Two worker representatives from a California hotel have traveled to Paris to attend Tuesday’s annual shareholder meeting of Natixis SA, an investment firm, after requests for a meeting with management to discuss work conditions were rebuffed.

Juana Melara, a housekeeper at the Westin Long Beach hotel, and Francisco Abdul Estin, a banquet server there for 27 years, plan to attend the meeting at Palais Brongniart, a grand building that formerly housed the French Stock Exchange.

The Globe reported last month that complaints of 150 hotel workers and a union trying to organize them had fallen on deaf ears at Natixis, which manages the hotel through a subsidiary and whose US headquarters is in Boston.

The workers are alleging wage violations, including a lack of overtime pay and meal breaks. Three business entities tied to hotel also have not responded, they say: the Utah public pension fund that owns the hotel; AEW Capital Management, the Natixis unit that oversees the investment; and a firm that AEW hires to manage the hotel day-to-day.

“We believe Natixis has the power to make labor practices at our hotel decent and just, and we only want the company to sit down and work with us to make this a reality,’’ Melara, the housekeeper, said in a statement.

In an internal e-mail exchange last month, Natixis chief executive Pierre Servant had weighed in on the Long Beach matter, saying, “We need to get those guys off the back of Natixis,’’ and, “Who knows what will happen if they come to Paris?”

It did not appear the workers would get a special audience, but that they would potentially be able to speak at the meeting.

“All of our investors are welcome at our annual shareholder meeting, which does provide an opportunity for attendees to voice their questions,’’ said Ted Meyer, a spokesman for Natixis.

The union has purchased at least one share of Natixis stock so the workers can attend the meeting, according to Jeremy Blasi, a staff attorney for the union, Unite Here, Local 11.

“Our goal is to ensure fair labor practices at the hotel,’’ Blasi said. “We haven’t been able to do that locally, so we’ve reached out to Natixis’s executives in France.’’

Summary: Two California hotel employees plan to attend a stockerholders’ meeting in Paris Tuesday for Natixis, an investment firm with large operations in Boston, to protest work conditions.


The Leadership Insider network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today’s answer to the question: How do you avoid burnout? is written by Ryan Harwood, CEO of PureWow.

When you’ve built something from the ground up, chances are that at one point or another you’ve done nearly every job in your company. You’re used to firing on all cylinders, all of the time. And that habit is hard to give up, but when you reach a certain point of success or growth it becomes necessary to assess whether you’re expending your energy in the right places.

If you love the people you work with, you’ll love the work you do that much more. Therefore, choosing a team that I truly enjoyed working with was paramount. Think of it this way: if you were assigned a project in college with your four best friends, you wouldn’t think, “Ugh, this sucks.” You’d think, “Okay. This could actually be really fun.” No one wants to feel like they’re going to battle every time they walk into a meeting or answer an email.

See also: What to Do When You’re Completely Overwhelmed at Work

While working with people you enjoy obviously makes things easier, it’s only half of the equation. One of the most obvious ways to conserve your energy is to hire for your weaknesses. There are going to be certain areas in which you’ll have to admit you’re lacking. A good leader recognizes this and delegates certain tasks to people they can trust to do them better. For instance, I started a digital women’s lifestyle publication. My first two hires were editorial positions because I recognized that I wasn’t one who could write a good fashion story. Attempting otherwise would not only burn me out, but also end in failure. Find new ways to do the things that you’re not as good at and get them off your plate as soon as possible. And then spend a lot of time on the things you’re really good at so you can push the company forward.

In that same vein, get comfortable saying no to things. I had a real problem with this when I first launched my company; I said yes to every meeting and every opportunity. Every. Single. Thing. And I still take on too much. But if that’s who you are, then you need to be careful not to spread yourself too thin. Figure out what you can say no to. For me, too many out-of-office meetings is exhausting. Running around from place to place, cab to cab, being on time, being late, etc. — it’s stressful. Unfortunately, that’s just the way it is. It’s part of the hustle. But being aware of that, I’m more careful about planning my schedule. Sometimes it feels good to say no.

Finally, self-care. You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it here because it truly does matter, especially when you run a company. Everyone operates differently, but I see a change in my energy level when I’m not treating my body with respect. When I’m eating well, it’s blatantly obvious because my energy level is so much higher than when I’m eating junk. Sleep? Same thing. Without at least 7 hours, I’m completely useless. Take care of your body. And don’t neglect time off. Honestly, I’m never really fully disconnected, but even being 60% connected compared to the 110% I’m used to operating on makes all of the difference. And of course, my very own personal mantra: drink tons of water. Take care of your body so that you can operate to your fullest potential. That’s the point.

Summary: It's making your job more stressful


Apple might use a two-year cycle to launch its revamped iPhones, but that could be changing.

The tech giant has decided to change its major model shakeups to once every three years, Nikkei is reporting, citing people who claim to have knowledge of its plans. The company previously launched major iPhone upgrades every two years.

According to the Nikkei, Apple’s AAPL decision is based in part in the realization that the smartphone market is changing more slowly than it had in the past, and its ability to deliver major innovations every two years has been hampered.

While Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report, it follows earlier reports on the company’s plans for the future.

Over the last several weeks, reports have been flying that Apple will not deliver a major iPhone upgrade this year. Instead, the company will reportedly deliver an iPhone 7 with a largely similar design to that of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s as well as some internal component improvements.

Yet those same reports suggest Apple will offer a fully remodeled iPhone featuring an all-glass enclosure and an OLED screen in 2017. The company has previously only offered LCD screens, which are thicker and don’t deliver the same color quality as OLED.

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Since its launch in 2007, the iPhone has come with a regular update schedule. One year, the device has a major new design and is followed the next year by an “S” model that has the same design as the previous version, but comes with component upgrades. Last year was an “S” year, which had many guessing that the 2017 iPhone, believed to be known as the iPhone 7, would come with a major design upgrade.

That said, with the growing number of claims from analysts and unidentified sources that the company has changed plans, and recent leaks of images that purport to show the new iPhone’s design, that appears to not be the case.

What is unclear, however, is how the possible change to a three-year design upgrade could affect Apple’s bottom line. The company has historically had strong sales with each new iPhone, but its major upgrades tend to be its bestsellers. A three-year upgrade could change how the company’s iPhone business performs—good or bad.

For more on iPhone, watch this video:

For the first time ever, Apple’s iPhone business was down in its last-reported quarter, shining a bright light for the first time on that division’s performance.

Apple, of course, hasn’t said what its plans are, and it’s unlikely that the secretive iPhone maker will reveal any changes to its future plans. Still, expect the company to talk a bit about the iPhone and its iOS operating system on June 13 when it holds its annual Worldwide Developers Conference keynote.

Summary: It was once two years.


After gaining some notoriety from a performance of the national anthem at the Barclays Center, Bryan decided to give The Voice a try and auditioned for Season 9. Although he was unsuccessful at turning any chairs, Adam strongly encouraged him to come back for Season 10. Since then, Bryan quit his job at the Barclays Center and began taking vocal lessons. With all of his focus on music, Bryan plans on wowing the coaches and making a team in Season 10.

Summary: Meet Bryan Bautista on NBC.com.


Stanley Gibbons buys investors a small portfolio of investment-grade stamps and stores and insures them. When the investor wants to sell, the company takes 20pc of the growth in value. There are no tax advantages on stamp investment – neither are investors covered by financial regulations.

Gibbons has two indices which track stamp prices; the GB30 and GB250. The former, which goes back 50 years, shows an average return of 10pc a year, the latter, 13pc. Stanley Gibbons tracks worldwide private sale and auction prices to compile the index.

But Paul Dauwalder of Dauwalders of Salisbury, a stamp dealer, said: "Stamp collecting is a hobby. It is not an investment." He added that if you are buying stamps then make sure you know who you are dealing with. "If you see too big a bargain online then be suspicious. Check the pedigree of the company you are dealing with."

However, there are still valuable stamps to be snapped up – and stamp collecting also allows you to enjoy the art of philately as well as the story behind the stamps. And not all valuable ones are ancient: a 1988 13p Christmas stamp may be worth several thousand pounds. These stamps should have read 14p – most were pulped.

Adrian Roose, director of Paul Fraser Collectibles, said: "Age is no guide to value when it comes to stamps. There are modern printing errors worth tens of thousands and there are 150-year-old Victorian stamps worth pennies. Rarity is the ultimate decider on the value of a stamp."

He pointed to a particular German stamp issued in 2001 which featured a scene from Breakfast at Tiffany's with Audrey Hepburn smoking. Mr Roose said: "More than 14 million were printed until at the last minute one of her sons refused to grant copyright permission as he was an active campaigner against alcohol and tobacco abuse (Audrey also died of cancer). Most of these stamps were destroyed but a few still exist – and have sold for up to €175,000 [£147,000]."

Just being old is not everything. Mr Dauwalder pointed out the Victorian postal system wasn't subject to competition from today's phone calls or emails – hence stamps were issued in huge quantities. Also, there were fewer changes in design so issue sizes were huge.

