A shooter opened fire on police in Dallas Thursday night following a Black Lives Matter protest, leading the group — formed in the wake of several high-profile shootings of black men by police in 2014 — to officially condemn the action.

Black Lives Matter released a statement on its website decrying the violence.

As we have done for decades, we marched and protested to highlight the urgent need to transform policing in America, to call for justice, transparency and accountability, and to demand that Black Lives Matter.

In Dallas, many gathered to do the same, joining in a day of action with friends, family, and co-workers. Their efforts were cut short when a lone gunman targeted and attacked 11 police officers, killing five. This is a tragedy–both for those who have been impacted by yesterday’s attack and for our democracy.

The group also made clear in its statement that the tragedy in Dallas should not lead to an end of the discussion of police violence against the black community.

Accounts of the protest Thursday night showed a peaceful crowd that worked with the police to ensure the safety of those involved. There were even pictures of protestors posing with the assembled officers.

Summary: A BLM protest was interrupted by the shooting.


It was a summer vacation she’ll always remember. At the age of seven, Nimco Ali flew back from Manchester, England, to her parents’ home country of Djibouti. Once there, a woman she recalls as veiled in black — “looking like one of those Dementors in Harry Potter, who suck the souls out of people” — made a cut in her genitals, the practice known as Female Genital Mutilation. When Ali returned to school in Manchester in the autumn she told her teacher what had happened to her in Djibouti, and asked why she thought it had been done. “That’s what happens to girls like you,” she recalls the teacher saying, implying that Ali’s African heritage was explanation enough. “I didn’t feel listened to,” recalls Ali, now 34. “Today, I know that girls in the same situation wouldn’t be dismissed like I was.”

That’s in part because of tough new laws due to be enacted on July 17 in Britain, where an estimated 20,000 girls under the age of 15 are at risk of FGM every year. Earlier this month, British Prime Minister David Cameron, calling FGM a “cruel, barbaric” practice, told his ministers to accelerate enhanced protection orders before the school summer holidays begin in July. The dangers for the girls peak in summer, when long vacations give girls’ wounds time to heal; it is during the six-week break from school that families often return to their countries of origin in Africa or Asia to have the procedure done, either by family members, local elders, barbers, or — in a recent trend toward the “medicalization” of the practice — by doctors or nurses.

Britain’s new Serious Crime Bill, which passed in March, creates a new offense of failing to protect a girl against the practice, and extends FGM-related laws, making it illegal for a UK national or resident to have the procedure done outside the UK. The law allows professionals working with children — teachers, doctors, and social workers — to apply straight to courts if they suspect a girl is in danger. Over the last couple of years, police and teachers have been trained to spot warning signs. Last year, Project Azure, the London Metropolitan Police’s FGM unit, launched Operation Limelight at U.K. airports, training staff to be vigilant about passengers on flights to the 29 African and Middle Eastern countries where FGM is most common. After officers were trained to engage passengers and do targeted baggage searches, Operation Limelight resulted in two arrests — and two girls being taken into protective custody. Schools that suspect a girl has undergone FGM will now have to report it to police. “We’re alert to things like girls taking a long time in the toilet, painful periods, bloated stomach,” says Marios Charalambous, head of physical and social welfare at Brentford School for Girls, a west London school. A sudden long “vacation” overseas, or other signs that a girl might be in imminent danger of the procedure, are also reported to the school’s student welfare counsellor.

Brentford is one of a number of schools that allow students — in some schools, as young as ten — to take part in an FGM awareness session. This winter, when the woman running the workshop, a trainer from Forward, a FGM awareness non-governmental organization, took four plastic models of female genitalia out of her bag, there was the occasional giggle from the Brentford girls. But the class quieted when she handed the models round, inviting the children to examine the examples of what the various forms of FGM look like, from the least invasive — scar tissue where a clitoris should be — to the most — sewing up the vaginal opening. “I found it quite interesting,” said one 12- year-old. “But it was really upsetting, and really shocking.”

In many communities, it’s not shocking, but the norm. In Egypt, Djibouti, Guinea and Somalia, at least 90 % of girls and women have undergone FGM according to a 2013 UNICEF report. The report found the practice was declining in the 29 African and Middle Eastern countries where it’s traditionally most prevalent, but migration patterns from these countries mean there has been an increase in cases in the West. A report from the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington-based non-profit focused on health and the environment, earlier this year stated that 507, 000 women and girls in the U.S. have either had it done, or were in danger of it — roughly three times as many as when FGM was outlawed in the U.S. in 1996. In February, Representative Joe Crowley and Representative Sheila Jackson Lee introduced the Zero Tolerance for FGM Act, which would see Washington following Britain by crafting a national anti-FGM strategy.

But changing mindsets takes time. The pressure to “cut,” as it’s referred to, is “everywhere,” says Forward’s Vanessa Diakides. Myths abound: cutting is claimed to keep women from smelling, or straying from their husbands. Some communities believe it boosts fertility and ease of delivering babies. Some Muslims believe — misguidedly — that the Quran endorses the practice. It takes bravery to resist, since the stigma for leaving your daughter uncut can be severe. Girls can find they’re suddenly shunned by friends in the playground. Families with uncut girls recount being spat at, ostracized at community weddings, and denounced as unclean. In some communities, people fear that the decision not to cut might harm marriage prospects not just for girls, but for their brothers, too. “The media loves to portray girls as victims, and the practice as ‘barbaric,'” says Diakides, who cautions that it’s important that teachers don’t alienate girls by judging their parents or grandparents. “It’s not going to help to tell them that their [mothers and grandmothers’] genitals look disgusting,” she says. “Some of the girls don’t even feel like victims. Some are angry; some aren’t.”

Even for parents who don’t want to cut, the pressures during a summer back in one’s ancestral home can be overwhelming. Deborah Hodes, a pediatrician at a newly-opened FGM clinic at University College London Hospital, recalls one woman who was so scared she’d be pressured into having her daughter cut on returning home, “she asked police to take her passport away.”

For parents under pressure to cut, pointing to legal bans can help — but much more if there’s precedent for prosecution in court. While the French have prosecuted 100 FGM cases, the UK has yet to have a single prosecution for it. In February, a high-profile case testing the 2003 FGM Act collapsed, with a jury acquitting a North London doctor of illegally stitching up a woman after she’d given birth. Pointing out the huge “chasm” between known cases and prosecutions, a British government report in March observed that “someone, somewhere is not doing their job effectively.”

Scotland Yard, which declined to be interviewed for this piece, is under pressure to prosecute those responsible for FGM but they say it’s tough to get evidence, since cases often rely “on individuals giving evidence against loved ones,” according to the Metropolitan Police’s note on FGM.

Summary: The U.K. is under pressure to take action against families who take daughters to Africa and Asia for FGM


Jul 13, 2016 5:35 PM EDT U.S.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Like many other white southerners, Justin Hough used to consider the Confederate flag part of his regional heritage, not a symbol of hate. That changed when a white man who posed with the flag was charged with killing nine black churchgoers last year.

Hough is one of thousands of people who felt compelled to share their feelings with South Carolina's governor after she called for removing the flag from its place of honor.

"It's a tarnished, tattered image of the South," Hough told The Associated Press, and southerners who don't acknowledge this either don't understand the impact, or are "just lying about what it says to other people."

The AP reached out to writers of these emails and letters after Gov. Nikki Haley's office released 10,000 pages of documents last week in response to requests for public records from last summer's flag debate.

Hough now lives in North Carolina, where he expanded on the feelings he expressed last year, now that reactions to police killings threaten to provoke even more violence.

In his letter, Hough said he was a graduate of The Citadel military academy who once loved "the Confederate flag, singing Dixie and defending our right to say the N-word."

"I came to understand," he wrote, that "attaching southern pride to these relics of the past only served to solidify that the true beliefs of the south are the stereotypes of hatred, bigotry and racism."

Describing himself as a white descendant of Confederate veterans, Hough told the AP that when he was growing up in rural Georgia, everyone used racial epithets and thought nothing of it.

"It wasn't the rebel flag," he said. "It was southern culture."

But he said the hazing of a black Citadel cadet in the late 1980s made him realize that the symbol he respected could be harmful to others, and the church shootings made him even more convinced that it was time to let it go.

Many letter writers castigated the Republican governor for trying to erase the memory of Confederate soldiers. Many others praised her decision as courageous.

The governor's office redacted contact information and last names, but the AP managed to find some of the letter writers through the affiliations they mentioned. Hough wasn't alone among dyed-in-the-wool southerners whose feelings changed.

Randolph, of Myrtle Beach, said that as a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, he long supported keeping the flag in place - until the Charleston shootings.

"The murder of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney along with 8 other of my Christian Brothers and Sisters changed my heart," Randolph wrote. "My Christian duty requires me to call for the removal of the Confederate Battle flag."

When Haley first campaigned for governor in 2010, she joined the ranks of South Carolina politicians who said the issue had been settled for all time by a 2000 compromise that moved the banner from atop the capitol dome to a 30-foot pole near a Confederate soldier monument.

Running for re-election four years later, she said business executives considering whether to invest in South Carolina never mentioned the flag issue. She argued that "we really fixed all that" when voters elected her - an Indian-American - as the state's first minority governor.

The photos of Dylann Roof posing with the battle flag before the killings inside the historic Emanuel AME Church reopened difficult conversations about Confederate symbols, and just five days after the shootings, Haley said the flag must come down.

"The fact that people are choosing to use it as a sign of hate is something we cannot stand," she said then. "The fact that it causes pain to so many is enough to move it from the Capitol grounds. It is, after all, a Capitol that belongs to all of us."

Thousands gathered on July 10, 2015 to watch as the flag was furled and sent to climate-controlled storage at the Confederate Relic Room.

