On Thursday, just before the Angels' 4-3 victory over the Texas Rangers, Mike Trout introduced himself to the (sort-of) official world of weather broadcasting by delivering a (sort-of) official weather report at Angels Stadium:

According to official weather reports, there were 0.11 inches of precipitation in Anaheim Thursday night, so predicting "a chance of rain" was a good call, Mike!

SEE ALSO: Five storylines to watch during Stanley Cup playoffs

Trout is a weather geek. And that might even be an understatement. At the first notice of unusual weather near his hometown of Millville, N.J., he apparently reads every weather website, checks every radar and barely sleeps. When it comes to weather, Trout is like a little kid on Christmas Eve, eagerly waiting for Santa to bring him tons of toys.

It was just a matter of time before Storm Chaser @MikeTrout got his own weather segment. Good call Mike!https://t.co/ivgIF8asgg

It sounds silly, but Trout's obsession with weather has already been indulged by credible members of the meteorology field.

Back in August, Mike Trout and The Weather Channel discussed the possibility of having "Trout moonlight as a field correspondent during the offseason, should a major storm head toward his hometown of Millville, N.J." And one did—sending Trout into his car in January to film the snowstorm.

Then in February, noted weather expert Jim Cantore—Trout's hero, you could say—sent Trout his own weather balloon, which uses a small measuring device to track information on factors like temperature, humidity and wind speed.

It's the least he could do, being that the baseball star had a tendency to direct message him on Twitter asking incredibly detailed and serious weather questions

There's no need to worry: Trout's not leaving the baseball diamond anytime soon for The Weather Channel. He just found yet another career path in which he can excel.

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Mike Trout shows off skills as a weather man (Video)

Craig Biggio, Roy Halladay, Trevor Hoffman, Mike Mussina, Joe Mauer, Clayton Kershaw, Felix Hernandez, Jeff Bagwell, Eric Gagne, CC Sabathia, Tim Hudson, Chase Utley, Nomar Garciaparra, Miguel Tejada, Juan Gonzalez, Mark Buehrle, Roy Oswalt, Andy Pettitle, Curt Schilling, Bobby Abreu, Andrew McCutchen, Carlos Beltran, Edgar Martinez, Johan Santana, Jason Giambi, Raphael Palmiero, Barry Larkin, Fred McGriff.

(The Sporting News via Getty Images)

Rookie of the Year, MVP, 4-time All-Star

(Harry How via Getty Images)

600+ home runs, 5-time All-Star, 72.9 bWAR

(BRIAN BAHR via Getty Images)

200+ wins, 150+ saves, 8-time All-Star

(Doug Pensinger via Getty Images)

2-time MVP, 4-time All-Star, 500+ home runs

(TIM ROBERTS via Getty Images)

All-time catching home run leader (400+ home runs), 12-time All-Star, Rookie of the Year

9-time All-Star, 3-time World Series champion, 400+ home runs

(Jim Rogash via Getty Images)

9-time All-Star, MVP, 400+ home runs, .318 batting average, 126 outfield assists

(Doug Pensinger via Getty Images)

2-time Cy Young, 10-time All-Star, 300+ wins

(MARCOS TOWNSEND via Getty Images)

10-time All-Star, 5-time Cy Young winner, World Series champion

(The Sporting News via Getty Images)

12-time All-Star, 9-time Silver Slugger winner, 2-time World Series champion, 2,500+ hits, 555 home runs

(Stephen Dunn via Getty Images)

4 consecutive Cy Youngs, 8-time All-Star, 18-time Gold Glove

(The Sporting News via Getty Images)

10-time All-Star, 2-time MVP, 400+ home runs

(Leon Halip via Getty Images)

14-time All-Star, World Series champion, MVP, 13-time Gold Glove award, 7-time Silver Slugger winner, 300+ home runs

(Rich Pilling via Getty Images)

3-time MVP, 10-time All-Star, 500+ home runs, 2-time Gold Glove

(Rich Pilling via Getty Images)

600+ home runs, 7-time All-Star, 6-time Silver Slugger

(New York Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

12-time All-Star, 583 home runs, 2-time World Series champion

(Sporting News Archive via Getty Images)

13-time All-Star, 10-time Gold Glove winner, MVP, 4-time home run champion

(Scott Rovak via Getty Images)

14-time All-Star, 5-time World Series champion, 3,000 hits, 5-time Gold Glove

(The Sporting News via Getty Images)

19-time All-Star, 2-time MVP, 8-time Silver Slugger, MLB record for consecutive games played (2,632), 400+ home runs

(The Sporting News via Getty Images)

14-time All-Star, 3-time MVP, 40-40 season, 600+ home runs, 3,000+ hits

13-time All-Star, 5-time World Series winner, All-time saves leader (652), World Series MVP

8-time All-Star, 3-time Cy Young, 3,000+ career strikeouts

15-time All-Star, 7-time Silver Slugger winner, 8-time batting champion, 3,000+ hits

(Sporting News Archive via Getty Images)

7-time Cy Young winner, 357 wins, 11-time All-Star Game, 2-time World Series champion, MVP

(TIMOTHY A. CLARY via Getty Images)

Home run king (762), 14-time All-Star, 7-time MVP

(MIKE FIALA via Getty Images)

More from AOL.com: Dangerous storms to hit plains and southern states while record-breaking cold persists in Northeast Fab or flop: Candace Cameron-Bure's puffy coat, Padma Lakshmi's red dress and more The perfect frozen watermelon margarita

Summary: If being a great baseball star of his generation isn’t enough, Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels can certainly find yet another in meteorology.


Ready or not, here it comes: an interest rate hike. Headlines from abroad may be grim (Greece defaults! Chinese stocks plunge!), but the U.S. job market and economy continue to improve, and most economists expect the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark Federal funds rate from its rock-bottom low before the year ends—perhaps as soon as September.

That puts investors in unfamiliar territory, since the Fed hasn’t boosted short-term rates since 2006. But generally, rising rates mean higher profits at banks and insurers, because higher rates increase their “net interest margin,” the spread between their returns on loans and investments and the interest and claims they pay to customers. Analysts, baking in a rate hike, now estimate that bank earnings for 2016 will be a third higher than they were in 2014, according to S&P Capital IQ.

Still, some banks will increase their spreads—and earnings—much faster than others, says Paul Miller, bank analyst at FBR FBRC . One major factor is the composition of a bank’s loan book. Commercial loans generally have floating rates that rise with the Fed’s benchmarks; conversely, rates on mortgages are often fixed, sometimes for decades. Banks whose portfolios lean more toward commercial thus get a bigger boost when rates increase. Miller also favors banks with a high percentage of loans scheduled to roll over in a year or less, since those lenders can more quickly redeploy their money at higher rates.

Texas Capital Bancshares TCBI tops FBR’s list of interest rate winners. The Dallas-based lender has about 42% of its balance sheet in commercial loans. And a stunning 96% of its $16 billion in assets are resetting within a year (the industry average is about 44%). FBR calculates that a 100-basis-point increase in the Federal funds rate—three or four incremental Fed hikes—would boost Texas Capital’s pretax earnings by 36%. The bank’s stock is up about 10% this year but still trades in line with its peer group.

Miller also gives high marks to Zions Bancorp. ZION : 53% of its $40 billion loan book is commercial. Salt Lake City–based Zions has another edge, Miller says: 43% of its customers’ deposits are in non-interest-bearing accounts (think checking, not savings), which will keep expenses down as rates rise. Zions’ stock trades at a relatively cheap 1.1 times book value, vs. 1.6 for large banks as a group.

For insurers, interest rates affect the spread between investment income—typically from real estate and bonds—and claim payments. Josh Shanker, an insurance analyst at Deutsche Bank DB , says that rate hikes are often a wash for property and casualty insurers because inflation boosts their claims in lockstep with their investment gains. Life insurers’ claim payouts, however, are less sensitive to inflation, making those companies a better play. Yaron Kinar, also of Deutsche Bank, likes life and annuity giant MetLife MET . The stock trades at a steep discount to other life insurers and sports a better-than-average 2.9% dividend yield. Kinar thinks that a rate hike could boost MetLife’s stock price 10% within a year and that the stock will continue to climb if more increases ensue.

To see the full Fortune Global 500 list, visit fortune.com/global500.

A version of this article appears in the August 1, 2015 issue of Fortune magazine with the headline “Stocks That Win When Rates Rise.”

Summary: When the Fed finally hikes interest rates, these banks and insurers should have an edge over their rivals.


Amazon Prime, the e-commerce giant’s subscription membership service, is now being used by 38% of American households, according to Investors Business Daily.

As part of the company’s subscription service, Amazon Prime, users can access streamed movies, TV shows and Amazon’s original productions, in addition to free two-day shipping on orders.

Investment bank Cowen, which surveyed 2,500 U.S. shoppers, said in a research report Wednesday that Amazon Prime had 41 million members in December, a 32% increase from the same month a year earlier. Cowan partly attributed the growth to a Black Friday-like sales holiday Amazon held for Prime members over the summer that attracted new subscribers.

Some estimates peg Amazon’s worldwide Prime membership at 80 million.

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Amazon Prime members are also reportedly higher earners than the average Amazon, Walmart , and Target customers. In December, Cowen released a report showing that Prime Members have an average household income of $69,300, well above the income of Amazon shoppers in general. It is also 25% higher than Walmart shoppers’ average income and 4% above Target’s. The point is that Prime is winning the war against other big retailers to attract higher income shoppers.

WATCH: For more about Amazon Prime, watch this video:

Clearly, Prime continues to grow, which means it’s harder for Walmart, Target, and others to compete with the Seattle-based company. Both Walmart and Target reported modest e-commerce growth rates in the third quarter, as Amazon’s sales grew 23%.

Summary: Fast growth by Amazon's subscription service could be a big problem for Walmart and Target.


Primary Day was a total snoozefest for one Upper West Side poll worker — whose on-the-clock napping was just one of countless snafus to frustrate city voters.

Tyron Brewington, who was paid $200 to man a ballot-marking device for disabled people, instead was slumped over in his chair catching Zs during the gig.

