For unknown authors struggling to capture the attention of busy readers, however, the Web offers an unprecedented way to catapult out of obscurity. Glenn Greenwald, a lawyer who started a political blog, "Unclaimed Territory," just eight months ago, was recruited by a foundation financed by Working Assets, a credit card issuer and telecommunications company, to write a book this spring. Mr. Greenwald promoted the result, called "How Would a Patriot Act? Defending American Values From a President Run Amok," on his own blog and his publisher e-mailed digital galleys to seven other influential bloggers, who helped to send it to the No. 1 spot on Amazon.com before it was even published. This Sunday it will hit No. 11 on the New York Times nonfiction paperback best-seller list. "I think people who are sort of on the outside of the institutions and new voices entering will be a lot more excited about this technology," Mr. Greenwald said. "That's one of the effects that technology always has. It democratizes things and brings in new readers and new authors."

For many authors, the question of how technology will shape book publishing inevitably leads to the question of how writers will be paid. Currently, publishers pay authors an advance against royalties, which are conventionally earned at the rate of 15 percent of the cover price of each copy sold.

But the Internet makes it a lot easier to spread work free. "I've had pieces put up on Web sites legally and otherwise that get hundreds of thousands of hits, and believe me I sit around thinking 'Boy, if I got a dollar every time that somebody posted an op-ed that I wrote, I'd be a very happy writer,' " said Daniel Mendelsohn, author of the forthcoming book "The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million," a memoir about his hunt to discover what happened to relatives who were killed in the Holocaust.

Mr. Mendelsohn said he understood that technological shakeups take time to play out, and that he can't bemoan every lost penny. "But as an author who creates texts that people consume, I want my authorship to be recognized and I want to get compensated," he said.

Mr. Benkler, the Yale professor and author, argues that people will continue to pay for books if the price is low enough. "Even in music, price can compete with free," Mr. Benkler said. "The service has to be sufficiently better and the moral culture needs to be one where, as an act of respect, when the price is reasonable, you pay. Its not clear to me why, if people are willing to pay 99 cents for a song they won't be willing to pay $3 for a book."

He argues that without the costs of paper and physical book production, publishers could afford to give authors a higher cut of the sale price as royalties.

In the context of history, the changes that today's technology will impose on literary society may not be as earth-shattering as some may think. In fact, books themselves are a relatively new construct, inheritors of a longstanding oral storytelling culture. Mass-produced books are an even newer phenomenon, enabled by the invention of the printing press that likely put legions of calligraphers and bookbinders out of business.

That history gives great comfort to writers like Vikram Chandra, whose 1,000-page novel, "Sacred Games," will be published in January. Mr. Chandra, a former computer programmer who already reads e-books downloaded to his pocket personal computer, said he saw no point in resisting technology. "I think circling the wagons and defending the fortress metaphors are a little misplaced," he said. "The barbarians at the gate are usually willing to negotiate a little, and the guys in the fort usually end up yelling that 'we are the only good things in the world and you guys don't understand it,' at which point the barbarians shrug, knock down your walls with their amazingly powerful weapons, and put a parking lot over your sacred grounds.

"If they are in a really good mood," he added, "they put up a pyramid of skulls."

Mr. Danielewski said that the physical book would persist as long as authors figure out ways to stretch the format in new ways. "Only Revolutions," he pointed out, tracks the experiences of two intersecting characters, whose narratives begin at different ends of the book, requiring readers to turn it upside down every eight pages to get both of their stories. "As excited as I am by technology, I'm ultimately creating a book that can't exist online," he said. "The experience of starting at either end of the book and feeling the space close between the characters until you're exactly at the halfway point is not something you could experience online. I think that's the bar that the Internet is driving towards: how to further emphasize what is different and exceptional about books."

A version of this article appears in print on , on page E1 of the New York edition with the headline: Digital Publishing Scrambles The Rules. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: Publishers, editors and writers are grappling with the Web's ability to connect readers and writers more quickly and intimately.


In the United States, patients who participate in clinical trials often continue to receive the drug being tested until it is approved. After that, they can buy it or, if they cannot afford it, apply to special programs that most companies offer to help people who could not otherwise get drugs they need.

But with the exception of AIDS drugs, which companies provide free or at low cost to patients in poor countries, there is no industry consensus about what to do internationally, especially when drugs are not lifesaving. And even when companies market their drugs in poor countries, they tend not to set up a system to give the drugs away to study subjects after a clinical trial ends.

The issue has grown more pressing as more companies conduct international studies to get enough patients. In recent years, they have increasingly turned to countries in Eastern and Central Europe.

CV Therapeutics, for example, tested its drug in two large studies involving 1,014 patients, including about 365 from North America and Western Europe and close to 600 from Russia and Eastern Europe.

Dr. Eugene Braunwald of Harvard Medical School, who is chairman of a not-for-profit academic group that runs clinical trials in cardiology, said fewer and fewer American patients participated. ''We are enrolling on average half as many patients in the U.S. now as compared to five years ago,''Dr. Braunwald said.

One reason, he said, is that doctors do not want to take the time to enroll patients and to comply with the detailed testing and reporting a study requires.

Business in Eastern and Central Europe is expanding rapidly, with American companies that conduct clinical trials opening offices there and local entrepreneurs setting up their own businesses.

Covance, a large American company that conducts trials for drug companies under contract, opened offices in Russia and Poland a few years ago and in Hungary last year.

''The standards of medicine are high'' in those countries, said Dr. Alan Wood, Covance's general manager for global clinical development services, and it is easy to recruit patients.

Richard Leach, the American business manager of Russian Clinical Trials, a six-person company in St. Petersburg, Russia, explained the appeal of doing studies there. The doctors are well trained but earn as little as a few hundred dollars a month, Mr. Leach said, and they are eager for the money they can get as clinical trial investigators. Doctors even want to be study monitors, traveling to medical offices to be sure protocols are followed. That job, done mostly by nurses in the United States, pays much more than Russian doctors earn for treating patients.

Another incentive is the medical equipment supplied by drug companies. CV Therapeutics, for example, gave its Russian doctors treadmills for exercise testing, and sent technicians to their offices to teach them how to do the test. ''That was a perk for them,'' Dr. Lange said.

Patients in other countries are also more eager to take part in clinical trials. In the United States, companies have to advertise heavily to find patients. In Russia, Mr. Leach said, word of mouth usually suffices. Because the government does not pay for prescription drugs and few people can afford to buy them, the patients see clinical trials as their best chance for medications.

''Eastern European and Russian people tend to be very compliant,'' Mr. Leach said. ''Because they are getting medical treatment they couldn't afford and getting Western medicine, they will follow the trial and they will do whatever is asked. If they have to keep a diary, they do it. If they have to make office visits, they do it.''

Companies like Covance and Russian Clinical Trials say it is not their business to ask what happens when the studies end. ''What our clients choose to do is not our affair,'' Dr. Wood of Covance said.

Ethicists acknowledge that companies are businesses and accountable to investors.

Drug companies, said Dr. Lawrence O. Gostin, the director of the Center for Law and the Public's Health at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities, should not be seen as ''the deep pocket that helps everyone.''

But on the other hand, Dr. Gostin said, there is something troubling about ''parachute research,'' in which a company drops into a country, conducts its research and then leaves.

''It raises the question of what ethical obligation, if any, there might be to give back and make sure there is access to the drug after the trials are over,'' Dr. Gostin said.

The participants in a study take a risk to help a company determine if its drug is safe and effective, he said, and ''it seems to me that there is an ethical obligation to give back.''

As for Dr. Lange, he said that the patients enrolled in his company's trials in Eastern and Central Europe might eventually have to give up their ranolazine. But he comforts himself, he said, by remembering that for now, they are still getting the drug as part of the company's safety studies.

''I haven't had to bite the bullet yet,'' he said.

Summary: American biotech companies that test new drugs oversease, because studies go faster and patients are easily available, often face ethical quandary of whether they are later obligated to make drug available to patients in poor countries like Russia who took part in studies; Dr Louis G Lange, cardiologist who heads CV Therapeutics, discusses marketing of new angina drug; photo; Carl B Feldbaum of Biotechnology Industry Organization sees increasing dilemma, especially concerning drugs that do not save lives but can vastly improve quality of life, like Lange's Ranolazine; bioethicist Dr Ruth Faden says many physician investigators feel uncomfortable about using patients in studies and then not helping them when trial ends; Richard Leach of company Russian Clinical Trials says trials in Eastern Europe work well because doctors are well-trained, though poorly paid, and patients are eager to take part and comply well (M)


A Tony Robbins' motivational seminar went haywire in Dallas when more than 30 people who walked on hot coals had to get treated for burns.

According to reports ... 5 people were hospitalized Thursday night, while the rest were treated on-site for burns to their feet and lower legs. Tony had encouraged attendees to walk the coals in order to conquer their fears. It's a common thing at Robbins' events.

Tony's people tell TMZ ... 7,000 guests walked across the coals and only five "requested any examination beyond what was readily available on site."

At least one attendee blamed the burns on a lack of focus -- some people were reportedly taking selfies. This also happened at a 2012 event in San Jose.

Summary: A Tony Robbins' motivational seminar went haywire in Dallas when more than 30 people who walked on hot coals had to get treated for burns. According…


MOSCOW, May 30 (Reuters) — The police in Leningrad detained a group of artists who tried to stage an open‐air art show today in defiance of City Council ban.

The wife of Igor Sinyavin, one the artist organizers, said by talephone that she saw the police detain seven artists as that arrived to set up the exhibition outside the walls of the Peter and Paul fortress.

The exhibition was to be dedicated to the memory of Yevgeny Rukhin, one of the Soviet Union's leading avantgarde artists, who died in a fire in his studio last Monday.

Mrs. Sinyavin said her husband had been held under virtual house arrest since the group announced that they would go ahead with the show despite a ban by the City Council's cultural board.

