One of the toughest degrees out there, chemistry is well respected by employers and prepares students for a range of careers. Chemistry students can find themselves doing anything from medicinal and biological chemistry to polymer science. Contact hours tend to be high, with students spending as much time in the lab as they do in lectures or seminars, developing practical and technical skills alongside the theoretical. Those hoping to study the subject will need to have picked their A-levels well, as most courses require students to have studied the sciences and/or mathematics. Our top 10 takes you through the best universities in the country for chemistry, according to the Complete University Guide. Sign up to our student life newsletter for news, opinion and advice on applications

This top 10 is based on the Complete University Guide 2016 league table for chemistry

Summary: Looking to study chemistry at university? It would be worth checking out these   institutions, which are the top 10 places to study the subject


For weeks, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has been in a standoff with the U.S. government over his refusal to pay fees he owes for grazing his cattle on federal land. As Bundy has denounced what he sees as runaway federal power, many conservatives have rallied to his side.

But on Thursday the focus on Bundy centered around race after The New York Times published a report in which Bundy shared his views on “the Negro,” wondering whether blacks were “better off as slaves” and lamenting that modern-day African-Americans “never learned how to pick cotton.”

Bundy resurfaced those remarks Thursday during a press conference in which he focused on race issues and asked whether “Negros” were happier today than in the past.

“The question is, are they slaves the way they are, where they live as slaves to the charity and government-subsidized homes, and are they slaves when their daughters are having abortions and their sons are in the prisons?” Bundy said after being asked directly if he believed African-Americans would be better off as slaves.

Bundy described his experiences driving through Las Vegas and seeing African-Americans living in what he described as government-subsidized homes, adding that he could see “sadness” on their faces.

The rancher spoke briefly about liberty, an issue he believes is at the core of his ongoing dispute with officials from the Bureau of Land Management.

“I am happy to see [African-Americans] be able to have the freedoms and liberty and be able to feel like they’re Americans and be able, be able to move and talk and choose a religion,” he said. “And what I’m really excited about is the fact that our Constitution was formed that those – that all of us people could have some liberty and freedom and be able to feel, exercise our conscience.”

Bundy’s original comments were captured in a video obtained by Media Matters.

Bundy sought to clarify those remarks during an interview on the Peter Schiff radio show before his press conference Thursday, repeatedly insisting he was not asserting that African-Americans were better off as slaves, only that he was “wondering” about the issue.

During a separate appearance on Alex Jones’s radio show, Bundy pushed back further, saying he hoped The New York Times would retract the statement. According to audio of the interview posted by Adrian Chen, Bundy said the comments were not “exactly what I said,” specifically denying he talked about “picking cotton.”

Asked if he would like The Times to correct their story, Bundy replied that he would “appreciate” that accusing the paper of creating a “racist type thing” when “I’m not a racist.”

Presumably Bundy was unaware of the video of the conference, in which he does talk about picking cotton.

For more on the story, here’s NBC’s Kasie Hunt on NewsNation:

MSNBC Live with Tamron Hall , 4/24/14, 12:00 PM ET

After recent racist remarks from Cliven Bundy, past supporters such as Rand Paul and Dean Heller are backing away. NBC’s Kasie Hunt joins NewsNation to discuss Bundy and all the political headlines of the day.

Summary: Over the weekend, Cliven Bundy veered away from land-use issues to share his views on race, wondering whether blacks were “better off as slaves.”


HONG KONG—The head of consumer products for Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. said on Tuesday that he was confident the company would reach its target to ship 140 million smartphones in 2016, a 30% increase from last year.

Speaking at a news conference, Huawei Consumer Business Group Chief Executive Richard Yu said his division was aiming to book $28 billion in revenue this year, up 41% from $19.9 billion in 2015. The sales would be partly fueled by about 15,000 new retail stores the company plans...

Summary: The head of consumer products for Huawei Technologies said Tuesday he is confident the company will reach its target to ship 140 million smartphones in 2016, a 30% increase from last year.


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

The Big 12 Conference is expanding its reach – and schools are pulling out all the stops to make sure they're included in the expansion conversation.

The University of Memphis is one of them. And they're making a pretty strong case.

Justin Timberlake, Memphis native and part owner of the Memphis Grizzlies, publicly encouraged the move on Twitter.

Timberlake's tweet was in response to this statement put out last week by Memphis' athletic director, Tom Bowen.

The Big 12 cited a few factors they're looking for in the expansion: strength of athletic department, size of the fan base, media market, school reputation and academic strength.

READ MORE: 15 athletes you wouldn't recognize by their real names

The Memphis football program made headlines last fall for beating Southeastern Conference opponent Ole Miss after the they beat Alabama, who ultimately won the College Football Playoff, earlier in the season.

It's doubtful that Timberlake's celebrity-status support will have any influence on the Big 12's ultimate decision, but it certainly can't hurt in the reputation category.

Follow AOL Sports on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

More from AOL.com: We cannot get over the throwback photo Dennis Rodman just shared Cavaliers coach Ty Lue says team will make trip to White House before Obama leaves office Kevin Durant told Russell Westbrook he'd re-sign with Thunder

Summary: Justin Timberlake wants Memphis in the Big 12 and he doesn't care who knows.


Another editorial board is calling for Chris Christie to resign as the governor of New Jersey — and this time, it’s from the largest newspaper in the state.

In a piece published Thursday morning, the editorial board of The Star-Ledger excoriated Christie for his “craven” endorsement of Donald Trump, his lack of “character” and his “disinterest in this state’s most pressing problems.”

RELATED: #FreeChristie: Governor’s appearance with Trump inspires hashtag

“How much time will he spend in coming months campaigning for Trump? We asked, and of course he will not answer,” the newspaper wrote. “Enough. It is time for the man to resign. Given that he’s neglected his job, that he won’t promise to change course even now, and that he has sacrificed every scrap of his credibility in this craven grab at national power, he should at least have the decency to get out of the way.

The newspaper’s scathing critique comes just one day after six other New Jersey newspapers – all owned by Gannett – also called for Christie to step down. Earlier this week, a New Hampshire newspaper editorial board rescinded its endorsement of Chris Christie’s now-defunct presidential campaign after his endorsement of Trump, saying “Boy, were we wrong.”

Christie has long warred with the press in his state, where media outlets have consistently pointed out his absences from New Jersey in favor of campaign events nationwide.

He spent more than 260 days at least partly out of New Jersey last year during his own presidential run, which he abandoned on February 10.

This article first appeared on NBCNews.com.

All In with Chris Hayes, 3/2/16, 8:37 PM ET

His Trump endorsement has led to humiliation after humiliation - and now the internet wants to #FreeChrisChristie.

Summary: In a piece published Thursday morning, the editorial board of The Star-Ledger excoriated Christie for his "craven" endorsement of Donald Trump.


Palo Alto, United States -Â The US government initiative to unite young entrepreneurs from around the globe with socially conscious investors wrapped up on Friday with a key note address by President Barack Obama.

More than 1,000 particpants from 170 countries took part in the three-day Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in lively workshops, business seminars, and frenzied networking sessions in California's Silicon Valley.

The focus of the gathering was young people - especially women - from underdeveloped areas in the world to build businesses that better the lives of those willing to take a risk on their ideas - and those willing to back them with capital.

It was the seventh and last GES of the Obama administration after the president launched the initiative in 2009 in Cairo, Egypt.

Obama told a crowd more than 17,000 young businesspeople had been assisted by the GES over the years.Â "The point is I believe in you and America believes in you," Obama said at Stanford University.

Meet some of those involved in this year's summit.

We offer a product that is optimised for the African market and tailored to people living on $2 a day.

We use technology that allows anyone with a basic phone to access banking services. You don't need to have a smart phone, you just need a $10 or $20 phone to have access to financial sector services. It could be loans, people on $2 a day could get loans of $1.

When we alleviate poverty, we're going to make some money. Africa now has about 1.1 billion people and I want to bank every African. So I'm looking for partners to work with us on this journey to help raise the standard of living for every African. When I say bank every African I mean they should have access to financial services. They need to have a savings account, they need to have an investment account, they need access to micro-insurance, which could be health, death, and accident insurance.

Providing financial services to more than a billion people requires a lot of critical partners, very strategic partners that include not just technology partners but also investors and the like, and it's going to take a lot of money to make this happen. If you're going to give out loans to half a billion people or a billion people, you're going to need the money first to give it out. So that is why we're here.