His fellow polling-station workers at PS 75 on West End Avenue were hardly amused by the Rip Van Winkle routine, saying they’d made numerous complaints to the city’s Board of Elections.

“He’s been here before and he’s gotten worse,” one volunteer said.

Another worker echoed the remarks Tuesday: “This gentleman has issues. We have him in a position where he’s interacting with the least amount of people.”

But no one gave Brewington, 54, the boot until around 5:45 p.m. — after The Post made inquiries with the Board of Elections.

The drowsy poll worker denied sleeping on the job.

“This is the busiest polling station around,” he said. “It’s busy.”

Meanwhile, New Yorkers seethed about inaccurate voter rolls, being shut out of closed polling sites and showing up to stations that ran out of ballots.

Mayor de Blasio complained that voting lists in Brooklyn contained “numerous errors, including the purging of entire buildings and blocks of voters from voting lists.”

“The perception that numerous voters may have been disenfranchised undermines the integrity of the entire electoral process and must be fixed,” he said.

The mayor received reports that the purged lists were at polling stations at PS 5 in Bedford-Stuyvesant and PS 251 in East Flatbush, according to a City Hall source. Those communities have large minority populations that would likely vote for Hillary Clinton.

Two polling sites in Brooklyn — a senior center in Fort Greene and PS 73 in Bedford-Stuyvesant — failed to open for at least two hours.

A polling station at the Atlantic Terminal Senior Citizens Center didn’t open until 8:15 a.m. because the elections coordinator simply didn’t show up, according to a Board of Elections spokeswoman.

Vexed voters took to Twitter to voice their complaints.

“I have been here since 550 am.. Still cannot vote. Machines are not up and there are no paper ballots,” @LammyGwanBadSuh tweeted from a polling station at the Christopher Avenue Community School in Brownsville.

Former city GOP candidate for comptroller John Burnett said his Harlem polling place ran out of Republican ballots — and he was handed a Democratic ballot instead.

“CORRUPTION IN FULL FORCE in Harlem,” he tweeted.

He told The Post that a poll worker was directing Democrats to vote for Hillary Clinton delegates.

Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders slammed the city’s disorganized elections administration as a national embarrassment.

“From long lines and dramatic under-staffing to longtime voters being forced to cast provisional ballots and thousands of registered New Yorkers being dropped from the rolls, what’s happening today is a disgrace,” said Sanders spokesman Karthik Ganapathy.

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office received over 700 phone calls and e-mail complaints from voters across the state — many from people who lamented that they were not registered or not enrolled in a political party to vote in a presidential primary, or that they were being denied affidavit ballots.

Additional reporting by Kirstan Conley, Matthew Allan and Yoav Gonen

Summary: Primary Day was a total snoozefest for one Upper West Side poll worker — whose on-the-clock napping was just one of countless snafus to frustrate city voters. Tyron Brewington, who was paid $200 to…


by Johnny Dodd and Andrea Park

Sheila Wysocki knows what it feels like to lose someone close to her and have the murder case go unsolved.

In 1984, her college roommate,

. For more than two decades, her killer remained unknown.

But Wysocki would not let the case go. She hounded the Dallas Police Department for several years – calling them more than 750 times, she estimates – until recovered DNA evidence pointed to serial rapist Donald Bess, who was eventually convicted and sentenced to death for the crime in 2010.

"A private investigator once told me, 'Yeah, some cases are not meant to be solved,' " Wysocki, now 53, tells PEOPLE. "I thought, 'Oh, buddy, you are so wrong. I am going to solve this.' "

The tenacious mother of two earned her P.I. license during her investigation into Samota's murder. But after the case was solved, she never thought she'd use it again. "I didn't care about any case other than this one," she says.

Wysocki's plans changed, however, when the public heard about her efforts on Samota's case. She was subsequently inundated with requests from strangers who had lost loved ones in cases that were still unsolved.

"There are thousands of unsolved murders," Wysocki says. "And I thought maybe there would not be if authorities and victims' families worked with each other."

The Nashville-based P.I. has since dived back into investigative work, fueled largely by the all-too-familiar desperation and frustration of victims' loved ones.

"I know what families go through to find answers," she says.

Summary: A Tennessee woman became a private investigator as she worked to solve the 20-year-old murder of her college roommate


The multi-million dollar guitar famously owned by Kurt Cobain -- the last one he played before killing himself -- is at the center of Frances Bean Cobain's nasty divorce.

Frances' estranged hubby, Isaiah Silva, claims she gave him Kurt's Martin D-18E as a wedding present. It's the same instrument the Nirvana frontman famously strummed during his epic "MTV Unplugged" performance.

The acoustic-electric is something of a holy grail for Nirvana fans. For starters, only about 300 were made before Martin discontinued the model. Kurt, who was left-handed, had the bridge and nut replaced so he could play it upside down.

Frances denies giving Isaiah the guitar, and wants it back, with good reason. It was once insured for $1 million and experts now think it's worth several million bucks.

We got Courtney Love at LAX Tuesday, who squarely sided with her daughter, essentially saying Isaiah's a scammer.

Summary: The multi-million dollar guitar famously owned by Kurt Cobain -- the last one he played before killing himself -- is at the center of Frances Bean…


M.I.A. is not one of Oprah’s favorite things.

That’s at least according to the politically outspoken rapper, who revealed in a Rolling Stone interview that she had a very frosty encounter with the media mogul – including being called a “terrorist.”

M.I.A. recalled meeting Oprah at Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World Gala in 2009, during which she tried to engage the celeb in conversation about the civil war in her native Sri Lanka.

“‘Hey, people are gonna f---ing die in my country. Like, please pay attention,’” she recalled telling the talk show host.

“And she was like, ‘You're s--t because you were rude to Lady Gaga and I'm not talking to you. And I'm gonna interview Tom Cruise jumping on my sofa, so f--k off.’"

The “Paper Planes” rapper said that while Oprah agreed to take a photo with her, she refused to speak with her.

“She shut me down. She took that photo of me, but she was just like, ‘I can't talk to you because you're crazy and you're a terrorist.’

“And I'm like, ‘I'm not. I'm a Tamil and there are people dying in my country and you have to like look at it because you're f---ing Oprah and every American told me you're going to save the world.’”

M.I.A.’s interview was to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of her debut album “Arular,” which also led her to open up about her tumultuous relationship with her ex-boyfriend, music producer Diplo.

She claimed that he responded to her signing with Interscope by "smashing up" her hotel room and breaking all the furniture.

“He was so angry I got picked up by a major label and it was the corniest thing in the world that could possibly happen,” M.I.A. said

“I wish I enjoyed (my success) because I had this person on my shoulder the whole time saying, ‘It's s--t, it's s--t, it's s--t. You shouldn't be on the charts. You shouldn't be in the magazines and you should not be going to interviews. You should not be doing collaborations with famous people. You should be an underground artist.’”

Ironically, her ex has gone mainstream himself in recent years, collaborating with major stars such as Madonna and Britney Spears. He’s also made headlines for dating Katy Perry and getting caught up in a feud with Taylor Swift.

“When I look back at it in 2015, I can see that he was just jealous and he couldn't wait to be Taylor Swift's best friend and date Katy Perry,” she said. “But at that time I believed him.”

While M.I.A. might not resolve her beef with Oprah any time soon, she did have a happy ending with her ex.

Rolling Stone reports that just a day after the interview took place, she and Diplo reconnected, with the producer commemorating the moment on Instagram, which he captioned, “best friends forever.”

Summary: M.I.A. is not one of Oprah’s favorite things. The rapper revealed she had a very frosty encounter with the media mogul several years ago.


Here’s one thing Chris Brown might not be able to beat: a sizzurp addiction.

Rumors are swirling that the controversial singer has developed a dangerous dependency on the illegal cocktail.

Tmz is about to run a bogus story tomorrow becuz they aren't getting any traffic.

— Chris Brown (@chrisbrown) November 3, 2015

For those who roll outside the world of music videos, sizzurp is a blend of codeine-based cough syrup, soda (often Sprite) and, optionally, a Jolly Rancher.

“It gives you a sense of euphoria,” says Harris Stratyner, Ph.D., regional clinical vice president of Caron Treatment Centers’ New York Recovery Services.

The drink — or “drank,” as it’s known on the street — was born in Houston and gained nationwide popularity more than a decade ago, in part due to its prominence in hip-hop culture.

The group Three 6 Mafia released “Sippin’ on Some Syrup” in 2000, and Jay Z mentioned it in his 1999 hit “Big Pimpin’.”

“You’ll see a lot of it backstage,” Stratyner says. “I treat a lot of celebrity types. Because Sprite is in it, it’s considered kidlike.”

Kidlike or not, the sweet cocktail is both highly addictive — and potentially lethal.

DJ Screw, a Houston-based artist who released one of the first tracks celebrating sizzurp, died from a codeine overdose in 2000.

Rapper Lil Wayne suffered seizures in 2013, reportedly due to too much drank. 2 Chainz was sentenced to 18 months in a drug treatment program in 2014 after the ingredients for sizzurp were discovered in his luggage at LAX.

Even Justin Bieber has not been immune to the purple beast. He was spotted last year guzzling a purple beverage from a Styrofoam cup, raising speculation that he might be addicted.

Downing too much of the beverage can damage the nervous system and stop the heart and lungs, causing death.

So why would someone like Brown take the risk? Doesn’t he know that the rich person’s drug of choice is cocaine?

As with most things, it comes down to accessibility.

“Cough syrup is very easy to get a hold of,” Stratyner says.

Summary: Here’s one thing Chris Brown might not be able to beat: a sizzurp addiction. Rumors are swirling that the controversial singer has developed a dangerous dependency on the illegal cocktail. Fo…


A San Francisco woman drowned over the weekend in a section of heavy rapids along the American River in El Dorado County, officials said.

Elaine Yi Mau, 32, had been floating down the river in inner tubes Saturday afternoon with her husband and about 12 friends, officials said. When the group noticed that Mau was no longer with them, one of them called 911, officials said.