With stamps, condition is everything. They can be postmarked but Mr Dauwalder said that the better the centring, the better the value. And for used stamps the colour is also important as many will have been soaked to remove them from envelopes: the stronger the colour, the higher the value.

Mr Dauwalder added that collectors quite often upgraded: they will sell their faded, off-centre postmarked stamp for one more desirable. But others centre their collections on different things. "Some collect a particular postmark or country. Others just like stamps with, say, birds or boats on them."

Mistakes can add value. The United States Inverted Jenny (pictured) from 1918 is valuable because the aeroplane in the design is upside down: only 100 are thought to exist and one sold in the US in 2007 for $825,000. The stamp was pivotal to the plot of the Hollywood blockbuster Brewster's Millions.

Paul Fraser Collectibles currently has Hong Kong's rarest stamp, the 96c Olive Bistre, in a block of four on sale for £960,000. Mr Ashburn said: "There's a sheet of Romanian stamps which has just two in the middle with an upside down image. If that sheet came up for sale it would be worth £1m."

But Mr Roose said: 'Ninety-nine per cent of stamps are pretty low value – in the £1 to £5 category. The general rule of thumb is that collections tend only to be valuable if they had money spent on them from the off: it's very rare that a low-value stamp becomes a valuable stamp over time."

Rarity is vital. If a British Guiana 1c magenta came to market, it could sell for more than $5m said Mr Roose. There's only one known to exist and it's in a bank vault in Philadelphia, property of the estate of John du Pont of the eponymous chemical company. He died in prison in 2010 after being convicted of the murder of a wrestler 13 years earlier.

Mr Roose said this particular stamp "was said to have been unique until another copy was found in the Twenties. The then owner bought the second copy, quickly stubbed a cigar out on it and declared now there was only one. Whoever said stamp collecting was dull?"

While few will have the wherewithal to invest in stamps of that rarity, Mr Roose did point out that philately would get you nowhere if you bought cheap ones. "We generally tell clients to only invest in stamps over £5,000 in value each. That's where the rarity is. Historically, one £5,000 stamp will outperform 10 £500 stamps purely because of the rarity factor."

And he added: "The liquidity aspect is also important as it is pointless having the rarest stamp of a country that few people collect. You need to ensure there is a large market of potential buyers when you do come to sell. Many investors focus on the stamps of Great Britain, Australia and the US as these are all very active areas with millions of collectors involved.

"Increasingly investors are turning to the rarest Hong Kong and Chinese stamps which have done very well over the last five years." The Chinese are keen collectors in their country's stamps, having been banned from doing so by Chairman Mao, who saw the hobby as decadent.

Mr Ashburn said the way to find value was to think obliquely. "Stamps from last year's London Olympics are not valuable. But stamps issued for the Paralympics now command three times their face value – they are no longer being printed and they were overshadowed by the Olympics issues."

Summary: The most valuable thing on earth for its size is a stamp - but most are   worthless. How should you invest?


David Baazov, chief executive of the world’s largest online gaming company, has taken an indefinite leave of absence to fight insider trading charges leveled against him.

Amaya, the Quebec-based parent company of online sites PokerStars and Full Tilt, announced in a press release on Tuesday that Baazov would be stepping back after Quebec regulators charged the CEO with five counts of insider-trading.

“I believe that stepping down in the short term will help to avoid distraction for the company and its management while I vigorously contest all allegations made against me and pursue my bid to acquire the company,” Baazov said in a statement.

Quebec’s Autorité des marchés financiers also froze the bank and trading accounts of 13 other individuals—including Baazov’s brother Josh—for trading while receiving privileged information about Amaya, and for booking profits of nearly $1.15 million between 2011 and 2016.

The charges are a part of what has been called the largest insider trading investigation in Canadian history, and the period of trading mentioned in the orders coincide with Amaya’s $3.8 billion-takeover of poker sites PokerStars and Full Tilt.

That deal made Amaya the owner of the two of the most popular poker sites in the world, and has resulted in 100 million registered players under them. However, the acquisition also raised many suspicions, as Amaya’s stock was trading up prior to the deal despite its status as a minor, financially-challenged company, reported the Wall Street Journal.

Summary: Fans of PokerStars, read on.


Acadia Pharmaceuticals’s drug for psychosis linked to Parkinson’s disease was approved in the United States on Friday, becoming the first treatment for the condition to get a nod in the country.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, however, asked Acadia to include a black-box warning, its strictest warning, on the drug’s label for an increased risk of death associated with its use in older people. (http://1.usa.gov/1SPKUID)

An estimated 50,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease each year and about 1 million Americans have the condition, the FDA said in a statement, citing data from the National Institutes of Health.

The drug, Nuplazid, is expected to be priced at $13,500 per patient for a year and reach more that $1 billion in sales in 2021, according to Leerink analyst Paul Matteis.

For more on the pharmaceutical industry, watch:

Analysts have said the black-box warning will have limited impact on the sales of Nuplazid as antipsychotics often come with such warnings.

So far, the condition was treated with off-label antipsyhotic drugs including quetiapine, clozapine, risperidone and olanzapine.

The drugs, which target the overproduction of a chemical called dopamine, are less effective and come with side effects including depression, agitation and anxiety.

Nuplazid is considered safer, according to analysts, as the drug does not affect dopamine production, instead targeting the 5HT2A receptor, which is linked with neuropsychiatric disturbances.

Pfizer & IBM Launch Research Project to Transform Parkinson’s

Nearly 40% of all Parkinson’s disease patients experience psychosis, characterized by hallucinations and delusions.

Matteis also said he was optimistic that the drug would soon be covered by private and government insurers.

Although Nuplazid could be one of the most expensive antipsychotics on the market, “insurers are less likely to ask patients to try cheaper off-label alternatives given their safety risks,” he said ahead of the approval.

Big Pharma Under Pressure to Pay For Drug Take-Back Programs

In March, an advisory panel to the FDA had backed Nuplazid, but had said the drug’s efficacy was not as robust as it would have liked.

Acadia’s ACAD shares, which were halted for trading after the bell, closed at $32.30 on Friday.

Up to Friday’s close, the stock had risen about 87% since the FDA panel recommended an approval for the drug.

Summary: But it comes with the FDA's strongest warning label.


How Europe built fences to keep people out

The border crossing between Austria and Hungary near Rattersdorf, Austria, March 8, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)

The border crossing between Austria and Hungary near Deutschkreuz, Austria, March 8, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)

A old custom post is pictured at the border between Belgium and France in Alveringem, March 21, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Francois Lenoir)

The border crossing between Austria and Hungary near Rechnitz, Austria, March 8, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)

The Valenca customs border is seen in Portugal, March 14, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Miguel Vidal)

An abandoned border check point is seen at the French-Italian border in Valico di Fanghetto, Italy, January 29, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Eric Gaillard)

The old border check point is seen at the French-Italian border in Menton, France, January 29, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Eric Gaillard)

The border crossing between Austria and Hungary near Rechnitz, Austria, March 8, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)

The border crossing between Austria and Slovakia is seen near Kittsee, Austria, March 7, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)

An abandoned border check point is seen at the French-Italian border in Breil Sur Roya, France, January 29, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Eric Gaillard)

A closed and abandoned border check point is seen at the French-Italian border in Olivetta, Italy, January 29, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Eric Gaillard)

A broken window is seen at the border crossing between Austria and Hungary near Rattersdorf, Austria, March 8, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)

An abandoned border check point is seen at the French-Italian border in Breil-Sur-Roya, France, January 29, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Eric Gaillard)

A old custom post is seen along a river at the border between Belgium and France in Leers-Nord, March 21, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Francois Lenoir)

A former border post on the French-German border between Scheibenhard (France) and Scheibenhardt (Germany) has been repurposed as a tourist information office February 24, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Vincent Kessler)

An abandoned border post is seen at the French-German border between Schweyen (France) and Hornbach (Germany) February 24, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Vincent Kessler)

An abandoned border post is seen at the French-German border between Scheibenhard (France) and Scheibenhardt (Germany) February 24, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Vincent Kessler)

French-German border between Seltz (France) and Plittersdorf is seen from the ferry that crosses the Rhine river to Germany, February 24, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Vincent Kessler)

An old and unused police lookout is seen next to the Guadiana river which divides Portugal and Spain near the town of Vila Real de San Antonio, southern Portugal March 17, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo)

The border crossing between Austria and Hungary stands near Pamhagen, Austria, March 7, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)

The former French-German border post between Lauterbourg (France) and Berg (Germany) has been repurposed as a restaurant and small museum February 24, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Vincent Kessler)

The border crossing between Austria and Hungary near Nickelsdorf, Austria, March 7, 2016. As European nations struggle to save their open-border Schengen zone from the frontier closures prompted by chaotic movements of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, former border posts from before the era of the European Union's passport-free area languish in various states of repair. (REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)

BRUSSELS, April 4 - In early March, Europe's migration chief Dimitris Avramopoulos squelched through a muddy refugee camp on Greece's border with Macedonia and peered through the barbed-wire topped fence that stands between tens of thousands of migrants in Greece and richer countries that lie to the north.