For some, passions have not cooled a year later.

White people advocating secession and wearing Confederate uniforms hoisted another battle flag up a temporary pole at the same spot on Sunday. Police kept them separate from Black Lives Matter activists who shouted "That flag is hate!"

Some letter writers described their journeys across the gulf between them.

"After years of not understanding, I now have embraced that the haters have taken over this flag for their own terrible causes," wrote Miels from Charleston, recalling his student years at Clemson University. "I joined in the singing of Dixie and the waving of the Confederate flag, as ways to encourage school spirit, I suppose."

"At the time, I never had racist thoughts," he said. "Well, times have changed."

Summary: "I came to understand," said one white Southerner who descended from Confederate veterans


last fall inspired her new Christian single, "Thy Will," the public response has been simply "overwhelming."

singer told PEOPLE exclusively that she is receiving messages in the "dozens every single day" from people in similar circumstances.

"It's an unlimited number of prayer requests that I feel like I'm getting on a daily basis," said Scott, 30. "It has been such an incredible way to feel connected to people all over the world. I feel like our hearts are in it together."

The outpouring, Scott said, also has gone a great distance in helping her own healing.

"Dates are hard," she admitted. "Like, I would have been due in April. April was tough. But ... I'm really okay. I'm really at peace. I can honestly say I am already seeing the beauty from the ashes, exponentially more than I thought I ever would just through the connection with others and knowing that this song, in particular, has met them right where they needed it. And I'm okay with that. I can accept what happened, and I know that it's okay, and I know that I'm going to see that baby one day, and that is the ultimate peace."

"Thy Will" is just one of 13 tracks on Love Remains, the long-awaited album project that Scott and her musical family recorded while Lady A was on a months-long hiatus; the record, produced by Ricky Skaggs, is set for a July 29 release.

Joining forces with singer/songwriter dad Lang Scott, Grammy-winning mom Linda Davis (

's duet partner in the 1993 smash "Does He Love You"), and 15-year-old sister, Rylee, Scott has turned in an uplifting mix of contemporary Christian standards, classics, and original material. Besides "Thy Will," Scott also co-wrote "Safe Haven," a love letter to her beloved paternal grandfather. His death, from cancer in 2011, was what eventually moved the family to respond with this album.

After nine years of recording and touring with Lady A, Scott said,

finally gave her family the chance to make up "for so much lost time," as well as a chance to return to the singing of her childhood. Scott's first on-stage memory with her mom was a duet of "Amazing Grace" at age 5. During three years in high school and college, Scott also teamed with her parents in a Christmas show at Nashville's Opryland resort.

This time around in the studio, Scott said, harmonizing with her parents "was kind of like riding a bike," though she confessed that her mother's vocal acrobatic skills presented its challenges. "It was like – 'Okay, Mom, how do you phrase the word, "Lord"?' – because she can obviously add a bunch of syllables into a one-syllable word when she sings. So it was just having to follow all of that."

And this time around, the trio became a full-fledged quartet with the addition of Scott's teenage sister, a budding vocal talent whom Scott said is becoming "one of my best friends." Scott is hoping Rylee goes into the family business, though her talents hardly begin and end with singing: She's also "the best nanny" to Eisele, Scott and husband Chris Tyrrell's

who turns 3 on Friday. "Eisele behaves better for her than for me or my mom or my husband," Scott said, "so she's awesome!"

Since its release in April, "Thy Will" has been getting much stronger radio play among Christian stations than country stations, but Scott said she harbors no disappointment. "My goal, my heart for this whole project was for it to get heard," she said. "However it gets heard, I am really okay with ... I'm just over the moon excited that people are getting to hear it, that it's touching people's hearts, that it's doing really incredibly well on the Christian chart. I'm happy."

And she assured fans that Lady Antebellum is starting to gear up for their next album. "We're already writing and working on new music and have the whole fall blocked off" to be in the studio, she said.

From their months apart, Scott said, the trio has reaped blessings besides their individual projects (

also recorded an album and Dave Haywood pursued producing opportunities).

"When you live with someone like we've lived with each other for a decade straight, it's only natural that you start to take them for granted, their strengths, their friendship, all the things that we are for each other," she said. "I've never been more grateful, not only for the career and the team around us that helped us build that career, but for my friends, my 'brothers.' ... I'm very, very proud to say that we balance each other out in a really beautiful way, and we appreciate each other more now."

So, will glimmers of their outside projects show up in a Lady A concert? Scott already sees the possibilities. "We haven't had this conversation yet," she said, "but I feel like it would be really cool in the next tour that we're planning right now to show a little bit of that. ... I feel like the fans would want to see that, [and] it would creatively be fun for us to do it."

Summary: Plus the Lady A singer talks about her solo project, and whom daughter Eisele behaves for the most (hint: it's not mom!)


There were about 18 people, all connected with relations between Austria and America. The Consul’s children had made tiny personalised Lego characters for each guest, lying on their own tiny Lego couches. There was also a bigger Lego character in the middle of the table - supposedly Sigmund himself, only thanks to the limited availability of Lego faces in their toy box, he looked suspiciously like Father Christmas.

"Freud was never mentioned in our house, there were no books on or by him, no stories about him."

I made a speech thanking them for appointing my excellent brother. There are so few Freuds around (I’ve never met a Freud I wasn’t related to), that clearly the choice was limited, but we toasted him with Austrian wine, Freud’s favourite pudding and Lego.

And then we began to chat: everyone in the room had a Middle-European connection, and it turned out, inevitably, that most of the families had at some point been persecuted. The father of the woman on my right had spent many years doing hard labour in the Gulag camps of Siberia.

At the end of his term, after five years of separation, her mother had gone to meet the labour camp train, but her father wasn’t there. As she turned to leave, she saw an elderly gentleman standing on the platform, also apparently waiting for someone… the back-breaking, rock-breaking incarceration had aged him prematurely - this old man was her husband.

Emma Freud knows little about her great-grandfather Sigmund Freud, pictured.

The woman on my left had lost countless family members to the Holocaust. She leaned in to me and said, ‘You were wondering why you never meet Freuds who aren’t in your immediate family… Your father was one of the lucky ones, he got out in 1931 and the British sent a car to Vienna for Sigmund in 1939. But four of his five sisters were killed in concentration camps and most of the others with the name didn’t make it.”

"Time now for my own little family to know more about where we came from – and more importantly, identify with all those refugees who leave places of terror to find a home."

It was a compassionate evening – a room of immigrants connected by a shared history in Eastern Europe and an appreciation of the inclusive nature of New York, where I am daily amazed at the acceptance of foreigners. The night was particularly unusual for my brother and me as we have such an estranged relationship with our history.

As an immigrant child, my father had worked so hard to fit in as a Brit that he consistently rejected anything to do with his former home. He’d found it challenging to grow up as ‘Freud’s grandson’ and as a result we were drilled not to lean on family connections; which is obviously fair, but he took it to an extreme degree: Freud was never mentioned in our house, there were no books on or by him, no stories about him.

My sister came back from primary school one day and said, “Who was this Sigmund Freud? My teacher mentioned him today.” “Ah,” said our dad, “That’s rather embarrassing. He was your great-grandfather and was well known because he invented the flush toilet. If anyone mentions him again, just change the subject.”

Forty years later, it took a move to America and a determination to spend a year with a different attitude, for us to be there celebrating the man we were encouraged not to celebrate. Might be time now for my own little family to know more about where we came from – and more importantly, identify with all those refugees who leave places of terror to find safety. And thank you, by the way, for taking us in.

Summary: Having grown up being told little about her great-grandfather, Emma decides   it's time her own family finds out about his history


When oil touches this level, Saxo believes it will trigger a “big response” from oil producers, who will start cutting back production, prompting the market to rally.

However, geopolitical risks and supply disruption worries will see oil prices settle between the $50 and $70 a barrel mark before the end of the year.

Saxo Bank’s forecast is one of its so-called “outrageous predictions” for next year - a list of unlikely events that nonetheless pose a potential risk.

Steen Jakobsen, chief economist at Saxo Bank, said the 10 predictions, which include the Olympics turbo-charging a Brazilian recovery and a meltdown in corporate bonds, remain “an exercise in finding 10 relatively controversial and unrelated ideas which could turn your investment upside down”.

Although the outlandish “anti-herd thinking” aims to draw attention to unfathomable events, some have come true before.

While these predictions are by no means Saxo’s official forecast, Mr Jakobsen said many of this year’s risks “would not be particularly outrageous at all in more normal times”.

Against a backdrop of volatility and uncertainty, the spike in oil prices to $100 a barrel could also boost the Russian rouble, so much so it rises 20pc by the end of next year, the bank said.

Even the poster child for emerging markets weakness, Brazil, could be set for a stellar year, overcoming collapsing consumer confidence, skyrocketing unemployment and negative GDP to lead emerging markets out of their current malaise.

Mads Koefoed, of Saxo, reckons emerging markets equities could climb by as much as 25pc in 2016.

Summary: Could the euro, Brazil and oil be next year’s unlikely winners?


Burberry Group PLC Chief Operating Officer John Smith is leaving the retailer in the summer of next year to pursue new interests, the British fashion house said Friday.

The former chief executive of BBC Worldwide is set to depart four years after becoming Burberry’s COO.

The move comes as pressure has mounted on Burberry Chief Executive...

Summary: Burberry Chief Operating Officer John Smith will leave the British fashion house in the summer of next year to pursue new interests.


BOSTON -- Fidelity Investments announced the resignation of a top mutual-funds marketing executive, marking the latest change in Fidelity's lagging retail business.