Photo: Jason Henry, Special To The Chronicle

The American River at the Marshal Gold Discovery State Historic Park in Coloma on Feb. 21, 2014. A San Francisco woman drowned over the weekend while inner tubing with friends on the river near Kyburz.

The American River at the Marshal Gold Discovery State Historic Park in Coloma on Feb. 21, 2014. A San Francisco woman drowned over the weekend while inner tubing with friends on the river near Kyburz.

A guided rafting trip plunges through Satan's Cesspool on the South Fork American River in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada east of Sacramento. This year's snowpack in the high Sierra will mean plenty of water for rafting this coming year.

A guided rafting trip plunges through Satan's Cesspool on the South Fork American River in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada east of Sacramento. This year's snowpack in the high Sierra will mean plenty of

Experienced O.A.R.S. guides steer rafts through rapids on the American River.

Experienced O.A.R.S. guides steer rafts through rapids on the American River.

SF woman drowns while inner-tubing on American River

Emergency responders from the El Dorado County Fire District, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office initiated a search on the river’s south fork near the town of Kyburz about 4:45 p.m., a half hour after the woman went missing.

Mau’s body was found submerged in a section of strong rapids and pulled from the water about 6 p.m. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The sheriff’s office said its boating safety unit was investigating the incident.

No one in the group had been wearing life jackets at the time, said Lt. Jim Byers, a sheriff’s spokesman.

“Unfortunately, this section of the river is very treacherous. It’s considered expert-only,” Byers said. “It’s pretty much all Class IV, Class V rapids. You rarely ever see anybody up there except for professional kayakers.”

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov

Summary: Elaine Yi Mau, 32, had been floating down the river in inner tubes Saturday afternoon with her husband and about 12 friends, officials said.  Emergency responders from the El Dorado County Fire District, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office initiated a search on the river’s south fork near the town of Kyburz about 4:45 p.m., a half hour after the woman went missing.  The sheriff’s office said its boating safety unit was investigating the incident.  No one in the group had been wearing life jackets at the time, said Lt. Jim Byers, a sheriff’s spokesman.


By Lloyd Vries CBS/AP July 29, 2004, 10:56 AM

Texas Department of Transportation maintenance worker John McDonald talks to citizens Thursday, July 29, 2004, about a bridge that was washed out by flood waters on Ovilla Road near Main Street in Ovilla, Texas. Heavy rains on Wednesday night caused extensive flooding south of Dallas. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Irwin Thompson)

At least two people died as thunderstorms spewed more than a foot of rain in parts of north Texas, flooding homes, knocking out power and washing out a bridge south of Dallas.A man's body and two vehicles were found late Thursday in a flooded creek downstream from a collapsed bridge in the Ellis County town of Ovilla. Fire and rescue crews continued searching the creek, and County Judge Chad Adams said they expected to find more dead.Adams said the bridge was swept out as the severe storms moved through the Dallas-Fort Worth area early Thursday. Some parts of the region received more than 13 inches of rain from the storms that began Wednesday night.In the south Dallas suburb of Lancaster, city officials declared a local disaster to help get state and federal relief after flooding damaged as many as 200 homes.Looking at the remnants of her home, flood victim Esther Williams told CBS News Correspondent Jim Acosta, "Everything is just totally destroyed. There is nothing worth salvaging." With creeks still swollen and soil soaked, residents across the region braced for the possibility of scattered showers."If we get any precipitation, it's going to aggravate all of the water problems that are going on," said Gary Woodall, meteorologist with National Weather Service.In Dallas, at least one death was caused by the weather Wednesday night when a motorist in a pickup truck knocked over a utility pole. Live wires fell on the truck and electrocuted the man, authorities said.An estimated 45,000 north Texas customers were without electricity at the peak of the storms, said utility spokeswoman Eliza Anderson, but most power had been restored by late Thursday.Lancaster officials evacuated several neighborhoods and estimated there were about 20 high-water rescues, some by boat."I don't really have anything to compare it to," said city spokeswoman Opal Robertson. "We haven't had this much rain in that short period of time."It was the second flood in about a month at the home of Fred and Eileen Odom and their five children. Their 13-year-old was sprawled on the carpet reading around midnight when he noticed his elbow was wet.A short time later, the carpet was sopping and floodwaters were ankle-deep on the kitchen linoleum as the Odoms put up valuables and gathered their children in the center of the house. Outside, water knocked over a heavy basketball goal and covered the wheels of a minivan."You couldn't see anything. You couldn't see the yard. All you could see was water, rushing water," said Eileen Odom, 42.Lancaster's police station also flooded and a leaking roof collapsed the ceiling of the 911 call center. Calls were rerouted temporarily.Jerry Johns, president of the Southwestern Insurance Information Service, said preliminary estimates for damages covered by homeowners policies totaled $17 million to $20 million in north Texas.In southern Dallas County, authorities received more than 80 calls for high-water rescues, Sgt. Don Peritz said. It was unclear how many people were rescued.In the Fort Worth suburb of Haltom City, crews rescued a 16-year-old boy who had been swept into a flood-swollen creek.

© 2004 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Summary: Foot Of Rain Knocks Out Power, Damages 175-200 Homes


Need a little wine while wandering supermarket aisles?

That could be one of the many inducements grocery shoppers encounter if they head to the store in 2016, if they're not staying home ordering their steak, potatoes and detergents online, one expert predicts.

We go to the store a lot. Americans spent about $638 billion a year at supermarkets in 2014, according to the Food Marketing Institute. However, our average tab, it says, is just $29.90 per visit. Customers averaged 1.5 visits a week in 2015, the institute says.

"Look for grocers to get creative and enliven what has been a mundane chore," says John Karolefski, veteran supermarket analyst who runs GroceryStories.com.

Karolefski recently identified the top five trends he expects we'll see in the new year, including continued growth in some trends that are well underway.

Click ahead for a look at his predictions.

Summary: Grocers roll out entertainment, food and drink, technology and convenience as they try to lure customers to shop with them


Back in the ’90s, the Atrium in Chestnut Hill was a mecca for suburban teens hunting for the latest flannel shirts and drawstring cargo pants at its Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch stores.

But the mall closed three years ago, and its new owners are now aiming to make it a mecca of a different sort: a hub of health and wellness and fitness that would suit its former customers, now decades older.

The anchor of the new building will be Life Time Fitness, a national operator of giant health clubs that opened its first Massachusetts gym in Westwood a year ago. The Chestnut Hill building will be renamed the Life Time Center, and the company will fill the bottom two floors, some 110,000 square feet, with high-end exercise space, in-house spas, even a healthy cafe and bar.

Meantime, the building’s owner, a Needham developer known as the Bulfinch Cos., is marketing the remaining space upstairs to doctors and health and wellness providers.

It’s a novel attempt to remake an old mall, many of which are struggling amid fierce competition from newer shopping centers and online retailers. Indeed, even along a moneyed stretch of Route 9, the Atrium long battled to draw customers from bigger neighbors.

But as a hub for offices that draw a lot of traffic, the old mall has some attractive qualities, said Bulfinch chief executive Eric Schlager, including a huge garage and vast floorplates in an affluent corridor just 2 miles from Longwood Medical Area. They’re trying to build a complex that meets a lot of needs, in one place.

“We thought it was just a logical transition,” he said. “It’s a convergence of what customers want to see today.”

Bulfinch bought the Atrium for $46 million in 2012, gradually moved out the last retail tenants, and then launched a major renovation of the building. It stripped out the storefronts, escalators, and marble floors and replaced dark walls with floor-to-ceiling windows.

Today, the only things left from its heyday are the soaring three-story open space and skylights that gave the mall its name. A gilt-edged elevator is the only echo of its glitzy opening in 1989, celebrated with a doorman and a pianist in a tuxedo. The mostly unfinished interior has one built-out space — Bulfinch’s marketing office — with muted carpeting and clean glass that signal its future look.

The bottom two floors will mostly be Life Time’s. Typically, the Minnesota-based chain builds huge new gyms in roomy suburban locations. It launched a three-story stand-alone facility, with an outdoor pool, in Westwood last year and will open a similar facility in Framingham this week. A third location, in Burlington, is in the planning stages, chief executive Bahram Akradi said.

The Atrium Life Time will be a bit different — no pool or basketball courts, more space for high-end spa treatments and medical care. But the company loves the neighborhood, Akradi said, and worked for a year with Bulfinch designing a club to fit in there.

“We think with us in that building, their direction really becomes clear,” Akradi said. “It’s going to be a center for healthy living, healthy aging, and it’s going to serve the area very well.”

Blending retail and office, fitness, and a new restaurant is a smart use of an old mall, said Haril Pandya, who works on reusing old buildings at CBT Architects in Boston. That mix should draw a lot of people, especially if Bulfinch can find ways to keep it a lively place well into the evening.

“Gone are the days of that centralized mall experience,” Pandya said. “Now developers are trying to blur the lines between live, work, and play. Putting fitness at the core of a building like this really makes sense.”

Bulfinch is working to nail down more tenants upstairs. Schlager said they’re set to close deals soon with several smaller offices and a restaurant. And Life Time plans to open in 2017, by which point this onetime mecca for flannel shirts and cargo pants will be something else, entirely.

Summary: The former Atrium mall inChestnut will host a massive gym, medical offices


Last Updated Jul 12, 2016 6:22 PM EDT

A federal judge in Virginia ruled in favor of an anti-Trump delegate Thursday, helping clear the way for the Never-Trump movement to cause trouble at the Republican Convention in Cleveland next week.

In a decision released Thursday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne sided with Carroll "Beau" Correll, who had filed suit alleging that laws binding a state's delegates to a particular candidate are unconstitutional.

Virginia law dictates that delegates be awarded on a winner-take-all basis--which conflicts with the Republican National Committee's rules, which require states voting before March 15 to award delegates on a proportional basis. Trump won the March 1 Virginia primary with just under 35 percent of the vote.

Correll, however, supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign--and he argued that the law requiring him to vote for Trump at the convention violates his constitutional rights.