I have had a business for 24 years now working in the area of indigenous space. It's a successful company that helps organisations become culturally fit, and what I mean by that is to work in indigenous space more effectively. Most organisations in Australia don't know how to do that.

They're saying the wrong words or using the wrong terms, being inappropriate, perhaps even racist. They start to walk on egg shells. So the way I describe my work is I remove the egg shells.

I give organisations the skills they need to work in the indigenous space more effectively. It helps them to remain competitive, win contracts, and this affects their bottom line in various ways.

My mission overall is to create a culture of competent Australia where every single person in the Australian workforce knows how to work with indigenous Australians effectively, and to reach their goals and aspirations.

We are an advisory firm that does three things: We provide advice to government and financial regulators on how to set up online financial solutions, like crowdfunding for equity and debt. Number two we work with the infrastructure companies with crowdfunding platforms to make them successful. And three, we invest in the infrastructure of the companies themselves.

The angle with the young entrepreneurs is about enabling crowdfunding. In a country you open up the opportunity for more entrepreneurs to build businesses.

And so our job is to prepare the table, so to speak. So we train the entrepreneurs about how to raise money. We provide education classes to entrepreneurs and say here is the roadmap for how to be successful in equity and debt crowdfunding.

Our organisation was launched in 2013. We provide vocational and professional tools for women who are interested in working as a way of achieving economic independence for poverty reduction.

It's been really difficult for me and my country to be an entrepreneur. I started as a teacher and one day I said I need to do something for women.

This summit is really necessary for countries that have many problems with equity and education like Argentina. The US government really wants to make a different world for us, that's why they sponsor this.

We are all going home with a spirit of change. We're going to return with impactful ideas to improve our society. It's really important that so many countries participate in this summit. We are really different but also so similar in many ways, especially the women. Now I have strong support networks to go ahead with my ideas.

I come from Morogoro and my company VonKavy deals with poultry and eggs. What we are trying to do is upscale the business and increase production of the eggs and meat.

We are starting a new programme of trying to reach farmers - providing them with quality breeds, providing them with education, knowledge, and skills on how to increase poultry production, and then selling that to the local community together.

I applied to the GES summit and I was one of the 700 out of 5,000 selected to attend. Previously, in 2004, I was chosen to be one of the Mandela Washington Fellows, that's a President Obama initiative as well for young African leaders.

For me being at the GES is an eye-opener. It's a networking opportunity and a learning opportunity. I have made a lot of networks from the meetings that are happening now in the Silicon Valley. I believe this is an asset that I will use - one way or another - to improve my business.

My company is involved in the fabrication of metal products for the past 16 years. We do high-end artisanal work, a lot of branded hotels coming into town, luxury homes. The few staff we have are road-side artisans or master-craftsmen who learned the trade from their grandfathers.

Immediately I fell in love with the industry. I employ 14 artisans, welders, and carpenters.

When I entered, there were not many women working with metal. Traditionally as a woman, you're not allowed to work with heat, or any male-dominated trade for the matter. So it was a tough industry to break into. But what worked for me was I had a strong design background and exposure and knew what the market was looking for. All of a sudden Africa was opening up, a lot of people were returning, people with refined tastes.

But there's a problem with our skill base, Africa has a huge deficit for high-level skills. This all stems from the educational system. You have a lot of wasted talent. A few years ago I opened up my workshop to a few universities and polytechniques and we work closely now. So I set up the first artisan design school in Ghana, but this is something I don't want to begin and end there. This is something I want to transcend the whole continent.

For me the Global Entrepreneurship Summit is amazing. The most powerful thing is the networks. You are meeting people that you would never have imagined. If we're thinking global entrepreneurship and global business, you need to have the right connections.

Entrepreneurship now transcends borders, it's about transformational skill that designs something that impacts millions of lives.

The challenge is how do you make education available to that little boy in the village somewhere who wants to upgrade his skills, because you know that will take him out of the poverty line.

Summary: Global Entrepreneurship Summit unites the universal business spirit with investors seeking to better the world.


Most Americans are losing sleep over a financial concern, according to a new report.

A survey conducted by CreditCards.com found 62% of respondents said they were being kept awake by at least one financial problem. That number is lower than during the tail end of the recession in 2009, when 69% of Americans said they were losing sleep over their finances, but still worse than the beginning of the financial crisis in 2007 when the proportion of those kept awake stood at 56%.

Among those who are losing sleep, the most common fear is not saving enough for retirement. About 40% of Americans report they sometimes stay awake worrying about their retirement savings, and as many as half of respondents between age 50 and 64 say this concern keeps them up at night.

The second largest worry is educational expenses, which keeps 31% of the population—and 50% of 18- to 29-year-olds—from slumber, followed by 29% of Americans who stay restless over medical bills.

Matt Schulz, senior industry analyst at CreditCards.com, said the results highlight how record levels of student debt have taken a toll on students and recent graduates. “It kind of confirms a lot of what we’ve seen,” said Schulz. “The education costs are the only financial fear that has continuously grown in all of the times we’ve done this survey.”

He also offered suggestions for how people stressed out by their finances can finally get some shuteye. “People lose sleep when things seem out of their control, and a lot of folks with student debt feel like it’s out of their control,” the analyst noted. “It’s important that people who are losing sleep and feel out of control take some sort action, whether they’re making a budget, or getting a side job—doing something that can help them get a little control over their financial issue. It may not solve their financial problems, but it might help them sleep better at night because they feel like they’re doing something about it.”

He also pointed out that, perhaps unsurprisingly, Americans making over $75,000 per year were less likely to lose sleep than those with lower incomes. “They say that money can’t buy you love or happiness but our survey shows it might be able to buy you a better night’s sleep,” Schulz added.

Summary: Money problems are leaving a majority of Americans sleepless.


WHAT BISHOP ALFRED HOLLAND DENIED AT THE CHILD ABUSE ROYAL COMMISSION:

* Being told that priest Peter Rushton was arranging for pedophiles to have access to boys at St Alban's Boys Home

* Being told by an assistant priest that Rushton had abused his five-year-old son

* Knowing that priest Stephen Gray, who he wrote a character reference for, was charged with sexually molesting a juvenile

* Any knowledge of Anglican youth worker Jim Brown who was sentenced to 20 years for assaulting 19 boys

* Any knowledge that his legal adviser Keith Allen intended to recommend for Holland to tell the commission he could not recall anything

Summary: The former Anglican Bishop of Newcastle Alfred Holland has repeatedly denied knowing anything about the sexual activities of pedophile clergy he promoted.


Collette Hutchins bought Jan’s Hobby Shop in Manhattan in 1973 after her son, who builds models, convinced her to put up the money: $12,000.

At noon on Tuesday, a flock of sparrows gathered as usual outside Jan’s Hobby Shop on Lexington Avenue near 93rd Street — waiting for their usual midday meal from Madame inside.

They finally sent a representative in off the sunny sidewalk, a little brown bird that hopped gamely into the store and looked at Collette Hutchins, 83.

“Ah, my friends want food, tout de suite,” blurted Ms. Hutchins, who, with her son Fred, has run the shop for 43 years at three different locations on the Upper East Side.

The throwback shop stocks plastic kit models, the related supplies, and little else. It also serves as a display space for the trove of models meticulously assembled and decorated with historical precision by Mr. Hutchins, the obligatory hobby geek ever at his cluttered work space in the rear.

Ms. Hutchins’s childhood in wartime France helped foster her son’s fascination with World War II model planes and other historical weaponry.

He pores over the latest battleship or fighter plane made from scratch, as classical music fills the shop and his mother looks on proudly and extols her son in her strong French accent.

“Here, we show art and history,” Ms. Hutchins said. “Freddie started building models when he was 5 years old and he hasn’t stopped since. Now he’s 58.”

In warm weather, Mr. Hutchins may work on the sidewalk on one of the numerous large replica battleships he has built from scratch.

From behind the crowded counter, under a large model plane hanging from the tin ceiling, Ms. Hutchins calls customers, feeds her sparrows and phones her twin sister, Ginette Bedard, who lives in Howard Beach, Queens, and still runs in the New York City Marathon each year. Ms. Hutchins is often irreverent, sometimes irritable and indelicately vigilant about shoplifting.

Ms. Hutchins runs for 90 minutes around her block each morning, she said, nearby on York Avenue. Then she opens the shop in her running suit and sneakers, her hair in a tall bun and her eyes accented with generous strokes of green-blue eye shadow.

“I’m an artist — I love color,” said Ms. Hutchins, a painter who bought the business for her son when he was a teenager.