Mr. Sinyavin said yesterday that the council had told the artists “In a tough tone” that there would be no more outdoor shows

We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports, and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

A version of this archives appears in print on May 31, 1976, on page 34 of the New York edition with the headline: ARTISTS ARRESTED IN LENINGRAD SHOW. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: Leningrad police on May 30 detain group of artists who planned to stage open‐air art show in defiance of City Council ban; exhibit was to be dedicated to memory of Yevgeny Rukhin, artist who recently died in fire; wife of artist Igor Sinyavin, 1 of show's organizers, says husband had been held under house arrest since announcement of show (S)


06/29/2016 AT 09:00 AM EDT

Thore struggles with a group bicycle ride through a park in an exclusive clip from Wednesday's episode of

"With this bike ride, every single time I pedal it's uncomfortable, it's painful, it hurts, and it doesn't get any easier, because of my ergonomics, because of my body, because of this skin, this fat," Thore says in the clip while shaking excess skin on her stomach.

Thore breathes heavily and appears nervous while struggling to complete the bike ride.

"There are hills, and it's not flat," she explains. "The thought of doing however many miles this is is terrifying. I'm normally really confident, and I feel like I can do pretty much anything I want to do."

Thore admits that her confidence was shaken after a bad experience while skiing, in which she was unable to control her skis and ended up falling over.

"What happened on the ski slope, I don't know if that made me a better person, but it made me more of a scared person," she said. "And I don't like to do things that threaten my ability to be strong, and to look strong."

airs Wednesday nights at 9/8c on TLC.

Summary: Whitney Way Thore says her confidence in her abilities was shaken after a bad experience skiing


While Giuliana Rancic remains on the E! payroll, she has to be diplomatic about her time at the network. Her husband, Bill Rancic, on the other hand, has no such obligation.

When we asked the “Fashion Police” host if Kathy Griffin had thrown the show under the bus when she made her haughty exit last year, Giuliana said, “I can’t comment on that,” then motioned at her hubby, adding, “I can’t say it. He can.”

Bill gave the universally recognized look that says, “Hell, yes!”

Griffin ducked out of the show in March after only seven episodes, saying, “I do not want to use my comedy to contribute to a culture of unattainable perfectionism and intolerance towards difference.”

Giuliana told us at the Pink Agenda gala for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and her own Fab-U-Wish charity that she has been focusing on her HSN line, G by Giuliana, since going part-time at E! in July.

When we suggested that her more frequent appearances on the TV shopping network might be a breath of fresh air after hosting E! News for 14 years, Bill again played the straight shooter. “From your mouth to God’s ear!” he said at the event held at Sixty Three°.

Giuliana laughed and said, “Stop saying that! You’re so bad! Bottom line: It’s just really nice to be doing what I’m very passionate about.”

COOPER IS AN AMERICAN SNAPPER

Celebrity selfie specialist Bradley Cooper has added another photo to his portfolio.

After a screening for his new movie “Burnt,” the sexiest man alive surprised Daily News reporter Jeanette Settembre when she asked if she could snap a selfie with him.

“Let me take it,” he insisted, reaching for the phone and firing off a trio of quick snaps, including the one seen here.

It’s not the first time the 40-year-old actor played shutterbug. He took the selfie seen ’round the world with Ellen DeGeneres last year at the Oscars.

Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts dined with retired heavyweight boxer Chuck Wepner at Tribeca’s American Cut steakhouse on Saturday night. Schreiber plays Wepner in his upcoming film “Bleeding” and Watts, Schreiber’s partner of 10 years, will play the former fighter’s wife. We’re told that the trio dined on yellowfish tuna and Dover sole before going to Madison Square Garden to watch a boxing match. Wepner — the so-called Bayonne Bleeder — inspired Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky” saga by knocking down Muhammad Ali in a 1975 fight that Ali ultimately won.

Jennifer Connelly graces the cover of the latest issue of More magazine, where the 44-year-old star weighs in on the delicate subject of women aging in Hollywood. “We equate beauty for women with youth, and that’s sad,” she tells the mag. “It’s a shame it’s so hard for so many of us to appreciate the beauty of an older woman and to accept it in ourselves. I don’t want to erase my history on my face.”

VILE THREATS FOR DISSING DISICK

Makayla Yarbrough tells friends she’s getting death threats after detailing her month of partying with reality star Scott Disick, who checked into rehab last week. Sources close to the 21-year-old stunner with the Elite Models agency tell us she regrets that her nonchalant observations of Disick’s Beverly Hills party pad — which she compared to a “brothel” — are being interpreted as judgmental by rabid Disick fans. According to our insider, “She doesn’t hate (Disick). She just thinks he’s living his life.”

Madonna sticks her tongue out at photographers as she bikes through Santa Monica, Calif., with her dance team in tow. The 57-year-old “Girl Gone Wild” singer — who was getting some exercise before her Monday night show in San Jose — is in the middle of her “Rebel Heart” tour, which some critics have called her best in years. She certainly seems to be having fun.

The two most perfect specimens on planet Earth also just happen to be brothers. Flashing their magical smiles at the premiere of “The Dressmaker” in Melbourne, Australia, we couldn’t decide who was the better looking bro, Liam or Chris Hemsworth, so we’ll just call it even. Tens across the board — for being handsome.

Both Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj were spotted leaving the same dance studio in Brooklyn after a (now not-so-secret) rehearsal together. The divas rented out the space for five hours, working on a collaboration, and were spotted leaving around 9:30 p.m.

A crowd of 1,500 applauded when keynote speaker Barbara Corcoran, at a luncheon of the Women’s Fund of Greater Omaha, told them not to vote for Donald Trump. Bruce Littlefield, who is working on a book, “How to Find the Good People for Your Business and Your Life,” with Corcoran, said the crowd also applauded when she told them she once sued Trump for her commission on a real estate deal in New York City.

HUDSON HAS A POTTY POSSE

It isn’t uncommon for women to go to the bathroom in groups, but “Almost Famous” star Kate Hudson took things to a new level at the Gods Love We Deliver benefit in Tribeca. “When Kate Hudson wanted to go to the bathroom, it took two bodyguards,” said one onlooker, who watched Hudson’s hired muscle wait by the ladies’ room door until the 36-year-old Hudson had finished flushing. “In all fairness, three photographers followed her there, too,” said our spy.

Summary: Bill Rancic played the straight shooter regarding 'Fashion Police', Kathy Griffin and HSN.


New York City FC needed this in the worst way.

The shine was starting to rub off the new toy. The crowd, which last season often filled the lower bowl of Yankee Stadium to see the new Major League Soccer club in town, was thinner on Saturday afternoon for the team’s match against the Vancouver Whitecaps.

The publicity surrounding NYCFC was beginning to spin decidedly negative, the honeymoon of the inaugural season a speck in the rearview mirror. NYCFC had not won since its March 6 opener in Chicago, a streak of seven games.

So the visual of NYCFC players splayed out on the grass where Yankees outfielders usually roam once the final whistle sounded to confirm a 3-2 win over Vancouver represented a profound sign of relief for the 2-3-4 club.

“I was waiting for this win for quite a while and the players have, too,’’ NYCFC coach Patrick Vieira said.

“Yeah, there’s a huge difference when you go to bed at night and you have three points in the bank [for a win],’’ NYCFC midfielder Mix Diskerud said. “You fall asleep with a smile, you don’t have nightmares and you wake up with a smile as well.’’

David Villa, the team’s captain and quiet leader, gave the home side reason to smile with two first-half goals.

Villa gave NYCFC a 2-1 lead on a scissor-kick volley past Vancouver goalkeeper David Ousted directly off an Andrea Pirlo corner kick in the 41st minute.

The former Spanish star tied the match at 1-1 on a goal in the 35th minute off a feed from Khiry Shelton, who stole the ball from the Whitecaps’ Andre Jacobson and flicked a pass to his right to Villa for the finish.

“There are two kinds of leaders — vocal leaders and those who express their leadership through their talent on the field,’’ Vieira said. “David is not vocal. The way he works on the field, he’s sending his message to the players. He was a real captain today.’’

Thomas McNamara, who assisted on the Steven Mendoza’s game-winning goal in the 73rd minute, called Villa “our leader, obviously a special player.’’

The rest of the team needed Villa to be special — particularly after NYCFC goalkeeper Josh Saunders handed Vancouver a 1-0 lead with a careless giveaway in front of his own goal just 42 seconds into the match.

“It was a rough start, of course,’’ Diskerud said. “A lot of teams, if they’ve been through what we’ve been through, they would have had their head down and started thinking this will be another loss. But we pulled through. We fought together.’’

This past Wednesday at the Stadium, when it looked as if NYCFC was going to get its first win at home, it surrendered a crushing set-piece goal to the Montreal Impact in extra time and had to swallow a bitter 1-1 result.

The failure to close out matches had been wearing on NYCFC, particularly at home, where it’s trying to build a culture of fan support, trying to prove it is not some sort of novelty act.

The outside negativity also had been closing in on the club. A story in the UK newspaper The Telegraph on Saturday tore into NYCFC’s Frank Lampard, the English star who has spent more time injured than playing, writing: “Frank Lampard is the worst signing in MLS history — he must call it quits at New York City FC.’’

There also has been a story circulating quoting an anonymous MLS player poll calling Diskerud, a U.S. National Team member, the most overrated player in the league.

That kind of negative publicity was not something NYCFC had to deal with during its honeymoon first season.

The rules have changed now, though. The club, despite signing several aging stars from abroad, failed to make the playoffs last year, replaced its coach and is in danger of losing home support should this season result in more losses and no playoffs again.

That’s what made Saturday afternoon’s result so crucial.

Summary: New York City FC needed this in the worst way. The shine was starting to rub off the new toy. The crowd, which last season often filled the lower bowl of Yankee Stadium to see the new Major League …


It’s a Spice Girls world and we’re all living in it. A recent study argues that the girl group’s #1 hit, “Wannabe,” may be the catchiest song in the UK in recent history.

Dr. John Ashley Burgoyne, a computational musicologist from the University of Amsterdam, sought out to determine what made a song stick in someone’s memory. To help divine the cause of an earworm, his team set up an interactive online game, called Hooked On Music, which quizzed over 12,000 participants on how quickly they could recognize a track.