The ruling is good news for the anti-Trump group Free the Delegates, which is working to get as many delegates as it can to vote against Trump on the convention floor next week. Should Trump be denied the 1,237 delegates necessary to officially secure the nomination, his opponents hope they could bring in a new candidate to take Trump's place.

In a statement, Correll's lawyer David Rivkin Jr. said the suit makes it clear GOP delegates have the same "freedom of speech and freedom of association" that "all Americans" have.

"Today's decision should give comfort to all delegates that they cannot be punished for voting their conscience at the Republican National Convention," he said.

Still, it's more a symbolic victory for anti-Trump activists than a practical one, since the decision didn't overturn the RNC's overall rules for binding delegates. Following the decision, Trump's team pointed out that delegates must still vote based on their state's rules for binding delegates; in Virginia, that means the delegates are allocated proportionally based on the state's primary results.

"The court has confirmed what we have said all along: Rule 16 is in effect and thus delegates, including Correll, are bound to vote in accordance with the election results," Trump campaign attorney Don McGahn said in a statement.

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Summary: A federal judge struck down Virginia's law binding delegates to vote based on the state's primary results, a victory for the Never Trump movement


McDonald’s reported its first quarterly increase in U.S. same-restaurant sales in two years Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported, suggesting the fast-food chain’s turnaround efforts are bearing fruit.

The burger chain’s improvement comes with the recent start of all-day breakfast as well as a newly anointed CEO Steve Easterbrook, who joined the company earlier this year.

Shares of McDonald’s MCD surged in early trading.

In the U.S. market, McDonald’s same-restaurant sales grew 0.9% in the latest quarter, beating the 0.2% decline analysts had expected, according to Consensus Metrix.

“Third quarter marked an important step in the Company’s global turnaround—the reorganization of our business from a geographically focused structure to business segments that combine markets with similar characteristics and opportunities for growth,” said CEO Easterbrook in a statement. “As we begin fourth quarter, comparable sales are expected to be positive in all segments.”

He added: “While still in the early stages, we believe our turnaround plan is starting to generate the change needed to reposition McDonald’s as a modern, progressive burger company.”

Notably, however, McDonald’s franchisees haven’t been feeling too optimistic about the chain’s future.

Summary: The burger chain's shares are surging on the news.


WASHINGTON, March 2 - The Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation renewing the sweeping antiterror law known as the USA Patriot Act on Thursday, ending a months-long impasse on Capitol Hill and virtually guaranteeing that the measure will go to President Bush to be signed.

The vote of 89 to 10, followed an agreement last month by the White House to add more protections for individual privacy. That deal mollified four Senate Republicans, who had joined with Democrats last year in blocking the bill, an extension of a law enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

The measure's 16 major provisions were set to expire March 10, but if the House approves the bill, as expected, 14 of the 16 will become permanent.

The Senate action was a bit of good news for the president, who has been buffeted by dipping poll numbers and criticism from within his own party on matters including Hurricane Katrina, electronic eavesdropping and port security.

Renewing the Patriot Act was a major priority for Mr. Bush, but resistance from some lawmakers had resulted in a series of short-term extensions as the debate dragged on through the winter.

"The Patriot Act is vital to the war on terror and defending our citizens against a ruthless enemy," the president said in a statement from India.

"This bill will allow our law enforcement officials to continue to use the same tools against terrorists that are already used against drug dealers and other criminals, while safeguarding the civil liberties of the American people."

But the vote on Thursday does not end the long-running debate on Capitol Hill over whether the Patriot Act, which greatly expanded the government's investigative powers in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, strikes the proper balance between government authority and civil liberties.

Some lawmakers who voted for the bill expressed deep reservations about it, and the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is already drafting further legislation to revise it.

The chairman, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, voted for the version that passed Thursday, saying it struck "an acceptable balance."

But, he said, "I want to put down a benchmark to get extra protections which better comport with my own sensitivity to civil rights."

Since its adoption in 2001, the Patriot Act has drawn vigorous complaints from advocates for civil liberties, who contend that provisions like those allowing the government to obtain library and medical records infringe on basic civil rights.

Then, just before Christmas last year, with Congress rushing to adjourn, the act was caught up in revelations that Mr. Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without a court order on conversations of Americans and others inside the United States who were suspected of terrorist activity. The resulting impasse prompted Congress to twice extend the original Patriot Act.

The measure passed Thursday adds judicial oversight, giving recipients of subpoenas the right to challenge an accompanying judicial order not to discuss the case publicly, although they would have to wait one year while complying with the subpoena in the meantime.

It also would prevent the F.B.I. from demanding the names of lawyers consulted by people who receive secret government requests for information, and it would prevent most libraries from being subject to such requests.

But investigators would still have the power to obtain information about terror suspects who use libraries to gain access to the Internet, by seeking that information directly from Internet service providers.

Critics said the safeguards do not go far enough. Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, pronounced the measure "significantly flawed."

"I tried to have conversations with the White House to improve the bill," he said, "but my efforts were dismissed."

The Democrat who last year led a filibuster of the bill, Senator Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, was so irate over the final measure that he spent much of Wednesday reading the Constitution on the Senate floor to underscore his opposition to ending the debate.

In the end, 34 Democrats joined all 55 Republicans in voting to pass the bill, while 9 Democrats and the lone independent, Senator James M. Jeffords of Vermont, voted against it. Senator Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, a Democrat, was absent.

Summary: Senate votes 89 to 10 to renew sweeping antiterror law known as USA Patriot Act, major priority for Pres Bush (M)


Suspected Maoist rebels have ambushed and killed 10 paramilitary soldiers in one of India's deadliest attacks so far this year.Â

Eight soldiers died instantly, and two died on the way to the hospital, while five other soldiers were wounded, P K Thakur, the state of Bihar's director general, told Reuters news agency on Tuesday.Â

Three rebels were also killed in the incident on Monday afternoon.

Police said the paramilitary soldiers were carrying out an anti-Maoist operation in the forests of Bihar state's Aurangbad district, when rebels detonated a series of homemade bombs.Â

READ MORE: Soldiers killed in Indian army convoy ambushÂ

Following the explosions, the soldiers found themselves isolated on lower ground, PK Thakur said.

"The police party had almost 100 troops. The first group got trapped in an area of landmines and there were serial blasts," Thakur said.

"We are investigating if we were lured to the area," Kundan Krishnan, Bihar inspector general of police, told AFP news agency, adding that it was a "well-planned attack".

"We called off the operation late at night as we suspect more mines were planted in the area," said Saurabh Kumar, a deputy inspector-general of police in the region.

READ MORE: Indian soldiers killed in rebel ambush in Manipur state

"We are in control now."

Maoist rebels said they are fighting to secure the rights of the poor and marginalised.

The ambush was just their most recent in a string of attacks.

In March, seven police officers were killed when their truck hit a rebel-planted landmine in central Chhattisgarh state.

Maoists also killed 13 police officers and wounded 12 in a remote part of Chhattisgarh in December 2014.

The Indian government describes the Maoist rebellion as the country's most serious internal security threat.

Armed Maoist rebels attack convoy in India

Summary: Ten paramilitary soldiers were killed in an ambush by Maoist rebels in eastern Bihar state.


Thursday’s episode of Lip Sync Battle has not even aired on Spike yet, but a 30-second preview of Agents of S.H.I.E.LD. star Clark Gregg’s spin on Britney Spears’s “Toxic” is already blowing up online.

The Marvel actor will appear in a version of the blue flight attendant uniform that the pop diva wore in the song’s music video as he competes with another Marvel actor Hayley Atwell (Agent Carter).

The appearance caps off their ongoing “friendly lip syncing feud” for charity, in which they would post Dubsmash videos (using the app that dubs clips with different songs), allowing fans to “vote” for their favorite one by making a donation. Atwell’s team ended up winning that competition, so that may explain why it looks like Gregg is pulling out all the stops for this Lip Sync Battle performance.

The full episode airs April 21 at 10:00 p.m. ET.

Summary: He faces off with Agent Carter's Hayley Atwell on April 21


Athleisure is a usefully proportioned portmanteau: It uses all of the word “leisure” but less than half of the word “athletic.”

At Bandier, an expansive new athleisure store in the Flatiron district, there’s an in-house fitness studio right upstairs that offers a weekly schedule of opportunities to exercise.

The setup defies the assumption that athleisure clothes are for running around town more than actually running. And for some, spending the day in a gym look or wearing leggings to a meeting may make exercise feel more convenient; once you’re dressed, the gym is always metaphorically right upstairs.

But mostly, athleisure is about fitness culture: dressing to be seen by those who will note your fitness level, the same way they may note your manicure or blowout. The idea is to look effortless. The response to any compliment you get while dressed in athleisure: “Oh, thanks, these are just my gym clothes.”

The founder Jennifer Bandier opened her first shop in Southampton, N.Y., in 2014, with a highly curated selection of athleisure labels, fit for … well, looking fit. Her new store is on a stretch of Fifth Avenue where people dash. They dash enough to make anyone feel as if it may be good to wear a sports bra all day, every day.

In June, Ms. Bandier told Refinery29 that there are plans to open an in-store juice bar and to hold album listening parties. (Ms. Bandier is a former music manager.) For now, the space doesn’t invite you to linger.

The first thing I notice when I walk in are two blown-up stencil portraits of women on the wall, one of whom is wearing sunglasses and holding her ponytail up in the air as if she is trying to drag herself into three-dimensional space.

A stairway up to Studio B, the exercise studio, is lined with rainbow spray-painted hearts. Aside from this color-burst, the scheme is black, white and gray, with bright green accents floating in the space like lime slices in water.

In the middle of the room, three comma-shaped gray couches are arranged to face one another, just a little too far apart for any seated parties to share a private joke. Just as well, because shoppers seem serious. Most of the women in the store (everyone in the store is a woman) are already wearing leggings, shopping for more leggings.

“If you’re a woman, chances are you’re wearing leggings,” Ms. Bandier told Bloomberg in 2015. Bandier’s yearly earnings have been reported at $20 million, so this assertion is a great business model.

But what’s the appeal of leggings, really? For one thing, most of those here are made of the same material as slimming shapewear: It’s a subtle way to walk around wearing Spanx-like garments as clothes, while looking like you’re achieving health and wellness.