Neal Litvack had spearheaded the marketing of Fidelity funds for the past four years, but the 41-year-old executive is quitting to pursue other interests, Fidelity said.

The mutual-fund giant also announced that Robert Mazzarella has been named president of its...

Summary: Fidelity Investments announced the resignation of Neal Litvack, a top mutual-funds marketing executive. The company also announced that Robert Mazzarella has been named president of its retail brokerage services company.


The beer has turned cloudy at the bottom of the bottle, but investors should drink up anyway.

When Anheuser-Busch InBev was offering £44 a share for SABMiller, shares in the U.K.-listed brewer traded above the bid price. Since ABI raised its offer to £45 Tuesday, the shares have fallen below £43.

This oddity follows an outburst of noise casting the long-awaited megamerger in doubt. Its most vocal opponent is Aberdeen Asset...

Summary: The beer has turned cloudy at the bottom of the bottle, but investors should drink to the SABMiller-AB InBev tie-up.


More than 500 potential victims of online child abuse have been identified during a major Police Scotland investigation.

Officers made 77 arrests and seized 30 million indecent images during Operation Lattise.

The five-week operation has resulted in 400 charges being brought so far, as BBC Scotland correspondent Lucy Adams reports.

Summary: A Police Scotland investigation into online child abuse uncovers more than 500 potential victims of online sexual abuse.


STRAFFORD, Vt. — LOST amid the Supreme Court’s high-profile decisions on affirmative action, voting rights and same-sex marriage was another ruling that may turn out to have a profound impact on American society. The court handed down a decision on Tuesday that, in the words of Justice Elena Kagan, will “work a revolution in land-use law.”

While that may sound obscure, the decision in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District will result in long-lasting harm to America’s communities. That’s because the ruling creates a perverse incentive for municipal governments to reject applications from developers rather than attempt to negotiate project designs that might advance both public and private goals — and it makes it hard for communities to get property owners to pay to mitigate any environmental damage they may cause.

The court’s 5-to-4 decision, with Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. writing for the majority, arose from an order issued by a Florida water management district denying an application by Coy A. Koontz Sr. to fill more than three acres of wetlands in order to build a small shopping center. The district made clear that it was willing to grant the permit if Mr. Koontz agreed to reduce the size of the development or spend money on any of a variety of wetlands-restoration projects designed to offset the project’s environmental effects. Because Mr. Koontz declined to pursue any of these options, the district denied the permit.

Mr. Koontz, who is now deceased, went to court and claimed that the permit denial constituted a “taking” under two Supreme Court precedents, Nollan v. California Coastal Commission and Dolan v. City of Tigard. These cases established that when the government approved a development subject to certain conditions, like a requirement that a developer dedicate an easement to the public, the conditions would be deemed an appropriation of private property unless the government could show a logical relationship and a “rough proportionality” between the conditions imposed and the projected effects of the development.

The Florida Supreme Court rejected Mr. Koontz’s takings argument on two grounds. First, it interpreted Nollan and Dolan as being limited to cases in which the government has issued a permit subject to a condition — not in those in which a permit has been denied. Second, it ruled that Nollan and Dolan applied only when the government’s condition took an interest in some tangible property (like demanding an easement, for example), not when a government imposed a generalized requirement on someone to spend money.

In what can fairly be described as a blockbuster decision, the Supreme Court has reversed the Florida court on both points.

Leaving the majority’s legal reasoning aside, the Supreme Court’s ruling is likely to do some serious real-world damage. As Justice Kagan correctly explains in her dissent, the decision will very likely encourage local government officials to avoid any discussion with developers related to permit conditions that, in the end, might have let both sides find common ground on building projects that are good for the community and environmentally sound. Rather than risk a lawsuit through an attempt at compromise, many municipalities will simply reject development applications outright — or, worse, accept development plans they shouldn’t.

“Nothing in the Takings Clause requires that folly,” Justice Kagan said. But arguably it does now.

As for the second part of the majority’s ruling, that Nollan and Dolan apply to permit conditions requiring the general expenditure of money, that will also have unfortunate consequences. Cities and towns across America routinely attach fees and other payment obligations to permits, for example, to support wetlands mitigation banks, to finance roads, to pay for new schools or to build affordable housing.

While, to be sure, such mandates must be reasonable under the Constitution, the revolutionary and destructive step taken by the court in Koontz is to cast the burden on the government to justify the mandates according to the heightened Nollan-Dolan standard. This is contrary to the traditional court approach of according deference to elected officials and technical experts on issues of regulatory policy. Moreover, this heightened standard will result in a huge number of costly legal challenges to local regulations.

Consider the challenges of waste disposal. Many communities impose development-impact fees on developers if a proposed project would require expanding waste-disposal sites or building new ones. Before Koontz, a developer could raise a constitutional challenge if the charges were unreasonable, but judges typically deferred to local governments in such cases.

After Koontz, developers have a potent new legal tool to challenge such charges because now the legal burden of demonstrating their validity is on the communities themselves.

In the wake of this under-the-radar ruling, the cost of protecting a community from a harmful building project now lies not with the developer but with the local residents and taxpayers. It’s hard to fathom that the framers of the Constitution would call this either fairness or justice.

Summary: In a little-noticed ruling this week, the Supreme Court made it that much harder for America’s communities and developers to find common ground.


Munib al-Masri is one of the most famous and influential Palestinians, but you may never have heard of him.

Often called 'The Godfather' Masri, on no fewer than three occasions, turned down the premiership of Palestine.

He has a fortune estimated at $1.6 billion, and is chairman of the powerful Palestine Development and Investment Company (Padico), a firm whose interests respresent an estimated one-quarter of the whole Palestinian economy.

Sir David Frost travels to the West Bank to meet Masri, considered the richest man in Palestine, where he takesÂ Sir David around his palace in Ramallah, to Yasser Arafat's mausoleum, and to the massive wall erected by Israel, which turns Palestinians into prisoners.

Masri is known as one of the most influential power-brokers and philanthropists in the region. Considered a moderate, he is respected by Palestinians and Israelis alike.

"For 40 years, I have been working for the peace process," he tells Sir David, saying he fears for the future -Â for both Palestinians and for Israel.

"Enough is enough â¦ and I think that it's coming, the Spring is coming, and the tsunami is coming, and the volcano is coming."

Walking beside Israel's 'peace wall' in Jerusalem, he says:Â "It humiliates me and it takes my integrity and my dignity when you are in your own land and you are stopped and you are checked. You feel sometimes like you are an animal.

"We are in a big jail. Gaza is a big jail, this is a big jail, Jerusalem is a big jail, every place is a big jail.

"It is not the values of the Jewish religion. They have good values and I hope they exercise these values on us. We cannot be occupied all our lives. Let us sit down and talk and listen to each other's aspirations and needs."

Masri confides that he has a deep conviction that cutting a deal with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas represents the last hopes for Israel's Binyamin Netanyahu: "I would say, 'Mr Netanyahu don't miss the chance of making peace with Mr Abbas'."

A friend and confidant of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Masri says he supports Arafat's widow in her campaign to discover if her husband was poisoned: "Many people, they are wondering [about how Arafat died] because they want to see about their beloved leader what happened to him, why it's happened this way. It's not very strange, and it's not odd for the Israeli government to do something of this sort."

Remembering Arafat, Masri says: "He gave us hope. He gave us determination, and to think and to dream that this dream will come true, to go back to our homes .... He was an extraordinary leader, we loved him and he was our hero. And to me he was also a friend. Although, he made many mistakes, but a hero can be forgiven."

The Frost Interview can be seen each week at the following times GMT: Friday: 2000; Saturday: 1200; Sunday: 0100; Monday: 0600.

Click here for more The Frost Interview

Summary: One of the most influential Palestinians discusses his fears for the future of both Palestinians and Israel.


The TV presenter spends a day capturing her passions – fashion, food and friends – with a new Xperia X from Sony

Born and bred in London, June Sarpong is passionate about her home city — especially the vast array of food, fashion and shopping it has to offer. When the TV presenter isn’t working, she spends time doing what she loves most — exploring the markets and vintage shops of the East End, and meeting her friends for dinner.

“The places that I chose for my ‘X’ moment represent everything that is fantastic about London,” she explains. “London is a place where new fashions, new looks are birthed – you can kind of get away with anything.”

The great thing about this camera is that it’s really quick. As soon as you press it, it launches and you’re ready to go, so you never miss anythingJune Sarpong

After picking out dresses at one of her favourite vintage haunts, Rokit – a London institution which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year – June indulges another passion at artisan chocolate shop Dark Sugars. “It’s my favourite place on Brick Lane, and it has become a bit of an addiction,” she says.

While a visit to her most-loved chocolate shop is a given, other moments are more unexpected — like an array of colourful paper lanterns she spots hanging in the street. The X is Sony Xperia’s fastest ever camera, going from standby to capture in less than 0.6 seconds. So however unexpected or brief the moment, you can hold on to it with a picture.

After a day of shopping, June meets up with friends for a night out at Blakes Hotel in South London. Her gang pose for group selfies – a cinch even in dim restaurant lighting, thanks to the Xperia X’s low light settings.

“The great thing about this camera is that it’s really quick. As soon as you press it, it launches and you’re ready to go, so you never miss anything,” says June. “Life is about fleeting moments and it's so beautiful that we are able to capture those so that we don’t forget them.”

June Sarpong captures her X moment

The new Xperia X from Sony can be purchased from the following retailers: O2, Vodafone, Carphone Warehouse, EE and Three

Return to the Capture perfect moments main page for more features and videos

Summary: June Sarpong spends a day capturing her passions in London – fashion, food and friends – with the new Sony Xperia X


Here, Telegraph Money breaks down the best fixed rate 95pc loan-to-value mortgages for two and five year terms. They are split by whether or not the mortgage is tied to a Help to Buy scheme, with both monthly and fixed term costings.