“We were particularly interested in music and memory and why exactly it is that certain pieces of music stay in your memory for such a long time,” Burgoyne told BBC News.

Users were able to recognize “Wannabe” in an average of 2.3 seconds, while less catchy tunes took on average 5 seconds for people to recognize.

Other songs in the top 10 included Lou Bega’s “Mambo No 5,” which was the second most recognizable track, clocking in at just 2.48 seconds (presumably just long enough for most people to lunge at their radios to change the station). Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” came in third at 2.62 seconds with Lady Gaga, Abba, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Roy Orbison, Aerosmith and the Human League rounding out the top 10.

Now that the results are in, the study hopes to identify which characteristics the catchiest songs had in common. Burgoyne told the BBC he believed that very strong melodic hooks seemed to be the most memorable, which would certainly explain the lasting popularity of the Spice Girls’ tune.

Summary: News that's sure to spice up your life (or at least your day)


Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made headlines — again — Monday when he announced his tax proposals. While tax gurus continue analyzing the details, it’s worth taking a closer look at how he views another critical aspect of America’s economy: foreign trade. A day before he unveiled his tax plan, Trump said on Sunday that he would renegotiate or break the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This offer a good glimpse of how he views free trade, as his remarks come the same week trade ministers from 12 nations meet in Atlanta to try to conclude a massive trade deal across the Pacific Rim. Trump is not a fan of the Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement either, having stated: “The Trans-Pacific Partnership is an attack on America’s business.”

Trump added that the negotiators were not the best people and that deals had to be negotiated with one country at a time, which would be impractical and reverse 70 years of world history. The problem with one-off negotiations is that the best way to get countries to open their markets is to have enough countries at the table to be able to get maximum results. That is why there is a World Trade Organization, and that is why the Bush and Obama administrations embarked on the Pacific Rim negotiations. The objective is to get as many like-minded countries as possible to improve the rules governing their trade and to expand opportunities for trade in the region.

There’s another flaw in Trump’s views on free trade. He has repeatedly said he wants to build a wall around the U.S. southern border to keep out Mexican immigrants. A key purpose of NAFTA is to create economic opportunity in all of North America, including most definitely, Mexico. Terminate NAFTA and there would be immensely greater pressures for Mexicans to move to the United States — not exactly a result Trump is looking for.

He is hoping to reform the tax code by removing tax breaks that he views as having become entitlements. His tax philosophy should carry over into international trade. Aside from auto parts, Mexican sugar imports also have preferential access through NAFTA under America’s import quota system. Should this become a permanent entitlement? And more broadly, should sugar and other import protections that the U.S. affords (e.g. dairy) be immune from consideration of further liberalization, and in the case of sugar, should a phase-out of the protection altogether never be possible?

Some “rule of origin” (minimum regional content) is required in any regional free trade agreement. Otherwise, there will be a lot of non-participant countries benefitting as free riders. Whenever there is a tariff or quota preference, or any protection for that matter, investments are made on the basis of those measures.

That is why in some cases, extensive phase-outs may be required of existing protection. But protected positions in the market should not be forever immune from change. They should not become permanent entitlements. It will be the job of the current and future presidents, Congress and America’s trade negotiators to decide where the national interest lies, without being prevented from doing so by existing restrictive trade measures.

Alan Wolff is an attorney in Washington D.C. He is Chairman of the National Foreign Trade Council, and a former U.S. Deputy Trade Representative. The views expressed here are his own.

Summary: The Republican presidential hopeful may not be a fan of the Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement, but history has proven that trade deals are made by gathering several like-minded countries together.


When shopping for new car on a budget, you may worry that you have to settle for something not that stylish or fun to drive. But KelleyBlue Book has shown that affordable and cool can co-exist among new cars selling for under $18,000.

And in this price range, you can find a lot more technology and safety features than in the past. "Cool has come a long way," said Jack Nerad, executive editorial director and market analyst for Kelley Blue Book. "It's incredible to see all of the amazing tech features and amenities you can get on an affordable car these days compared to a decade ago."

Cool, of course, is a subjective judgment. But in picking their list, the Kelley analysts look for vehicles that are stylish and fun to drive. To qualify, the cars also must be reasonable to own -- including purchase price, fuel costs, maintenance and insurance costs, and resale value.

All the cars on the list start at a selling price of $18,000 or less for the base version using Kelley's Fair Market Range, which shows average transaction prices for a particular trim level of each vehicle.

Click here for a closer look at seven of the most interesting entries on the Kelley Blue Book list.

The Mazda3 finishes in the top spot on the cool list for the third year in a row. "Gorgeous and sporty outside as well as inside, the Mazda3 backs it all up with fun-focused driving dynamics and praiseworthy fuel efficiency," said Kelley Blue Book's Nerad.

That MPG rating of 29 in city driving and 40 on the highway puts the Mazda3 ahead of its compact sedan rivals. Reviewers surveyed by U.S. News also praised the Mazda3 for its comfortable, high-quality cabin. The Mazda3 starts at $17,670 with a manual transmission, according to Kelley Blue Book.

With an automatic transmission it's slightly over $18,000. The hatchback version, with more useful cargo space, starts around $18,075.

The Civic has long been a leader among compact cars, but analysts especially praise the redesigned 2016 model. In fact, the Civic finishes No. 1 among compacts among reviewers surveyed by U.S. News.

Those test drivers praise the Civic for an upgraded interior and crisp handling on winding roads. The base sedan LX version with manual transmission starts at about $17,800, according to Kelley's average selling price. However, adding options at higher trim levels can boost the price into the mid-$20s.

The Civic gas mileage is rated for 27 MPG in city driving, 40 on the highway with manual transmission. With continuously variable automatic transmission, those numbers rise to 31 city, 42 highway.

This subcompact SUV lives up to its Jeep heritage, with stylish looks and the ability to handle mud, rocks or any other surface off-road. Of the small SUVs I've test-driven, this is the coolest.

It comes with trade-offs, however. While the Renegade's handling is crisp, the suspension tuned for rough going can result in a bumpy ride at highway speeds. And it uses more gas than some competitors, with a rating of 24 MPG in city driving, 31 on the highway.

The base Sport model starts at about $17,825 in Kelley's market price range in the two-wheel drive version. Equipped with four-wheel drive, that starting price becomes about $19,700. Adding pricey options in higher trim levels pushes the Renegade into the mid-$20s.

The Golf's sharp handling and easy acceleration at highway speeds win praise from the test drivers surveyed by U.S. News. They also like the stylish interior and the ample cargo area that comes with the hatchback style.

The Golf's 1.8-liter four-cylinder turbocharged engine is rated for 25 MPG in city driving, 36 on the highway with an automatic transmission, and 25 city, 37 highway with a manual.

Golf starts at $17,550, according to Kelley, with a manual transmission and $18,549 when equipped with an automatic.

The hip-hop hamster TV ads for the Soul were very cool, and so is the car itself. The Soul has a nicely equipped cabin and good interior space.

U.S. News named it the best compact car for families. Test drivers praised its nimble handling and smooth, quiet highway ride. Like the Jeep Renegade, however, the Soul has MPG ratings worse than some competitors, at 24 in city driving and 31 on the highway.

The Soul starts at about $15,650 with a manual transmission, according to Kelley Blue Book. With an automatic transmission, it starts at $17,050.

The Fit has long been the coolest affordable car for students or others who need to haul stuff. Test drivers praise its interior roominess and versatility with rear seats that turn into a flexible cargo hold. With passengers, the rear seats provide plenty of leg room.

With U.S. News reviewers it ranked No. 1 among subcompact vehicles. The Fit is rated for 33 MPG in the city and 41 on the highway with a continuously variable transmission.

With manual or automatic transmission, the Fit's LX version starts at about $15,825, according to Kelley Blue Book.

The Ford Fiesta, originally modified from a European model, was one of the first stylish small cars to be sold in the U.S. Test drivers praise its nimble handling and smooth ride.

The four-cylinder engine is rated for 27 MPG in city driving and 37 on the highway. If you're really into fuel economy, the Fiesta offers an unusual three-cylinder engine rated for 31 MPG city, 43 highway.

The least expensive car on this list, Fiesta starts at about $14,400 for the base S version and $15,500 for the better-equipped SE in either sedan or hatchback style.

Summary: Stylish and fun to drive can most certainly co-exist with affordable, as seen in these picks by Kelley Blue Book


EVERY few years, a new series comes along that hopes to take the age-old time-traveling concept to another level. Sometimes it works (“Quantum Leap“); other times, low ratings claim a promising start (2007’s “Journeyman“).

So whether ABC’s new series, “FlashForward,” will catch on is anyone’s guess. I can tell you, though, that it has a compelling concept and a solid cast — and, more importantly (for its longterm survival), it’s leading into tonight’s season premiere of “Grey’s Anatomy,” so it’s likely to get some sampling.

And that’s a good thing, since “FlashForward” is built around this original premise: what if everyone in the world lost consciousness — all at the same time and all for exactly two minutes, 17 seconds? And what if, during their simultaneous blackouts, everyone had visions of their lives on the very same date six months into the future (the “flash forward” of the show’s title)?

“FlashForward” is set in LA, the seeming epicenter of most fictional apocalyptic settings (maybe there’s a reason for that), and early on we’re introduced to the show’s main characters.

There’s FBI agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes), a recovering alcoholic married to ER doc Olivia (Sonya Walger); Benford’s partner, Demetri Noh (John Cho), who’s engaged to be married; Benford’s AA sponsor, Aaron Stark (Brian O’Byrne); Stanford Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance), Benford’s no-nonsense FBI boss; and Dr. Bryce Varley (Zachary Knighton), a suicidal medical intern who works under Olivia at an LA hospital.

As you can see by these descriptions, all roads lead back to Benford, who’s chasing a suspect with Demetri when, at exactly 11 a.m., they lose consciousness and awaken to find LA in complete chaos and awash in flames. (There’s a shot of the smoldering LA skyline, and a helicopter crashing into a building, both eerily reminiscent of Ground Zero on Sept. 11.)