To appear uniquely stylish while exercising (or potentially exercising later) is another achievement. Elevated leggings, the kind sold at Bandier, have design details: windows covered in mesh, razor-cut slits across the shins, colorful piping in the seams, photorealistic prints and credit-card-size pockets hidden at the waistband. They’re styled with matching sports bras with crisscross wraparound straps and cutouts and neoprene or mesh jackets.

One thing about leggings: They really show your bottom. As I watch the movement in the store, most shoppers drift around the perimeter following the path of the racks, and every time they pass a mirror, they make a subtle quarter-turn and look over their shoulder. Everyone. In the dressing room with my own collage of leggings, I was impressed that manufacturers seem to know about these frequent back glances.

Most of the leggings come in funky printed patterns: a field of sunflowers (Terez, $72), the New York skyline, neon laser beams and tree branches (Prismsport, $88), all shapes and graphics that could easily feel embarrassing if improperly positioned on someone’s rear. But they aren’t. Consistently.

Still, the best pair I tried on was a pair by Stella McCartney for Adidas ($95), which are built with shiny black shorts attached at the waistband.

The act of pulling skintight stretch pants on and off for a half-hour is humorous exercise. An #activefashion hashtag printed on the mirror in the dressing room mocks me, but also reminds me of how visible these clothes are meant to be.

Bandier carries mostly new brands born in the midst of the athleisure wave, as yet “undiscovered” to me. When I read their names — Koral, Vimmia, Alala, Alo, Varley, Olympia — I think, “This is what the autobots will be called when DreamWorks writes a ‘Transformers’ sequel with an all-female cast.”

The clothing itself — racerback tanks, stretchy long-sleeve shirts, lightweight jackets, T-shirts — is relatively homogeneous, but a lot of the shirts are printed with unforgettable mantras. As I read the phrases on some of the shirts in the store, I recall a quippy Dodie Bellamy line: “Maybe life is really that kind to future writing projects.”

The first tank I see says SPIRITUAL GANGSTER in uppercase gold lettering ($56). Another: i’d cook you breakfast ($42), all lowercase. Another tee is shredded in front, as if you held a cat too close (Monrow, $98).

Pick whatever personality you want: spiritual, sultry, chic or tough. Just be sure you get your butt to an exercise class.

Summary: At Bandier, a new athleisure store in the Flatiron district, the idea is to look effortless.


One of the most important U.S. Senate races in the country is in Pennsylvania this year, pitting incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey (R), the former head of the far-right Club for Growth, against Katie McGinty (D), the former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

U.S. Senate candidate Katie McGinty had a few choice words to describe her Republican opponent at a minimum wage rally Monday during the Democratic National Convention.

“I think I might borrow from Chris’ speech there,” she said, referring to Communications Workers of America President Chris Shelton, “in terms of Pat Toomey. He’s an a**hole dammit. We know that, I’ll tell you.”

The comments weren’t made on the convention floor, but rather, at a union office in Philadelphia. It was nevertheless caught on video and it didn’t take long for the clip to circulate.

And it was at this point that I wondered whether Tom Cotton has ever heard of Donald Trump – the presidential candidate the Arkansan has already endorsed.

“Our children are watching,” the NRSC video says before showing McGinty’s shot at Toomey. “What example will we set for them?”

So, as far as the NRSC and Tom Cotton are concerned, Democrats are … correct? Candidates for high office who insult their rivals and use vulgar language aren’t worthy of public support?

Donald Trump’s candidacy makes life tricky for Republicans, doesn’t it?

Summary: Republicans are outraged by a Democratic Senate candidate who made a vulgar insult about a rival. But then there's Donald Trump.


Donald Trump makes a lot of polarizing statements on the campaign trail — from his pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to the inflammatory language he’s used to describe women.

Now, a New Zealand electricity company is using toddlers wearing orange-tinged wigs reminiscent of the real estate mogul’s hair to poke fun at the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee.

Powershop, the retailer, released a commercial on Thursday featuring young Kiwi kids quoting some unforgettable statements Trump made during his routine stump speeches at campaign stops.

“I do not wear a rug,” “my IQ is one of the highest and you know it” and “be careful lying Ted, or I’ll spill the beans on your wife,” were just some of the buzz phrases used.

Summary: Wearing orange-tinged wigs reminiscent of the real estate mogul's hair, the kids quote some unforgettable statements Trump made on the campaign trail.


In an effort to increase substance abuse awareness, Recovery.org decided to compile 100 mugshots from marijuana, DUI, and methamphetamine arrests to see what the average face looks like on drugs.

“While it is unlikely that a user’s basic facial structure depends on the substance they were arrested for, the goal of this project is to expose the effects certain substances might have on a user’s appearance,” the website reads. And what better way to illustrate that than through gifs?

According to Recovery.org, marijuana users tend to have rounder features and a full face, meth users appear gaunt with sagging skin and sunken eyes, and DUI arrestees look … pretty normal.

Here’s a larger version of the final results:

Summary: As told by photos and GIFs


The track, Survival, will be played throughout sports sessions at official venues for the games, such as when athletes enter and during the build-up to medal ceremonies.

Frontman Matt Bellamy said: "It's a huge honour to have the track chosen as such a major part of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

"I wrote it with the Games in mind as it expresses a sense of conviction and determination to win."

Muse are among the stars who have carried the Olympic torch on its lengthy tour of the UK

Muse - who formed in 1994 - were the first band to sell out the rebuilt Wembley stadium, which in its earlier incarnation had been the venue for the 1948 Olympics.

The band have released five studio albums, selling more than 15 million copies worldwide.

Their 2009 release The Resistance became their third album to top the UK charts. The group - which also features Dominic Howard on drums and bass player Chris Wolstenholme - are due to release their next album The 2nd Law in September.

Summary: Stadium-filling rock trio Muse have been chosen to provide the official song   for the London 2012 Olympics.


KABUL, Afghanistan — The number of Afghans internally displaced by the 15-year conflict in their country has more than doubled since the beginning of 2013, with an average of 1,000 people a day forced from their homes this year alone, Amnesty International said on Tuesday.

A sign that the war continues to affect civilians in large numbers came even as Amnesty sought to draw attention to their desperate situation. The Taliban attacked passenger buses in the northern province of Kunduz early Tuesday morning, killing at least 10 passengers and abducting dozens, local officials said.

The Amnesty report, released at a news conference in Kabul, the capital, said that many of the 1.2 million displaced Afghans were living in miserable conditions in camps, lacking adequate water, food and health facilities.

While their number, which stood at about 500,000 at the end of 2012, has more than doubled since then, resources allocated to dealing with the situation have reached the lowest point since 2009, the report said.

In 2015, it said, the United Nations allocated $292 million for its humanitarian response to displaced Afghans.

“While the world’s attention seems to have moved on from Afghanistan, we risk forgetting the plight of those left behind by the conflict,” said Champa Patel, South Asia director at Amnesty International.

“Even after fleeing their homes to seek safety,” she said, “increasing numbers of Afghans are languishing in appalling conditions in their own country and fighting for their survival with no end in sight.”

The violence on Tuesday in Kunduz Province, whose capital briefly fell to the Taliban in the fall, came after weeks of concern about the insurgents’ disruption of the main highway in the north. They have attacked convoys on the highway in Kunduz and in the neighboring province of Baghlan.

The number of passengers killed and abducted on Tuesday was unclear, with officials providing different figures.

The deputy police commander for Kunduz, Masoom Khan Hashemi, said the Taliban had abducted about 175 passengers from two buses and a van that were traveling to Takhar and Badakhshan Provinces.

The attackers killed 10 of the passengers, of whom nine bodies were retrieved by the police, Mr. Hashemi said. They held 18 others and freed the rest.

“When we were opening our shops early in the morning, they were slowly freeing some of the passengers, among them women and children,” said Khial Mohammad, a shopkeeper in the nearby area of Shna Tapa.

Mr. Hashemi said the passengers were “not soldiers, government contractors or related to the government,” but local elders and family members who came to retrieve bodies at the main Kunduz hospital said that at least some of those killed were members of the Afghan police or local government militias who were traveling home.

The Taliban’s main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a statement that the insurgents had detained 26 members of the Afghan Army and police who were traveling in civilian clothes, and had let go other passengers from three vehicles they had stopped. Six of the detainees were killed as they were trying to flee, the statement said.

Follow Mujib Mashal on Twitter @MujMash.

Najim Rahim contributed reporting from Kunduz, Afghanistan.

A version of this article appears in print on June 1, 2016, on page A7 of the New York edition with the headline: 1,000 Afghans Each Day Are Fleeing Their Homes. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: A report by Amnesty International said that many of the 1.2 million Afghans who have been forced from their homes were living in miserable conditions in camps.


Australia has suspended aid to support World Vision's work in the Palestinian Territories in the wake of allegations the charity's head in Gaza funnelled millions of dollars to militant group Hamas.

Manager Mohammad El Halaby is facing charges of diverting $US50 million ($A66 million) dollars to the group.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is investigating the "deeply troubling" matter.

"Any diversion of the generous support of the Australian and international community for military or terrorist purposes by Hamas is to be deplored and can only harm the Palestinian people," the spokesman told AAP on Friday.

"We are suspending the provision of further funding to World Vision for programs in the Palestinian Territories until the investigation is complete."

Australian had allocated World Vision $5 million over five years for agricultural projects and child trauma programs in Gaza.

World Vision Australia chief Tim Costello said the charity was shocked and puzzled by the charges.

"We have absolutely nothing to do with terror. We audit every cent that goes through," Rev Costello said.

"I want to reassure Australians that World Vision's money in Gaza is being spent on reducing poverty for Palestinian people, not terrorism."

Rev Costello said Mr El Halaby was a well-respected manager.

DFAT officials are urgently seeking more information from World Vision and Israeli authorities.

Summary: The foreign affairs department has suspended funding to World Vision for Palestinian Territories programs, amid accusations funds have been diverted.


The birth certificate reportedly reveals his full name as Felix Chang Hong Grant. Felix is the Latin word for lucky and Chang in Chinese means long-lasting.