"By building fences, by deploying barbed wire," he said, "it is not a solution."

But Avramopoulos has not always preached that message - and his changing views capture the tangle Europe has got itself into as more than a million migrants and refugees have floated in on Greek waters since the start of 2015.

In 2012, when he was Greek minister of defense, Greece built a fence and electronic surveillance system along its border with Turkey. The cement and barbed-wire barrier and nearly 2,000 extra guards were designed to stop a sharp rise in illegal immigrants.

The 62-year-old former diplomat was not directly involved in the project. But in 2013 he defended it, telling a news conference the wall had borne fruit. "The entry of illegal immigrants in Greece by this side has almost been eliminated," he said.

The official European response to Europe's migrant crisis - championed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel last August - is for member states to pull together and provide shelter for people, especially Syrians, fleeing war or persecution. But in reality, most members have failed to take their quotas of refugees and nearly a dozen have built barricades to try to keep both migrants and refugees out. The bloc is now trying to implement a deal which would see Turkey take back new arrivals.

Related: The most powerful images from the migrant crisis:

How Europe built fences to keep people out

Migrants protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija, on December 1, 2015. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia on November 29 finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of migrants. / AFP / ARMEND NIMANI (Photo credit should read ARMEND NIMANI/AFP/Getty Images)

Migrants whose boat stalled at sea while crossing from Turkey to Greece swim to approach the shore of the island of Lesbos, Greece, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015. A boat with 46 people fleeing Syria sank Sunday in Greece and the coast guard said it is searching for more than 20 others missing off the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

RIGONCE, SLOVENIA - OCTOBER 23: Migrants are escorted through fields by police as they are walked from the village of Rigonce to Brezice refugee camp on October 23, 2015 in Rigonce,, Slovenia. Thousands of migrants marched across the border between Croatia into Slovenia as authorities intensify their efforts to attempt to cope with Europe's largest migration of people since World War II. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

A refugee is comforted by family members after arriving on a dinghy from the Turkish coast to the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos, Friday, Oct. 2, 2015. The International Organization for Migration says a record number of people have crossed the Mediterranean into Europe this year. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

AYDIN, TURKEY - JANUARY 22: Turkish Coast Guard personnel help refugees as they swim with buoys, after they toppled over a fishermen dinghy en route to Greece on January 22, 2016 in Didim district of Aydin, Turkey. 4 refugees body including 3 children pulled out of the water as Turkish coast guard personnel rescued 43 others. (Photo by Emin Menguarslan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

TOVARNIK, CROATIA - SEPTEMBER 20: Migrants desperately try and board a train heading for Zagreb from Tovarnik station on September 20, 2015 in Tovarnik,Croatia. Croatia continues to send buses and trains north to its border with Hungary, as officials have estimated the around 20,000 migrants have entered since Wednesday. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

The body of a migrant lies on the beach in Dikili, Izmir, Turkey, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016. A Turkish media report says the bodies of seven more migrants have washed up on a shore in Turkey _ in a second migrant tragedy at sea in one day. The Dogan news agency the drowned bodies, including women and children, washed up at the coast of Dikili on Tuesday, hours after nine bodies were discovered further north, on a sandy beach in the resort of Ayvalik. Dikili and Ayvalik _ some 50 kilometers (30 miles) away _are crossing points for migrants trying to make their way to the Greek island of Lesbos.(DHA via AP) TURKEY OUT

A migrants girl waits to register with the police at a refugee center in the southern Serbian town of Presevo, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015. Several Eastern European countries are cooperating on controlling the flow of migrants at the external borders of the European Union â a program a top Hungarian official said Tuesday could set an example for the rest of the 28-nation bloc. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Migrants wave after boarding a train near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija, Friday, Dec. 4, 2015. Greek riot police struggled to maintain order on Friday after clashes between asylum-seekers at the country's border with Macedonia. Macedonia is allowing only people from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria to cross the border, and groups of people from other nationalities have set up makeshift roadblocks, preventing anyone from crossing. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

In this photo taken on Monday, Aug. 31, 2015, Syrian men rest as they travel by train from Belgrade to the northern Serbian town of Subotica. The vast majority of migrants are from Syria and Afghanistan, reaching the eastern Aegean Greek islands from the nearby Turkish coast, before heading north to cross the border with Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary and onwards to more prosperous European countries. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)

A woman reacts as policemen stop migrants from crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015. Macedonian authorities are allowing only people from the war-wracked countries of Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq to cross from Greece on their way to other European Union countries, leading to protests from those from other countries who have been blocking the crossing for all since Wednesday. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

A local man uses a discarded life jacket to signal to an incoming rubber boat filled with migrants and refugees at a beach on the northern coast of Lesbos, Greece, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2015. An official leading rescue efforts on the Greek island of Lesbos has warned that the death toll in the eastern Aegean Sea is likely to rise in the coming days unless urgent action is taken to stop smugglers in nearby Turkey. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

SKALA SIKAMINIAS, GREECE - OCTOBER 03: A woman holds her child as she arrived with other migrants on the shores of the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on an fishing boat on October 3, 2015 near village of Skala Sikaminias, Greece. Despite bad weather due to the upcoming Autumn, migrants and refugees are risking their lives in search of a better one in the European Union. Officals have warned that a rise in migrant deaths is expected as weather conditions gradually worsen. (Photo by Matej Divizna/Getty Images)

Refugees clamber through barbed wire as they cross from Serbia to Hungary, in Roszke, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015. Over 10,000 migrants, including many women with babies and small children, have crossed into Serbia over the past few days and headed toward Hungary. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

HEGYESHALOM, HUNGARY - SEPTEMBER 22: Hundreds of migrants who arrived by train at Hegyeshalom on the Hungarian and Austrian border walk the four kilometres into Austria on September 22, 2015 in Hegyeshalom, Hungary. Thousands of migrants have arrived in Austria over the weekend with more en-route from Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia. Politicians across the European Union are holding meetings on the refugee crisis with EU leaders attending an extraordinary summit on Wednesday to try and solve the crisis and the dispute of how to relocate 120,000 migrants aross EU states. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

A member of the Macedonian police force and a migrant hold an injured boy during a clash between Macedonian police forces and migrant trying to cross an illegal crossing point on the border between Greece and Macedonia near the town of Gevgelija on August 22, 2015. Hundreds of mostly Syrian refugees forced their way over the Macedonian border today as police hurled stun grenades in a failed bid to stop them breaking through, an AFP reporter said. AFP PHOTO / ROBERT ATANASOVSKI (Photo credit should read ROBERT ATANASOVSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

GRAPHIC CONTENT A Turkish police officer stands next to a migrant child's dead body off the shores in Bodrum, southern Turkey, on September 2, 2015 after a boat carrying refugees sank while reaching the Greek island of Kos. Thousands of refugees and migrants arrived in Athens on September 2, as Greek ministers held talks on the crisis, with Europe struggling to cope with the huge influx fleeing war and repression in the Middle East and Africa. AFP PHOTO / Nilufer Demir / DOGAN NEWS AGENCY = TURKEY OUT = (Photo credit should read Nilufer Demir/AFP/Getty Images)

CELLE, GERMANY - OCTOBER 27: A young Afghan girl plays outside tents prior moving into a weather-resistant accommodation facility at a shelter for asylum-seekers on October 27, 2015 in Celle, Germany. Many of the tent camps built across Germany to house the massive and recent influx of migrants are inadequate for the coming winter and authorities are scrambling to provide more durable accommodation. Germany has already registered 800,000 migrants this year and is struggling to handle the current flood, which in recent weeks has totaled up to 10,000 per day, mostly migrants arriving via the Balkan route through Austria into Bavaria. (Photo by Alexander Koerner/Getty Images)

Piles of life jackets used by refugees and migrants to cross the Aegean sea from the Turkish coast remain stacked on the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015. Greece's migration minister says his country has come under "intense pressure" from some European countries over the migration crisis, but he says that's unfair. The country has been the main point of entry into the EU for about 700,000 migrants and refugees so far this year. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)

KOS, GREECE - AUGUST 31: Migrants from Pakistan land on shore after completing a journey in a small dinghy crossing a three mile stretch of the Aegean Sea from Turkey August 31, 2015 in Kos, Greece. Migrants from many parts of the Middle East and African nations continue to flood into Europe before heading from Athens, north to the Macedonian border. Since the beginning of 2015 the number of migrants using the so-called 'Balkans route' has exploded with migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey and then travelling on through Macedonia and Serbia before entering the EU via Hungary. The number of people leaving their homes in war torn countries such as Syria, marks the largest migration of people since World War II. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

SIKAMINIAS, GREECE - OCTOBER 14: People are assisted moments after they arrive with other Syrian and Iraqi refugees on the island of Lesbos from Turkey on October 14, 2015 in Sikaminias , Greece. Dozens of rafts and boats are still making the journey daily as thousands flee conflict in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. More than 500,000 migrants have entered Europe so far this year. Of that number four-fifths of have paid to be smuggled by sea to Greece from Turkey, the main transit route into the EU. Nearly all of those entering Greece on a boat from Turkey are from the war zones of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

