significant, particularly as the newly elected leader is automatically spearheading in the upcoming election. -Then raise the scarlet standard high / Beneath its folds we'll live and die -That is what yesterday Jeremy Corbyn sang in the London pub Sanctuary House. -It witnessed many a deed and vow / We must not change its colour now -Readers who are not familiar with the melody of this unofficial British and international leftist anthem (The Red Flag) can search the Internet they might have a surprise. -With heads uncovered swear we all / To bare it onward till we fall -The author of these lines is not a fan of red flags (or of flaunting flags), but respects the democratic political traditions built around them. -If Jeremy Corbyn will be able to unite yesterday left with tomorrow left, this love story between him and the basis of the Labour Party will have a happy ending. -I do not think it would happen so, but it seems premature to talk about the great and inevitable electoral defeat five years from now, of a leader who was elected yesterday. -Now, however, we can make reference to the procedures: we have witnessed a democratic exercise at an impressive scale. -The direct voting system was not invented by the Labour Party among the Western left for their leader. -French socialists have been practicing a more complicated system based on motion for several years. This system allows all members and supporters to express themselves; In addition, they held a preliminary competition for the 2012 nomination of the presidential candidate. -However, the internal ballot of the Labour Party looks spectacular and politically significant, particularly as the newly elected leader is automatically spearheading in the upcoming election. -This is of course also a political system matter, the personalization of power is more pronounced in the UK than on the other side of the English Channel. -In addition, voter turnout was high in all three "circles": the actual members, union members and other organizations affiliated to the party, and finally, the group of sympathizers (who received the ballot paper after a brief registration procedure). -The latter group gives us interesting information about the perceptions of the left segments of the British society, especially those made of young or middle-aged educated individuals, interested in the political phenomenon. -Many will choose to be involved further in the future because of the signal provided by Corbyn's victory. -As far as I know, there are no sociological surveys that tell us much about the attitudes of the Labour Party's "outer circle" so cautious speculation is permitted. -I think we can find enough attitudes similar to those of Podemos (Spain) or even SYRIZA (Greece) supporters, noting that they will go through the traditional channels of the left. -If we really want to identify an "anti-system" vocation, it is primarily reflected by the rejection of the centrist line, New Labour (for many, a disguised form of the much abused Thatcherism). -The second component would be the repudiation of leaders who are considered guilty of the two successive electoral failures, one of the arguments being that did they were not leftist enough, not being firmly delineated from the Tony Blair era. -The second reference frame - in my opinion, which is more suggestive - is offered by the recent referendum for independence in Scotland. -Ignoring the separatist message and strictly focusing on the aspirations on other political issues, we see that Scottish nationalists have captured the energy of audience segments which are favourable for social status and animated by the aspiration of fairness. The audience are the followers of disarmament and hostile to military involvement abroad, but also sensitive to the new fears of the left: ecology, gender, support of the poor countries. -Thus, the Scottish Labour Party has lost an electorate that should have privileged access, at least in principle, but who can now be recovered (see their enthusiasm in campaign's Corbyn). -Such energy can be found everywhere in the UK, but the old leadership has not been able to attract it. -With the vocation of an outsider, Jeremy Corbyn has more chances of success than Ed Miliband, the Labour Party "aristocrat". -I believe the comparison with Scotland tells us more than the one with the anti-system left in Europe's southern periphery. -The term "anti-system" is too harsh: "anti-establishment" seems more appropriate. -By next week we would have learned more about the first steps of Jeremy Corbyn as the leader of the opposition. -We will see whether the red flag will resonate in the House of Commons (it would not be the first time), after the new leader will be ranked in the first row of the opposition. -However, what Jeremy Corbyn wants right now from his colleagues in the Parliament is primarily unity - and in this respect he really has a reason to be worried. -The manipulation trap with or without deliberate knowledge -While I was writing the article it occurred to me to check the internet for the story of the ex-militant and "Syrian rebel commander Laith Al-Saleh" who became "jihadists Laith Al-Saleh" in the second part of the article dedicated to him by V. Marin (the two categorizations - "rebel" and "jihadist" - could have made me cautious from the start). -I didn't check. -In last week's article (Europe, between refugees and "refugees") I commented these two pictures in parallel - one depicting little Aylan Kurdi who was found dead on the shores of the Mediterranean and one, actually two: depicting Syrian Laith Al-Saleh one as a fighter, the other as a refugee. -I took over the story of Laith Al-Saleh from the "Syrian fighters mixed among the refugees" article (by Viorica Marin, published in the Adevarul issue of September 3). -On Monday evening, I posted a link to my article on my Facebook page. -On Tuesday, once I logged in to my Facebook account, I found, among other things, a scolding comment from my friend (also in real life) Cristian: "I subscribe. I only have one remark: Laith al Saleh is not a jihadist". -On the contrary, he fights against Al Assad, for democracy ... and so on. -"So you could have also mentioned the gross manipulation from the image"! -I must admit, it sucked. -The more so as that, while I was writing the article it occurred to me to check the