Benford, and everyone else, soon discovers that the entire world blacked out at exactly the same time — meaning countless deaths from crashing cars, planes (including Air Force Two, carrying the Vice President) and anything else you can think of that was moving at the time. It’s a horrifying concept.

But it’s Benford (of course!) who emerges as “The One” who’ll try to start unraveling this huge blackout/time-traveling puzzle while all hell rages around him. He manages to figure out that everyone’s “flash forward” visions are somehow connected — and that what some people “see” six months into the future isn’t necessarily a good thing (and that goes for our hero, too).

There’s more, but it’s too complicated to explain here and, besides, it would ruin the suspense.

If you’re watching, be sure to pay close attention to the show’s closing minutes unless, of course, you zonk out for the final two minutes, 17 seconds.

If that’s the case, may your “flash forward” be a good one.

Summary: EVERY few years, a new series comes along that hopes to take the age-old time-traveling concept to another level. Sometimes it works (“Quantum Leap”); other times, low ratings claim a p…


West Midlands police have become the latest force to investigate Conservative MPs’ expenses during last year’s general election campaign.

At least 11 forces are now investigating allegations that the Conservatives breached spending rules by listing some of the costs of their battlebus, which toured the country bringing activists to key marginal seats, under national spending accounts, rather than as local spending.

In the West Midlands, Mike Wood, the MP for Dudley South, is facing an investigation. DCI Ed Foster of West Midlands police told the Birmingham Mail: “We have received an allegation of improper electoral campaign spending returns in the West Midlands area and are reviewing whether any offences have been committed.”

Anna Soubry, the business minister and MP for Broxtowe, in Nottinghamshire, is one of those whose campaign expenses have been questioned, and Nottinghamshire police are reportedly carrying out an investigation.

The allegations, which were first broadcast by Channel 4 News, are also being investigated by Lincolnshire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and West Mercia, and Devon and Cornwall police.

On Friday Channel 4 News reported that Nottinghamshire police were likely to go to court to request more time to look into the expense returns and receipts for Soubry and her fellow Conservative MP Mark Spencer, who represents the Sherwood constituency.

If a magistrate agrees to the extension, the force could be given up to 12 months to gather further evidence.

Soubry tweeted a response to the allegations on Friday lunchtime, pointing out that the Labour party’s battlebus visited both her and Spencer’s constituencies during the campaign.

A Labour spokesman responded by saying everything the party had done was within the law, and the costs of its bus, unlike the Conservatives’, did not include accommodation used by activists.

Any candidate found guilty of an election offence could face up to a year in prison and could be barred from office for three years.

Related: What is the Tory election expenses story and why isn't it bigger news?

On Thursday, the Electoral Commission went to the high court for an information disclosure order to seek key documents relating to the cases. Within hours the commission said it had received the documents from the Conservatives and was reviewing them.

The Conservative party acknowledged that due to an “administrative error” some accommodation costs for the activists were not properly registered, but insisted the bus tour was part of the national campaign organised by Conservative campaign headquarters and as such did not have to fall within individual constituency spending limits.

In a statement, the Conservatives said: “The party always took the view that our national battlebus, a highly publicised campaign activity, was part of the national return – and we would have no reason not to declare it as such, given that the party was some millions below the national spending threshold. Other political parties ran similar vehicles which visited different parliamentary constituencies as part of their national campaigning.”

Summary: At least 11 forces now investigating allegations that Conservatives breached spending rules


The 47-year-old actor is determined that they will be married eventually. “We’ll have a couple of ring-bearers, by the looks of it, a few bridesmaids,” he jokes at the private view of an exhibition of his paintings, “Seize the Day Bed”, at the Rook & Raven gallery in Fitzrovia.

In Titanic, Zane’s on-screen wife, Kate Winslet, was drawn by Leonardo DiCaprio. Zane took up painting on set. “I love it,” he says. “It started when I was filming Titanic. I fell in love with the expression. I’m not a conceptual artist; it’s quite improvisational. I paint in the way I act.”

Zane was married to the actress Lisa Collins from 1989 until 1995.

Ronnie Wood's son finds The One

Elizabeth Whitson has only just been introduced to the family of her boyfriend, Ty Wood, but they already hear wedding bells.

"She’s definitely The One," Ty’s mother, Jo, the ex-wife of Ronnie Wood, the Rolling Stones guitarist, tells Hello!.

Whitson, an American actress, met Ty’s family at his 30th birthday party at the fashionable Hoxton Arches in east London. "I adore Beth," says Jo. "I had worried he was turning 30 and he would be my single Casanova forever. I’m already planning the wedding."

Read more from Mandrake here

Follow Richard Eden on Twitter

Summary: Billy Zane, the former fiancé of Kelly Brook, does not want to marry Candice   Neil until after their second child is born.


Australian athletes due to arrive in Rio on Tuesday will not be moving into their allocated building due to major issues with electricity and plumbing.

Australian Chef de Mission Kitty Chiller said the building was plagued by blocked toilets, leaking pipes, exposed wiring, darkened stairwells without lighting and dirty floors.

“I think the three main areas of concern for us were gas, plumbing and electricity…three pretty vital things,” Ms Chiller told 9NEWS reporter Christine Ahern in Rio.

In a statement this morning she said a “stress test” had been conducted where "taps and toilets were simultaneously turned on in apartments on several floors to see if the system could cope once the athletes are in-house".

"The system failed. Water came down walls, there was a strong smell of gas in some apartments and there was “shorting” in the electrical wiring," she said.

The International Olympic Committee is understood to be furious with the state of the village, and will not allow athletes to move in until the safety concerns are remedied.

The Australian Olympic Committee will also prevent its athletes from moving into their apartments.

Ms Chiller said staff had been living in nearby hotels and alternative accommodation arrangements had been made for athletes.

"From an AOC point of view, John Coates, has always stressed that for a Games to be successful, you need to get 3 things right, the athlete’s Village, the transport and the food," she said.

"There is much work to be done at the Village and we appreciate the efforts of the IOC and the RIO Organising Committee to “push things along” and solve the problems."

READ MORE: IOC to rule on Russia's fate

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016

Summary: The Rio Olympics are off to a rocky start, with revelations some parts of the athletes’ village have been deemed unsafe for habitation.


Dustin Diamond, the actor best known for his role as Screech on the early-90s’ sitcom Saved by the Bell, was arrested Wednesday in Wisconsin accused of violating his probation.

Two officials at the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to TIME late Wednesday night that Diamond was in custody, but could not provide any more details.

Diamond, 39, served three months in jail earlier this year for his involvement in a bar fight that resulted in a stabbing on Christmas Day. Jurors found Diamond guilty of carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct but not guilty of the felony charge of reckless endangerment.

In an interview earlier this month with Mario Lopez, Diamond described his experience behind bars as “daunting.”

“I want to put the tomfoolery and malarkey behind me,” he told Lopez. “Time for a change.”

Summary: He was arrested on Wednesday for violating his probation


In an election year that has voters and candidates debating whether Social Security benefits can or should be expanded, the annual report from the program’s trustees reminds us that mere solvency is the real issue. Yes, baby boomers are still retiring and, yes, money to pay these bedrock retirement benefits is still running short.

Even shorter, it turns out, in the case of Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund (Part A), which will be depleted in 2028—two years earlier than projected in the trustees report last July. The combined trust funds that help pay old age and disability benefits are likely to run out by 2034, the same projection from a year ago.

There is some good news in the report: A year after Social Security benefits held steady due to falling energy prices and overall deflation (as the government measures it for cost of living adjustments), the trustees anticipate benefits will rise 0.2% at yearend. Of course, that will be just enough to offset inflation.

While insolvency looms, the situation is hardly dire. For one thing, the Medicare hospital insurance fund’s projected date of insolvency has been pushed out by more than a decade since the advent of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. Even if the trust fund runs dry and no other changes are made, it would be able to pay 87% of scheduled benefits. Medicare Part B, which pays for doctor visits and outpatient costs, and Part D for prescription drugs, will remain fully funded by law—though premiums may rise.

Should the Social Security trust fund run dry and no other changes be made, Social Security recipients would get an immediate cut to about 75% of scheduled benefits. There is still ample time to shore up the programs, and with more than a decade to do so, candidates in this election year have been suggesting that rather than cut benefits they may actually be able to expand them.

The populist candidate Bernie Sanders has driven this conversation. But Hillary Clinton has said she will not raise the age for eligibility or cut middle class benefits. Donald Trump has said he will not curb spending on Medicare or Social Security.

A quarter of Americans past age 65 rely on Social Security for at least 90% of their income. Some 60 million collected Social Security retirement or disability benefits last year, and 55 million were covered under Medicare. It is nearly unthinkable to let these programs go under.

The government spent $648 billion on Medicare last year, equal to 3.6% of gross domestic product. That is projected to grow to 5.6% by 2040 as the population ages.

Just late last year, a budget deal included provisions to ease huge scheduled hikes in monthly premiums and annual deductibles for Part B of Medicare and prevent big cuts in disability benefits. Such tweaks are relatively common. But Congress has shown a willingness to take bigger measures as well. In 1983, when the program faced a financial crisis, Congress cut spending, and raised both payroll taxes (which fund both Social Security and Medicare) and the eligibility age. Such measures are at odds with the current political discourse. But the elections will soon pass and perhaps then we can get back to dealing with reality.

Summary: In their annual report, Social Security trustees say the program will be insolvent in 2034. Medicare Part A even sooner.


I long ago learned that one of many aspects of our relationship with the EU that should only be approached warily is how much of our law now originates from Brussels. Latest into this minefield is Matthew Elliott’s campaigning group Business for Britain (BfB), which last week made headlines for claiming that its “definitive” study had shown that, between 1993 and 2014, no fewer than 64.7 per cent of our laws were made or “influenced” by the EU.

Among its many mistakes was the claim that during this time the EU produced 46,699 new laws, not realising that a huge number of these were shortlived and are no longer in force. As older hands at this game have been pointing out, the total number of EU laws currently in force is 22,398, many of which do not apply to Britain. But the complete number of laws of all kinds currently on the UK legal database is 75,820. As I have discussed here before, it is so hard to work out any meaningful percentage from these figures that all that can be fairly said about the matter is that a great deal of our law now comes to us via the EU but quite how much it is impossible to quantify.