SUBOTICA, SERBIA - SEPTEMBER 09: Migrants make their way through Serbia, near the town of Subotica, towards a break in the steel and razor fence erected on the border by the Hungarian government on September 9, 2015 in Subotica, Serbia. Thousands of migrants have funnelled their way across country to the small gap in the steel fence unopposed by the authorities. Since the beginning of 2015 the number of migrants using the so-called 'Balkans route' has exploded with migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey and then travelling on through Macedonia and Serbia before entering the EU via Hungary. The number of people leaving their homes in war torn countries such as Syria, marks the largest migration of people since World War II. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

A migrant, exhausted, rests on the beach after failing to board a boat to the Greek island of Kos on early August 16, 2015 off the shore of Bodrum, southwest Turkey. Authorities on the island of Kos have been so overwhelmed that the government sent a ferry to serve as a temporary centre to issue travel documents to Syrian refugees -- among some 7,000 migrants stranded on the island of about 30,000 people. The early hours are the safest time for migrants travelling from Turkey to the Greek islands just across the water, which have seen a huge influx of refugees escaping the civil war in Syria and chaos in Afghanistan since the beginning of this year. AFP PHOTO/BULENT KILIC (Photo credit should read BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images)

Migrants sit in a compartment of a passenger train in Presevo, close to the Serbian border with Macedonia, 300 kilometers southeast of Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Bracing cold temperatures and snow storms hundreds of migrants continue to arrive daily into Serbia in order to register and continue their journey further north towards Western Europe. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

In this Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015 photo, tents of stranded migrants at the Greek-Macedonian border, as Qasu's family, a Yazidi refugee family from Sinjar, Iraq, are waiting near to be permitted to cross the border to Macedonia, near the northern Greek village of Idomeni. Within two days the Qasus had traveled by midnight ferry from Lesbos to Athens and then by bus to Greeceâs northern border with Macedonia. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

A young girl holding a stuffed animal crosses railway tracks in front of Macedonian police officers facing migrants demonstrating as they try to get across the border, after she crossed Greek-Macedonian border near Gevgelija along with other migrants and refugees on November 22, 2015. Serbia and Macedonia, which lie on the main migrant route to northern Europe, have begun restricting the entry of refugees to just those from certain countries, the UN refugee agency said on November 19. AFP PHOTO / ROBERT ATANASOVSKI (Photo credit should read ROBERT ATANASOVSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

Two Afghan young women wait to be registered in the Tabakika registration center on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016. Thousand of refugees and migrants continue to reach Greece's shores despite the winter weather.(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

A young migrant's hair becomes stuck while crawling under a barbed fence with her family at the Hungarian-Serbian border near Roszke, on August 27, 2015. As Europe struggles with its worst migrant crisis since World War II, Hungary has become, like Italy and Greece, a 'frontline' state. So far this year, police say around 141,500 migrants have been intercepted crossing into Hungary, mostly from neighbouring Serbia. AFP PHOTO / ATTILA KISBENEDEK (Photo credit should read ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP/Getty Images)

Rena a 20 years old migrant from Morocco, who has been waiting to cross the Greek- Macedonian borders for 17 days, sits on a chair, sits near to a fire started by refugees and migrants to warm up, at the northern Greek border station of Idomeni, Friday, Dec. 4, 2015. More than 3,000 people remain stuck on the Greek side of the border, as Macedonia and other Balkan countries refuse to let them through, considering them economic migrants. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

The dead body of a migrant boy lies on the beach near the Aegean town of Ayvacik, Canakkale, Turkey, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016. A boat carrying migrants to Greece hit rocks off the Turkish coast on Saturday and capsized, killing at least 33 people, including five children, officials and news reports said. Some 75 other migrants were rescued. A Turkish government official said he expects the death toll from the incident to rise as rescue workers try to reach other migrants believed trapped inside the wreckage of the boat which sank shortly after departing from the Aegean resort of Ayvacik.(AP Photo/Halit Onur Sandal)

A group of migrants move through snow towards train station to be transferred to Austria, near the border with Croatia, in Dobova, Slovenia, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Migrants hurl stones at Macedonian policemen during clashes at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Saturday, Nov. 28, 2015. Tension has flared on the Greek side of the Greece-Macedonia border when a migrant who was stopped from crossing into Macedonia, suffered severe burns when he climbed on top of a stationary train carriage and touched a overhead power cable.(AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Refugees and migrants sail towards the Greek island of Lesbos on October 25, 2015 as they cross the Aegean sea from Turkey. At least three migrants -- two children and a woman -- drowned when their boat sank off the Greek island of Lesbos, the coastguard said, the latest fatalities in Europe's refugee crisis. Around a dozen others, mostly Afghans, are still missing after the rickety vessel, carrying 60 people, went down at dawn as it made the perilous crossing from Turkey, according to the Greek coastguard. AFP PHOTO / ARIS MESSINIS (Photo credit should read ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images)

RIGONCE, SLOVENIA - OCTOBER 23: Migrants walk from the village of Rigonce to Brezice refugee camp in tha dark on October 23, 2015 in Rigonce, Slovenia. Thousands of migrants marched across the border between Croatia into Slovenia as authorities intensify their efforts to attempt to cope with Europe's largest migration of people since World War II. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

A child is passed over a fence as migrants and refugees prepare to board a train heading to Serbia from the Macedonian-Greek border near Gevgelija on October 25, 2015. European Union and Balkan leaders hold emergency talks on Europe's refugee crisis amid threats from three frontline states to close their borders if northern EU countries stop accepting migrants. The mini summit, called by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, groups the heads of 10 EU nations, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, plus the leaders of Albania, Serbia and Macedonia. AFP PHOTO / ROBERT ATANASOVSKI (Photo credit should read ROBERT ATANASOVSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

In this Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015 photo, Delphine Qasu, 18, right, a Yazidi refugee from Sinjar, Iraq, is comforted by her brother Dilshad, 17, while crying after talking about their journey to reach Germany, at their new temporary home at Patrick Henry Village, in Heidelberg, Germany. The Qasus do not normally cry, but this felt nothing like normal. Like hundreds of thousands before them and untold more to come, the Iraqi family had just completed a disorienting dash across Europe and found refuge in Germany. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

CALAIS, FRANCE - AUGUST 3 : A migrants camped out in Calais, attempts to climb a security fence near refugee camp of Calais, France on August 3, 2015. More than 2 thousands migrants waiting at Calais forests, hoping to get to Britain, camp out in Calais, on August 3, 2015. (Photo by Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Two sisters from Syria play on a beach near the town of Mytilene after crossing a part of the Aegean sea on a dinghy, with other refugees and migrants, from the Turkish coast to the Greek island of Lesbos, on Monday, Dec. 7, 2015. Greece is the main point of entry into the EU for people fleeing war and poverty at home, with the vast majority of the 700,000 people who have entered the country this year reaching Greek islands from the nearby Turkish coast. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)

MYTILENE, GREECE - OCTOBER 22: Afghan men argue outside of the main gate as violence escalates for migrants waiting to be processed at the increasingly overwhelmed Moria camp on the island of Lesbos on October 22, 2015 in Mytilene, Greece. Dozens of rafts and boats are still making the journey daily as thousands flee conflict in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and other countries. More than 500,000 migrants have entered Europe so far this year. Of that number, four-fifths have paid to be smuggled by sea to Greece from Turkey, the main transit route into the EU. Nearly all of those entering Greece on a boat from Turkey are from the war zones of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Migrants cross a frozen stream as they walk through snow storm from the Macedonian border into Serbia, near the village of Miratovac, Serbia, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Bracing cold temperatures and snow storms hundreds of migrants continue to arrive daily into Serbia in order to register and continue their journey further north towards Western Europe. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

DOBOVA, SLOVENIA - OCTOBER 22: Migrants are escorted by police through Dobova as they walk to a holding camp on October 22, 2015 in Dobova, Slovenia. Thousands of migrants marched across the border between Croatia into Slovenia as authorities intensify their efforts to attempt to cope with Europe's largest migration of people since World War II. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Refugees and migrants sit atop a heavily-listing small vessel as they try to travel from the Turkish coast to Skala Sykaminias on the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos on Friday, Oct. 30, 2015. Authorities in Greece say 21 people have died in other islands after two boats carrying migrants and refugees from Turkey to Greece sank overnight, in the latest deadly incidents in the eastern Aegean Sea. (AP Photo/Kostis Ntantamis)

MIRATOVAC, SERBIA - JANUARY 27: Migrants walk through thick mud as they cross the Macedonia / Serbia border in the southern Serbian village of Miratovac on January 27, 2016 in Miratovac, Serbia. Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. (Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)