internet for the story of the ex-militant and "Syrian rebel commander Laith Al-Saleh" who became "jihadists Laith Al-Saleh" in the second part of the article dedicated to him by V. Marin (the two categorizations - "rebel" and "jihadist" - could have made me cautious from the start). -This happened because I trusted Adevarul and its journalists. -Still, I didn't have anything to comment to the scolding of Marius Cristian other than: "This is what I get for trusting (having trusted) Adevarul" -After that, I obviously began to study the story closely and I feel indebted to the readers, owing them a fair presentation of the story of Syrian Laith Al-Saleh. -The oldest information I could find was a story by the Associated Press (Syrian rebel leader seeks Europe) signed by Nicholas Baphitis and Dalton Bennett of 17 August 2015, about a man on the island of Kos in Greece, where he was noticed among hundreds, maybe thousands of refugees, who was trying to bring order to the chaos of the crowd. -The man was the Syrian Laith Al Saleh from Alep. He "is used to being in control", since he "led a unit of 700 rebels in the civil war in Syria". -I also found out that Al Saleh, aged 30, had "a house, a wife and a normal life before the fighting began. The war ended over 250,000 lives and left one third of Syria's population homeless". -In the interview given to the Associated Press correspondents, Al Saleh says that "everyone wants to leave Syria". -My city is the most dangerous city in the world. -About 70% of the city is in ruins. -In Syria, I am wanted by Al Qaeda, Daesh (an extremist group of the Islamic State), the government - I have fought against them all. -Beyond the fact that he was kicked out of a supermarket on the island, it seems Kos offered him "an even more sinister encounter - a man in which he recognized a Syrian enemy": "Two days ago, I saw a sniper from the government forces." -I did not talk to him, but I'm still very upset. -The article also tells us that Laith (meaning lion in Arabic) was indeed on his way to Holland, to one of his cousins - a former senior officer in the Syrian army who also became a rebel and reached the West after being seriously injured - hoping to obtain asylum and eventually bring his family - his wife and a three year old boy (almost as old as the civil war in Syria, which broke out in March 2011). -Once he manages to do this, we can't rule out that Laith Al-Saleh is going to return to Syria to continue fighting for the Syrian Free Army (supported by the West) - against three forces: the army of President Bashar Assad (backed by Russia), the Islamic State and the Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda affiliate. -It's crazy - those who want freedom in Syria must fight against three enemies, not one! -I also came across a Serbian article from August 22, of which I did not understand much, just that Laith Saleh is associated with terrorists that are mixed among the migrants: "TERORISTI SE KRIJU MEĐU MIGRANTIMA" is the title of a news article from http://www.telegraf.rs/vesti, in which I found a picture of the bearded Al Saleh holding a Syrian flag in his hand and one of him as a refugee wearing that "THANK YOU" shirt. -On 7 September, on the BBC website, Mike Wendling drew attention to the case of manipulation in which pictures of the Syrian fighter are used: This viral photo falsely claims to show an IS fighter posing as a refugee. -We find out that the picture (actually: pictures - the one in which Laith has a beard and a gun and the one with the THANK YOU shirt) was published by a user on Facebook. That user allegedly apologized in the meantime. -But before this happened, just from his Facebook wall the image containing the two pictures was shared over 70,000 times, getting thousands of comments. -Thus the saying: too late, there's nothing you can do about it. -In Romania, on September 9, Carla Dinu of Hotnews picks up the manipulation story from BBC, although the title is erroneously translated: "A fake photo which has become viral shows an ISIS fighter posing as a refugee". -Obviously, the picture is not a fake, but the interpretation was false, wrong, in short: manipulative. -Campion la 21 ani -The champion of the Iasi Rally, Simone Tempestini secured the national rally title, becoming the youngest winner in championship history -The Cotnari Iasi Rally 2015 ended with a fabulous result for young pilot Simone Tempestini, an Italian with Romanian citizenship, which at 21 has won all nine races of the most difficult stages of the National Rally Championship. -Leader in the competition so far, Simone became the national champion a race before the final, driving a Ford Fiesta R5 alongside co-driver Dorin Pulpea. -Tempestini became the youngest Romanian rally champion. The previous record holder was Valentin Porcișteanu in 2011 (28 and nine months old). -In the seven stages of the Dunlop National Rally Championship, Simone won 47 special races and his performance in Iasi managed to equal the previous one from the Rally of Arad. -Simone's father, Marco Tempestini came second in Iasi (co-pilot, Anton Avram), also driving a Fiord Fiesta R5 and also from the Napoca Rally Academy Cluj). The Hungarian team composed by Gergö Szabo - Karoly Borbely occupied the third position driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IXO, performance that ranks them in the second position of the overall standings. -In Class III, the winner was Edwin Keleti, followed by Manuel Mihalache and Dan Gârtofan and the two-wheel drive category was won by Adrian Răspopa. -Other winners were Adrian Dragan (Dacia Cup) and Vlad Cosma (Suzuki Cup). -The crew from Iasi composed by Dan Iamandi - Răzvan Subțirelu abandoned the race during the eighth race. -We went through the whole range of emotions during this period. -"The positive reaction of pilots and Federation officials makes me hope that this year we will be organizing champions again", said rally manager, Dan Codreanu. -The Cotnari Iasi Rally was organized by XS Motorsport (manager, Dan Codreanu) in partnership with Cotnari, Iasi City Hall, Hotel International, Ford Iasi - ATI Motors Holding, supported by the Iasi Forestry Department, the County Gendarmerie Inspectorate, the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, the Ambulance Service, the County Council and the Iasi Prefecture. |