Indeed, what BfB also missed is how much of that law now emanates from unaccountable global bodies above the EU, which we would still have to obey whether we were in the EU or not. So, although in propaganda terms, it might have seemed a good try, as one of the bodies angling to play a lead role in any future British referendum, BfB may need to develop a more sophisticated understanding of how this mighty legislative labyrinth actually works.

Summary: What Business for Britain missed is how much law now emanates from   unaccountable global bodies above the EU, writes Christopher Booker


America has a new favorite way to pay for music.

For the first time ever, retail revenue from streaming services eclipsed revenue for digital downloads in 2015, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Music fans are opening their wallets to pay for music subscription services, or listening to songs on free ad-supported platforms.

Streaming comprised 34.3 percent of industry revenue for the year, bringing in $2.4 billion. Digital album and track downloads, which have been in decline for years, came in just behind with a 34 percent share of the market, followed by physical formats. In total, revenue was up about 1 percent, to $7 billion for the year.

Streaming services have been around for more than a decade. One of the first, ironically, tried to leverage the brand of Napster, the file-sharing service that introduced music piracy to the masses. But the two companies most responsible for streaming’s success are Spotify, the first subscription service to find a large audience, and YouTube, which is the most popular method for listening to music online.

The RIAA has one big problem with both these platforms: they let people listen to music on demand for free. These ad-supported listening experiences brought in less than $400 million in revenue in 2015, compared to $1.2 billion from paid subscription services. Vinyl records were actually more lucrative for the music industry than YouTube streams, bringing in $416 million in revenue.

This disconnect between massive increases in music consumption and paltry gains in revenue is one reason artists like Taylor Swift and Adele have been withholding their albums from streaming services. But those efforts by certain superstar artists aren’t stopping people from choosing to stream songs instead of buying individual albums.

The pressure to tighten the reins on free music will likely increase. YouTube introduced a subscription service last fall, and Spotify, which has always had the same music on its free and paid tiers, has been mulling keeping some content exclusive to paying customers. Expect access to music to get more expensive, not less, as artists and labels try to regain more of the revenue lost since the CD era.

Summary: But some musicians aren't happy about that


Before you go, we thought you'd like these...

High pay doesn't necessarily correlate with high performance.

In fact, thanks to information found in a new study from MSCI, the opposite seems to be true.

SEE ALSO: The controversial networking strategy this millennial uses to meet CEOs and billionaires

The study focused on 429 U.S. companies over a 10-year period.

According to a summary of the report by CNN Money:

"The report found that average shareholder returns over the decade were 39% higher when a company's CEO was in the bottom 20% of earners compared to a CEO in the top 20% of earners."

In other words, CEOs who were paid significantly less on average were able to retain a higher amount of shareholders in their company than CEOs who were paid more annually.

This same pattern was also found in another part of the study, where data showed that CEOs who were paid "above average" in their sector had underperformed in comparison to other companies in their sectors where the CEOs were paid below average.

Underachieve and get over-compensated? That seems to be the trend.

As MSCI put it themselves:

"Has CEO pay reflected long-term stock performance? In a word, 'no.'"

Now, take a look at the top rated CEOs of 2016:

Glassdoor list of top 20 CEOs 2016

#19: Charles C. Butt H.E.B.

#18: Aron J. Ain Kronos Incorporated

#17: Lynsi Snyder In-N-Out Burger

#16: Alex Gorsky Johnson & Johnson

#15: Jack Little Mathworks Inc.

#14: Mark Weinberger Ernst & Young LLP

#13: John Veihmeyer KPMG International

#11: David S. Taylor Procter & Gamble Co.

#10: Jim Whitehurst Red Hat

#9: Joseph R. Sivewright Nestlé Purina Petcare

#3: Dominic Barton McKinsey & Company

#2: Scott Scherr Ultimate Software

#1: Bob Bechek Bain & Company

More on AOL.com: The easy daily habits 24 executives say give them an edge Top 4 mistakes CEOs make on Facebook Bill Gates says these are the cheapest things that make him the happiest

Summary: Underachieve and get over-compensated? That seems to be the trend across new research found through a study conducted by MSCI.


Stephen Hill was sent to his first Work Capability Assessment in 2010 when he gave up his job as a sandwich delivery man after being referred for tests on his heart.

His wife Denise, who was with him at the assessment, said: "She checked him out. She did his blood pressure and his heart and said to see a doctor as soon as possible."

Despite the assessor telling Mr Hill to seek urgent medical advice, he was still found fit for work. In the meantime doctors had diagnosed him with heart failure.

He won his appeal but he was ordered to attend another assessment.

"He got a letter for another medical and I couldn't believe it," said Mrs Hill. "He'd got to go for a medical when he was waiting for a heart operation."

But he was again declared fit for work, with the assessor declaring: "Significant disability due to cardiovascular problems seems unlikely."

Mr Hill died of a heart attack five weeks later.

The assessments are carried out by Atos Healthcare on behalf of the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).

According to the programme, two and a half million people in the UK take the test because they are too illl to work.

But more than 176,000 cases go to appeal tribunals each year, costing the taxpayer an additional £50 million, a programme spokesman said.

In a statement Atos said staff "carry out thousands of assessments every month in accordance with detailed guidelines as set by the Department of Work and Pensions”.

Previously more than 2.6 million claimed Incapacity Benefit, at a cost of £12 billion a year to the taxpayer.

But in an attempt to make the replacement scheme more rigorous, applicants now undergo the WCA, which can require them to undergo a face-to-face medical assessment and provide a report from their doctor.

But government figures have shown that more than nine out of 10 people who claimed the new sickness benefit have been deemed fit enough to work.

More than a third of the 1.3 million people who applied for Employment and Support Allowance were found to be fully capable of working.

Last night Chris Grayling, the Employment minister, said made “real efforts to improve” the WCA and that the government had already implemented several recommendations urged by Prof Harrington.

“Even though no system is ever perfect, his most recent recommendations reconfirmed that the assessment is the right process,” he said.

"The reason why we reassess people who are on sickness benefits is that all the evidence is that a substantial proportion can return to some form of work. We have no financial targets for this.

“We simply believe that people who can work are better off being helped to do so, even if it can be a difficult and stressful process, rather than simply being abandoned on benefits for the rest of their lives. It's about saving lives, not saving money."

:: Panorama: Disabled or Faking It? will be shown on Monday at 8.30pm on BBC Two.

Summary: People deemed too sick or disabled to work are being refused their benefits   because the current assessment is inadequate, according to the expert   appointed to review it.


I was sure my husband had just been scammed, and that he would never see the $1,500 cash he had just spent on a dirt bike he found on Craigslist. He had driven about two hours from our home to buy the bike but when he tried to register it at DMV, he discovered he couldn’t. The bill of sale he had wasn’t sufficient and the information he had been given by the seller wasn’t matching up. It looked as if he may have been sold a stolen bike.

If he had been scammed, he wouldn’t be the first person in that situation. A friend confessed her husband had lost $3,000 in a Craigslist scam involving a car that probably never existed.

Craigslist can be a great way to sell stuff. (If you’re trying to get out of debt, for example, selling things you don’t need or use on Craigslist can help you get cash to pay off debt or boost your savings.) It can also be a good way to pick up bargains, especially on used items. Whether it’s kitchen appliances, exercise equipment or even cars or boats, the free site can put buyers in touch with sellers.

Read Next: 4 Ways to Protect Your Retirement Money From Scammers

If you are a buyer, the most important thing is that you protect yourself. Second, you want to make sure you get what the seller is promising, in the condition promised and that you can pick up the item safely. (Avoiding dangerous situations is huge: There have been homicides linked to would-be buyers going to pick up items that did not even exist.)

Here are some tips from security pros for shopping safely on Craigslist.

Stick to Craigslist. If a seller immediately tries to route you off Craigslist to their own email address, be careful, warns security expert Robert A. Grimes, who wrote an amusing account on InfoWorld.com about one of his friends who enjoys wasting Craigslist scammers’ time. “Scammers want to get you off the site before anyone notices the fraud,” he says. At the same time, if you get to the point where you are serious about buying you want to verify the person you are dealing with. If all your communication has been through Craigslist or text messages, a phone call might be a good idea.

Widen your search. Lifehacker recommends a tool called SearchAllJunk.com because sellers are only supposed to post a Craigslist ad in one city. If the item shows up in multiple areas you’ll want to proceed with caution. Sure, it’s possible a seller may ignore the rules and try to post in two or three not-too-distant cities, but if the same item shows up in California and Florida, that’s a huge red flag. (We once inquired about a horse supposedly located in Georgia. The seller seemed sketchy and my daughter later found pictures of the same horse — with a different name — in Texas and Virginia.)

Read Next: These ‘Elite’ Credit Cards Are Most Likely to Get Hacked

Meet in a safe place. Choose a well-trafficked place to conduct business if possible. Where I live, a local police station has designated itself a “safe place” for Craigslist transactions and encouraged buyers and sellers to meet there. If you’re buying a bulky item (think furniture, appliances) that’s harder, so you may want to bring a friend along. If you can’t, at least tell someone where you are going and what you want them to do if you don’t check back with them in a reasonable time. And tell the seller that if the item looks good you’ll go to a nearby ATM to get cash. Don’t wave it around ahead of time. (Police warn not to accept a last-minute change in location.) Craigslist also has a list of safety tips on the site for buyers and sellers.

Get a receipt. If you are buying something valuable or expensive, insist on a detailed, signed, written receipt with the seller’s details. If there is a hidden problem later, your receipt will be the only proof you have. (Keep in mind, though, you are likely buying the item “as is.” So inspect it carefully.) If you’re buying a car, getting an inspection by a mechanic is wise, if possible. (You may have to pay for it yourself though.) Make sure there is a clear title and registration or other documentation that proves the person selling it is the owner and that you are free to register it in your name.