A girl cries as hundreds of migrants wait to cross to Austria, in Sentilj, Slovenia, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015. Asylum-seekers hoping to reach Western Europe turned to crossing Slovenia after Hungary closed its border with Croatia with a barbed-wire fence. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Migrants walk towards Austria in Sentilj, Slovenia, Friday, Oct. 30, 2015. Asylum-seekers hoping to reach Western Europe turned to crossing Slovenia after Hungary closed its border with Croatia with a barbed-wire fence. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

People walk through a field in order to get to Serbia's border with Croatia close to the town of Sid, Serbia, Friday, Sept. 18, 2015. Croatia on Friday closed all border crossings with Serbia except one in an effort to control the flow of migrants which has strained authorities. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

A man wrapped in a blanket sits amid tents migrants and refugees used to spend the night close to Serbia's border with Croatia, in Berkasovo, Serbia, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015. Thousands of migrants and refugees are still crossing from Serbia into Croatia and continuing their journey towards Western Europe. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

A migrant child stands on a muddy road near the border line between Serbia and Croatia, near the village of Berkasovo, about 100 km west from Belgrade, Serbia, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2015. Refugees from countries such as Syria, Iraq and Eritrea are used to warm climate without sudden weather changes. The majority now passing through the Balkans started their months-long journeys in the summer, unaware it would take so long to reach Western Europe. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Migrants walk in the rain after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija, on November 27, 2015. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Some 800 people are stuck on the border, mostly Iranians, Moroccans, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis. / AFP / ROBERT ATANASOVSKI (Photo credit should read ROBERT ATANASOVSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

CALAIS, FRANCE - DECEMBER 01: Migrants contend with wintery conditions in the camp known as the 'New Jungle' on December 1, 2015 in Calais, France. Thousands of migrants continue to live in the makeshift camp in the port town in northern France, where they continue to try and board vehicles heading for ferries or through the tunnel in an attempt to reach Britain. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Syrian refugee takes water from a volunteer worker in a train at the station in Tovarnik, Croatia, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015. Police said Saturday more people are coming in from Serbia, mostly near the eastern border town of Tovarnik, where there are already 2,500 people waiting for transport. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

TOPSHOT - Syrian refugees are pictured in a camp as Syrians fleeing the northern embattled city of Aleppo wait on February 6, 2016 in Bab al-Salama, near the city of Azaz, northern Syria, near the Turkish border crossing. Turkey on Saturday said it was expecting a huge wave of Syrians fleeing a government onslaught on rebel-held territory, with a regional governor saying at least 70,000 people may be heading for the border. The United Nations said some 20,000 people had gathered at Syria's Bab al-Salam crossing with Turkey. An AFP reporter said the crossing was closed but the Syrian side of it was being supplied by aid trucks coming from Turkey. / AFP / BULENT KILIC (Photo credit should read BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images)

A volunteer uses an orange flare as a signal for the migrants and refugees who approach the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos from the Turkish coast, on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015. Several European countries, including EU members Slovenia and Croatia and non-members Serbia and Macedonia, have declared they will only allow "war-zone refugees" from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria to transit through their countries on their way to central and northern Europe. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)

Migrants struggle to board a train at the railway station in Budapest, Hungary, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015. Over 150,000 migrants have reached Hungary this year, most coming through the southern border with Serbia, and many apply for asylum but quickly try to leave for richer EU countries.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

A migrant holds up a child as he and others react with Turkish security members as they try to walk down a highway towards Turkeyâs western border with Greece and Bulgaria, near Edirne, Turkey, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015. The migrants were stopped Friday by Turkish law enforcement on a highway near the city of Edirne, causing a massive traffic jam. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

A young girl with a lost shoe cries after her arrival on a dinghy with her family from the Turkish coast to Skala Sikaminias village on the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015. Greece is the main entry point for those fleeing violence at home and seeking a better life in the European Union. More than 500,000 people have arrived so far this year on Greece's eastern islands, paying smugglers to ferry them across from nearby Turkey. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)

Syrian people sleep inside a greenhouse at a makeshift camp for asylum seekers near Roszke, southern Hungary, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2015. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees and others are still making their way slowly across Europe, seeking shelter where they can, taking a bus or a train where one is available, walking where it isn't. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

DEREK, SYRIA - NOVEMBER 13: Yazidi refugees celebrate news of the liberation of their homeland of Sinjar from ISIL extremists, while at a refugee camp on November 13, 2015 in Derek, Rojava, Syria. Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq say they have retaken Sinjar, with the help of airstrikes from U.S. led coalition warplanes. The Islamic State captured Sinjar in August 2014, killing many and sexually enslaving thousands of Yazidi women. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

An Afghan refugee child covers his face with a balloon while he and other migrants spent the night in a shelter near Graz, Austria, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015. Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orban said that millions of migrants are "laying siege" to the borders of his country and of Europe, putting the continent in danger. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

GEVGELIA, MACEDONIA - AUGUST 23: Macedonian special police forces control the departure of migrants to board a train to reach the Serbian Macedonian border on August 23, 2015 in Gevgelia, Macedonia. Thousands of migrants and refugees have arrived on the border between Greece and Macedonia with many trying to travel through Macedonia to reach northern Europe. Macedonian security forces are expected to let several hundred migrants board trains towards Serbia and the rest of Europe. (Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)

A volunteer wraps a baby in an emergency blanket for warmth as people disembark from a rubber boat from neighboring Turkey at a beach on the northern shore of Lesbos, Greece, Monday, Nov. 2, 2015. More than 300,000 people have traveled on dinghies and boats from nearby Turkey to Lesbos this year, with dozens dying along the way. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

Macedonian border police officers carry a migrant child in a wheelchair near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija, Friday, Dec. 4, 2015. Greek riot police struggled to maintain order on Friday after clashes between asylum-seekers at the country's border with Macedonia. Macedonia is allowing only people from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria to cross the border, and groups of people from other nationalities have set up makeshift roadblocks, preventing anyone from crossing. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

A Macedonian Army engineer fixes razor wire to a fence at the border crossing Medzitlija, between Macedonia and Greece, near the southern Macedonian town of Bitola, Friday, Dec. 11, 2015. Macedonia is erecting another several kilometers long fence near town of Bitola, on its southern border with neighboring Greece, in order to prevent illegal crossings and to channel the flow of migrants through the official checkpoint near the southern town of Gevgelija, where only migrants from the war-affected zones will be allowed to enter. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

This picture taken by a drone shows the stranded migrants at the border station between Serbia and Hungary near Horgos, Serbia, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015. Small groups of migrants continued to sneak into Hungary on Wednesday, a day after the country sealed its border with Serbia and began arresting people trying to breach the razor-wire barrier, while a first group arrived in Croatia seeking another way into the European Union. (Istvan Ruzsa/MTI via AP)

Migrants move past a chapel after crossing from Croatia, in Rigonce, near a border crossing between Croatia and Slovenia Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015. After too many days and nights stuck outside in the rain and cold, tempers are fraying among the tens of thousands of migrants trying to get through the Balkans to the heart of Europe. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

LETSCHIN, GERMANY - OCTOBER 09: Mohamed Zayat, a refugee from Syria, plays with his daughter Ranim, who is nearly 3, in the one room they and Mohamed's wife Laloosh call home at an asylum-seekers' shelter in Vossberg village on October 9, 2015 in Letschin, Germany. The Zayats arrived approximately two months ago after trekking through Turkey, Greece and the Balkans and are now waiting for local authorities to process their asylum application, after which they will be allowed to live independently and settle elsewhere in Germany. Approximately 60 asylum-seekers, mostly from Syria, Chechnya and Somalia, live at the Vossberg shelter, which is run by the Arbeiter-Samariter Bund (ASB) charity. Vossberg village is located in rural eastern Germany close to the border to Poland, and unlike shelters in southeastern Germany, it has experienced no incidents of right-wing animosity from locals, something an ASB spokesman attributes to strong cooperation between the municipality, schools and citizens' groups and an effective information campaign to educate locals about the newcomers. Germany has been inundated with hundreds of thousands of asylum applicants this year and is struggling to accommodate them. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

ROTHESAY, ISLE OF BUTE, SCOTLAND - DECEMBER 04: Syrian refugee families arrive at their new homes on the Isle of Bute on December 4, 2015 in Rothesay, Isle of Bute, Scotland. The Isle of Bute is welcoming 15 Syrian Refugee families as part of the governments plant to give refuge to 20,000 refugees in the UK by 2020. The Isle of Bute, on the Cowal peninsular, has a population of 6,498 which swells in the Summer months due to tourism. The island has been nicknamed the 'Madeira of Scotland' (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

The European Union was founded in the ashes of World War Two, in part on a principle of freedom of movement among member states. But since the fall of the Berlin Wall, European countries have built or started 1,200 km (750 miles) of anti-immigrant fencing at a cost of at least 500 million euros ($570 million), a Reuters analysis of public data shows. That distance is almost 40 percent of the length of America's border with Mexico.

Many of these walls separate EU nations from states outside the bloc, but some are between EU states, including members of Europe's passport-free zone. Most of the building was started in 2015.