As a boy, Freddie avoided the local bullies by staying inside and building the models he bought at Jan’s Stationery Shop on York Avenue, he said. When his father became terminally ill, Ms. Hutchins began cooking at a French restaurant. Her son helped her cook but soon convinced her to buy Jan’s for $12,000 in 1973. She paid cash.

“It was my incentive and her money,” he recalled. “It was a pact made in heaven, and she’s been here ever since.”

“And I got myself a job for life,” Ms. Hutchins said.

When she was a little girl, Ms. Hutchins said, she noticed her Jewish friends and neighbors disappearing, fleeing the Nazis’ rise to power and control of the Lorraine region, where she lived.

“In our school, the Germans put a picture of Adolf Hitler over the teacher’s desk and made us stand and say ‘Heil Hitler,’” Ms. Hutchins recalled. “Then, in 1945 — same school, same teacher — they took Hitler off the wall and put up a picture of Charles de Gaulle and we stood up and said, ‘Vive de Gaulle!’”

Ms. Hutchins said some of her relatives who opposed the Nazis were put into prison camps, and her two teenage brothers were pressed into military service for Germany, but then they deserted.

One hid out in the family hayloft during the remaining months of the war, in uniform and a thick beard, said Ms. Hutchins, who became curious about why the barn was suddenly off limits and why her mother constantly took food there.

“I said to myself, ‘Hm, rabbits don’t eat meat,’” she recalled. “One day, I saw a man in there with a beard, and I ran and told my mother, ‘There’s a German soldier in the barn.’ She wanted to laugh.”

She recalled that when American troops reclaimed her region for France, they loved the local schnapps made from mirabelle plums.

“They told the children, ‘We’ll give you chocolate for schnapps,’ and they gave us two little Hershey bars,” she said. Ms. Hutchins then pointed at her son’s displayed aircraft models of British Lancaster bombers and the German V-1 missiles — and said she saw the real versions soaring over her farmhouse.

“I saw this tank for real,” she said, grabbing a model for the Tiger 1, a German tank, in a box.

In the 1950s in Lorraine, she met her husband, a former United States Marine who had fought in the Pacific. They moved to Casablanca, in Morocco, and then settled in New York City.

The shop’s long hours — open seven days a week and closed only on Thanksgiving and Christmas — will continue as long as she is alive, she said.

“To retire is to expire,” she said. “I’m going to die with my boots on.”

What She Is Hobby shop owner

Where She’s From Metz, France

Telling Detail As her son decorated the shop with World War II dioramas, Ms. Hutchins would guide him using memories of growing up in the Lorraine section of France, near Germany, during the war.

A version of this article appears in print on May 29, 2016, on page MB4 of the New York edition with the headline: Model Parent. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: In her longtime hobby shop in Manhattan, a Frenchwoman has fostered her son’s fascination with World War II weaponry.


08/03/2016 AT 04:00 PM EDT

Some of tinseltown's biggest stars will gather Thursday in Beverly Hills for a good cause.

is set to present at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's annual grants banquet, PEOPLE confirms exclusively.

The HFPA will be granting more than $2.3 million in funds to non-profit entertainment-related organizations and scholarship programs at the event, which will be hosted by

Evans will certainly be in good company. Also joining him as presenters are Aaron Taylor-Johnson,

, Joanne Frogatt, Jurnee Smollett-Bell,

In January, the HFPA will hold its annual

, which has helped raise more than $25 million for charity and scholarship programs since its inception.

Summary: The star will join some of Hollywood's biggest names, including Emma Stone, Justin Timberlake, Renée Zellweger and more, at the event


It left one of the policewomen with "deep wounds to the face". She later underwent surgery but her injuries are not life threatening. The other victim was slightly injured

Belgium's unit for terror threat analysis coordination said it would keep the alert level unchanged at level three on a scale of four, meaning an attack is viewed as "possible and likely."

However, with regard to attacks specifically on police the level has been increased to 2+ level, requiring "particular vigilance."

The new threat level means officers have to wear bullet-free vests and are permitted to take a gun home. They are also asked not to wear a uniform when commuting to and from work.

Police trade unions in Belgium had asked for the police terror threat to be lifted to 3 after Saturday’s attack and say they are “not entirely happy” with the situation.

Belgian Premier Charles Michel cut short his summer holiday to attend a hastily convened emergency meeting of the National Security Council session in Brussels yesterday (sun) where he discussed the security situation with security experts and other key ministers.

Belgium has been on high alert since suicide bombers struck Brussels airport and a metro station near the European Union's institutions on March 22, killing 32 people.

Summary: An Algerian man who attacked two Belgian policewomen with a machete was an illegal immigrant who had twice been ordered to leave the country, it emerged on Sunday


A fantastic opportunity to purchase over an acre of land with outline planning permission and plans for a four to five bedroom executive detached house, situated in the sought after location of Cookhill, Redditch.In addition to the actual building plot, there is one acre of land included to the rear with amazing views across to rolling countryside.Cookhill is located near to Alcester, a delightful village with many local facilities and schools, and is also situated near to Redditch offering many amenities, train station and the Kingfisher Shopping Mall.For more information regarding the land, plans or planning permission, please call one of our friendly team at Arden Estates Redditch on .EPC Awaited / Council Tax Band Awaited

Property descriptions and related information displayed on this page are marketing materials provided by Arden Estates. PrimeLocation does not warrant or accept any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the property descriptions or related information provided here and they do not constitute property particulars. Please contact Arden Estates for full details and further information.

View all Oak Tree Lane property for sale

Summary:
Land for sale in Oak Tree Lane, Cookhill, Alcester B49 -

        £375,000


A Victorian prison is under the spotlight after green-thumbed inmates were caught growing dozens of cannabis plants in its nursery.

The crop of 28 immature plants was discovered in the medium-security Fulham Correctional Centre in Sale this week.

Victoria's corrections commissioner has ordered an investigation into the latest incident in which four cannabis plants were found concealed in the nursery on Tuesday.

A drug detection dog then sniffed out a further 24 plants during a thorough search on Wednesday.

Victoria Police has confirmed it is investigating.

The nursery grows plants and vegetables for the prison, the local area's parks and local charities.

Summary: Cannabis crops grown at a Victorian prison have led to a full review of the incident.


GREENWICH, Conn. -- For more than 35 years, the modest, four-story building here known as Two Greenwich Plaza was home to a hodgepodge of small shippers, manufacturers and lawyers.

Today, Two Greenwich Plaza is one of the most sought-after office buildings in one of the fastest-growing corners of the financial world. Hedge funds that together control more than $20 billion have taken over the building, driving up rents and squeezing...

Summary: If the hedge-fund boom has a capital, it is Greenwich, Conn., a ritzy suburb about 30 miles from Manhattan. More than 100 hedge funds, managing more than $100 billion, have set up shop here in the past few years. (Complete hedge-fund coverage)


One would think that actress Kate Mulgrew knows a lot about the universe from her time as a Starfleet ship captain in the science-fiction series Star Trek: Voyager.

But her “expertise” (and, perhaps, sanity?) was thrown into question when her voice was heard narrating a trailer for The Principle, an upcoming documentary that argues for geocentrism, the belief that the sun (as well as the rest of the universe) revolves around Earth.

On Tuesday, the actress took to Facebook to offer an explanation on how she became involved in the film: essentially, she was duped.

In the trailer, Mulgrew tells audiences, “Everything we think we know about our universe is wrong.” Ironically, it now seems she feels every thing she says in the film is wrong.

Mulgrew is not the first person to express regret for involvement in the film. Physicist Lawrence Krauss, who is also featured in the docu, said in an article for Slate that the film took statements he made out of context.

The Principle, which is due out later this year, is directed by Katheryne Thomas and produced by Robert Sungenis, who questions the Holocaust in addition to the order of the universe.

Star Trek: Voyager ran on UPN from 1995 to 2001.

Summary: "I was a voice for hire, and a misinformed one," says Mulgrew, famous as Star Trek: Voyager's Captain Kathryn Janeway. She narrates an upcoming documentary that argues that Earth is the center of the universe and the sun rotates around it


The woman famously told to “Calm down dear” by David Cameron, in one of many House of Commons exchanges when she visibly got under the prime minister’s skin, will do nothing of the kind.

Related: Angela Eagle: Corbyn is failing to offer ‘effective alternative’ to Tories

After a week of hesitation, Angela Eagle has announced her bid for her party’s leadership in a series of Sunday morning television interviews, and on Monday will formally launch her campaign.