Never send money to a scammer. This sounds simple enough, but every day people send money to crooks. If an item is out of state and must be shipped, you may want to use a service like Escrow.com to facilitate the sale. Scammers want instant, untraceable funds, which is why they choose money transfers or prepaid cards. (Here are some more scams to look out for this year.)

In my my husband’s case, we got lucky. He made the trip back to the seller’s location — not without a lot of trepidation, though — and got his money back. He ended up buying a different bike from someone else, and this time was able to successfully register it.

This article originally appeared on Credit.com.

Summary: Here's how to protect yourself from scams


Activision Blizzard Inc. said a key revenue measure more than doubled in the latest quarter, with a superhero-themed videogame driving strong performance in a period when major rivals stumbled.

Activision Blizzard said revenue adjusted to account for factors including deferred sales of online services rose to $1.61 billion in the quarter that ended June 30 from $759 million in the year-ago period. Wall Street had expected $1.46 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. The company attributed the rise in part to the success of “Overwatch,” released in late May.

Adjusted per-share profit rose to 54 cents from a profit of 13 cents a year ago. Analysts had expected an adjusted 42 cents a share.

Activision Blizzard also raised its outlook for the fiscal year. It now expects revenue of about $6.4 billion and profit of about $1.83 a share, after adjusting to account for factors including deferred sales of online services.

The company, which didn’t put out a major release a year ago, benefited from the industry’s shift to digital downloads and away from games printed on disks. Newly acquired King Digital Entertainment also contributed to adjusted revenue in the quarter, though the “Candy Crush Saga” developer’s monthly active users fell 13% to 409 million from the first quarter, which it blamed on seasonal trends and launch timing.

Shares of Activision Blizzard, which had gained nearly 60% over the past year, rose 1.4% in after-hours trading to $41.40.

Activision Blizzard, focused on building its new division dedicated to so-called e-sports, said viewership of competitions in the first half of the year involving its popular “Call of Duty” franchise increased sharply. The company in June began publishing live e-sports programming on Facebook Inc. through Major League Gaming, a producer and broadcaster of videogame competitions it acquired December.

Meanwhile, smaller competitor Take-Two Software Interactive Inc. said its fiscal-first-quarter revenue adjusted for deferred sales fell 26% from a year earlier to $272.6 million. Analysts had expected adjusted revenue of $259.42 million, according to Thomson Reuters. It also reported an adjusted loss of 34 cents a share, compared with a profit of 31 cents a year ago. Analysts had expected an adjusted loss of 30 cents a share.

Take-Two shares, up nearly 30% over the past year through Thursday’s close, rose more than 3% after hours.

Take-Two said it benefited a year ago from the launch of the personal-computer version of “Grand Theft Auto V,” the latest game in its best-known series. Take-Two also put out a team-based game in May with a cast of superhero characters, called “Battleborn.” But in an interview, Chief Executive Strauss Zelnick said “Battleborn” wasn’t a big hit. “The performance has been below our expectations,” he said.

Thursday’s results come after Electronic Arts Inc. this week reported a decline in adjusted quarterly revenue and profit.

Videogame companies and many analysts who cover them prefer adjusted measures, which take into account revenue earned up front from the sale of online-enabled games sold in a period. U.S. accounting rules, though, require the companies to defer revenue from online-enabled games for however long they think players will use those services—typically six to nine months. The game companies are now starting to shift away from reporting the adjusted figures in response to stricter guidelines issued by Securities and Exchange Commission over the use of metrics that don’t comply with generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP.

On a GAAP basis, Activision Blizzard said net income fell to $127 million from $212 million a year ago. Revenue rose to $1.57 billion from $1.04 billion—measures that included sales deferred from previous periods, and excluded deferred revenue from the latest quarter.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com

Summary: Activision Blizzard said a key revenue measure more than doubled in the latest quarter, with a superhero-themed videogame driving strong performance in a period when major rivals stumbled.


A refugee on Nauru with a growing lump in her breast has had a medical transfer flight cancelled.

Refugee advocates say the woman was one of 18 on Nauru scheduled to fly to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea for treatment on Tuesday.

But the flight was cancelled on Tuesday morning and they were told there wouldn't be another flight for at least three weeks.

Doctors for Refugees say the 39-year-old Lebanese mother-of-four has required urgent treatment for the growing lump for more than a year.

She did not want to have the biopsy done in Nauru but was willing to travel to PNG.

Doctors for Refugees convenor Barri Phatarfod said it was a "complete untruth" that people in offshore detention were receiving medical treatment comparable to that in Australia.

Her organisation was reviewing more than 100 cases of concern within the immigration detention system, some of which involved delays of recommended treatment for several years.

"If doctors in Australia treated their patients with the same chaos, lack of follow-up and investigation many would be reported to the regulatory bodies," Dr Phatarfod said.

George Newhouse, principal solicitor of the National Justice Project, described medical facilities for refugees on Nauru and Manus Island as "medieval".

He's investigating a death on Nauru that appeared to have been caused by a delay in the Australian government approving medical evacuation.

"We have dozens of cases of individuals and families suffering in pain without proper care or treatment."

The immigration department has been contacted for comment.

Summary: Refugee advocates say a woman with a growing lump in her breast on Nauru has been awaiting urgent treatment for more than a year.


The Prime Minister added: ''I remember how much he loved swimming and he will be looking down at that pool thinking I wish I was in there today.''

Ivan required intensive round-the-clock care throughout his life.

The Prime Minister has spoken in the past about the profound impact that caring for Ivan had upon him.

Jack Tizard is a day school for pupils aged two to 19, with a range of severe learning difficulties.

Mr Cameron said that schools such as Jack Tizard played a hugely important role.

He explained: ''Our special schools are incredible places.

''You have a child, a special child like we did with Ivan, you worry like mad you are never going to find somewhere where he is happy, where there is great teaching where there is love and great compassion.

''And when you find that place like we did with Jack Tizard, your heart lifts.''

Mrs Cameron clutched her husband's hand as they entered the school together.

The couple toured the new hydrotherapy pool and chatted to staff and pupils during an hour-long visit.

Summary: David Cameron spoke movingly about his son Ivan as he and his wife made an   emotional visit to their child's former school.


RIO DE JANEIRO—Perhaps it was the 25 mph winds. Or the slower-than-expected hard courts. Or maybe simply that Serena Williams hadn’t played a match in a month.

Whatever the cause, Williams opened defense of her Olympic singles gold medal with a patchy-at-times 6-4, 6-2 victory over Australia’s Daria Gavrilova on Sunday, gesturing or yelling at herself as she often does when not all goes her way.

“I’m always frustrated on the court if it’s not perfect,” the American said.

Williams had not competed since collecting her Open-era record-tying 22nd Grand Slam title at Wimbledon. She’s now won 19 of her past 20 matches.

Seeded No. 1 at the Rio de Janeiro Games, Williams was hardly at her best in the 91-minute contest against Gavrilova, who is ranked 46th and only once has been past the second round at a major tournament.

While that match was played in the main stadium, action was delayed because of strong winds for about 2 hours on the eight smaller Olympic courts.

“I was a little nervous about that,” Williams said of her reaction to hearing of the gusty conditions, which she called “very intense.”

Williams compiled 37 unforced errors to 27 winners, and got broken at love while serving for the first set at 5-3, a game that included a tremendously entertaining point.

The lengthy exchange featured terrific defense by both women and ended with Williams putting a forehand into the net. Afterward, she leaned over near the net, while Gavrilova dropped to her knees on the court, letting go of her racket.

But Williams broke right back in the next game to take the set.

“The first set, especially, was extremely tricky,” Williams said, referring to the wind, “but I’m glad it kind of slowed down in the second a little bit, so I was able to produce better tennis.”

Players have noticed that the green courts in Rio play slower and offer higher bounces than hard courts used on the North American circuit leading to the U.S. Open later this month.

“Fortunately enough, I am a pretty good clay-court player, so I’m OK with the slow courts,” said Williams, a three-time French Open champion. “You have to hit about three or four more shots or just play a little bit better. It’s OK. I’m getting used to the conditions as a whole.”

She was scheduled to play doubles with her older sister Venus later Sunday. U.S. Tennis Association spokesman Tom LaDue said that Venus would participate in that match despite being sick.

On Saturday night, Venus’ availability for doubles was put in doubt by U.S. women’s tennis coach Mary Joe Fernandez, who said the four-time gold medalist and seven-time Grand Slam champion had cramping, dehydration and an upset stomach following a first-round loss in singles.

Summary: She hadn't competed in a month


A private residence built for Nelson Mandela is opening to the public as a luxury retreat where guests can walk in the footsteps of one of the most iconic figures of recent history.

The Nelson Mandela Centre for Reconciliation was constructed for the former South African president after his retirement from political life in 1999 – and opened in 2001.

Located on the Shambala Private Game Reserve, around 160 miles north of Johannesburg, the complex was designed as a hideaway amid the South African bushveld where Mandela could rest – while also having a place to meet dignitaries and friends.

The Nelson Mandela Centre for Reconciliation sits on a private game reserve (Photo: Elsa Young)

It had been closed since his death in December 2013 – but will now be available to rent, with prices starting at 70,000 South African Rand (£3,778) per night.

While this might seem expensive, the property can sleep up to 12 people – in five master bedrooms, plus a vast presidential suite which comes equipped with “his and hers” dressing rooms.

• The Blue Train, South Africa - and the budget alternative

The complex also encompasses various lounges, dining areas and verandas – while the per-night price includes all meals, prepared by a private chef, and butler service.

Guided bush walks and game drives on the adjacent reserve can be arranged.

The Centre comes with a pool overlooking a watering hole (Photo: Elsa Young)

The opening of the Centre as a high-end retreat supplies an extra location for the many travellers who visit South Africa in search of Mandela’s fascinating life story.

It also adds an element of light to a tale often defined by gloom – not least in the form of Robben Island, the infamous off-shore jail which sits six miles north of Cape Town in the waters of Table Bay. Mandela was interned here between 1964 and 1982 – before going on to endure six years nearby in the notorious high-security Pollsmoor Prison.

• Cape Town city guide

The Nelson Mandela National Museum (also known as “Mandela House”) is set up in another former home on Vilakazi Street in Soweto.