"Wherever there have been large numbers of migrants or refugees trying to enter the EU, this trend has been followed up by a fence," said Irem Arf, a researcher on European Migration at rights group Amnesty International.

For governments, fences seem like a simple solution. Building them is perfectly legal and countries have the right to control who enters their territory. Each new fence in Europe has sharply curbed the numbers of irregular immigrants on the route they blocked.

For at least one company, fences work. The firm which operates a tunnel between France and Britain says that since a major security upgrade around its French terminal last October, migrants have ceased to cause trouble.

"There have been no disruptions to services since mid October 2015, so we can say that the combination of the fence and the additional police presence has been highly effective," Eurotunnel spokesman John Keefe said.

But in the short term at least, they have not stopped people trying to come. Instead, they have diverted them, often to longer, more dangerous routes. And rights groups say some fences deny asylum-seekers the chance to seek shelter, even though European law states that everyone has the right to a fair and efficient asylum procedure.

Forced to find another way, migrants and refugees often turn to people-smugglers.

Greece's border fence was one of the first, and Avramopoulos still defends it. He says Greece built it to divert people towards official crossings where they could apply for asylum. Much of Greece's frontier with Turkey is delineated by a fast-flowing river, the Evros. But there is a 12 km stretch where people used to sneak through on land after making the river crossing in Turkey.

"The Evros river is a very dangerous river," Avramopoulos told Reuters in his upper floor office suite in February. "Hundreds of people had lost their lives there."

At least 19 people drowned in the Evros in 2010, according to the United Nations refugee agency. Neither the Greek authorities nor Europe's border agency Frontex could provide more data.

In practice, rights groups say Greece's barrier - and others including one built by Spain in Morocco - effectively turn everyone away, denying vulnerable people a chance to make their case for protection.

This is partly because some new barriers have passport controls like those at an airport. People need travel documents to exit one country and reach the checkpoint of the EU country where they want to seek asylum. Many refugees don't have any papers, so they are automatically blocked.

With barriers come security guards, cameras and surveillance equipment, which all make it harder for people to make their asylum cases. Rights groups have documented many reports of border officials beating, abusing, or robbing migrants and refugees before dumping them back where they came from. This approach, known as push-back, has become an intrinsic feature of Europe's external borders, according to Amnesty International.

As a solution, some migrants and refugees buy fake papers. Others stow away in vehicles. Or they turn to people-smugglers.

Greece's fence had a knock-on effect that continues to ripple through Europe as more countries wall themselves off. More migrants moving through Turkey began to enter Europe across the Bulgarian border, or by sailing to Greece in inflatable dinghies. In the eastern Mediterranean, the International Organization for Migration has recorded more than 1,100 migrant deaths since the start of last year.

The EU refuses to fund fences, saying they don't work. As European Commissioner, Avramopoulos has tried instead to persuade fellow member states to show solidarity by offering homes to 160,000 refugees and migrants, mainly from Greece and Italy. As of March 15, just 937 asylum applicants had been relocated.

For Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the idea of quotas is "bordering on insanity." Orban opposes a dilution of Europe's "Christian values" by multicultural immigrants and started building fences along Hungary's borders with Croatia and Serbia in late 2015.

Since the ethnic cleansing of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia, Balkan states have been particularly sensitive to the risks of ethnic and religious conflict. Other countries followed Hungary with fences - even if most said they installed them to control the flow of people, rather than to preserve cultural purity.

When Austria started a barrier on its border with Slovenia in November 2015, it said it was necessary for crowd management. Then Austria capped the numbers of people it would admit, and how many it would allow through to Germany. By March, all these measures seemed to be having the desired effect: The number of migrants entering Germany from Austria had fallen more than sevenfold.

Even so, there were new signs the fences were simply reshaping, rather than closing, the migration routes. The numbers making the perilous crossing from Africa to Italy had increased. Austria said it would add soldiers to defend its border with Italy.

The fence Avramopoulos visited last month underlines the risks of such barriers. Built by Macedonia as part of a pact with states further north, it has sealed around 50,000 people into Greece.

More than 10,000 - a third of them children - are camped in flimsy tents near the fence. Many families have refused to leave the border, waiting instead for it to open, as respiratory infections spread and frustration mounts.

"All our values are in danger today," Avramopoulos said. "You can see it here."

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Summary: According to Europe's migration chief, building fences to keep people out is


Line, the messaging app that is hugely popular in Japan, is reportedly planning an initial public offering of around $3 billion.

The IPO is set to take place as a dual listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq, people close to the deal told Reuters.

The actual date of the IPO is expected to be around the end of summer, although one report cites analysts who believe the IPO will be delayed to the second half of this year by Naver, the South Korean company that owns Line. “The plan by Naver to have an IPO for Line will be delayed until the second half of this year due to market uncertainty and the mediocre business growth of Line,” said Ahn Ji-maan, an analyst at NH Securities, in a note to clients, and as reported by the Korea Times.

In the company’s most recent earnings report, Line boasts around 215 million monthly active users, with 67% of that total coming from the app’s top four countries in terms of market share: Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia. In Japan, it is estimated that 40% of the entire population use Line.

However, the app’s MAU growth was just three million more than the previous quarter, leading some to question if Line can grow outside of its core markets. To expand its revenue streams—the app earned around $1 billion in revenue in 2015— Line has launched a range of services that include an online TV service, a paid music streaming app, mobile payments, and a grocery delivery pilot project.

Summary: It could be a dual-listing in both Japan and the U.S.


Next week is primary week in the capital of the world, New York.

All of the candidates are here, but they are staying far away from Wall Street because none dares to acknowledge the economic models that have an almost perfect record predicting presidential political outcomes.

Today, most of Wall Street’s predictive models call for a GOP victory in November, based on the anemic gross domestic product growth.

Interestingly, the primary modalities of predictive analysis are each done differently, but the major ones all do have at least one common thread: economic growth.

Ray Fair, economics professor at Yale and author of “Predicting Presidential Elections and Other Things,” has one of the leading economic models predicting elections, and has been doing it the longest — since 1978.

The model he uses has the enviable record of correctly forecasting all but three presidential races since 1916. One instance when it was incorrect was in 2012, when Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney.

Fair’s model relies on three primary points of analysis: the per capita growth rate of gross domestic product in the three quarters before an election, inflation over the entire presidential term, and the number of quarters during the presidential term in which growth per capita exceeded 3.2 percent.

Moody’s has the Dems in the lead in the fall. But it seems to be an outlier with obviously flawed reason, in my opinion.

The Moody’s report — which came out last week from economist Dan White — for the first time ever weighs the sitting president’s approval rating, even though neither he nor his veep are up for election.

Strangely, the economists over at Moody’s — whose model hasn’t missed an election since it was created in 1980 — chose to tinker with success by adding a volatile variable that sometimes can be personality-driven and completely devoid of economics.

But, hey, Moody’s will get its report card come November.

Summary: Next week is primary week in the capital of the world, New York. All of the candidates are here, but they are staying far away from Wall Street because none dares to acknowledge the economic models…


Early Monday morning the leadership of al-Qaeda disowned the Islamic State of Iraq and greater Syria (ISIS), the most effective of its two franchises fighting in Syria, in a maneuver that could alter the trajectory of the fight against President Bashar Assad. In a message posted on jihadi websites the al-Qaeda general command stated that its former affiliate “is not a branch of the al-Qaeda group [and al-Qaeda] does not have an organizational relationship with it and is not the group responsible for their actions.”

The move had been a long time in the making. Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri has grown increasingly frustrated with ISIS, ever since Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, expanded into the Syrian conflict in April and attempted to bring the local al-Qaeda franchise, the Nusra Front, under his control. Zawahiri intervened in May, admonishing Baghdadi to go back to Iraq, but Baghdadi refused, snapping back in a terse audio recording. “I have to choose between the rule of God and the rule of Zawahiri, and I choose the rule of God.” It was a rare demonstration of defiance in an organization that demands absolute loyalty. Nonetheless, Zawahiri seemed prepared to let the matter lie, apparently in recognition of Baghdadi’s growing strength; by that time, ISIS, recently strengthened by an influx of foreign fighters, had taken control of the Syrian city of Raqqa. That brought al-Qaeda the closest it had ever been to achieving a longterm goal — establishing an Islamic state.

But ISIS’s savagery and draconian interpretations of Islamic law alienated many Syrians and drove a wedge between rebel groups. On Jan. 3, fighting broke out between ISIS and a new alliance that included the Nusra Front. ISIS has managed to stand its ground, but this most recent al-Qaeda announcement could lead to a greater conflagration. Al-Qaeda central may not have been able to stop Baghdadi outright, but the threat of excommunication seemed to have reined in his worst tendencies — his deadly campaign of suicide-bomb attacks in Iraq has not yet been replicated in Syria to the same degree. ISIS is now likely to lash out with increased attacks as it tries to prove its efficacy in spite of losing its valuable al-Qaeda designation.