“Politics is poisonous for women right now,” Olivia Bailey, chair of the Labour Women’s Network, and a former aide to Eagle, tweeted on Friday. The power struggle in the Tory party brutally bears out her observation, and the Labour leadership campaign is unlikely to prove any gentler.

However, many believe the former shadow business secretary and chess champion is up to the challenge. “She’s tough – in the best possible sense of the word,” a former colleague, who rates her chances highly, observed.

Angela and Maria Eagle, twins separated by 15 minutes, were born in Bridlington in east Yorkshire, to solidly working-class parents, and both attribute the self-assurance that carried them through school, Oxford University and professional careers before full-time politics to the determination of their parents.

Their mother, Maria recently revealed in an interview, passed her 11-plus but then dropped out of school because her parents could not afford the uniform. Their father made it to art school, but had to leave to earn a living as a printer. He taught the twins to play chess at the age of eight, which proved a useful skill for both. Angela, the stronger player, beat a boy to win the Formby under-11 title. “When the prize was a Biggles book, I realised that chess was only for little boys, and that I would have to carry on, and so I did,” she recalled. She continued to play in tournaments into her 20s. Although work dominates her life, she also has eclectic interests in music, and was praised by Chrissie Hynde for her comprehensive knowledge of the Pretenders back catalogue.

Both twins claim to have been interested in politics as toddlers, were teenage members of the Labour party, and both stood in the 1992 general election. Angela became the generally well liked and hardworking MP for Wallasey, though in the bitter and widening split between the parliamentary Labour party and the grassroots members, there have been mutters that she could face deselection. It took five years for her sister to join her, as MP for Liverpool Garston (now Garston and Halewood), making them the first twins, and soon government members, in parliament. Both served in the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and the shadow cabinet of Ed Miliband.

Eagle, who has been in a civil partnership with Maria Exall since 2008, became the first female Labour MP to come out as gay in 1997. When she told John Prescott, then Labour’s deputy prime minister, he responded: “Tell me something I don’t know.”

Related: Angela Eagle: who is the woman taking on Jeremy Corbyn?

The leadership contest really began for her on 27 June, when she became the 15th member of Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench to leave, tweeting that she had done it “with deep regret, and after nine months of trying to make it work”.

Those who are loyal to her are fiercely so. Bailey, who is now research director at the Fabian Society, responded to her resignation on Twitter: “Proud of my old boss, who will not have taken this decision lightly. A loyal servant of the Labour party.”

Eagle also pledged that she wanted to help “heal” the Labour party, a challenge that could be greater than winning the leadership contest. Within minutes of the LabourList site reporting that her hat was finally in the ring, one of many bitter commenters posted: “This is not about ‘healing the party’. It’s a deliberate act of sabotage.”

Asked in an interview in February about the future for Labour, with the faultlines already visible in the party when the EU referendum was still only a dot on the horizon, she said firmly: “The impossible can happen.”

Summary: Former colleagues say the MP is well equipped to challenge Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour party leadership


08/25/2016 AT 01:50 PM EDT

can't imagine the show without

. And she can't imagine her life without

Before landing the coveted comedy spot, the scene-stealer tells PEOPLE she was "destitute, unemployed, living in L.A. – which I hate."

"Thank god that I got to have that job, because I'm not qualified for anything else," McKinnon adds. "I have no skills. I'm bad at most things."

, who is up for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series, says being on the show is a dream come true. "I started watching

when I was 12 â¦ just seeing

do their thing and be unafraid to look ridiculous and act outlandish, I thought, 'That's me. That's the job I should have.' "

McKinnon's been juggling several jobs recently, starring alongside comedy superstars

with Wiig – and she'll be returning to

Though her fame has skyrocketed, she says her notoriety hasn't, as she's still able to walk around in public without fanfare.

"I do get approached occasionally, but not a ton," she says. "I'm unrecognizable because I'm coated in cat hair and sweat. And there's a sort of yeti quality to my presence â¦ so I don't think that people can see the face. What am I going to do? Buy a lint roller?"

Summary: The Emmy-nominated cast member says "thank God"  Saturday Night Live hired her because "I'm not qualified for anything else"


Read MoreIs change about to sweep Brazil?

While fundraising was up, LAVCA data shows that investments slowed this year. PE and VC fund managers invested $2.57 billion through 93 transactions in the first half, a 10 percent decrease from the same period in 2013.

"Investments reached a six-year high in 2013, so it is natural that managers would focus their efforts on bringing value to portfolio companies and raising funds for future investments," Ambrose said.

Big deals include KKR and Bain Capital plays in Brazil, their first direct investments in the country (KKR acquired data center company Acquire Aceco TI and Bain bought health-insurance operator Intermedica). General Atlantic also bought Mexican pharmaceutical company Sanfer, and Carlyle acquired Peruvian security company Grupo Liderman.

"The region represents a large GDP with many pockets of growth and a new geography for KKR," Jorge Fergie, the private equity firm's head of Brazil and Latin America, said in an email.

Fergie said KKR is focused on healthcare, agriculture, and services in fast-growing economic sectors.

"LatAm is a very dynamic region, therefore we are continually reviewing updating and adapting our focus and themes," he added. "We are currently monitoring quite closely the impacts of the reforms in Mexico [and] the macroeconomic adjustments post elections in Brazil."

Summary: Private equity and venture capital firms are set to increase their investments in Latin America after netting billions in new funds.


Bruce Springsteen turns 67 today. When you're that old (by the way, Bruce, you don't look a day over 55), and still touring with the E Street Band, you don't care about rules.

Before a Sept. 14 concert at Gillette Stadium, Foxborough's Board of Selectmen agreed to push the town's stadium concert curfew by 15 minutes, from 11:15 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Springsteen proceeded to go over the new curfew by 24 minutes, stopping at 11:54 p.m.

Springsteen, who is worth an estimated $60.5 million, would have been given a $22,429 fine. Before the town could even send The Boss a letter, the stadium boss stepped in. The Kraft Group, which owns Gillette Stadium, covered the overtime fine Wednesday, according to The Sun Chronicle.

After all, Robert Kraft did not need this petty cost hanging over his head. He had to watch Jacoby Brissett and the Patriots take down the Texans, 27-0, at home Thursday night.

The Foxborough concert was Springsteen's final North American stop on "The River Tour 2016." He and the E Street Band will be in Australia and New Zealand from Jan. 25-Feb. 25.

In three concerts at East Rutherford's MetLife Stadium in August, Springsteen broke the record for his longest U.S. concert three times. He topped off with a show of four hours, one minute on Aug. 30. A week later, he broke that record with a show of four hours, four minutes in Philadelphia. The Foxborough show was clocked at four hours, one minute.

-- Follow Jeffrey Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband.

Bruce Springsteen, concert, curfew, E Street Band, Football, foxborough, Gillette Stadium, Music, New England Patriots, NFL, Robert Kraft, Rock And Roll

Summary: Bruce Springsteen played Gillette Stadium past Foxborough's curfew, but Patriots owner Robert Kraft paid the fine.


Residents of South Australia were last night bracing for floods as rivers threatened to burst their banks after a week of wild weather.

Thousands — including many still without power — will awake today to discover if their homes have been inundated.

Last night the army had been called in to help anxious locals with the sand bagging effort as floods threaten Adelaide’s north.

The key threat was of major flooding in the Gawler region, north of Adelaide, with rivers swollen by more than two days of heavy rain nearing their peak.

As night fell the ability to judge if floodwaters had reached their peak became more difficult. SES and other emergency services personnel were on standby.

Warnings have been issued for communities along the Gawler and North Para Rivers, though widespread property damage is thought unlikely.

After more than 100mm of rain across a wide area during storms on Wednesday and Thursday, floodwaters have been steadily moving towards the coast, inundating vineyards in the Barossa Valley and spreading across parks and scrub.

The State Emergency Service said areas most likely to be impacted included Hillier, Gawler River, Angle Vale, Penfield Gardens, Two Wells, Lewiston, Virginia, Port Gawler and Buckland Park.

People there were being urged to follow their flood emergency plans.

The Bureau of Meteorology said the Gawler River had reached a level of 7.59 metres, well above the major flood level of 7.3m.

The North Para River was also expected to peak on Friday afternoon, with the prospect of levels dropping over the weekend.

Flooding in the town of Tanunda, the Barossa Valley. The storms are gone but flood risks remain for many South Australians battered by this week's severe weather. (AAP)

Minor flood warnings remained for the Onkaparinga catchment area, south of Adelaide, and for the Torrens River which runs through Adelaide's northern suburbs and into the city.