Tourists can also go in search of Mandela in Cape Town, where many of the key sites of government in South Africa are based – including De Tuynhuys, the office of the president, which Mandela officially occupied between 1994 and 1999.

The retreat has space to sleep up to 12 people. (Photo: Elsa Young)

Mandela spent time at the Centre for Reconciliation after stepping away from public life in 2004 amid growing frailty and ill health.

• South Africa: sites that defined Nelson Mandela

Guests will be able to relax in similar fashion, making use of a swimming pool which overlooks a watering hole.

Further details can be found via zulucamp.co.za and centreforreconciliation.co.za.

Summary: The Nelson Mandela Centre for Reconciliation, on a game reserve north of Johannesburg, will be available from ÂŁ3,800 per night


"I HAVE A dual life," said Charlotte Stockdale, the longtime fashion director of i-D, who recently left the British glossy to join the Moscow-based art and fashion magazine Garage. Ms. Stockdale, 43, a former model who started styling in the early '90s (because "it just seemed easier," she joked), works closely with young London designer Peter Pilotto and with Karl Lagerfeld on his shows for the Italian brand Fendi. "That's my fashion life," she explained. "Then I have my classic English country life, with all my very classic English occupations."

It's the latter side, she said, that jumped at the opportunity two years ago to be style editor at fragrance label Jo Malone London. "I grew up in this very traditional English manor," said Ms. Stockdale, the daughter of an English baronet father and French-Vietnamese mother. (She often visits her father in Hampshire for weekends of shooting and bonfires.) Her pastoral sensibilities mix well with Malone's English DNA. Her role, she explained, is to "offer my creativity where I feel it fits best." More concretely, Ms. Stockdale has launched a new home candle collection called Just Like Sunday. "Sunday is all that's left to us," she said. Ms. Stockdale lives in both London and Paris, with her husband, Australian industrial designer Marc Newson, and their daughters, Imogen, 6, and Lucienne, who is almost 3. "Life has run away with us, and it's nice to stop every now and again and live in the moment—to light a candle and just be peaceful."

The best fashion advice I ever received is: from my mum, who always told me not to worry what other people think. Although my friend Erin Morris says a tiara always makes everything better, and I can't disagree.

My favorite spring collection is: Sacai. It's like how you make your favorite old jumper or old parka into something high fashion. [Sacai designer Chitose Abe] is brilliant.

My morning routine is: quick and easy. I wake up, jump in the shower. Sometimes I cleanse my face, sometimes I don't have time. But I always tone. I found three La Prairie toners in my mother's cupboard when she died, and I knew she would have loved for me to use all of her beauty products. I'm on my last bottle.

My wardrobe staples are: hoodies, miniskirts, track pants, men's shirts—and Azzedine Alaïa. The only kind of sexy dresses I wear are Azzedine, and for the rest of it, I dress like a boy.

My favorite way to relax is: to spend 20 minutes in a bath. It's a ritual. I need a shelf for my glass of wine and my flannel so I can dry my fingers off to read my book. I have to be in my bath by candlelight, and it has to smell really nice. I mix Epsom salts with a scent.

The person, dead or alive, I'd most like to dress is: Cleopatra. She had such a good look.

My favorite travel destinations are: extreme places like the Himalayas or Siberia, rather than spas or villas, but my favorite place in the end is Greece. I have a family home in Corfu that I grew up in and now a new family home in Ithaca. The water there is the best in the world.

Right now, I'm listening to: Rachmaninoff, Dolly Parton and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.

The most treasured thing I own is: my wedding ring, which has hundreds of tiny blue sapphires and was designed by my husband for Boucheron.

The key to aging gracefully is: to exercise your face. People get obsessive [about aging], but they don't exercise their faces. I do it when I do yoga, which I don't do as much as I ought to.

The beauty product I can't live without is: MAC Strobe Cream. You put your foundation on top of it, and then you put a little bit more on your cheekbones. It shines and when people take pictures of you, it reflects everything. It's the best.

My favorite museum is: the Natural History Museum in London. Is there any art better than nature?

My hair care secret is: Sexy Hair's What A Tease. This literally gives you a backcomb without backcombing. It's like dry shampoo that doesn't make your hair white.

The last book I read was: "Of Human Bondage" by W. Somerset Maugham. It's the emotional journey through the book—from mentally overcoming physical imperfection to ultimately finding happiness through self-knowledge and making the right choices—that I found inspiring.

One treatment I'll never try is: facial peels. Everybody's face is different and there isn't a rule, but I think you have to be careful with the skin on your face. In the long term, I think a peel can give you a very strange look.

My first serious beauty experience was: when I was 10, my mother gave me a three-piece set of Clarins cleanser, toner and moisturizer. She said, 'Look after your face.' She died at the age of 73, and most people thought she was 60, mostly because she took care of herself.

One of the most important things in my regime is: juicing. Your body needs some relief and time to cleanse itself. At least once a month, I do two to three days of only vegetable juice. I'm a massive meat eater, but the juices really do fill you up. I use a company in London called Purifyne.

My makeup is: super simple. I love what Peter Philips did [while he was the creative makeup director] at Chanel. I've got some of his Chanel Illusion d'Ombre —this gold stuff you put on your eyes that's completely sheer. That's pretty much as far as I'll go.

One of my favorite gifts to give is: things from the Folio Society, which does really great books for kids—or grown-ups.

My guilty pleasure is: nothing. I don't really feel guilty about anything. What's the point?

My New Year's resolution is: to organize my work life so I don't make my family suffer quite so much.

—Edited from an interview by Celia Ellenberg

Summary: The British stylist on better dressing through tiaras, extreme travel and the product that makes everyone photogenic.


Since the Boston Police disbanded its mounted unit in 2009, sporadic efforts to bring back the horses haven’t gone far.

Now, business leaders are working to help raise the $1 million to $1.5 million needed to get officers back in the saddle, patrolling parks and parades.

“I remember back when we were doing away with [the mounted unit]. I had more calls with people expressing sorrow,” Police Commissioner William Evans said. “People hated to see them go. It’s an important part of us being out there, being visible.”

When car magnate Herb Chambers asked Evans during a lunch in May what he could do to help the department, Evans suggested reviving the dismantled mounted unit.

“The commissioner mentioned that they were trying to bring back the horses,” said Chambers, who is willing to donate $100,000. “I think there are enough people that have pride in the city that would like to be involved in that.”

Plans to restore the mounted unit, once the oldest in the country, are in their infancy. Evans said four to six horses would be needed, at least to get started, and officers would have to be trained to patrol on horseback. He doesn’t know exactly what it would cost, but business leaders involved in the project have pegged the startup cost at as much as $1.5 million.

The mounted unit, which dates to 1873, helped control crowds during big sports celebrations and secured tough-to-patrol areas like the parks along the Fens. But the unit, with its dozen horses, was disbanded under former mayor Thomas Menino in 2009 to save $600,000 a year during tough budgetary times.

However, the city still has a mounted park ranger program that has seven horses, at an annual cost of about $11,000 a horse, and six rangers certified to ride them, a parks and recreation department spokesman said.

Stephen Murphy tried unsuccessfully to revive the mounted police patrols when he was on Boston’s city council. And Mayor Martin J. Walsh, soon after he took office in 2014, signaled that he was eager to see police on horseback again. But his top police officers, led by Evans, have had more urgent issues.

Now, Evans is hopeful that a combination of corporate support and city funding will be enough to restore the mounted unit. “I wouldn’t mind seeing if we could get them in play for next spring or summertime,” Evans said.

Besides helping with crowd control, police on horseback can be good for public relations, allowing officers to interact with parents and children in a nonconfrontational way, he said.

Evans still needs to make a formal pitch to the Boston Police Foundation, which raises money for police programs and equipment that the city can’t afford on its own. Dick Parry, the foundation’s chairman, said his group can’t promise any sort of advertising for the donors, such as corporate logos on the horses, although the foundation would acknowledge the support through its marketing materials and at its annual gala.

But Boston police officials left open the possibility that donors could name the horses.

Parry, who also is chief security officer at Hologic Inc. in Marlborough, said discussions between the police department and the foundation about reviving the horse program have begun, but his group has not yet received a financial request. There are still questions that need to be answered, he said, such as where the horses would be stabled. (The parks and recreation spokesman said there is no extra room at the Franklin Park stable.)

“There’s a lot more that goes into this,” Parry said. “It’s a lot more than acquiring horses.”

Foundation board members George Regan, who owns a Boston public relations firm, and Sean McGrath are drumming up support. McGrath, president of Natick real estate development firm Stonegate Group, secured a $100,000 commitment through his family’s foundation, the Highland Street Foundation. That should be enough to pay for one horse and related equipment, he said.

“I’m very encouraged with the direction it’s going,” McGrath said of efforts to line up verbal commitments. “They may have funding for half of what they need.”

Bill Richey, owner of training firm National Mounted Police Services Inc., said he wasn’t surprised to learn that Boston wants to bring back its mounted police, as other cities have. A 10-foot-high police officer on a horse simply can see more and be seen by more people than an officer on foot, he said.

Jim Bueermann, president of the Police Foundation in Washington, said he doesn’t know of research that shows how effective mounted patrols have been in the United States. He said Boston officials should consider why they want the mounted unit to return and how well they’ve been able to make do without it.

If the goal is largely community relations, for example, then maybe replicating the police department’s ice cream truck might be more cost effective, he said.

“Would it go further to buy more ice cream trucks in the summer, and hot cocoa trucks in the winter?” Bueermann said. “I don’t think these are difficult questions to ask or to answer. . . . Horses are expensive. [But] if they’re more effective, then that might justify the expense.”

Summary: In recent months, a number of business leaders have been quietly working on plans to raise the money needed to bring back the horses.


Laying out her plan to prevent a terrorist attack on American soil, Hillary Clinton on Thursday called for an “intelligence surge” against terror recruits, including increased surveillance of suspects and greater oversight of social media.

The former Secretary of State’s plan would aim to tamp down on ISIS recruitment in the United States and halt the flow of fighters into and out of the country. Her proposals come two weeks after the deadly attacks in San Bernardino, California, where 14 people were killed.