Summary: After a protracted turf battle, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria finds itself on the outs. That will likely make things even more dangerous


Estimated cost of the wedding: $1 million

Hollywood A-listers Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston wed in July 2000 on the Malibu estate of TV producer Marcy Carsey. Among the 200 guests were celebrities Cameron Diaz and Salma Hayek, plus Aniston’s Friends co-stars Courtney Cox and David Schwimmer. Aniston wore a Lawrence Steele floor-length white gown, accessorized by suede Manolo Blahnik sandals. Some 50,000 flowers created a “Zen garden look,” while candles illuminated the reception tent. The night ended with a fireworks display. (The pair divorced in 2005.)

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Summary: Their venues are extraordinary, the gowns designer and the guest list stacked with red carpet regulars. Here's our top 20 countdown.


(CBS News) For the people of Mexico, the "Halls of Montezuma" are much more than the words of a song; they represent a humiliating military defeat at the hands of the United States in 1847. Not even the 1862 victory over France that Mexico celebrates today -- Cinco de Mayo -- is enough to fully heal the wound. Mo Rocca tells the story:

Every year, in a small cemetery in Mexico City, 750 unknown American soldiers who died in the Mexican-American War are remembered.

"That conflict marked a dark chapter in the long relations between our countries," said U.S. Ambassador Earl Anthony Wayne. He has to tread diplomatically over an issue that's still raw south of the border.

"Here in Mexico, of course, they remember it because large parts of the United States were parts of Mexico before that war," said Wayne.

But north of the border, the war is all but forgotten.

In 2008 an Absolut Vodka ad showing a map of Mexico stirred outrage in America: Was Absolut calling for Mexico to conquer the U.S.?

In fact, this is what North America looked like c. 1847:

Penn State historian Amy Greenberg says it was the first war in U.S. history that was fought for greed rather than principle: "There was no great ideological reason why we were going to war against Mexico. It was the first war that was started with a presidential lie."

Greenberg argues in her recent book, "A Wicked War," that the war was engineered by President James Polk.

"James K. Polk went to Congress and said American blood had been shed on American soil, but almost nobody except Americans claimed that the land where the blood was shed was actually American soil," Greenberg said. "When Zachary Taylor marched his troops between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, he was marching through land which everybody, including the residents of that territory, believed to be Mexican land."

"So they were basically looking for a fight?" asked Rocca.

"Absolutely. No question about it."

They were looking for a fight because President Polk had a vision for America called "Manifest Destiny."

© 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Summary: Mo Rocca examines the Mexican-American War (a.k.a. the "American Invasion"), which still stirs passion among Mexicans 165 years later


It was exactly six months ago this week that hackers leaked information from 37 million accounts on the extramarital dating site Ashley Madison, and we watched the world's largest soap opera unfold. But based on a recently released letter that appears to show one user being blackmailed, it seems the fallout isn't over yet.

There were many accounts of blackmail threats against Ashley Madison users immediately after hacker group "The Impact Team" released data stolen from the site, but a blog post that cybersecurity expert Graham Cluley published Thursday shows a recent alleged blackmail letter. The recipient claims they received the letter via the U.S. Postal Service just a few days ago.

"Hello [redacted], you don't know me but I know you very well," the letter begins. "Yes, I know about your secret, that you paid for services from a company that specializes in facilitating adultery. But what makes me a threat to you is that I have also spent several days getting to know about you, your family and others in your life."

The letter demands the recipient send $2,000 in bitcoin within 10 days or else face exposure to his family and coworkers.

Cluley says he believes the letter is authentic. "It's hard to be 100 percent certain, but the email conversation I had with the user appeared legitimate. He initially did not offer to send me a copy of the letter—I asked for it," Cluley told Vocativ. "If it had been someone trying to wind me up perhaps they would have been keener to share it with me." It is, however, possible that the letter is part of a phishing scam, in which the blackmailer simply sends out multiple such letters to random men and women, hoping that even one of the recipients actually was a member of the site who might pony up the bitcoin for fear of exposure.

While this is a rare instance in which someone has shared a blackmail letter with Cluley, he says his readers often tell him about similar cases. One reader mentioned an extortion attempt in the comment section of Cluley's blog post. "I had one of my employees receive one of these letters at work—it even had our company name on the envelope!" the commenter wrote. "It was identical to the one in the post."

Cluley doesn't think anyone receiving these threats should pay. He suggests that anyone in this position should share evidence with the authorities, including postal inspectors. He also thinks people should still be prepared to receive similar letters in the mail if they've ever used the site.

"Ashley Madison is one of the saddest, sickest stories I think I've ever come across in all my years in the security industry," he said. "I think the Ashley Madison blackmailing is going to go on for a long time yet."

See images of the extramarital dating site:

Ashley Madison leak may still be leading to blackmail 6 months later

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 19: A detail of the Ashley Madison website on August 19, 2015 in London, England. Hackers who stole customer information from the cheating site AshleyMadison.com dumped 9.7 gigabytes of data to the dark web on Tuesday fulfilling a threat to release sensitive information including account details, log-ins and credit card details, if Avid Life Media, the owner of the website didn't take Ashley Madison.com offline permanently. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 19: A detail of the Ashley Madison website on August 19, 2015 in London, England. Hackers who stole customer information from the cheating site AshleyMadison.com dumped 9.7 gigabytes of data to the dark web on Tuesday fulfilling a threat to release sensitive information including account details, log-ins and credit card details, if Avid Life Media, the owner of the website didn't take Ashley Madison.com offline permanently. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 19: In this photo illustration, a man visits the Ashley Madison website on August 19, 2015 in London, England. Hackers who stole customer information from the cheating site AshleyMadison.com dumped 9.7 gigabytes of data to the dark web on Tuesday fulfilling a threat to release sensitive information including account details, log-ins and credit card details, if Avid Life Media, the owner of the website didn't take Ashley Madison.com offline permanently. (Photo illustration by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Ashley Madison's International Affairs Director Christoph Kraemer speaks during a press conference in Seoul on April 14, 2015. The global adultery hook-up site Ashley Madison has come back to business in South Korea with vengeance after the country's Constitutional Court struck down a 65-year-old adultery law. AFP PHOTO / JUNG YEON-JE (Photo credit should read JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images)

A man looks at a dating site on his computer in Washington,DC on February 10, 2014. AFP PHOTO/EVA HAMBACH (Photo credit should read EVA HAMBACH/AFP/Getty Images)

In this June 10, 2015 photo, Ashley Madison's Korean web site is shown on a computer screen in Seoul, South Korea. The Ashley Madison cheating website is making a lucrative, controversial splash in South Korea in the wake of a landmark ruling earlier this year that decriminalizes adultery. So great is the interest here that company executives expect it to be a top-three market globally for them in five years, after the United States and Canada. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

This photo illustration taken on August 20, 2013 shows the homepage of the Ashley Madison dating website displayed on a laptop in Hong Kong. The founder of a dating service promoting adultery is setting his sights on China's cheating hearts after a controversial launch in Hong Kong. AFP PHOTO / Philippe Lopez (Photo credit should read PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

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Summary: Based on a recently released letter that appears to show one user being blackmailed, it seems the fallout isn?t over yet.


There have been rumors of discontent between “The Good Wife” television co-stars Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi have had for a handful of years.

Their off-set feud was apparently resurrected on Oct. 4, when Margulies took to the New Yorker Festival stage to dispel past gossip.

During the three-day arts event, Margulies explained that her “Good Wife” co-star did not show up to film their last scene together due to Panjabi’s commitment to filming for another television show, “The Fall.”

Margulies also expressed that she “went along with whatever (co-creator Robert King) asked me to do.”

On Monday, Panjabi responded on Twitter, saying there was nothing true to Margulies’ tale.

The pair’s behind-the-scenes feud is just one on a long list in Tinseltown history.

Here are five of the most popular supposed television co-star feuds:

Kim Cattrall vs. Sarah Jessica Parker

“Sex and the City” stars Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker portrayed lifelong best friends — Samantha Jones and Carrie Bradshaw — on the celebrated hit television series.

But their on-screen chemistry did not translate into real-life happiness for the two away from the cameras.

With reports of diva behavior and unequal salaries, co-star Cynthia Nixon even alluded that the show’s leading ladies were not immune to having an argument every now and then.

“It hasn’t always been smooth sailing, but the idea that we’re somehow adversarial is ludicrous,” she told Marie Claire Magazine in 2010.

Will Smith vs. Janet Hubert

In 2011, actress Janet Hubert — better known as the original Aunt Viv on the 1990s syndicated television show “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” — called Hollywood actor Will Smith an a-----e and an egomaniac.

However, it was Hubert’s 2009 memoir, “Perfection Is Not a Sitcom Mom,” that she first detailed her dislike for the “Suicide Squad” actor in print.

The working actress has said that she would attend a “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” reunion, should the opportunity present itself.

Before “The O.C.” and “One Tree Hill,” there was “Beverly Hills, 90210.”

The prominent teen television drama remained on the air for 10 seasons.