Grant “tweeted” the news on Saturday afternoon, just minutes after being contacted by journalists who had found out about the birth.

“In answer to some journos. Am thrilled my daughter now has a brother,” he wrote.

“Adore them both to an uncool degree. They have a fab mum.” Around three hours later, he added: “And to be crystal clear. I am the Daddy.”

Grant is understood to have met Miss Hong, who lists her occupation as “housewife”, at a wine bar in Chelsea, west London, in 2008, although the pair were not photographed together until January 2011.

They separated shortly after Miss Hong fell pregnant with their first child and a statement released after Tabitha’s birth described their relationship as “fleeting”.

However, Grant admitted he was delighted with the news and subsequently installed Miss Hong in a £1.2 million house in Fulham, west London.

Since then, the Love Actually star has become one of the most vociferous opponents of the popular press.

He claimed that Miss Hong had been subjected to “harassing and frightening” behaviour by reporters in the days after their daughter’s birth and she later won an injunction that prevented them from pursuing her.

The pair are believed to have briefly reunited last year, when Miss Hing fell pregnant again, although it is not known whether their second child was planned.

The couple are not believed to live together.

Summary: Just 12 hours previously, Hugh Grant had taken to Twitter to announce the   birth of his second child.


Oberlin College’s governing body has denounced as “anti-Semitic and abhorrent” social media posts by a professor that included suggestions Israeli and United States intelligence services were behind terror attacks.

The board of trustees called on the private liberal arts institution in Ohio to conduct a review and report back to it for possible action in the wake of Facebook posts by Joy Karega, a professor in the rhetoric and composition department.

“These grave issues must be considered expeditiously,” Clyde S. McGregor, the board chairman, said in a statement March 5 after a quarterly meeting. “In consultation with President Marvin Krislov, the board has asked the administration and faculty to challenge the assertion that there is any justification for these repugnant postings and to report back to the Board.”

The board’s statement took a stronger stance than the college’s initial reaction to the posts by Dr. Karega, after The Tower, a media organization that reports on Israel and the rest of the Middle East, published on Feb. 25 screenshots of some of her postings from 2015. In them, she referred to the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, as a “C.I.A. and Mossad organization” — a reference to the Israeli intelligence service — and suggested that Mossad had orchestrated the devastating attacks on Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

A day after the Tower report was published, Oberlin said that it “respects the rights of its faculty, students, staff and alumni to express their personal views,” but that Dr. Karega’s statements did not represent the college’s views.

Then, on March 4, the college published another statement, saying that its president, Mr. Krislov, had met with representatives of Jewish organizations.

“In a welcoming atmosphere, we discussed, openly and candidly, the potential implications of a professor’s personal views on classroom activity and student intimidation,” the statement said. “We also discussed our shared respect for academic freedom.”

Dr. Karega, who is teaching social justice writing courses this semester and does not have tenure, did not immediately reply to messages or return a telephone call seeking comment on Monday.

But on March 5, the same day that the board’s statement was published, she said in a Facebook post that she would no longer speak publicly about her situation at Oberlin.

“We have reached a point where it is time for me to defer to my legal counsel,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “And I gladly do so. Those of you who know me know that I have been and will continue to be firm in my convictions and resolve.”

A spokesman for the college was unable to say Monday what, if any, action would be taken. The March 4 statement said the college was “required to follow established academic procedures when addressing questions regarding an individual faculty member.”

Dr. Karega said on Facebook she had been receiving threats and harassment, as well as messages of support. She said she hoped people, particularly those in the Oberlin community, would continue to talk about issues of academic freedom and about what she called contested and controversial knowledge.

“But I also hope that the glaring absence of my voice from such conversations compels folks to also consider and raise the hard questions about issues of labor and positioning in the academy,” she wrote.

In a weekly column, Mr. Krislov said that as a Jew, the grandson of an Orthodox rabbi and as a man whose family members were murdered in the Holocaust, he was affected personally by the posts about Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

There had been calls for her to be dismissed immediately, and for the college to defend her right to freedom of expression, he wrote.

“Our community will address the issues raised in this situation by honoring the essence of liberal arts education at Oberlin by interrogating assertions with facts and deep, critical thinking from multiple viewpoints,” he wrote.

Summary: The board of trustees told the college to consider possible action against the professor, Joy Karega, after she posted incendiary comments on Facebook.


Perfection, c’est travail, said Maurice Ravel. Pride in his own small and perfectly formed achievement, and a conviction that perfection is a supreme quality of art, lie behind those three words. But is perfection really so important? DH Lawrence thought it could go hang. "Give me a little splendour instead," he once wrote. Ravel himself had his doubts. "I have failed in my life," he wrote in a late letter to a friend. "I am not one of the great composers. All the great composers have produced enormously. There is everything in their work; the best and the worst, but there is always quantity. But I have written relatively very little... I did my work slowly, drop by drop."

Whether Ravel was right in his pride or his doubt is something we can judge next week. Tomorrow, BBC Radio 3 is giving over an entire day to the music of Maurice Ravel. From A Ravel Breakfast starting at 6.30 in the morning, to Through the Night at 1.00am, Ravel’s music will be explored from every angle, and almost every note of it played. Ravel experts including pianist Roy Howat will be joining presenters Tom Service and Sara Mohr-Pietsch for a lunchtime Ravel Salon, and later a Ravel Soiree (these days it takes the presence of a Ravel to sanction something so elitist-sounding as a salon). There will be at least one discovery for me: Bolero, heard in the rarely-heard version for two pianos, spiced with side-drum.

The small perfection of Ravel means his output sits neatly in the confines of a Radio 3 day. Another advantage is that Ravel found his own expressive world early, and didn’t change greatly thereafter. So whenever you dip into the Ravel day you’ll encounter something beautifully made, with that special delicate Ravel pathos. These two things are linked, in a way hard to disentangle. Plenty of composers have written technically perfect pieces; think of a Haydn minuet, or a Bach three-part invention, or a Palestrina motet. But in these pieces the music’s perfection disappears into the background. It’s the smoothly flowing river, which allows all kinds of different feelings to float unimpeded. The Bach invention might be severe, the Haydn minuet humorous or tender.

Ravel’s music is different. The delicate part-writing, as intricately wrought as clock-work ("a Swiss watch-maker" is how Stravinsky described Ravel) actually creates its own emotional climate. Nostalgia, and a delicious sense of entering a safe fantasy-world, are at the root of it. It could be said Ravel never grew up emotionally. That isn’t to say he was a naif, like his friend Satie. He could handle adult company perfectly well, but his dandified aristocratic appearance and dry humour kept most people at bay, apart from a few friends. As for erotic relationships – gay or straight – there’s almost no trace. In the end Ravel seems to have preferred the company of children, or the mechanical birds and music-boxes he kept in his house in the country.

There’s a definite mechanical aspect to Ravel’s music, heard in such amazing inventions as the ticking-clock prelude to his comic one-act opera L’Heure Espagnole. At moments like this, Ravel comes close to being a genuinely radical, modern composer. But on the whole his technical intricacy can’t seem modern, because it’s filtered through the forms and gestures of the past. Ravel’s first published piece was an "antique minuet", and he remained a French neo-classicist all his life, despite the odd tinge of modernism such as the jazz in the Piano Concerto.

Ravel’s attachment to the past goes hand-in-hand with his need for constraints. He once said, "My teacher in composition is Edgar Allan Poe", which seems a baffling remark. What connection could there be between Poe’s stifling Gothic horrors and the fairies-at-the-bottom-of-the-garden charm of Ravel? The answer is the way both embraced the constraints of old forms to set their creative instincts in motion. Poe said he invented the odd rhythms of his poem The Raven by experimenting with old verse forms. Ravel found his voice by writing minuets, quaint little Shepherd’s songs (In his opera L’Enfant et les Sortilèges) and a Pavane for a dead Princess.

Note that; the child whom Ravel’s famous piece grieves for is not a real one. The deepest feelings in his music are reserved for things that don’t exist; talking squirrels, imaginary oriental youths, dead princesses. Everything in Ravel’s music is held at a distance, as it was in his life. Just think what iron discipline and self-denial it must have taken, to keep the messy intimacies of life at bay. There’s a similar denial in the music. You always know where the music’s heading; there’s no sense of discovery or risk.

This for me is what separates Ravel from the great composers, not his failure to write vast piles of music. In one of his essays the doughty modernist Pierre Boulez quotes a wonderful line from the French poet René Char. "Comment vivre sans inconnu devant soi? How is it possible to live, without the Unknown in front of us?" Debussy, that fearless explorer, would have known exactly what Char meant by that question. Varèse, Stravinsky and the other great modernists would have understood too, not to mention Beethoven. Ravel would have smiled his little ironic smile, smoothed his immaculate cuffs, and turned back to his mechanical birds.

The Ravel Day takes place on BBC Radio 3 on Friday March 7. Hear it for seven days thereafter on the BBC iPlayer

READ: Is the sound of the saxophone ugly?

Summary: On Friday, Radio 3 dedicates a day to Maurice Ravel, the French composer of   Bolero. Tune in, says Ivan Hewett


WHEN: Today, Wednesday, August 6th

Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC EXCLUSIVE interview with Craig Menear, President of U.S. Retail for Home Depot, today on CNBC's "Closing Bell."

All references must be sourced to CNBC.

KELLY EVANS: Craig Menear, president of U.S. Retail here at Home Depot. We're sitting inside one of your giant new-- what are you calling them?

CRAIG MENEAR: It's a direct fulfillment distribution center.

KELLY EVANS: What does that mean? So it's not a traditional warehouse. What happens here?

CRAIG MENEAR: So what happens here is we have the capability to have about 100,000 individual stock keeping units in this building that we can send directly out to our customers either to their home or through one of our 2,000 locations in our stores.

KELLY EVANS: Because Home Depot is no longer building new stores. You're putting your investment dollars into these kinds of facilities, why? What does this represent in terms of the transformation of the retail space?