However, improving weather across the state allowed SA Power Networks to reconnect more properties after Wednesday's statewide blackout and ongoing issues with storm damage.

By Friday about 8000 people were still without services because of the network failure, mostly on the Eyre Peninsula.

Transmission company ElectraNet said ground crews were continuing to work on the line between Cleve and Port Lincoln to repair a fault west of Tumby Bay that only became evident during an earlier attempt to restore services.

It said some supply had been restored to Port Lincoln with the use of back-up generation and early indications suggested full supply might be possible at some stage on Friday.

Port Lincoln Mayor Bruce Green said much of the town, home to about 16,000 people, remained shut down.

"Most of the businesses have sent people home and haven't worked for a couple of days," he told AAP.

"It's not a great situation for the community to be in. Very difficult times."

After the two days of destructive weather, South Australia's cabinet hit the road on Friday, with ministers spreading across the storm-ravaged state to speak with locals affected by the wild weather.

"The cabinet is keen to get out on the ground...to talk face to face with their constituents," Police Minister Peter Malinauskas said

Mr Malinauskas visited Gawler and Greenock, Premier Jay Weatherill and Health Minister Jack Snelling headed to the Eyre Peninsula, Transport Minister Stephen Mulligan to the mid-north and Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis to Whyalla.

The state government has made $700 grants available to help people impacted by the storms and floods to cover immediate expenses and to assist with the clean-up.

Eight emergency centres have also been opened to offer shelter and support.

Summary: South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill will travel to the state's mid-north to survey the storm damage.


A Gold Coast father who smothered his baby daughter to death could be released from prison as early as next year.

Shayne Robert Quinn, 29, violently shook four-month-old Courtney Quinn and placed his hand over her face while she was sucking on a dummy in September 2013.

Quinn told triple zero he had woken to find his daughter had stopped breathing, but she was already cold and blue by the time he took her to hospital.

Pathologists found the child also had dozens of old injuries, including 34 rib fractures consistent with being "squeezed", a broken arm and a fractured leg.

Quinn was originally charged with murder but pleaded guilty earlier this year to a reduced charge of manslaughter.

He was sentenced in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday to eight years in jail but with time already spent in custody, he will be eligible for parole in March 2017.

The court heard Quinn's then-partner and the child's mother Jasmin Harris was sentenced in June to two years and six months jail for child cruelty.

In the week prior to her death, Harris failed to take the baby to the hospital after a GP noticed the child had a broken arm, which Quinn admitted causing.

The court heard Quinn was struggling to cope with caring for the baby while he was unemployed and Harris was working as an escort.

"This was not some momentary lack of judgment, it was a deliberate act," Chief Justice Catherine Holmes said on Friday.

Justice Holmes told Quinn he had done a terrible thing but there was nothing in his life to indicate he would do something similar again.

"You can remake your life," she said.

Summary: A Gold Coast father who killed his baby daughter by smothering her while she had a dummy in her mouth has been jailed for eight years.


Gold Coast man Gable Tostee has defended his decision not to call an ambulance after his Tinder date Warriena Wright fell to her death from his 14th floor apartment and revealed why he was recording audio that night.

Ms Wright, 26, plummeted from Mr Tostee's Surfers Paradise balcony in the early hours of August 8, 2014.

The pair had met via the dating app Tinder, but their night together deteriorated into a drunken physical altercation that ended when Mr Tostee forced Ms Wright onto his balcony. She fell to her death less than 30 seconds later.

Mr Tostee was last month found not guilty of Ms Wright's murder or manslaughter, with audio recordings made on the night pivotal to his legal defence.

Selfies of Mr Tostee and Ms Wright taken on the night she died. (AAP)

The prosecution argued Mr Tostee was responsible for Ms Wright's death by putting her in a position in which she felt she had no other option but to flee for her life.

In his first interview since he was found not guilty by a Supreme Court jury last month, Mr Tostee told Liam Bartlett on 60 Minutes he often recorded his nights out "just in case" something happened.

"The question isn't so much, 'why did I do that', but 'why wouldn't you do that?'," Mr Tostee said.

"I used to go out quite a lot drinking, I don't have the best memory when I drink.

"It's a just in case thing.

"It's better off having something and not needing it than needing it and not having it."

The recordings captured the moment Ms Wright was moved onto the balcony by Mr Tostee and her haunting final scream as she fell to her death 27 seconds later.

Bartlett asked Mr Tostee why he didn't simply ask Ms Wright to leave through the front door as they fought.

"That's only a question you can ask in hindsight," Mr Tostee said.

"When you desperately have to get someone away from you and separate the two of you and deescalate an altercation, it doesn't come into the equation that person is going to climb off a balcony and fall 14 floors to their death.

"It was a lot, lot closer to the balcony door and it was wide open.

"It was the logical option at the time."

Mr Tostee's audio recordings were replayed on the program. (60 Minutes)

Warriena Wright fell to her death from Gable Tostee's balcony in Surfers Paradise. (Supplied)

Mr Tostee's lack of attention to Ms Wright's welfare after she fell drew criticism from the public, the media and police.

Mr Tostee left the building but did not phone for an ambulance.

"What had happened, had happened," he said.

"There was nothing an ambulance could do to change that."

He wandered around Surfers Paradise for almost an hour before stopping to get a slice of pizza.

"By the time I ate, I had been wandering around the streets confused, extremely drunk and in shock," Mr Tostee said.

"I needed to clear my head and sober up.

"There was nothing happy, or casual or indulgent about it.

"That night, that was the most scared I've ever been, it was the most distraught I've ever been in my entire life."

Gable Tostee on 60 Minutes. (60 Minutes)

Tostee defended his decision to eat while Ms Wright lay dead outside his apartment building.

"Nobody is trained for a situation like this. It's like being hit by lightning," he said.

"There is no right or wrong way to proceed from there."

Bartlett asked Mr Tostee if he could understand why people might think of him as a "cold, heartless, cruel bastard".

"When you put it that way, when that's all you say about a person with no insight or explanation, the media can make people think what the media wants people to think," Mr Tostee said.

Ms Wright's family declined to be interviewed by 60 Minutes.

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016

Summary: Gold Coast man Gable Tostee has relived the moments before his Tinder date Warriena Wright fell to her death from his 14th floor apartment.


NSW Police plan to stamp out gangland warfare through a new strike force after several notorious crime figures were gunned down in bloody executions on Sydney's streets in recent months.

Investigations into eight shooting deaths over the past 17 months will be brought together under the overarching Strike Force Osprey, launched by NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione on Thursday.

"It's clearly a concern that we're at the point that we're at now. My main aim is to make sure we don't go any further," Mr Scipione said.

The move has come on the back of a spate of gang shootings, including the death of gangster Pasquale Barbaro in Earlwood earlier this week and hitman Hamad Assaad in Georges Hall last month.

Assistant Commissioner Mark Jenkins told media police are trying to find possible connections between the incidents.

"The reason we're drawing these strike forces together is to determine whether there are any links between any of these particular murders," he said.

"I don't know that there are going to be any links that are going to be found in any of these murders at this stage. This is purely a proactive position on our part."

Despite the apparent spike in gangland shooting deaths since June last year, police said the number of incidents had actually gone down by up to 30 per cent since 2013 and even further since 2000.

Summary: NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione is set to launch a new strike force to deal with Sydney's gangland warfare.


DURING the military intervention of France in Mali January 2013, officials in Paris were at pains to emphasise the exercise’s modest ambition. “France can intervene only in an exceptional moment, for an exceptional and limited period”, said President François Hollande, as French troops swept into the west African country to beat back a jihadist advance that was threatening Mali’s capital, Bamako. After stopping the rebels in their tracks, France, he insisted, would hand over the country’s security to African forces.

A year-and-a-half later, the French are less bashful about their intentions in the region.

Summary: About Baobab -- Our correspondents delve into the politics, economics and culture of the continent of Africa, home of the baobab tree


As if the All Blacks' trouncing of the Wallabies in all three Bledisloe Cup rugby matches this year wasn't enough, Australia's cross-Tasman neighbours continue to hold the upper-hand in economic prowess as well.

Rubbing salt in the wound 24 hours after Australia posted its worst economic performance in eight years, New Zealand has upgraded its official growth forecasts and is predicting budget surpluses as far as the eye can see.

Little wonder that NZ Finance Minister Bill English is about to become his country's next prime minister after John Key announced his retirement this week.