Since the attacks, Republican candidates have intensified their call for an aggressive confrontation with ISIS, and GOP frontrunner Donald Trump has said he would bar all Muslims from entering the United States. Clinton criticized the Republican response in her speech and touted her own proposals.

“Throughout our history, we’ve stared into the face of evil and refused to blink,” Clinton said, speaking in Minneapolis in the late afternoon. “No one should ever underestimate the determination of the American people. And I am confident we will once again choose resolve over fear.”

Clinton said she would ask technology companies in Silicon Valley to expand their oversight of posts that could be used to radicalize recruits. Tech companies, she said, should enforce strong service agreements and track questionable content.

“We have to stop jihadists from radicalizing new recruits in person and through social media chat rooms, and what’s called the dark web,” Clinton said.

The Democratic Presidential candidate also called for more U.S. federal operations officers and linguists, as well as increased technical surveillance. Clinton said that the United States should increase its intelligence sharing with its European allies, and amp up visa investigations for anyone who has traveled to a country with a terrorist presence.

The United States “needs to know identifies of every fighter that makes that trip” to war-torn regions in the Middle East, she said, emphasizing that the U.S. should increase monitoring of social media, where much of the recruitment occurs.

Clinton last month in New York laid out a plan for countering ISIS in the Middle East, calling for an intensification of President Obama’s current policy to denigrate ISIS and additional measures, including a no-fly zone over Syria and increased flexibility for U.S. special forces.

She repeated her call on Thursday for the destruction of ISIS. “It is not enough to contain ISIS,” Clinton said. “We must defeat ISIS, break its momentum and then its back.”

Clinton is traditionally seen as more hawkish than many Democrats on both her Middle East policy and surveillance. She voted in favor of the USA Patriot Act, which ultimately enabled bulk data collection of Americans’ phone records, but said this year she supports the USA Freedom Act, which effectively ended the NSA’s bulk collection of data.

Before her speech, Clinton met with a group of local Muslim community leaders in Minneapolis, according to an aide for the campaign.

Summary: She called for more surveillance of social media and visa applications


GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Arizona Cardinals first-round draft pick Robert Nkemdiche worked out on a limited basis Monday, the first time he has practiced in training camp.

The 6-foot-4, 296-pound defensive tackle has been sidelined with a high ankle sprain since he was injured in rookie camp on July 26, three days before the first regular training camp workout.

Coach Bruce Arians said before Monday's practice it shouldn't take too long for Nkemdiche to catch up with his teammates.

"He's been to all the meetings," Arians said. "He should know what gap to get in."

Nkemdiche joins what looks to be the deepest part of the Arizona roster.

He did only individual work on Monday and didn't participate in the 7-on-7 or 11-on-11 drills. Nkemdiche said he got exactly the amount of work he wanted.

"It felt good today," he said. "It felt good being out there with my teammates and feeling the energy again of being in pads. It feels good to be back in a football mode."

Arians expects the big rookie to be part of the regular rotation along the defensive line, in on 20 to 25 plays each game. The Cardinals coaches did the same last season for rookie Rodney Gunter, who came on strong and is listed as a starting defensive tackle.

Nkemdiche, only 21, was the 29th overall pick in the draft out of Mississippi. He slipped in the draft over concerns about an off-the-field incident in which he jumped from a hotel window, an episode that he said is not at all indicative of his character.

He was so aggressive in summer workouts that Arians had to tell him to ease up. But those workouts were in shorts. Monday marked the first time Nkemdiche has practiced in pads.

Before the workout, Arians said he was looking forward to "just see him in practice for the first time, see what type of power he has, how fast he can adjust and, knock on wood, stay healthy."

Nkemdiche said it's possible he will be able to play in Sunday night's game at Houston and described himself as "extremely close" to 100 percent.

"I can't wait," he said. "I've been itching for a couple of weeks now and they've been telling me to just chill, these injuries are no joke so be patient with it and the right time will come."

At his daily news conference, Arians said he was encouraged by the play of safety-cornerback Tyrann Mathieu and cornerback Justin Bethel on Sunday in their first practice since they came off the physically unable to perform list.

Mathieu, a do-everything All-Pro selection coming off surgery to repair a torn ACL, took part in more of the practice than had been expected.

"Because he wanted to," Arians said. "He jumped in a couple of team drills and I like that because he's ready. He's just got to get out there and get in the flow of it."

Bethel, who underwent offseason foot surgery, also impressed the coach and will challenge rookie Brandon Williams for the starting cornerback job opposite Patrick Peterson.

"With him (Bethel) coming back this soon, as good as he looked yesterday," Arians said, "that will be a nice battle going on the rest of the way."

Larry Fitzgerald sat out the practice with a sore knee that kept him out of Friday night's preseason loss at San Diego. Arians said Fitzgerald overdid it in Sunday's practice.

The coach said he wasn't sure how much the starters will play against Houston.

"It depends how we play," he said. "I'm not interested in seeing them play 30 plays. I know what they can do."

The Cardinals have Tuesday off then return for practices Wednesday and Thursday before wrapping up camp on Friday.

Summary: Coach Bruce Arians said it shouldn't take too long for Nkemdiche to catch up with his teammates.


A small plane has landed safely at a southeast Queensland airfield despite experiencing landing gear problems.

A number of emergency services units were on standby as the plane landed at Caboolture Airfield, north of Brisbane, just before 3pm.

The pilot was the only person on board and was not injured, a Queensland Fire and Emergency Services spokesperson said.

Summary: A plane with landing gear problems is preparing to land as safely as possible at Caboolture airfield.


was born in the United States.

The comments quickly rekindled the ugly controversy that was seemingly put to rest when Obama produced his verified birth certificate in 2011.

Obama icily responded from the Oval Office Friday morning: "I'm shocked that a question like that has come up at a time when we have so many other things to do. Well, I'm not that shocked actually. It's fairly typical. We got other things to attend to. I was pretty confident about where I was born. I think most people were as well. My hope would be the presidential election reflects more serious issues than that."

Even before the president's remarks, Trumpâs eldest son,

to try and smooth things over Friday, the same day Democratic rival Hillary Clinton declared the Republican presidential candidate is "feeding into the worst impulses – the bigotry and bias – that lurks in our country."

Friday morning that his father wouldn't address the birther question to the newspaper because he wanted to focus on his policy.

"He doesn't want to get off-message," Trump Jr. said. "He doesn't want to create another story. He wants to talk about jobs for Americans. He wants to talk about his revolutionary plan for women and working mothers these days. Those are the things we want to talk about."

He continued: "We don't want to create gossip scenario all over this thing. This is the presidency of the United States. We want to talk about the issues and putting Americans back to work."

When the elder Trump was asked whether he believes Obama was born in Hawaii, he told

, "I'll answer that question at the right time – I just don't want to answer it yet."

George Stephanopoulos and Donald Trump, Jr.

Source: Good Morning America / Twitter

Instead, he turned to senior communications adviser Jason Miller – who released a statement late Thursday that attempted to lay to rest Trump's crusade.

"Having successfully obtained President Obama's birth certificate when others could not, Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States," Miller said. (In truth, Obama released released his birth certificate via The White House.)

that should be the final word on the matter.

"He said it last night," Trump Jr. said when asked why Trump hadn't answered the question more directly to the

. "His campaign spokesperson who he was speaking to last night – and I was with the team when they were doing it – drafted a statement to say just that. That is coming from him because I was involved in those conversations. The head of his campaign spokesperson is putting it out. That's from the campaign."

Don't believe the biased and phony media quoting people who work for my campaign. The only quote that matters is a quote from me!

As far as Trump, Jr. is concerned, Miller's statement should put the birther debate to rest once and for all.

"This should be the definitive end of it," he said. "We thought it was the definitive end when he got Obama to release his birth certificate. But again – we want to talk about jobs, we don't want to talk about gossip. It doesn't matter."

Meanwhile, Clinton, who is back on the campaign trail after

, addressed the issue while giving a speech at the Black Women's Agenda Symposium Workshop in Washington, D.C. Friday.

"He's trying to restrain himself and clean up his image. But as Maya Angelou once said, 'When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.' "

"And we know who Donald is," she continued. "For five years he has led the birther movement to delegitimize our first black president. His campaign was founded on this outrageous lie. There is no erasing it in history. Just yesterday, Trump again refused to say with his own words that the president was born in the United States.

"He is feeding into the worst impulses – the bigotry and bias – that lurks in our country," she also said.

"Barack Obama was born in America, plain and simple, and Donald Trump owes him and the American people an apology. There is no new Donald Trump. There never will be. Donald Trump looks at President Obama after eight years as our president, he still doesn't see him as an American. Think about how dangerous that is.

"Imagine a person in the Oval Office who traffics in conspiracy theories and refuses to let them go no matter what the facts are. Imagine someone who distorts the truth to fit a very narrow view of the world. Imagine a president who sees someone who doesn't look like him and doesn't agree with him and thinks that person must not be a real American."

The Trump campaign's Thursday statement said he resolved the birther controversy in 2011 "by successfully compelling President Obama to release his birth certificate." But in reality the GOP nominee continued to raise questions about Obama's citizenship even after the president released his birth certificate. Here are some of Trump's tweets on the topic over the years:

An 'extremely credible source' has called my office and told me that @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud.

Wake Up America! See article: "Israeli Science: Obama Birth Certificate is a Fake" http://t.co/f7esUdSz

People should be proud of the fact that I got Obama to release his birth certificate, which in a recent book he âmiraculouslyâ found.

How amazing, the State Health Director who verified copies of Obamaâs âbirth certificateâ died in plane crash today. All others lived

Always remember, I was the one who got Obama to release his birth certificate, or whatever that was! Hilary couldn't, McCain couldn't.

Attention all hackers: You are hacking everything else so please hack Obama's college records (destroyed?) and check "place of birth"

As recently as 2014, Trump was still suggesting that Obama's birth certificate was a fake.

Summary: Hillary Clinton said Donald Trump's birther campaign is feeding into the country's "worst impulses"