CRAIG MENEAR: So you're right, Kelly, we are putting the investments beyond stores now. And we can do things like build out this direct fulfillment D.C. to be able to enable what we call our interconnected retail. And so what that is is allowing our customers to shop when, where and how they want in terms of whether that be buying direct from us and having it sent to their home, which this facility has the capability to do, or whether that is buying online and choosing to pick up in store, so things that we stock in our stores, or buying online things that we don't stock in our stores and having it sent to one of our stores for -- at their convenient pickup.

KELLY EVANS: Is it safe to say you guys are becoming sort of like the Amazon for items that weigh five pounds or more?

CRAIG MENEAR: So we are focused in this facility on not only parcel shipment but also being best in class at big and bulky. So whether it's a customer buying a bathtub, for example and having that shipped to them or shipped to one of our stores for pickup that's what this facility will give us the capability to do.

KELLY EVANS: That's a difficult thing to do, isn't it? To move some of these big, heavy items around the country. Amazon today is rolling out same-day delivery in more U.S. cities. But that's for a lot of small items, toothbrushes, books, those kinds of things. What is the challenge when we're talking about getting a washing machine or a dishwasher to a customer within days or hours even?

CRAIG MENEAR: So it is all about making sure that you can do that cost effectively and efficiently for the customer in a time frame that they need. And so that's really what this facility enables us to do is to leverage the entire supply chain network that we've built at the Home Depot and be able to do that at a very cost effective manner for the customer.

KELLY EVANS: Is it safe to say the philosophy for Home Depot here is better late than never when it comes to the internet? I mean, look, it's still only, what, 3% of your sales-- online sales?

CRAIG MENEAR: 3.5% roughly, yes.

CRAIG MENEAR: Right. No there is in some ways there is an advantage to being a follower or last mover advantage, if you will.

KELLY EVANS: So now that you're getting into the space more aggressively, what's it going to take and what is your projection for growing online sales, mobile sales, all of this as part of the company's future? And does that mean you're going to kind of turn your stores ultimately into little distribution centers of their own and everything winds up being delivered directly to somebody's doorway?

CRAIG MENEAR: Well that will ultimately be determined by the customer and how they choose to shop. But we have do have 2,000 plus conveniently located stores for our customers that gives us the ability to deliver quickly and efficiently to the consumer. So in total if you think about HomeDepot.com, we have the ability to offer our customer over 700,000 items where a typical store will only stock about 35,000 items.

KELLY EVANS: What is the goal? What is the dream, the holy grail? What is this all going to look like if you pull it off in the next, say, five to seven years?

CRAIG MENEAR: So it's continue to grow and grab market share in the market in total and to be able to service our customers really when, where, and how they want to engage with the Home Depot. Because the retail space is evolving as we know it today.

KELLY EVANS: Yes, and is the goal, for example, to be able to get that small business owner whose washing machine breaks down-- a washing machine that he orders same day for much of the country? Is that part of the goal?

CRAIG MENEAR: So really with a facility like this that we're sitting in here in Locust Grove, Georgia, it's about fast delivery. So if you place an order, for example, by 5:00 on a Monday night, you'd have that item by Wednesday.

KELLY EVANS: For how much of the country?

CRAIG MENEAR: For roughly, when we're finished, we're building-- we have this facility here, we're opening another facility in Paris, California in the fourth quarter of our fiscal year this year and then a third facility in the Ohio area in 2015 when those are complete, for parcel shipment will be able to hit 90% of the U.S. population in that time frame.

KELLY EVANS: And that time frame again is what?

CRAIG MENEAR: Roughly if you order by 5:00, let's say, on a Monday you'll have that within 48 hours later. It should be delivered to you by Wednesday.

KELLY EVANS: For things even as big as a washing machine or a dishwasher?

CRAIG MENEAR: That's on parcel shipment. And then the larger, bulkier items we will actually be able to utilize our complete network including our stores for fast delivery to our customers as well.

KELLY EVANS: You've been in retail for a long time. How would you describe the changes that are taking place right now?

CRAIG MENEAR: I would say that the change that's happening in retail is probably more in the last three years than it's been in the last 50. And we'll see that continue to evolve over the next several years to come.

KELLY EVANS: Towards what? What is this all evolving towards?

CRAIG MENEAR: So Kelly, what it really is, is it's what many people call the third phase of retail where the customer is now in control. And so you have to be able to build up capabilities and react to be able to allow the customer to engage with you as a retailer how they want to, versus traditionally how we all did it which was through brick and mortar.

KELLY EVANS: Right, now it seems like everyone's doing it through their mobile phone or at least online. There's a lot of talk that you're being groomed to be the next CEO here at Home Depot. And when you think about the future of this company, a future perhaps with yourself at the helm, what does that future look like?

CRAIG MENEAR: So the future I think is incredibly bright for the Home Depot. We look at the interconnected retail world as a growth opportunity for us. If you think about 2013, our company grew $5 billion in total. And about $900 million of that came through HomeDepot.com and our interconnected retail opportunities. And I think as you look forward in the future that's really an enormous opportunity for the Home Depot and its shareholders.

KELLY EVANS: Have you been involved in succession talks?

CRAIG MENEAR: You know, at this point, that is all up to the board and to Frank. I have been given the opportunity to be the president of U.S. Retail and that's an enormous opportunity and responsibility. And that's really what I'm focused on right now.

KELLY EVANS: And as you said it comes at such a disruptive time. It used to be that people thought about the home retail space if you want to call it that as between Home Depot and Lowe's. Who are your competitors today?

CRAIG MENEAR: So we compete with a wide range of competitors at Home Depot. We compete against discount companies, against club retailers, we compete against independents, we compete against wholesale distribution as well as pure online retailers. So it's a wide base.

KELLY EVANS: Absolutely. It also reflects that perhaps at the end of the day it's going to be about price and it's going to be about time. How soon can I get it and who's going to be cheapest? Which of those is most important to Home Depot?

CRAIG MENEAR: So when we listen to our customers what our customers tell us is what's really important is that we deliver value for them. And a key component of value for our customers is how do we save them time, how do we save them money? And it's a combination of those two things that has been a key focus for the Home Depot, will continue to be, and what we believe will allow us to continue to drive share gains in the marketplace.

KELLY EVANS: If the home of the future is a smart home, in other words, one with a bunch of interconnected devices that you control from your mobile phone what does that mean for Home Depot and whether you need things like a Geek Squad kind of thing that Best Buy offers to service some of these or people to explain how this all works or further integration of the technology supply chain and to what's traditionally been a home retailer.

CRAIG MENEAR: It's a great question. And the first thing that I would say is it's really important for us to be working upstream with our suppliers to make sure that we have development of product that will, in fact, enable the smart home and allow customers to be able to connect products within their home the way they want to do that. Whether or not that evolves into a need for service will be determined down the road. Many of the products today that are smart enabled, if you will, are very, very intuitive products that many customers are finding it very easy to set up in their home themselves. Simply clicking on an app and making the connection.

KELLY EVANS: Oh sure. But it also does open new risks for your business because I think of Nest, a high-profile launch, one that's driven traffic to your stores. And yet, one that also had a recall lately. So talk us through the risks there.

CRAIG MENEAR: Certainly there's risk in any recall situation where a product doesn't perform the way you would like it to. But overall in general that's relatively small percentage of any issue, if you will, that comes up within product. Most of our manufacturers work very, very diligently to make sure they're bringing great products to market. It happens occasionally and you just have to deal with it.

KELLY EVANS: But all the same, how do you make sure that if people are after some of these smart home devices that they're coming to Home Depot for them and not going to not only your direct competitors but ultimately the Apple store in the mall for them?

CRAIG MENEAR: So that's actually the same challenge that we have across any product whether it's smart or not. And again, that drives back to the value proposition that we offer overall for our customers, using the buying power and leverage of the Home Depot to make sure the customers get a great deal when they're coming to Home Depot. And also the hard work that our merchants put in working on exclusive products with our suppliers to drive differentiation in the marketplace as well for the Home Depot.

KELLY EVANS: And finally just to bring it back to where we're sitting, I noticed walking in there are hundreds of trucks outside with hundreds of different names on them. This is all about product delivery. The delivery part remains extremely important. What are the biggest challenges there for you?

CRAIG MENEAR: So, again, last mile delivery is important and it's leveraging the network that we're building out at Home Depot to be able to do that in a very inefficient manner. Again, we have 2,000 plus conveniently located stores through our customer base. So we are very convenient for our customers and the supply chain capabilities that we build out to date. And the enhancements in a delivery module that we're working on today will allow us to be very effective at delivering quickly to the customers in a cost effective manner.

KELLY EVANS: If I'm home town colleague UPS, should I look to your future plans as an opportunity or as a threat?

CRAIG MENEAR: I think UPS would look at it as an opportunity.

KELLY EVANS: Will Home Depot ever be delivering by drone?

CRAIG MENEAR: Probably most of our products are a little heavier a lot of the big products that we carry. That drone might be called a helicopter.

KELLY EVANS: Would you rule out helicopter delivery in that case?

CRAIG MENEAR: I think that we'll have to wait and see what happens there.

KELLY EVANS: Very good. Craig, really appreciate your time. And just before we go could you give us a sense of what you're most excited about in retail today and what keeps you up at night?

CRAIG MENEAR: So, I think what I'm most excited about is the opportunity that exists in front of us. When you think about, again, the changing marketplace in retail, the way the customer's engaging in the digital space is changing how customers think about buying products, that's an exciting element. And it presents an opportunity for growth for the Home Depot. I think probably the thing that keeps me up at night the most is change isn't in people's human nature. And so we have to make sure that as a retailer we're focused on the customer, we're focused on the changes that they're looking for and that we move with that change.

KELLY EVANS: And what about the people here, the workers? On the floor of Home Depot, there aren't many. You know, this is a very technology-heavy future, isn't it?

CRAIG MENEAR: In many ways, it is. Yet, in this building, for example, we'll have about 300,000 associates here in this building -- excuse me 300 associates in this building operating the facility. So there is a lot of opportunity for our associates to continue to grow within the Home Depot.

KELLY EVANS: Craig, we'll leave it there for the time being. Craig Menear, president of U.S. Retail for Home Depot, thank you so much.