• Calculator: when will you be able to buy a house? • Best fixed-rate: two, three, five and 10 years • House prices for first-time buyers rise to record high

Both costings are provided, as cashback offers and fees can mean a mortgage that is more expensive in terms of monthly payments is actually cheaper in total over the fixed term.

The total cost has been used as the tie-breaker between mortgages from the same provider, and providers have been limited to one appearance in each set.

To work out the figures, we have used the assumption of a borrower taking out a 25-year £240,000 mortgage with a 5pc deposit.

• The best of Telegraph Money: get our weekly newsletter

Remember, the amount a mortgage provider will be able to lend you is tied to your earnings and you may need a guarantor to get access to one of the non-Help to Buy 95pc mortgage offers.

Borrowing at 95pc is risky as you will likely be taking on far more debt compared to your salary than is usually advised.

It is worth bearing in mind the equity loan portion of Help to Buy, which can provide you with up to a 20pc equity loan to put towards a new build home. This gives you access to 75pc loan to value mortgages, with much more favourable rates, and the money loaned to you by the Government remains interest free for five years.

- Calculator: How much can I borrow?

Fixed term rate: 3.69pc Arrangement fee: £0 Cashback: £0 Monthly payment cost: £1,226.09 Total fixed term cost (including fees and cashback):: £29,426.18

Fixed term rate: 3.79pc Arrangement fee: £0 Cashback: £0 Monthly payment cost: £1,239.15 Total fixed term cost (including fees and cashback):: £29,739.51

Fixed term rate: 3.98pc Arrangement fee: £0 Cashback: £300 Monthly payment cost: £1,264.16 Total fixed term cost (including fees and cashback): £30,039.83

• One minute mortgage check: How much could you save?

Fixed term rate: 3.69pc Arrangement fee: £0 Cashback: £0 Monthly payment cost: £1,226.09 Total fixed term cost (including fees and cashback): £29,426.18

Fixed term rate: 4.29pc Arrangement fee: £0 Cashback: £1,500 Monthly payment cost: £1,305.55 Total fixed term cost (including fees and cashback): £29,833.26

Fixed term rate: 3.89pc Arrangement fee: £495 Cashback: £0 Monthly payment cost: £1,252.00 Total fixed term cost (including fees and cashback): £30,549

• Effect of making overpayments on your mortgage

Fixed term rate: 4.57pc Arrangement fee: £0 Cashback: £300 Monthly payment cost: £1,343.55 Total fixed term cost (including fees and cashback): £80,613.09

Fixed term rate: 4.75pc Arrangement fee: £0 Cashback: £0 Monthly payment cost: £1,368.28 Total fixed term cost (including fees and cashback): £82, 096.90

Fixed term rate: 4.89pc Arrangement fee: £495 Cashback: £500 Monthly payment cost: £1,387.68 Total fixed term cost (including fees and cashback): £83,755.67

Fixed term rate: 3.64pc Arrangement fee: £545 Cashback: £0 Monthly payment cost: £1,219.59 Total fixed term cost (including fees and cashback): £73,720

2. Royal Bank of Scotland

Fixed term rate: 4.5pc Arrangement fee: £0 Cashback: £0 Monthly payment cost: £1,334.00 Total fixed term cost (including fees and cashback): £80,039.88

Fixed term rate: 4.49pc Arrangement fee: £495 Cashback: £0 Monthly payment cost: £1,332.64 Total fixed term cost (including fees and cashback): £80,453.16

Two other mortgages worth mentioning are challenger TSB's 95pc 10 year fix and Clydesdale Bank's 95pc three year fix.

A 95pc mortgage fixed for ten years might seem appealing, but the rate is huge at 5.34pc and it's unlikely that over 10 years it will win out compared to standard rates.

For someone buying with only a 5pc deposit in the first place, the savings that can be had by moving between shorter fixed rate deals will be enormous.

Clydesdale's three year fix offers no fee and a rate of just 3.29pc, making repayments £1,174.64 per month using our assumptions from before. That beats any of the options listed above.

Have a question for our experts? Email moneyexpert@telegraph.co.uk

Summary: There are dozens of 95pc mortgages out there for buyers with a low deposit,   here are the cheapest available


Census 2016 will be conducted online. (9NEWS)

Census officials are confident computer systems won’t crash ahead of the compulsory nationwide online survey.

More than 16 million Australians are expected to go online for tonight’s Census survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

It is the first time Australians have the option of completing the survey online instead of by paper, sparking fears the system will crash.

Victorian Census Director Annette Kelly told 3AW she was “confident” the system would hold up.

“We’ve built capacity for twice what we expect,” Ms Kelly said.

“Everyone can be reassured they’ll get through.”

Survey data will be held by the ABS for four years, instead of the regular 18 months.

Many have expressed security concerns over the extension of data being held for a longer period of time.

South Australian Greens Senator, Sarah Hanson-Young, tweeted her disapproval.

“Little by little, they strip our privacy away,” media commentator Mike Carlton posted.

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016

Summary: Census officials are confiden computer systems won’t crash ahead of the compulsory nationwide online survey.


Those who proclaim that states act in their own self-interest really mean that states act in what they perceive to be their own self-interest. The distinction is important, because every country has a warped or imprecise view of how it can flourish. The Soviet Union, for example, viewed an invasion of Afghanistan as a strategic necessity in 1979; now it doesn’t have any interests because—thanks in part to that invasion—it no longer exists. Most countries make decisions by mixing acuity and myopia. But how do we understand those states that continuously, tirelessly, bring disastrous consequences upon themselves?

The question is inescapable when considering the 67-year-old Islamic Republic of Pakistan, which shows no signs of settling into a relaxed late middle age. Pakistan has instigated numerous wars against a much larger neighbor and lost every one of them; it has developed a nuclear-weapons program meant to bring respect and security, which instead guaranteed international sanction and instability; it has ensured, by helping to install the Taliban in power in Afghanistan, that the entire region would become a swamp of extremism, with thousands of Pakistanis falling victim to mindless violence; it has funded terrorism in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, enraging India while doing nothing to further the cause of Kashmiri fellow-feeling for Pakistan.

Yet Pakistan has an elected government, a media that is, compared with that of Russia or China, remarkably free and opinionated, and a judicial branch that often asserts itself against the wishes of elected officials. Why do voters, and their representatives, keep opting for disastrous and dangerous policies?

The normal way to tell a story like Pakistan’s is to identify some point where the country “went off the rails” and thus construct a tragic narrative of great promise colliding with reality. But in her perceptive and learned “The Struggle for Pakistan: A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics,” Ayesha Jalal, a history professor at Tufts, shows that Pakistan never went off the rails; it was, moreover, never a democracy in any meaningful sense. For its entire history, a military caste and its supporters in the ruling class have formed an “establishment” that defined their narrow interests as the nation’s.

The creation of Pakistan in 1947 was the crowning failure of British rule on the Asian subcontinent. Over one million people perished in population transfers and the ethnic violence sparked by the partition of British India. In “The Sole Spokesman” (1985), her extraordinary biography of Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Ms. Jalal detailed how this failure was the fault not just of the British imperialists but also of the three crucial Indian leaders on the eve of partition: Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru of the Hindu-led Congress Party and Jinnah himself, a tolerant and secular Muslim lawyer born in Karachi.

British India was deeply divided between Hindus (the overwhelming majority) and Muslims. Jinnah wanted a strong federal system to replace the Raj, with power granted to Muslim communities, while the Congress leaders desired a powerful central government. The combination of Britain’s quick retreat after the war, Gandhi’s and Nehru’s stubbornness about devolving power, and Jinnah’s enunciation of religious differences eventually ensured that India would become two separate entities. The British divided the Muslim-majority provinces of Punjab and Bengal—which are 1,000 miles apart, with India in between them—and Western Punjab and eastern Bengal became the already sundered country of Pakistan.

If these problems at least hinted at the trouble to come, so did the country’s name, which means, in Urdu, “land of the pure”; but it is also an acronym, with the letters standing for Punjab, Afghania province, Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan, the last two states opting to become part of Pakistan within a year of partition. The maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir opted for India, amid much controversy and eventually war; it was the only Muslim-majority province to do so. That acronym did not include Bengal, which gives some sense of how the rulers of the new country looked upon its most populous province. And despite Jinnah’s claim to speak for all of India’s Muslims, approximately one third of them chose to stay in India, which leads Ms. Jalal to make an important and often overlooked point in “The Struggle for Pakistan”: “Muslims as a ‘nation’ were divided into two mutually hostile states. Religion as a political identity did play a part in the outcome but not, as is believed, by conceding the right of self-determination to Muslims qua Muslims.” Pakistan was therefore united neither by contiguous territory nor by language but merely by faith, even though the state was not meant to be, in Ms. Jalal’s phrasing, a “clarion call for Pan-Islam.”

India was able to essentially adopt the apparatus left behind by the British. But the new state of Pakistan had an urgent practical problem: creating a central government to rule over two distant (and distinct) states. The strength of Ms. Jalal’s analysis is that although she always allows for contingency, she quite effectively prepares the reader for what would come next: military rule, which the push for a strong central government ended up empowering. During the Raj, the British had largely turned to Punjabis to staff the armed forces, thanks to what Ms. Jalal refers to as a “spurious anthropological theory about martial races,” and Punjabis dominated the new state’s military. But if this made it more likely that the military would in turn dominate the country, Ms. Jalal makes it clear that it was not “preordained.” The rule by the army, sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit, arose in the context of the Cold War.