In its half-year budget review released on Thursday, NZ Treasury predicted economic growth of 3.6 per cent in the year to June 2017, up from a previous forecast of 2.9 per cent.

There were modest growth upgrades for 2018 and 2019 as well.

There will be another budget surplus in 2017 of $NZ500 million ($A480 million), rising to $NZ8.5 billion by 2021.

JP Morgan economist Ben Jarman noted Mr English was able to use the update to declare he has "strong support in the caucus" for his leadership, as other contenders for the prime ministership dropped by the wayside .

Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison can only look on in awe.

His mid-year budget update on December 19 will tell a totally different story.

According to one recent independent report, Australian budget deficits could have blown out by around $24 billion over the next four years due to record low wage growth hitting tax revenues.

Mr Morrison has described that analysis by Deloitte Access Economics economist Chris Richardson as "very astute observations".

"We have been working along that track," he told ABC radio on Thursday.

Mr Richardson's report predicted the budget deficit for 2016/17 blowing out to $40.5 billion from $37.1 billion as forecast in the May budget, although Mr Morrison is adamant the government is still working towards a balanced budget by 2021.

His comments came after the national accounts for the September quarter on Wednesday showed economic growth contracted by 0.5 per cent, the first decline since March 2011 and biggest drop since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

That left the annual growth rate at just 1.8 per cent.

At least economists are fairly confident the Australian economy will bounce back in the December quarter and avoid a technical recession.

Summary: New Zealand's half-year budget update tells a totally different story to the one Australian Treasury Scott Morrison will deliver on December 19.


The federal government will push universities to publish more transparent admission information in an effort to clear the “fog” and “double speak” around entry standards.

On Friday the education minister, Simon Birmingham, announced the government would adopt all 14 recommendations of the higher education standards panel, including the call for a My School-style website to compare admissions standards across universities.

In November, the panel report found the practice of some universities publishing only main round offer cut-offs misled students, because many were admitted in later rounds with lower ranks.

It recommended a national one-stop-shop information platform to include information on the minimum Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (Atar) requirements for the course at the completion of all offer rounds.

The report proposed a template for universities to disclose the percentage of students admitted to a course with bonus points, the maximum number of bonus points available and the Atar required to be in the top 25%, bottom 25% and the middle of the student intake.

“These reforms are about clearing away the fog and doublespeak that has clouded higher-education admissions processes so prospective students can make well-informed decisions about if and what they want to study,” Birmingham said.

Birmingham said the federal government would put the onus on universities and higher education providers to be upfront about what they could offer prospective students, suggesting the information platform could also include graduate outcomes.

The government will ask universities to adopt the recommendations voluntarily. But Birmingham warned it would use “additional regulatory or funding obligations” if necessary, potentially using commonwealth grants to universities to force the changes.

As part of its transparency push, the government has also published new data from the graduate outcomes survey on the quality indicators for learning and teaching website.

“There will be no more hiding behind fluffy descriptions of entry requirements or inaccessible information on graduate outcomes,” Birmingham said.

In November the Universities Australia chief executive, Belinda Robinson, welcomed the panel’s report as “a measured and sensible way out of an increasingly complex and confusing admissions information mire”.

“The university sector is unified in its acknowledgement of the need for greater transparency, consistency and clarity of information on university admissions policies, processes [and] procedures,” Robinson said.

In August the head of the Group of Eight universities, Vicki Thomson, called for a single national application process and greater transparency around admission standards to counter a perception that the sector tossed around bonus points for special university entry “like confetti”.

“Only total transparency can reassure potential students and their families that the system is just,” she said.

Some universities, including the Group of Eight, have already committed to publish more transparent information about their entrance requirements.

Summary: Government to adopt recommendations of higher-education standards panel which found students were misled over cut-offs


PARIS—Air France reshuffled its management ahead of a new round of labor negotiations and appointed senior executive Franck Terner to replace Chief Executive Frederic Gagey who will become chief financial officer of the airline’s parent company.

The responsibilities of Mr. Gagey, who was Air France’s chairman and CEO will be split: Jean-Marc Janaillac, the CEO of Air France-KLM, will also take the chairmanship at the French unit, the...

PARIS— Air France reshuffled its management ahead of a new round of labor negotiations and appointed senior executive Franck Terner to replace Chief Executive Frederic Gagey who will become chief financial officer of the airline’s parent company.

The responsibilities of Mr. Gagey, who was Air France’s chairman and CEO will be split: Jean-Marc Janaillac, the CEO of Air France-KLM, will also take the chairmanship at the French unit, the company said Wednesday in a statement.

Mr. Terner, 56, was until now the head of Air France-KLM’s engineering and maintenance unit, that services the group’s aircraft as well as some other airlines’ jets.

The company is scheduled to introduce a new strategic plan Thursday that will include new labor measures.

Mr. Gagey will replace Pierre-François Riolacci who had said he was leaving the company a few months ago. Mr. Gagey has held senior positions in the group since 1999, including stints as CFO at Air France and at KLM, the group’s Dutch arm.

Tense labor talks led to a strike over the summer that cost the company EUR90 million. A year ago, labor negotiations erupted into a violent brawl in which a mob of unionized workers accosted two company executives and ripped off their shirts in front of TV crews.

Write to Inti Landauro at inti.landauro@wsj.com

Summary: Air France, embroiled in labor talks, named Franck Terner CEO and plans to introduce a new strategic plan Thursday.


That is a departure from the past, when Hamilton would head into a big game, such as the one the Giants have on Sunday against the Rams, and feel secure only in the performance of his defense.

"I feel if this team comes ready to play on both sides of the ball, I think we can beat anybody," Hamilton said yesterday. "If we play like we're capable of, I'm not worried about anybody."

The Giants this season have beaten everybody except for the Redskins and Titans, who happen to be the only two teams they've faced who are expected to make the playoffs. The Rams present perhaps the greatest challenge, a challenge that in years past Hamilton knew might be too much for the Giants' offense to handle.

"The last time I felt like this was '97, when it didn't matter who came in here," Hamilton said. "We've got a chance this year because our offense can score. If they continue to hold up their end of the bargain the sky's the limit."

This is certainly a healthy situation, unlike the division of the past.

"One of the things that's important in this league is the fit you have between the offense and defense," offensive coordinator Sean Payton said, "and I think we have that."

Usually, the Giants release the results of medical procedures such as MRI tests and X-rays. Jim Fassel yesterday refused to disclose the results of an X-ray given to CB Jason Sehorn, who has been out with a broken rib under his collarbone.

"I'm not going to talk about any X-rays . . . he's fine," Fassel said tersely. "I would anticipate him to play. He's fine."

Sehorn practiced all week and figures to start.

WR Ron Dixon (foot) will not play and most likely RB Joe Montgomery (thigh) will also be out.

C Dusty Zeigler (knee, ankle) was upgraded to probable.

What kind of effect does the Rams' offense have on an opponent? The Giants this week dropped TE Adam Young from their practice squad and signed WR Anthony Tucker, who was with the team in training camp.

The Giants needed Tucker specifically to simulate the four-receiver sets used by the Rams.

Fassel on playing this game on grass: "The Rams might not be thrilled with it, but we can't go out and put a dome on it."

Kerry Collins gets to play in this game, too. He could be considered a forgotten man, based on all the attention the Rams' quarterbacks have received.

Summary:
New York Post Online: Sports: New York Giants>
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Friday, April 5th 1996, 2:00AM

THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG. Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo. Directed by Jacques Demy. In French with English subtitles. At Film Forum. Running time: 90 mins. Unrated. 4 Stars

IT'S AN ODD THING TO say about a musical, but there are few movies as disturbing as "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," the 1964 masterpiece by French director Jacques Demy.

It's being reissued, beginning today at the Film Forum, in a meticulously restored and remixed new print.

With its candy-box colors restored to their full, fluorescent glory, Demy's film seems more beautiful and more startling than ever, a dumfounding combination of cynical social realism and extreme poetic fantasy.

The film begins with a three-way conversation among a car mechanic (Guy, played by Nino Castelnuovo), the manager of the garage and a satisfied customer. Nothing unusual here, except that the talk is rhymed and sung, having been set to a lush orchestral score by Michel Legrand.

Already, the effect is profoundly disorienting: We're not accustomed to seeing such ordinary events presented in such a heightened way, and Demy insists on the discrepancy with a stubbornness that at first seems comic and then slightly cracked."The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" is what Demy punningly called a "film en chanti," both "in song" and "enchanted."