But one of its most notorious stars, Shannen Doherty, was soon fired playing the character Brenda Walsh.

Suggestions of fights with fellow co-stars and being difficult to work with led to Doherty’s demise on the hit program.

Doherty soon found herself starring in another Aaron Spelling-produced drama, “Charmed.”

The actress was ousted from this series as well, as hints of “rough days” with her co-stars — actresses Alyssa Milano and Holly Marie Combs — surfaced in an interview between Milano and Bravo late night talk show host, Andy Cohen.

Ariana Grande vs. Victoria Justice

Actress Victoria Justice was rumored to have bullied 'Victorious' co-star Ariana Grande off the set of the Nickelodeon hit show.

Nickelodeon’s “Victorious” stars Ariana Grande and Victoria Justice were bosom buddies Cat Valentine and Tori Vega on the teen sitcom.

Away from the bright stage lights, Grande and Justice were rumored to being teen queen rivals.

In a 2013 issue of Seventeen magazine, Grande stated that she was bullied on the set of “Victorious.”

The bully in question was reported to be her co-star Victoria Justice.

However, Justice sat down with journalist Meredith Viera on her talk show to give a final answer to the question all “Victorious” fans wanted to know.

“Hopefully, now she’s talked about it, I’ve talked about it, there is no feud,” the singer and actress told Viera.

Nicki Minaj vs. Mariah Carey

Reality television’s “American Idol” fast became a ticket to fame and success for singing hopefuls at the mercy of veteran music industry judges.

When the brutally honest talent judge and music business juggernaut Simon Cowell left the show in 2010, a revolving door of other tamer judges followed.

Then pop superstar Mariah Carey and rapper Nicki Minaj joined the “American Idol” cast for its 12th season.

This would be their first and last season as judging co-stars.

A volatite rift between the two grew to epic proportions, as allegations of videotaped arguments and threats of violence ensued.

Summary: Television co-stars do not always get along. Here is a list of five pairs rumored to have 'bad blood' between them.


Results from Sealed Air may offer a bit of cushion to fears that we are headed for a recession.

On Wednesday, the maker of bubble wrap and other packaging products reported that its fourth quarter earnings rose more than expected. After trending downward for much of the past six months, the company’s shares rose 8% on Wednesday, to nearly $44.

Higher sales in the shipping business is typically considered good news for the economy. Adjusted for one-time charges, Sealed Air see made $0.76 per share for the quarter. Analysts had been expecting the company to earn $0.50.

That being said, not all the news from Sealed Air was popping good. The company gave a soft revenue outlook for 2016. It said it expects sales to be $6.8 billion for the year, down from just over $7 billion in 2015.

The Dow Transportation Index, typically considered a bellwether for the economy, is down 6.5% so far this year. Still, that’s slightly better than the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is down by just over 8%.

Summary: This should offer some cushion to fears that we are headed for a recession.


The ear gives unequal weights to certain frequencies, making it particularly sensitive to sounds in the range of 1,000 to 6,000 hertz, scientists say. Babies cry in this range, for example, and the familiar "brrring, brrring" ringtone hits this sweet spot, too. (Simple ringtones are more likely to produce phantom rings than popular music used as a ringtone.)

"Your brain is conditioned to respond to a phone ring just as it is to a baby crying," Mr. Nokes said.

Why people seem to be hearing phantom rings more often now is another question. The answers range from the paranoid to the vast exposure to cellphones in people's lives — there were 207 million wireless subscribers nationwide at the end of 2005, a nearly sevenfold increase in just a decade, according to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association.

On blogs, some cellphone users wonder if an ominous agenda is at work when a phantom ring is triggered by a television or radio broadcast. A writer posting as Koan on forumgarden.com said that at first, songs played on the radio triggered a phantom ring. "Thing is, the high-pitched sounds, although a lot fainter, are still present during announcements now," Koan wrote. "What is this? Is it subliminal advertising ... or something else?"

Peter Arnell, the chief creative officer of the Arnell Group in New York and a major force in the marketing business, said that theory might not be far off the mark. While he said he has never been asked by a client to include sounds in an advertisement that would mimic a ringing cellphone, he thinks the increasing use of high-pitched, electronic tones is very much by design.

"People are using a sound trigger to control emotions," Mr. Arnell said. "The most controlling device in our life right now is a cellphone."

He suggested that a sound trick that sent confused listeners hunting for their cellphones might be especially effective for ads ending with a call to action. (An example is a directive to "Call this toll-free number now!")

"Hollywood has always known how to use sound to control emotions, right?" Mr. Arnell continued. "But this is newer to advertising. Sound effects have become the big deal on Madison Avenue."

Michael Sweet, the creative director of Audio Brain, a sonic branding company in New York that has done work for NBC and Verizon, also said that he had never been asked to use a sound for the purpose of generating a phantom ring. But he also said he believes that the ear-brain trick isn't a mistake.

"I think it's definitely intentional," Mr. Sweet said. "Do ad agencies know they're getting your attention? Sure. Do they know it's because you're trying to answer your phone to the TV? Not necessarily."

Allen Henderson, who runs the blog AwfulCommericals.com, was bothered by a Toyota ad showing a man dragging a rusted heap of a car uphill as if it were a ball and chain. The chain eventually snaps and the man is free to drive a Toyota. Mr. Henderson lamented what he called the spot's overblown premise, but that wasn't the only thing.

"Most of all," Mr. Henderson wrote on his blog, "I hate this commercial for making me check my phone every time it came on the air." Steve R. Chavez, creative director for Saatchi & Saatchi, the Los Angeles agency that created the spot, "Ball and Chain," seemed tickled when told of Mr. Henderson's phantom ring experience.

"You know, it only took us 20 years to develop that," Mr. Chavez said impishly. "I'm soooo kidding.

"I think, as an industry, we're often accused of manipulation. It's simply not true." And after this reporter was taunted by phantom rings from "Homage," a television spot for Marriott Hotels, the ad agency that created it, McGarry Bowen in New York, said any confusion was purely unintentional. "Everyone here is kind of baffled," said Rob Kaplan, the director of music production at McGarry Bowen. "No one meant to put anything that sounded like a cellphone ringtone in the spot."

In "Homage," which was conceived as a tribute to business travelers, a series of twinkling chimes punctuate shots of hotel rooms, a traveler falling back on a bed, and shoes kicked off on the floor.

Mr. Kaplan said the spot was created before he was hired but that the sound design wasn't meant to fool the ear. "I've worked on a lot of spots that have used a lot of modern, atonal sounds," Mr. Kaplan said. "It is kind of cutting edge and compliments visuals really well."

Intentional or not, audio experts say fooling the ear into hearing a ringing phone isn't hard.

As long as it's a more traditional trill, a telephone ring is a simple tone that can be reproduced relatively easy, said Adam Jenkins, a sound effects mixer who has worked on movies like "Crash" and "Apollo 13."

"It's a 1,000 hertz tone that can be generated by just about anything," Mr. Jenkins said. And because most sounds are the result of two or more tones put together — human speech is multitonal, for example — simple tones really stand out.

Tones that are generated around 1,000 hertz have another special characteristic that helps them hoodwink those within range. It is tough to tell where they are coming from.

Because humans have ears on each side of their head, they are able to localize most sounds. The direction of high-frequency sounds is pinpointed based on their volume level in each ear, and low frequency sounds based on their arrival time in each ear.

But Guy Moore, an assistant professor of physics at McGill University in Montreal, said human ears do not do a good job finding the source of sounds around 1,000 hertz using either method, so that a noise in that range seems just as likely to be coming from the television to the right as a purse sitting to the left.

"That's also why it's so hard to tell where an ambulance siren is coming from in traffic," Mr. Moore said.

So, primed as busy people are to respond to a ring, the phone usually is the first response to the question, "Where is that coming from?"

Jonathan Wolff, a retired sound designer in Lexington, Ky., who created the theme songs for "Will & Grace" and "Seinfeld," said he has unintentionally created sound mixes that generate phantom phone rings. "But I take it out if I think its going to be annoying," he said.

While phantom rings may generate reactions from curiosity to irritation, at least explanations for the phenomenon exist. More mysterious are phantom phone vibrations, a cellphone side effect that many people said they also have experienced. It seems that having a phone set to vibrate can cause a particularly physical kind of false alarm.

Charles Maniaci, a special education teacher from Atlanta, said he used to feel phantom vibrations almost constantly. Then about a year ago he developed a lump on his thigh underneath the pocket where he kept his cellphone. "Nobody could tell me what it was," he said.

For a while, he moved his phone to a belt clip. But the vibrations eventually stopped, and he moved the phone back to his pocket. "I've thought that maybe the nerves got so irritated from the phone vibrating that this tissue grew around them," he said. "That's what the body does, it grows tissue around things to protect them. But it's exactly where I used to keep the phone."

A version of this article appears in print on , on page G2 of the New York edition with the headline: I Hear Ringing and There's No One There. I Wonder Why. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: Phantom phone rings have emerged recently as an Internet discussion topic and has become a new reason for people to bemoan technology.