By the mid-1950s, Pakistan had become an American ally, largely because the United States wanted a “balance” against India, which, like many postcolonial states, prided itself on its “non-alignment” during the Cold War. In 1958, with American support, the Pakistani military launched its first formal coup amid regional and economic instability. “The political system did not simply break down,” Ms. Jalal writes. “Senior civil and military officials with British and American blessing broke it down.”

This was also the time when the Pakistani government began living a lie: It became reliant on American economic and political support while distancing itself from the United States domestically. After Pakistan initiated a misguided and pointless war against India over Kashmir in 1965, the Americans expressed their displeasure. Ayub Khan, the Pakistani dictator, backed down, but Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, then the foreign minister, tried to gain political support by telling Pakistanis that Americans had stabbed the country in the back. It was a tactic that would recur.

But 1965 was nothing compared with the catastrophe—and the crimes—of 1971. Long disgusted with the rule from Islamabad and enraged by the poor handling of a terrible cyclone that had hit Bengal, the East Pakistanis defeated West Pakistan’s politicians in an election that the country’s next military dictator, Yahya Khan, had been forced into holding. Khan refused to accept the results, and the ensuing protests in the east led him to order an invasion of East Bengal and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands. Millions of refugees poured across the Indian border before India intervened, thereby forcing Pakistan to withdraw and allowing East Pakistan to become Bangladesh. A majority had seceded from a minority.

The civilian Bhutto, who managed to provide populist and quasi-socialist demagoguery in just about equal doses, took over the ever more moth-eaten state that remained. His political scheming had worsened the crisis in Bengal, but he was clever enough to see that the ensuing disaster would humiliate the army. It was under Bhutto that the country first passed laws declaring the small Ahmadiyya sect non-Muslim; it now faces horrific persecution and violence. It was also under Bhutto that the country began building nuclear weapons. He famously declared that Pakistanis would “eat grass” before giving up the program.

Proving that you can only ride a tiger for so long, Bhutto was overthrown in 1977, imprisoned and eventually hanged by his army chief, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who ruled until 1988 with a notable lack of subtlety while Islamicizing the country even more significantly. Pakistan had long been meddling in Afghanistan, which the Punjabi elite always looked on with the same colonial mindset with which it viewed non-Punjabi Pakistanis, but the Soviet invasion in 1979 involved the United States and Saudi Arabia in aiding a resistance and helped Zia immeasurably by doing so. “The premium on piety and a state-promoted ideology of armed struggle in the name of Allah was consistent with Zia’s motto for the army, ‘Islam, Piety, and Jihad . . . ,’ ” Ms. Jalal remarks. “Fortunately for the self-styled soldier of Islam, the Americans had their own reasons for smiling on his regime’s jihadi rhetoric. Buoyed by the influx of dollars, the general oversaw the transformation of the ISI into a vital pillar of the state.” The ISI, or Inter-Services Intelligence, is the feared spy service that nurtured the Taliban, imprisons and kills domestic dissidents, and has close ties to terrorist groups (some of which it helped found).

Zia died in a plane crash under still mysterious circumstances in 1988, and the next decade saw the return of civilian rule: Bhutto’s daughter Benazir and Nawaz Sharif, a more conservative politician, traded the office of prime minister back and forth. Bhutto’s opposition to the Zia regime may have been genuinely heroic, but her administrations were corrupt and weak. This decade also witnessed the acceleration of the Pakistani nuclear program and the catastrophic decision to keep up support for extremist factions in Afghanistan in the hope of creating a friendly state (or “strategic depth”) should Pakistan find itself at war with India, which remained the prime consideration of the establishment.

Pervez Musharraf, another military chief, led the next coup in 1999, after another futile (and military-initiated) war with India went disastrously wrong. Mr. Musharraf, an especial American favorite after 9/11, was warned by the Bush administration that Pakistan had to “choose sides” in the nascent war on terror. This absurd formulation overlooked the fact that Pakistan had been a leading player on the opposite side of the war on terror for quite some time. Choosing a side isn’t the same as switching sides.

Pakistan’s contribution to the war was never particularly effective because it never stopped playing its double game. Not only did the remnants of the Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden make their home in Pakistan, but they also began launching attacks across the border, killing Afghans and United Nations and U.S. personnel—and perhaps fatally undermining the Western project in Afghanistan. ( Carlotta Gall’s recent book “The Wrong Enemy” has some astonishing tales of these maneuvers.)

Mr. Musharraf was eventually forced to step down because of his lack of popular support, and elections were held in 2008. But a year earlier Benazir Bhutto had returned to the country from exile and been assassinated. Most of the evidence points to the Pakistani Taliban, against whom Bhutto had been speaking out; the group and its affiliates have killed thousands of Pakistanis. The military, naturally, ordered that the Bhutto crime scene be washed down before a proper investigation could take place.

While it is tempting to blame the generals for everything that has gone wrong in Pakistan, Ms. Jalal makes it clear that the civilian leadership has been corrupt, petty and small-minded, putting politics above the principle of civilian supremacy, especially when opponents are in power. Nawaz Sharif is once again the prime minister, but Imran Khan, Pakistan’s cricketing hero and supreme demagogue, has claimed that he was cheated out of an electoral victory last year. He also rants about America (whose post-9/11 war in Afghanistan he blames for the existence of the Taliban!) and puts the onus for Pakistan’s problems on nefarious outside forces. Absurd as this may be, it is undeniably correct in one perversely ironic sense: The groups that the Pakistani state has long nurtured now rely on funding and recruits from outside of Pakistan.

“The Struggle for Pakistan” traces Pakistan’s decline all the way up to the present, and Ms. Jalal, to her credit, never falls for the line that America bullied Pakistan into getting involved in a quarrel it had nothing to do with. This is the prevalent view heard in Pakistan’s frequently self-pitying discourse, where Taliban violence is explained as the mere consequence of American actions. Yet she confuses her discussion when she turns to the broader question of anti-Americanism in Pakistan. “Most” Pakistanis, she writes, “had no love for the Taliban, far less for Al Qaeda, but they seriously questioned America’s reliability. A fourth US betrayal in a row seemed to be on the cards.” The other three betrayals were cutting off aid during the 1965 war, failing to go all out for Pakistan in 1971 and not sufficiently aiding Afghan refugees after the Soviet invasion. In the first two instances America can be criticized only for not being tough enough on Pakistani dictatorships. Most Pakistanis should be angry at America for supporting the country’s authoritarian leaders (as we did during the 1971 war); they have no reason to be angry that we offered insufficient help when those same leaders waged disastrous wars of aggression.

Unleashing the Taliban on Afghanistan has been a strategic disaster for the region; it has also been a moral catastrophe. The Pakistani Taliban’s slaughter of over 130 children at a school in Peshawar on Dec. 16 is much more than a blow to Pakistan’s interests. Still, the question of self-interest remains the crucial one. It may not be in Pakistan’s interest to distinguish between a “good” and “bad” Taliban or to meddle in Afghanistan or to merely watch while tens of thousands of Pakistanis fall victim to terrorism. Yet the government’s policies have allowed for just enough dysfunction in the region to keep the international aid dollars flowing—to ensure a stable instability that makes Pakistan look like a viable partner—and to maintain the military’s image (despite having lost every war it has fought) of indispensability. If Afghanistan were peaceful and relations with India were normalized, Pakistanis might start asking why the military needs such a large budget and why scarce resources are being diverted to nuclear weapons.

Whether these self-inflicted wounds eventually bring down the Pakistan establishment is uncertain. What is not in doubt is that the country’s failures will be felt outside of its borders. Pakistan is a poor country, but it is not a passive actor, and very few of its affairs are “internal.”

—Mr. Chotiner has contributed to the New Yorker, the Times Literary Supplement and the New York Times. He is writing a book about British novelists during World War II.

Summary: Isaac Chotiner reviews “The Struggle for Pakistan: A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics,” by Ayesha Jalal.


In August they met in a Holiday Inn in Munich – which Mrs Klatten apparently considered downmarket enough for there to be no chance of bumping into anyone she knew - for an "intimate" rendez-vous.

With the alleged help of an Italian accomplice, Mr Sgarbi used hidden cameras to secretly film their encounters, according to German prosecutors.

A month later Mr Sgarbi allegedly told his lover that he urgently needed 10 million euros (£9 million) because he had been involved in a car crash in the US in which, he claimed, he had injured the child of a mafia mobster. Unless he was able to pay the money, his life would be in danger.

Mrs Klatten fell for the story and agreed to give him seven million euros. She handed over the cash in the Holiday Inn's underground garage in 14 plastic folders each containing a thousand 500-euro banknotes.

Mr Sgarbi then pushed his luck even further, telling the heiress to leave her husband and put into a trust fund 290 million euros so that they could begin a new life together.

Mrs Klatten refused and abruptly ended the relationship. But Mr Sgarbi then threatened to send compromising video footage of the two together to the press and to her husband, prosecutors allege.

This time he demanded 49 million euros (£44 million), which he subsequently reduced to 14 million euros, and set a deadline of Jan 15, 2008. But she went to the police, and Mr Sgarbi was arrested in Austria.

Mrs Klatten was not Mr Sgarbi's only conquest. He appears to have made a fortune by befriending and then betraying a string of wealthy women, some of whom nicknamed him James Bond for his good looks and suave manner.

According to the German news magazine Stern, he first came to the attention of Geneva police in 2001 because his "fiancee", one Countess Verena du Pasquier-Geubels, who was 50 years his senior, had gone to the police. He allegedly managed to con 20 million Swiss francs from the elderly aristocrat before she died in 2002.

Summary: A smooth-talking alleged gigolo will go on trial on Monday accused of conning some of Europe's richest women out of millions of pounds in exchange for sexual favours.