With CNBC in the U.S., CNBC in Asia Pacific, CNBC in Europe, Middle East and Africa, CNBC World and CNBC HD , CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news and provides real-time financial market coverage and business information to approximately 371 million homes worldwide, including more than 100 million households in the United States and Canada. CNBC also provides daily business updates to 400 million households across China. The network's 15 live hours a day of business programming in North America (weekdays from 4:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. ET) is produced at CNBC's global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and includes reports from CNBC News bureaus worldwide. CNBC at night features a mix of new reality programming, CNBC's highly successful series produced exclusively for CNBC and a number of distinctive in-house documentaries.

CNBC also has a vast portfolio of digital products which deliver real-time financial market news and information across a variety of platforms. These include CNBC.com, the online destination for global business; CNBC PRO, the premium, integrated desktop/mobile service that provides real-time global market data and live access to CNBC global programming; and a suite of CNBC Mobile products including the CNBC Real-Time iPhone and iPad Apps.

Members of the media can receive more information about CNBC and its programming on the NBC Universal Media Village Web site at http://www.nbcumv.com/programming/cnbc.

Summary: CNBC Transcript: CNBC Exclusive: Craig Menear, President of U.S. Retail for Home Depot, Speaks with Kelly Evans Today on CNBC's "Closing Bell"


Spot the glistening British lion and unicorn that stand proudly atop the Old State House (revolutionaryboston.org), which was built in 1713. Now a museum, it provides a “who did what” view of Boston’s early years.

The Council Chamber looks much as it did when the locals were still British and the Royal Governor was in charge. Take a seat in his chair, examine the (reproduction) documents and learn about the “English liberties” that were prized by Bostonians.

Walk over to Faneuil Hall Marketplace (faneuilhallmarketplace.com).

Faneuil bustles with 150 shops, food stalls and restaurants. Back in the 1770s the market buzz was of independence. Find out more on an Allegiance to Revolution tour led by a National Park Service Ranger (nps.gov/bost).

Sign up at the Visitor Center in Faneuil Hall (pronounced Fan-yul); the walk is free, lasts an hour and includes must-sees such as the Paul Revere House, one of the city’s oldest (built in 1680), and Old North Church. On the night of April 18, 1775, lanterns were hung in the church tower to warn the colonists that British troops were on the march. It was the next day’s confrontations that sparked the American War of Independence.

The historic Quincy Market in downtown Boston

After the tour, continue the revolutionary mood with a visit to the recently renovated Tap Trailhouse (thetaptrailhouse.com) in Union Street; why not order a Colonial Burger and a Freedom Trail ale for lunch?

On a clear day, head for the Custom House Tower, now a Marriott hotel, and take the lift to the observation deck on the 26th floor ($2; open from 2pm, Saturday to Thursday). The 360º panorama is simply outstanding. Look east, to the quays, the harbour and the North End, home to all things Italian.

•The best attractions in Boston

Almost below is the Rose F Kennedy Greenway. Not so long ago an elevated expressway stood here; now the traffic thunders out of sight, deep inside a tunnel beneath this mile-long stretch of lawns, fountains and flowers. It’s a fine example of the city’s ambitious urban-regeneration project, or Big Dig.

For the rest of the afternoon you could rent a bike from Urban Adventours (urbanadventours.com). Then, as you pedal along the traffic-free HarborWalk, listen to an MP3 audio tour on your iPod, with local characters guiding you along the wharves of Boston Harbor (free download: audisseyguides.com/downtownharborwalk).

Perhaps you prefer to ooh and aah at penguins, a giant Pacific octopus and scary lionfish? Find them on Central Wharf, where New England Aquarium (neaq.org) is all about aquatic critters from around the world.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

Or you may fancy purchasing an authentic souvenir. A short walk away is Made in Fort Point (fortpointarts.org/shop). In this small gallery-cum-shop, jewellery, prints, textiles, ceramics and more are created by around 50 of Boston’s artists, whose studios are located right here in the burgeoning Fort Point neighbourhood.

Art aficionados should head to the Institute of Contemporary Art (icaboston.org), where the view alone from the glass-curtained John Hancock Founders Gallery justifies the $15 admission cost. Eight years ago, when this stark, dramatic building opened, the massive redevelopment of Boston’s harbourside was just getting into gear. Now it is a new and funky area in what is America’s oldest city.

End the day by tucking into some of New England’s famous seafood, including a great clam chowder. With tongue firmly in cheek, Row 34 (row34.com) bills itself as a “workingman’s oyster bar”. But the restaurant’s industrial setting is simply a stage; the spotlight is on the local oysters (from $2 each), unusual wines served by the glass and the range of craft beers.

•The best restaurants in Boston

Right on the waterfront, the equally modern Legal Harborside is the flagship of Legal Sea Foods (legalseafoods.com), a long-established group of Boston restaurants. Dine alfresco at a wooden table overlooking America’s oldest working fish pier; tie on a plastic bib and eat lobster with your fingers.

From here, Cruiseport Boston is a 15-minute stroll away.

For more information on Boston visit bostonusa.com

Summary: A guide to what to do on a port day in Boston, USA, including information on Harvard, museums, art galleries, markets, and where to eat


It did not get any less complicated from there. Numerous other strangers and acquaintances helped plot a multicountry medical odyssey that barely skirted last month’s failed coup attempt in Turkey and culminated in an eight-hour surgery on July 30 at Wolfson Medical Center here in Holon, a city near Tel Aviv.

Yehia — whose father spoke on the condition that the family name not be published for fear of a backlash if it became known he had taken the boy to Israel for treatment — is the first Afghan treated by Save a Child’s Heart in its 20 years of operations. About half the charity’s 4,000 patients have been Palestinian; 200 others were children from Iraq and Syria, and the roster includes patients from Tanzania, Ethiopia and Moldova.

Israel boosters often highlight such programs as examples of the small nation’s outsized humanitarian efforts, including to hostile neighbors. Leora Robinson, a second-year medical student in Britain who is doing an internship at the charity, said that it provided an important counterpoint to portrayals of Israel as an occupier of Palestinian land, as she saw on campus during Israel Apartheid Week. “It opens eyes to the fact that this country doesn’t just have one side to it,” Ms. Robinson said.

But Tony Laurance, head of a group called Medical Aid for Palestine, said that while providing children “world-class surgery” was “an unequivocal good,” it should not obscure the broader impact of Israeli policies on medical care for Palestinians. Gaza hospitals are perennially short of medicine, equipment and well-trained staff because of Israeli restrictions on travel and trade, and many Gaza residents struggle to get exit permits for care outside the territory.

“What gets up my nose,” Mr. Laurance said, “is that it presents an image of Israel that betrays the reality.”

Mr. Fisher, executive director of Save a Child’s Heart, said his organization did not represent Israel’s government, “but it does represent Israeli society.” Private Jewish donors provide most of the $3.5 million annual budget, he said, and about 70 health care workers volunteer their time.

It was Mr. Fisher who, drawing on years of contacts, obtained Israeli visas for Yehia and his father after Ms. Mussman contacted him. But they would have to travel through Turkey.

Mr. Zaheer, the Jalalabad teacher, ever-confident, finagled his way into the Turkish Embassy in Kabul, where a sympathetic guard slipped him the email address of a Turkish diplomat. Ms. Mussman, the former State Department official, had put Mr. Zaheer in touch with Fary Moini, an Iranian-American who had worked in Jalalabad and had connections there. Ms. Mussman had met Ms. Moini during a stint in Jalalabad. At Mr. Zaheer’s request, Ms. Moini wrote a moving letter to the diplomat, whom she did not know, pleading for visas for Yehia and his father, and within a day, Mr. Zaheer picked them up.

Ms. Moini volunteered to meet Yehia and his father in Istanbul, accompany them to Tel Aviv, and be an extra pair of hands to care for him.

But her July 15 flight was canceled because of the attempted coup in Turkey. Save a Child’s Heart managed to find her a last-minute flight out of Toronto to Istanbul.

Mr. Fisher of Save a Child’s Heart worked to find a translator to help the father, who speaks Urdu and Pashto, communicate with the Hebrew-speaking staff. He remembered that during his time in the Israeli Army he had served with a soldier whose mother came from Kabul’s ancient Jewish community. He called the soldier, Yossi Betsalel — could his mother, Tsipora, translate? No, Mr. Betsalel said, she had long forgotten her native tongue. But she had a relative – Jacob Gul, 56, a retired rug seller, who had left Kabul 32 years ago and was probably still proficient. Mr. Gul immediately agreed to translate, and Ms. Betsalel ended up visiting Yehia in the hospital frequently.

Unaware of those efforts, back in Jalalabad, Mr. Zaheer contacted another Facebook connection he had never met: Michael Davidson, a 70-year-old Israeli who had immigrated from India in 1978 — and who speaks Urdu. Mr. Davidson and Mr. Gul were both on hand in Holon for the surgery, along with Ms. Moini and Ms. Betsalel, who said she had closed her clothing shop early because she could not concentrate while Yehia was having his operation.

Dr. Yahyu Mekonnen, 33, an Ethiopian surgeon, opened Yehia’s chest. Dr. Lior Sasson, who headed an operating team of nearly a dozen people, hummed an Israeli song while they stopped his tiny heart, to patch it up.

Eventually, they wheeled Yehia out, covered in bandages, even over his eyes. His father was surrounded by a makeshift family he had only just met.

“You can cry,” Mr. Davidson urged.

Mr. Gul offered a tissue. Ms. Moini touched his shoulder. Ms. Betsalel showed him photos of his son on her iPhone.

The father broke through his sobs with a polite smile.

Follow Diaa Hadid on Twitter @diaahadid.

Get news and analysis from Asia and around the world delivered to your inbox every day with the Today’s Headlines: Asian Morning newsletter. Sign up here.

A version of this article appears in print on August 15, 2016, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Social Media Power: Saving Child With Heart Defects. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: Two digital acquaintances, one in Israel and another in Afghanistan, collaborated to save a baby in Pakistan with life-threatening congenital heart problems.