Every line of dialogue continues to be sung, from the loftiest declarations of love exchanged by Guy and his fiance, 17-year-old Genevieve (a very young Catherine Deneuve) to a furniture hauler's command to "move your meat." The sublime and the ordinary exist side by side and finally become inextricable.

Following the same principle, the sets and locations have been painted to match elements of the characters' costumes. Yet enough of an element of disorder and decay remains in the image to suggest the harsh presence of reality this is no sterile Disneyland, but a real world that has somehow been pumped full of dreams and feeling.

Believing her daughter too young, Genevieve's mother (Anne Vernon), the owner of the local umbrella store in this notoriously rainy city, refuses to allow her to marry Guy before he goes off to fight in Algeria. In the film's most famous song, Genevieve proclaims her dedication to Guy: "If it takes forever, I will wait for you."

This is one of the cinema's supreme romantic moments, but in fact, Genevieve does not even wait six months. Pregnant by Guy, she succumbs to her mother's insistence that she marry a traveling diamond merchant (Marc Michel).

The film's color scheme shifts from a summery, pastel opening to an autumnal, orange-and-brownsecond act. The final act takes place a few years in the future, on Christmas Eve, and there are no bright colors now only the black of the night sky and the white of the falling snow as a mysterious limousine pulls up in front of Guy's gas station.

The ultimate subject of "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" is the difference between the world as it is and the world as we want it to be, a difference that is inscribed in every shot and in every sung-spoken line of dialogue. By taking the method of the musical to such a radical extreme, Demy opens this rift for all of us to see and feel. It's a vision as beautiful as it is sad.

(Unrated: No material unsuitable for children.)

Summary: THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG. Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo. Directed by Jacques Demy. In French with English subtitles. At Film Forum. Running time: 90 mins. Unrated. 4 Stars IT'S AN ODD THING TO say about a musical, but there are few movies as disturbing as "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,"the 1964 masterpiece by French director Jacques Demy. It's being reissued, beginning today at the Film Forum, in a meticulously restored and remixed new print. With


By THOMAS M. DeFRANK DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF With Joe Mahoney

Tuesday, September 23th 2003, 7:19AM

WASHINGTON - In a dramatic new index of President Bush's growing political weakness, a national poll for the first time shows he would lose to two Democratic rivals if the 2004 election were held today.

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released yesterday found both Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who has been a declared candidate for less than a week, are running ahead of Bush.

Bush's approval rating dropped two points, to 50% - the worst of his presidency and a point below his previous low in the week before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Clark, who was encouraged to run by Bill and Hillary Clinton and is widely perceived in Democratic circles as their personal preference, beat Bush 49% to 46% in a trial heat. Kerry nosed out Bush 48% to 47%. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The new numbers seem likely to rekindle speculation about Hillary Clinton's presidential aspirations.

The senator has been preparing for a 2008 race and repeatedly said she wouldn't run in 2004. But she and her husband have kept the door open toward reassessing her timetable, and some of their friends and supporters believe she could enter the race this fall if she concluded Bush could be beaten.

That view was endorsed yesterday by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who called Clark "something of a stalking horse" for Hillary Clinton.

"If one of [the Democrats] starts to emerge with the possibility of being able to defeat President Bush, then I think she may just jump in right now," Giuliani said.

An indication that Clinton may be keeping an eye on her options is that she recently added Joe Householder to her Senate staff as communications director. Householder's last political campaign was in 2002, when he helped run the successful reelection campaign of Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.

The Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses are the first political test for the Democratic candidates.

The Gallup poll didn't test a matchup of Hillary Clinton and the President, but the senator's "favorable" rating improved to 54%, a substantial spike from her 45% rating in March.

Clinton discounted again yesterday reports that her husband thinks she should break her pledge to serve out her Senate term and run for President now.

"I think he has stated the reality that it is up to me, and I have made a decision," she said. But she ducked when asked whether she'd rule out a draft by her party.

Republican National Committee spokeswoman Christine Iverson said Bush remains in a strong position. "The President is still viewed as a strong leader, and he maintains more support among voters than President [Ronald] Reagan enjoyed in the fall of 1983 and [Bill] Clinton in the fall of 1995 - and both went on to substantial victories," she said.

A senior Bush counselor said that while Bush's economic and Iraq policies are increasingly unpopular now, they will improve over the next several months.

"Give me a tie by the end of February and the $100 million we'll have to spend on advertising that they won't, and I'll take it," he said.

Graphic: The President's approval ratings

Wesley Clark 49% Bush 46%

Sen. John Kerry 48% Bush 47%


A cut to the chase approach to this would be far more convenient than scattered facts and vapid tourist impressions to support your reasoning as to why people have become indifferent and skeptical of anyone involved in our nation's politics. If there is one thing sadder than losing a valuable political figure, it is the realisation that a population remains oblivious and insistent on referring to things such as a specific newspaper they have personally deemed to be the most important, a couple of girlfriends, a myth based on god knows what, referring to politics as some kind of factory that's been unearthed and continues to produce strange two-legged disasters they absolutely bear no relation to or any responsibility for (let alone resemblance), all while refusing to do actual research starting by topography, sociology of a place, migration and most importantly, history. There are reasons important enough to care, but you kind of understand why would someone NOT reason enough in order to care, if you catch my drift.

That said, I will clear a few things up. El Mexicano, to this day, continues to make such headlines, it's a newspaper owned by Barreto, who also heads the union of cab drivers, who also teamed up with Martínez Veloz to openly sponsor young people to spray-paint the streets of Tijuana when PAN won the elections and later moved on to sponsor illegal settlements (3 de Octubre and Lomas Taurinas being one of them) and manipulate segregation to portray it as a result of the current government. El Mexicano was one out of the 3 most important newspapers at the time of Ruffo's triumph, why are you quoting our equivalent of The Sun and not the others is self-explanatory but just so you know there were also ABC and Z (ZETA), both newspapers were at their highest tension at that time as the previous year, Hank Rhon (one of Barreto's closest friends), had murdered the founder of Zeta, Gato Félix, who (next to Blancornelas) had previously owned ABC before it was occupied by PRI and resulted in them fleeing the country and printing Zeta via San Diego (only to come back to Mexico and being murdered). That the head of PRI accepted the triumph of PAN in such distressing times for the region and El Mexicano did not only speaks for the vast ongoing differences between our regional PRI and our national PRI, which continues today, just look at the public rejection of Hank Rhon done by PRI politicians in Mexico City this year, and the rallies of support by Tijuana's Priistas, unlike those in the national PRI, Tijuana leaders openly take pride on their decadence, and above all things, their violent ways. The late 80s turbulence continues as a ghost in the dynamics of our democracy, PRI wins and PAN does all sorts of investments to regain credibility and win the next elections, PAN wins and PRI increases taxi fares (because again, they are owned by Barreto), El Mexicano goes wild and strangely enough, cartel violence increases as well. It is the way they do politics, that there is resentment for this, that nobody cares for the settlements (nor do they care to integrate themselves and pay actual taxes) and the death of a mythical figure as you like to call it is not nearly as close to home as the death of Gato Félix for true Tijuana natives, is all extremely intertwined with the history of this city, which should go into account when making assumptions about this place and when attempting to discredit local men that we care for because we did experience their work and that you unfortunately did not, for obvious reasons.

It is a broader assimilation and integration of perspectives, elements, series of events, collective sentiments, and most importantly, reality, what should ultimately come into play when measuring the capacity of a person to create a significant change to take us forward. Ignoring the context or trying to establish a standard in which all leaders regardless of region or culture have to abide to in order to satisfy your personal understanding of a politician will never let you see the actual effects someone had in a community, nor their potential.

Finally, about 3 years ago was 2008, I'm surprised a neighborhood had a police office at all, I'm shocked that you bothered to approach people for directions when people just wanted to make it home as soon as possible, and I'm more surprised that, again, you came during such difficult climate, did not get to sense it and figured Lomas Taurinas was just being segregated and it was all a result of our politicians. Talk about insensibility at its plainest and walking through history like just another day..

Summary: FRANCISCO BLAKE MORA, the interior minister who was leading Mexico’s war on organised crime, has been killed in a helicopter crash on the outskirts of Mexico City. All eight passengers and crew died.


Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Pakistani Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani observe the national anthem as they officiate a military exercise in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, April 18, 2010.

ISLAMABAD - Relations between Pakistan's powerful army and the country's elected civilian politicians deteriorated sharply on Wednesday after Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani sacked the de facto deputy defense minister.

The removal of retired Lt. General Naeem Khalid Lodhi as secretary of the defense ministry - the second highest ranking position after the defense minister, who is a civilian politician, prompted warnings of a sharpening of the country's civil-military divide.