NEW YORK (AP) -- Ken Griffey Jr. was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame on Wednesday with the highest voting percentage ever, and Mike Piazza will join him in Cooperstown this summer.

A star slugger of the Steroids Era never tainted by accusations of drug use, Griffey was on 437 of 440 votes in his first appearance on the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot. His 99.3 percentage topped the previous mark of 98.84, set when Tom Seaver appeared on 425 of 430 ballots in 1992.

There had been speculation Griffey could become the first unanimous selection.

"I can't be upset. It's just an honor to be elected and to have the highest percentage is definitely a shock," Griffey said on a conference call.

After falling 28 shy last year, Piazza received 365 votes in his fourth time on the ballot and will be inducted along with Griffey on July 24.

"Incredibly special. Wow," Piazza said on a call with MLB Network.

"I sat here with my mouth on the floor," he said.

A player needs 75 percent to gain election, and Jeff Bagwell missed by 15 votes and Tim Raines by 23. Trevor Hoffman, on the ballot for the first time, was 34 short.

The vote total dropped by 109 from last year because writers who have not been active for 10 years lost their votes under new rules. KEN GRIFFEY JR. THROUGH THE YEARS:

Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Piazza elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame

Former Cincinnati Reds center fielders Ken Griffey Jr., right, and Cesar Geronimo hug in ceremonies after a baseball game between the Reds and the Miami Marlins, Friday, Aug. 8, 2014, in Cincinnati. Griffey will be inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame, Saturday. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

BALTIMORE, MD - AUGUST 1: Ken Griffey Jr. #24 of the Seattle Mariners before a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles on August 1, 1989 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)

Ken Griffey Jr. of the Seattle Mariners eyes the approaching pitch from Texas Ranger pitcher Charlie Hough during the 7th inning just before he unloads to send the ball into the right field seats to notch his 10th homerun of the year and break a 1-1 tie in Seattle, June 5, 1989. (AP Photo/Robert Kaiser)

CIRCA 1990: Outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. #24 of the Seattle Mariners poses for this portrait circa 1990 before a Major League Baseball game. Griffey played for the Mariners from 1989-99 and 2009-2010. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)

1993: Ken Griffey Jr. #24 of the Seattle Mariners looks on during a game in the 1993 season. (Photo by Andy Hayt/Getty Images)

Seattle Mariners' Ken Griffey Jr. smiles from beneath a pile of teammates who mobbed him after he scored the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning against the New York Yankees Sunday, Oct. 8, 1995 in Seattle. The Mariners won 6-5. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Seattle Marinersâ Ken Griffey Jr. flips his bat after srawing a walk during the ninth inning against the California Angels in Anaheim, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 1996. (AP Photo/Michael Caulfield)

Ken Griffey Jr. holds up a Cincinnati Reds jersey at a news conference in Cincinnati, Thursday, Feb. 10, 2000, after agreeing to a nine-year contract worth $116.5 million with the Reds, the richest package in baseball history. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

Cincinnati Reds center fielder Ken Griffey Jr., prepares for Monday's Graperfruit League game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays March 11, 2002 in Sarasota, Fla..(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Pirates new center fielder Kenny Lofton is grabbed by Cincinnati Reds center fielder Ken Griffey Jr., during pre-game warm ups before Thursday Grapefruit League action Thursday, March 20, 2003 in Sarasota, Fla.. It was Lofton's first major league action since coming to the Pirates last week.(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Cincinnati Reds' radio announcer Joe Nuxhall, right, presents Ken Griffey Jr. a crystal plaque for his 500th career home run during a ceremony prior to their game with the Pittsburgh Pirates at Great American Ball Park, Friday, June 25, 2004, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Tom Uhlman)

HOUSTON - JULY 12: Ken Griffey Jr. & son Trey look on during the 2004 All-Star Game Home Run Derby at Minute Maid Field on July 12, 2004 in Houston TX. (Photo by Rich Pilling/ MLB Photos via Getty Images).

KRT SPORTS STORY SLUGGED: BBN-REDS-NATIONALS KRT PHOTOGRAPH BY CHUCK KENNEDY/KRT (August 25) WASHINGTON, DC -- Cincinnati's Ken Griffey Jr. bats in the seventh inning against Washington on Thursday, August 25, 2005. (Photo by Chuck Kennedy/MCT/MCT via Getty Images)

SARASOTA, FL - FEBRUARY 24: Ken Griffey Jr. #3 poses during Cincinnati Reds photo day on February 24, 2006 at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Florida. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Cincinnati Reds' Ken Griffey Jr. is congratulated after hitting a solo home run off Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano in the eighth inning of a baseball game Saturday, June 10, 2006, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/David Kohl)

Cincinnati Reds' Ken Griffey Jr. smiles in the dugout during the Reds 6-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies in a spring training baseball game in Clearwater, Fla., Tuesday, March 27, 2007. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Cincinnati Reds right fielder Ken Griffey Jr. can't make a sliding catch on a single by Houston Astros' Mark Loretta in the seventh inning of the Astros' 10-2 win in a baseball game Thursday, May 31, 2007, in Houston. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

As rain drops begin to fall, Cincinnati Reds' Ken Griffey Jr. waits on the dugout rail during an MLB baseball game against the Seattle Mariners Sunday, June 24, 2007, at Safeco Field in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Newly acquired Chicago White Sox player Ken Griffey Jr. talks to the reporters during a press conference in Chicago, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Chicago White Sox's Ken Griffey Jr. watches his RBI single during the second inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals on Friday, Aug. 1, 2008, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Seattle Mariners' Ken Griffey Jr. hits a two-run home run against the Oakland Athletics in the fifth inning of a baseball game Monday, Aug. 24, 2009, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

FILE - In this Oct. 4, 2009, file photo, Seattle Mariners' Ken Griffey Jr. is carried around the field by Ryan Langerhans, left, and Matt Tuiasosopo, right, after the Mariners' 4-3 win over the Texas Rangers in a baseball game in Seattle. Ken Griffey Jr. seems assured of election to the Baseball hall of Fame on the first try Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, possibly with a record vote of close to 100 percent. Mike Piazza, Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines also were strong candidates to gain the 75 percent needed for baseball's highest honor. (AP Photo/John Froschauer, File)

Seattle Mariners' Ken Griffey Jr. in dugout during a baseball game Monday, April 19, 2010, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Ken Griffey, Jr, right, poses with Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig after Griffey received the Commissionerâs Historic Achievement Award before Game 4 of baseball's World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Ken Griffey, Jr. (top R), former Major League Baseball outfielder and Seattle Mariners special consultant, laughs at a baseball clinic for Japanese boys at Yomiuri Giants Stadium in Kawasaki, suburban Tokyo on January 15, 2012. The Mariners are scheduled to open the 2012 regular season with two games against the Oakland Aâs at the Tokyo Dome on March 28-29 in Japan. AFP PHOTO / KAZUHIRO NOGI (Photo credit should read KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images)

SEATTLE, WA - AUGUST 10: Former Mariners great, Ken Griffey Jr. speaks to the crowd during a ceremony inducting him into the Seattle Mariners Hall of Fame prior to the game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Safeco Field on August 10, 2013 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

GLENDALE, AZ - DECEMBER 31: Former Major League Baseball player Ken Griffey Jr (R) talks with ESPN reporter Pedro Gomez as he photographs the Vizio Fiesta Bowl between the Arizona Wildcats and the Boise State Broncos at University of Phoenix Stadium on December 31, 2014 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

CINCINNATI, OH - JULY 13: Ken Griffey Jr. walls out to throw the first pitch prior to the Gillette Home Run Derby presented by Head & Shoulders at the Great American Ball Park on July 13, 2015 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

There were significant increases for a pair of stars accused of steroids use. Roger Clemens rose to 45 percent and Barry Bonds to 44 percent, both up from about 37 percent last year.

Mark McGwire, who admitted using steroids, received 12 percent in his 10th and final ballot appearance.

"They were Hall of Famers before all this stuff started," Griffey said on MLB Network.

Half of baseball's top 10 home run hitters are not in the Hall: Bonds (762), Alex Rodriguez (654), Jim Thome (612), Sosa (609) and McGwire (583). Rodriguez, who served a yearlong drug suspension in 2014, remains active. Thome's first appearance on the ballot will be in 2018.

Curt Schilling rose from 39 percent to 52, Edgar Martinez from 27 percent to 43 and Mike Mussina from 25 percent to 43.

Griffey was known simply as "Junior" by many as a contrast to his father, three-time All-Star outfielder Ken Griffey, who played alongside him in Seattle during 1990 and '91. The younger Griffey became a 13-time All-Star outfielder and finished with 630 homers, which is sixth on the career list. After reaching the major leagues in 1989, he was selected for 11 consecutive All-Star Games in 1990.

Now, he's headed to Cooperstown.

"In case you don't know, I'm really superstitious. I've played in the Hall of Fame game three times and I've never set foot in the building. I've never even seen the front of it," Griffey said. "The one time I wanted to go in there, I wanted to be a member."

Wanting to play closer to his home in Florida, he pushed for a trade to Cincinnati - his father's old team and the area he grew up in- after the 1999 season. But slowed by injuries, he never reached 100 RBIs again after his first season with the Reds, and he moved on to the Chicago White Sox in 2008 before spending his last season-plus with the Mariners.

While Griffey was selected first in the 1987 amateur draft and became the first No. 1 to make the Hall, Piazza was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers with the 1,390th pick on the 62nd round in 1998. Since the draft started in 1965, the lowest draft pick elected to the Hall was John Smoltz, taken with selection 574 on the 22nd round in 1985.

Piazza became the top offensive catcher in big league history, hitting better than .300 in nine straight seasons and finishing with 427 home runs, including a record 396 when he was in the game behind the plate. He was a 12-time All-Star with a .308 career batting average. MIKE PIAZZA THROUGH THE YEARS:

Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Piazza elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 30: Former New York Mets Mike Piazza waves before throwing out the first pitch prior to Game Three of the 2015 World Series between the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals at Citi Field on October 30, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

24 Jul 1993: Catcher Mike Piazza of the Los Angeles Dodgers looks on during a game against the Houston Astros at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California. Mandatory Credit: Jed Jacobsohn /Allsport

Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home run during the fifth inning of their game against the San Francisco Giants, June 28, 1994, in Los Angeles. Dodgers won, 7-4. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Mike Piazza, right, celebrates with a bottle of champagne after the Dodgers clinched the National League West Saturday Sept. 30, 1995 in San Diego. Los Angeles, in first place when the strike ended last season, hadn't been in the playoffs since 1988. That year, they also clinched the division title in San Diego and went on to beat Oakland in the World Series. (AP Photo/Sandy Huffaker)

Los Angeles Dodgers' catcher Mike Piazza fires a throw to first after stepping on homeplate for a force out and then completing a double play as San Diego Padres' Scott Livingstone slides in during the first inning of the Dodgers game against the San Diego Padres Wednesday July 3, 1996 in San Diego. Piazza had fielded a swinging bunt with the bases loaded and completed the double play to end a Padres' threat. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

Former Los Angeles Dodgers' manager and Baseball Hall of Fame member Tommy Lasorda shares a moment with his godson, Mike Piazza, prior to a ceremony to retire his jersey Friday, Aug. 15, 1997, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza, center, smiles with Mets owners Nelson Doubleday, left, and Fred Wilpon, after the press conference about Piazza's record seven-year $91 million dollar contract with the Mets at New York's Shea Stadium on Monday, Oct 26, 1996. Piazza signed the most lucrative player-contract in the history of major league baseball. (AP Photo/Adam Nadel)

New York Mets' Mike Piazza, right, is congratulated by Rickey Henderson (24) after hitting a three-run home run off New York Yankees' Ramiro Mendoza in the seventh inning of their interleague game Saturday, July 10, 1999 at Shea Stadium in New York. The blast was Piazza's second three-run homer in two days. The Mets went on to defeat the Yankees 9-8 and are up two games to none in the three game series. (AP Photo/John Dunn)

New York Mets' catcher Mike Piazza smiles during team batting practice at Boston's Fenway Park, Thursday, July 13, 2000. Piazza is to play against the Boston Red Sox Thursday in his first game since being hit in the head on a pitch by New York Yankees Roger Clemens. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza looks at the ball after a late throw to home allowing to runs to score off Chicago Cubs' Gary Matthews Jr. two-run double in the seventh inning Tuesday June 26, 2001 in Chicago. The Cubs defeated the Mets 4-2.(AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

New York Mets' Mike Piazza points to cheering Mets fans at Wrigley Field after the Mets beat the Chicago Cubs 3-2 Wednesday, April 10, 2002 in Chicago. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza sits dejectedly on the bench after the Mets gave up four runs to the Colorado Rockies in the third inning in Coors Field in Denver on Friday, Aug. 23, 2002. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza signs autographs prior to the game against Montreal Expos, Monday, April 14, 2003 at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)

New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza is greeted with high fives by teammates after scoring on a Tony Clark single in the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at Pacific Bell Park, Thursday May 15, 2003, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/George Nikitin)

New York Mets' Mike Piazza reacts after Milwaukee Bruins Scott Podsednik scored in the seventh inning at New York's Shea Stadium Friday, May 7, 2004. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Hall of Fame catchers Gary Carter, far left, Johnny Bench, second from left, Carlton Fiskthird from left, and Yogi Berra, second from right, pose with New York Mets' Mike Piazza (31) Friday, June 18, 2004, at Shea Stadium in New York. Piazza was honored in a pre-game ceremony for breaking the all-time home run mark by catchers. Detroit Tigers' catcher Ivan Rodriguez is at right. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza sights the ball during spring training practice in Port St. Lucie, Fla., Friday, Feb. 18, 2005, on the first day of pitchers and catchers workouts. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

New York Mets' Mike Piazza reacts after being told that he did not score after crossing home against the Seattle Mariners in the second inning, Saturday, June 18, 2005, in Seattle. Piazza, who walked earlier in the inning, failed to get to home before teammate David Wright was thrown out while trying to advance to third base for the final out. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza acknowledges fans during the seventh inning against the Colorado Rockies at Shea Stadium in New York, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2005. (AP Photo/Ed Betz)

San Diego Padres catcher Mike Piazza tosses a ball at baseball spring training for pitchers and catchers, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006, in Peoria, Ariz. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

San Diego Padres catcher Mike Piazza smiles in the dugout before the spring training exhibition baseball against the Texas Rangers in Surprise, Ariz., Wednesday, March 29, 2006. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

San Diego Padres catcher Mike Piazza, left, reaches out to put the tag on Colorado Rockies' Yorvit Torrealba as he tried to score on a ground ball by Cory Sullivan in the fourth inning of the Rockies' 9-8 victory in 10 innings in a baseball game in Denver on Thursday, July 27, 2006. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

San Diego Padres catcher Mike Piazza tips his hat before a baseball game against his former team, the New York Mets, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006 at Shea Stadium in New York. (AP Photo/Ed Betz)

Oakland Athletics' designated hitter Mike Piazza, second from right, during the national anthem before their baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels in Oakland, Calif., Sunday, Sept. 30, 2007.(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Italy hitting coach Mike Piazza adjusts his hat during an exhibition spring training baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels Wednesday, March 6, 2013, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Former New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza gestures as he says the fans were "number one" in supporting him during his career, as he speaks during a Mets Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2013, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

FILE - In this Oct. 30, 2015, file photo, former New York Mets' Mike Piazza throws out the first pitch before Game 3 of the Major League Baseball World Series against the Kansas City Royals, in New York. Ken Griffey Jr. seems assured of election to the Baseball hall of Fame on the first try Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, possibly with a record vote of close to 100 percent. Mike Piazza, Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines also were strong candidates to gain the 75 percent needed for baseball's highest honor. (AP Photo/Brad Penner, Pool via AP, File)

After reaching the major leagues with the Dodgers in 1992, Piazza was dealt to Florida in May 1998 before he could become a free agent, then traded eight days later to the Mets. He remained with New York through 2005, hitting a memorable go-ahead home-run in the first game in the city following the 2001 terrorist attacks, then finished with San Diego in 2006 and Oakland the following year.

Piazza and Bagwell were drawn into the steroids controversy by some who pointed out their powerful physiques, but both have denied using performance-enhancing drugs and no substantive accusations have been made.

NOTES: Alan Trammell received 41 percent in his final ballot appearance.

Summary: Ken Griffey Jr. has been elected to the baseball Hall of Fame with the highest voting percentage ever, and Mike Piazza also is headed to Cooperstown.


Air strikes on a camp for Syrian refugees near the country's border with Jordan have killed at least 17 people and wounded at least 40.

It is unclear if the strikes on Tuesday at Hadalat, a makeshift camp for internally displaced peopleÂ in Syria's southern desert,Â were carried out by Syrian or Russian warplanes.

However, a senior Western diplomat confirmed the incident to Reuters news agencyÂ and said initial information was that several Russian jets conducted the raids.

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Russia in search of a new strategy in Syria

Activists said that the camp was targeted because some people there have family members who belong to Asoud Al-Sharqiya,Â a US-backed rebel group operatingÂ out of Jordan.

Jordanian soldiers killed in Syria border bomb attack

The desolate strip, close to where the borders of Iraq,Â SyriaÂ and Jordan meet, has two major camps with a population of at least 60,000 people who have been stranded there since fleeing central and easternÂ Syria.

Jordanian authorities bar their entry into the country on security grounds.

The kingdom declared its border area a closed military zone after a suicide bomber, believed to be from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS), last month drove from theÂ Syrian side near one of the two camps and rammed the vehicle into a Jordanian military base, killing seven border guards.

The refugees have been running out of food since the Jordanian army sealed the area, international relief workers and refugees said last month.

Source:Â Al Jazeera and agencies

Summary: At least 17 people killed in raids targeting makeshift camp for internally displaced people along Syria-Jordan border.


A man believed to be in his 40s has died after his motorcycle crashed in the historic town of Hartley, 127 kilometres west of Sydney.

Emergency services were called to Jenolan Caves Road, Hartley, following reports of a motorcycle crash around midday.

The rider died at the scene. No one else was injured.

Initial investigations suggest the motorcycle was travelling along Jenolan Caves Road when it crashed.

A crime scene was established and investigations into the crash are ongoing.

Jenolan Caves Road remains closed in both directions.

For current traffic conditions please visit www.livetraffic.com.au

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016


09/12/2016 AT 10:35 AM EDT

had the best reaction to meeting her

– spoiler, it's a lot of screaming!

In an exclusive first look at the new season of the hit ABC show,

meet face-to-face for the first time at Henner's residence and they click right away.

"Who know who I would kill for?" she says to the film crew in the begging of the clip. "There's no one like Derek Hough. But I know he's not doing it. But ... he's a God."

The camera then pans to the front door, revealing none other than the returning pro and 6-time Mirror Ball champion.

"No! Oh, my God!" screams Henner, 64, while covering her face. "Oh, my God, Derek. No."

Marilu Henner and Derek Hough

The pair embrace and Henner adorably can't seem to collect herself long enough to actually fathom that 31-year-old Hough is her partner.

"You have no idea," she continues to scream. "I can't believe I got you! I can't believe I got you!"

Henner is one of the

slated for a trip to the ballroom on season 23. She is in no amateur when it comes to dancing, as she has been on Broadway many times in her career, including roles in

and the long-running revival of

premieres Monday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Summary: Marilu Henner couldn't contain her excitement after finding out that Derek Hough would be her Dancing with the Stars partner


Violent double murderer Craig Minogue has applied for parole, 30 years after the fatal Russell Street bombing.

Minogue, 52, is serving his sentence for the 1986 Russell Street police complex car bomb attack in Melbourne that killed Constable Angela Taylor and injured 21 others.

He also killed inmate Alex Tsakmakis, who was beaten with gym weights hidden in a pillow case, while in custody at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison in 1988.

Minogue's sentence carries a minimum non-parole period of 28 years, making him now eligible for parole.

Corrections Minister Steve Herbert said "the community's expectations are clear on this matter - as are the government's".

"Community safety is the absolute priority for the Adult Parole Board when it considers an application for parole and we fully expect the board to take the community's concerns into consideration," he said in a statement on Monday night.

His Russell Street bombing co-accused Stan Taylor died last week - he had been serving life with no parole.

Victoria's most serious criminals are now subject to a two-tier assessment process which includes having their parole application ratified by two separate hearings of the Adult Parole Board.

Summary: Russell Street bomber Craig Minogue had applied for parole after spending 30 years in prison in Victoria.


Indonesian President Joko Widodo will be a special guest at a community rally in Sydney this Sunday, ahead of addressing federal parliament.

The popular leader's program has been largely kept under wraps, but the Eventbrite website lists him as being the drawcard for a concert also featuring pop band Gigi and singer Gita Gutawa.

It is understood he will visit Canberra on Monday where he will address parliament, but details are still being finalised.

Summary: Plans are under way for a visit by Indonesian President Joko Widodo.


Hazelwood workers will walk away with an average $330,000 when the Victorian power plant closes in 2017.

French co-owner Engie on Thursday announced it was "no longer economic to operate" the mine and power station, and all eight generating units would be closed by March 31 next year.

That means 450 direct employees and 300 contractors will be out of work.

Engie Australia chief executive Alex Keisser says the company has set aside $150 million to pay their entitlements - an average of $330,00 each.

That includes four weeks for every year spent at the company - capped at two years - unused annual leave and $4000 for training and job searching.

"They call it a redundancy package - I call that a respectful package," Mr Keisser told reporters in Morwell.

The chief executive said low electricity prices in Australia made it impossible to gradually shut down the mine and power station.

And he confirmed Engie was looking to sell another of its Latrobe Valley assets - Loy Yang B. But that power station won't be closed if there are no buyers.

"It is certainly the most economical asset that we have in terms of coal generation in Australia," Mr Keisser told reporters.

"If we can't find a buyer we have a beautiful asset and we will continue to operate it."

Engie will work with the CFMEU to roll out early retirement packages for older workers at Loy Yang to make room for some of those hit by the Hazelwood closure.

CFMEU Mining and Energy state president Trevor Williams says offering redundancies to older workers across the industry could allow younger people to keep their jobs.

"Other power generators are now privately owned companies (but) it would just take a bit of will across the industry as well as from the state and federal governments," Mr Williams told AAP.

Mr Keisser made clear there'd be no forced redundancies for the 150 staff at Loy Yang B.

Summary: The CFMEU wants power companies to get on board a transition plan that would see older workers offered redundancies and early retirement.


The Seven Network has defended reporter Robert Ovadia after crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie used parliamentary privilege to launch an extraordinary attack against him.

Senator Lambie told parliament on Wednesday she had referred to federal police an email received from Mr Ovadia containing veiled threats to her and her staff.

Seven news boss Craig McPherson insists Senator Lambie's claims are without any foundation.

"Seven is profoundly disappointed that Senator Lambie has used parliamentary privilege to malign the professional and personal reputation of one of our senior journalists," he said.

"We flatly deny the suggestion that any threat was made to staffers in Senator Lambie's office and will fully co-operate with any AFP investigation."

Senator Lambie said Mr Ovadia's email contained a "cryptic, ambiguous message" that could be interpreted as a veiled threat.

Ovadia with Dawn Fraser. (Twitter)

"Words spoken today will not be forgotten," the email allegedly says.

She said she would let police decide whether it was a veiled threat.

"I'm not playing games with the safety of my staff," she told parliament.

Senator Lambie has accused Mr Ovadia of misreporting over the army's so-called Jedi Council sex scandal, based on information she claims was illegally leaked to him.

Mr Ovadia won a Walkley Award for his reporting on the Jedi Council.

"The only reason that Australians including Senator Lambie are aware of the Australian Defence Force cover-up of this story is because of Robert Ovadia's exceptional and tenacious journalism," Mr McPherson said.

Summary: Crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie says she received an email that could be interpreted as a "veiled threat" from a senior Seven News reporter.


Score one for those know-it-alls who hang around old car shows.

The 2017 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport is a "nice car."

Kendall Jenner fell in love last year…with a car.

Chevy’s latest truck was built to rock.

In 1969, Chevrolet's Central Office Performance Order program became the source of dealer-ordered, factory drag cars that would go on to post many victories at the dragstrip.

Two icons of work have teamed up for a special SEMA-bound pickup: Chevrolet and Carhartt.

Is Bison a new Chevy truck, or just bull?

It looks like Chevrolet may be sending out the front-engine Corvette with a very big wing and a prayer.

Summary: Chevrolet, an American vehicle brand produced by General Motors (GM) that is more commonly known as Chevy, manufactures cars, trucks, crossovers and SUVs.


Flooding and strong winds are hitting parts of the Kimberley in Western Australia, with residents warned to take shelter away from powerlines and stormwater drains.

People in Broome, Beagle Bay, Bidyadanga, Cape Leveque and Lombadina and surrounding areas have been warned on Saturday to stay safe, as ex-tropical cyclone Yvette moves toward the Kimberley.

Drivers have been told not to drive into water of unknown depth, and to be alert and watch for hazards on the road, such as fallen powerlines and loose debris.

Summary: Residents have been warned to take shelter as strong winds and floods hit the Kimberley in Western Australia.


TRIO CON BRIO COPENHAGEN The piano trio brings a pair of friends — violist Ivo van der Werff and bassist Timothy Pitts — to Rockport Music for a program of Rossini, Smetana, and Schubert’s beloved “Trout” Quintet. Oct. 16, 3 p.m., Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport. 978-546-7391, www.rockportmusic.org

GIACOMO BALDELLI As part of his residency at Boston University’s Center for New Music, the Italian guitarist plays a recital of modern classics for his instrument, including Steve Reich’s “Electric Counterpoint,” Fausto Romitelli’s “Trash TV Trance,” and Tristan Murail’s “Vampyr!” Oct. 18, 8 p.m., Boston University College of Fine Arts Concert Hall. www.bu.edu/cfa/music

BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Charles Dutoit, an eminence among the orchestra’s guest conductors, celebrates his 80th birthday with a two-week stay that begins with a British program featuring Walton, Holst, and Elgar’s Cello Concerto, with Yo-Yo Ma as soloist. Oct. 20-25, Symphony Hall. 888-266-1200, www.bso.org

BOSTON BAROQUE The orchestra and chorus scale a summit of Baroque sacred music: Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Countertenor David Daniels is among the vocal soloists. Oct. 21 and 23, Jordan Hall. 617-987-8600, www.bostonbaroque.org DAVID WEININGER

Summary: Critic’s picks for classical music performances around the Boston area.


Agco Corp. on Tuesday said its profit slumped 20% in the fourth quarter as sales fell across all of its geographic regions.

Shares, down 12% in the past months, fell 10.7% to $43.16 in early trading.

The agricultural equipment maker said it anticipates its results for the year to reflect softer industry demand for farm equipment across...

Agco Corp. on Tuesday said its profit slumped 20% in the fourth quarter as sales fell across all of its geographic regions.

Shares, down 12% in the past months, fell 10.7% to $43.16 in early trading.

The agricultural equipment maker said it anticipates its results for the year to reflect softer industry demand for farm equipment across all regions and the unfavorable effects of foreign currency translation.

Agco said its gross and operating margins are projected to be below 2015 levels due to the impact of lower sales and production volumes, a weaker sales mix and increased investment in product development expenses.

The company, however, backed its previously issued earnings and revenue guidance for 2016.

“Crop production reached near-record levels for a third consecutive year, contributing to higher grain inventories in 2015 and putting additional pressure on global farm economics,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Martin Richenhagen. “Lower farmer income weakened demand for farm equipment across the major markets.”

Equipment manufacturers have been hit hard lately by lower crop prices, which have discouraged farmers from buying new equipment.

Agco has had less sales exposure to the North American market than rival Deere & Co. However, Agco is the market leader in Brazil, where farm machinery sales have been in a slide for the past year amid a broader downturn in its economy.

Sales in South America declined 55% in the period compared with a year ago, while sales fell by 21% in North America and by 15% in Asia-Pacific. Its sales slid the least in the Europe, Africa and Middle East region, where results declined 12% compared with 2014.

For the quarter, the company reported a profit of $62.1 million or 73 cents a share, down from $77.6 million, or 85 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding items, the company reported per-share earnings of 80 cents compared with $1.18 a year ago.

Sales slipped 21% to $1.96 billion.

Analysts had anticipated per-share earnings of 79 cents on $2.03 billion in revenue.

In total, the company said currency translation shaved about 11.5% off its top line during the quarter.

Write to Joshua Jamerson at joshua.jamerson@wsj.com

Summary: Agco Corp. said its profit slumped 20% in the fourth quarter as sales fell across all of its geographic regions.