Senior Western diplomats warned that the latest developments in Pakistan posed a dilemma for the Obama administration, which is seeking to repair damaged relations with Pakistan, after the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a NATO airstrike in November.

Pakistan's military and civilian leaders clashU.S. resumes drone strikes in Pakistan

"This is a critical situation. Infighting between the army and the civilians poses a tough challenge for the global community," warned one Western ambassador in Islamabad who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity. The ambassador said "a deepening rift between the army and civilian politicians destroys any hope of getting Pakistan's rulers to unite and support the U.S. for stabilizing Afghanistan."

But a senior Pakistani army officer who also spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity said, the army was in no mood to stage a coup. Pakistan has been ruled by the army for almost half of its 64-year life as an independent state.

Relations have remained tense between Pakistan's ruling coalition, led by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani, and the influential army since the discovery of a memo allegedly passed to the Obama administration through the former Pakistani ambassador in Washington. Pakistan's supreme court has ordered an investigation to determine the facts behind allegations that the memo sought U.S. pressure on Pakistan's military during the tumultuous days after a U.S. commando raid killed Osama bin Laden.

Bomb kills 30 as Paksitan infighting ragesEx-Pakistan envoy fears for his life amid probe

Some analysts have warned that tensions have risen to the point that Pakistan's civilian politicians may be seeking to replace Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, the Army chief. On Wednesday, Lodhi's dismissal was quickly followed by speculation that the move is a first step to replace Kayani. However, Ikram Sehgal, a respected Pakistani commentator, warned that "the path of confrontation adopted by the government will backfire. Replacing the arm''s chief will only enlarge the ongoing crisis."

A second Western ambassador who also spoke on condition of anonymity said Western governments including the U.S. had recently urged Zardari and Gilani to show restraint in their dealings with the army.

"It is obvious to many of us that the government has decided to provoke a situation with the army where they want to put pressure on the generals," said the diplomat. "I don't think this tactic will work."

The Pakistani army official said the army was not looking to seize power, contradicting growing rumors across the country, suggesting an imminent army takeover. Western diplomats agreed that the army, already involved with security duties in the campaign against Taliban strongholds in areas along the Afghan border, was deeply reluctant to seize control of the country.

"I can't see the army staging a coup, though this path to confrontation by civilian politicians will not be in anyone's interest," said the first Western ambassador.

Summary: Growing civilian-military after defense minister sacked; "Critical situation," warns Western diplomat Read more by Farhan Bokhari on CBS News' World Watch.


Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. We’re keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today.

Gmail Launches Priority Inbox Feature

On Tuesday morning, Google began rolling out its new Priority Inbox feature for Gmail users. Priority Inbox uses information such as keywords, which e-mail addresses you contact the most, and other e-mail habits to highlight the most pressing e-mails in your inbox. Those e-mails are brought to the top of your Gmail and marked as important so you deal with them first. Mashable’s Jenn Van Grove has penned a guide for optimizing the new feature.

Hotmail Finally Introduces Mobile-to-Web Syncing

After introducing a slew of upgrades in May, including new filters and integration with Office Web Apps, among other things, the world’s largest e-mail provider announced on Monday that users can now get their e-mail, calendar and contacts pushed automatically to their phones using Exchange ActiveSync (EAS). Now, whatever a user makes a change to their inbox, calendar or contacts on their mobile devices, the changes will be reflected automatically on the web and vice versa.

Google Rolls Out Real-Time Stats to Blogger Users

Users of Google’s Blogger service now have access to real-time statistics about their blogs, including views, visitor demographics, top search keywords and more, accompanied by illustrative graphs. Google announced the new features in a blog post last night [via The Next Web].

This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America’s first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The “First to Know” series keeps you in the know on what’s happening now in the world of social media and technology.

Summary: In this morning's edition of "First to Know": Gmail Rolls Out Priority Inbox, Hotmail Introduces Mobile-to-Web Syncing, Blogger Gets Real-Time Stats


Most climate scientists, more than 97% , agree that burning fossil fuels leads to global warming. Learning that makes people more likely to call for action to address a changing climate, reports a public opinion team.

Echoing past scientist surveys, a 2010 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences report found that more than 97% of active climate scientists agreed with past findings of widespread evidence that global warming is happening. But nationwide, most people don't know that, reports a team led by Ed Maibach of George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., in the journal, Nature Climate Change.

A national poll of 751 people finds that 66% responded, "`there is a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether or not global warming is happening' (45%), `most scientists think that global warming is not happening' (5%) or they `do not know enough to say' (16%)."

Learning that global warming seems to be happening (a roughly 1.4 degree increase in global average surface temperatures over the last century according to a 2010 National Academy of Science report), shifts people with "disengaged" views about global warming into seeing it as a priority, Maibach says.

"When presented with information about the impacts of global warming and told that scientists had definite evidence for these projections, participants' levels of concern about climate change increased significantly," says the study.

"I think this is an important finding," says sociologist Riley Dunlap of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. "We know there has been a lot of public confusion over how well the science is supported on this. What the study does is tie it together to show this is likely a fulcrum point for public opinion."

Summary: Public opinion shifts in favor of addressing climate change when folks learn that 97% of climate scientists agree global warming is real.


On a recent morning, Anthony Pangaro and Blake Middleton pored over faded blueprints of Boston’s original Filene’s building, studying its intricate details amid the constant buzzing of a cellphone.

The two men are busy these days presiding over the $620 million effort to restore the Filene’s property as the commercial focal point of Downtown Crossing. It is by far the most important redevelopment project in Boston, finally moving forward after the recession caused a four-year work stoppage at the site.

Much of the public discussion so far has been around the major component of their project: a 625-foot residential tower. But Pangaro and Middleton believe the success of the development hangs as much on how well they rebuild the original Filene’s, the last work of the great American architect Daniel Burnham, who helped usher in the era of the modern high rise.

Also considered a founder of urban planning in the United States, Burnham designed the Filene’s building in 1911 to serve as a dramatic and beautiful new anchor of downtown Boston around which the city’s bustling commercial life would center. In its revived form, Pangaro and Middleton see the building again fulfilling Burnham’s mission, to be the centerpiece that draws people to the property and knits the overall project neatly into its surroundings.

“The property’s function as the traditional, 100 percent corner of the retail district makes it crucially important,” said Pangaro, a principal of Millennium Partners, the real estate firm leading the project. Added Middleton, a partner at Handel Architects of New York: “This is a chance to create a new marker for downtown Boston and this historic shopping district. To be able to give this building another 100 years of life, what a fantastic thing.”

Right now the building is empty, its north face sheered off during the initial construction. Although it was designed in the classical Beaux Arts style, the eight-level Filene’s store was also part of an early generation of structures that employed steel frames instead of massive bearing walls, an innovation that paved the way for much taller skyscrapers.

When it opened on Sept. 3, 1912 — 100 years ago this month — the Filene’s store attracted more than 235,000 people, representing roughly one-third of Boston’s population at the time. The crowd was drawn more by the retailer’s products than the building’s architecture, but Burnham’s design also provided a unique shopping experience, with separate compartments for men’s and women’s clothes, a barber shop, a soda fountain, and a tea room.

Burnham was raised in the Swedenborgian Church, a religious movement that emphasized civic participation by its members. Its teachings guided his thinking that urban development should follow a larger community vision, rather than the economic impulses of the moment.

“The point in city planning,” he was quoted as saying in the Globe in 1911, “is to secure a thoughtful and beautiful plan . . . and then to proceed to educate the public of its value and ensure its adoption. Any great city plan is for gradual change and requires a generation or more to carry out.”

But it was the technical skills of Burnham and his partner, John Root, that made their firm influential. The pair mixed modern engineering and building techniques with classical design, winning prominent commissions such as the planning and construction for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Root died during the course of that effort, but Burnham went on to design the Flatiron building in Manhattan, Union Station in Washington, D.C., and other landmark structures.

Completed two months after Burnham’s death, Filene’s became the focal point of Boston’s downtown commercial district, eventually expanding to occupy a full city block. But over the years the building — much like the district around it — lost its distinctiveness through alterations that removed itsironwork, replaced some of its terra cotta ornamentation with fiberglass, and deleted the large display windows that were its chief innovation in merchandising.

In preparing to renovate the building, Pangaro and Middleton have dug through reams of old documents and photographs to study its original details, as well as the thinking behind it.

“We want to give it new life, and get its heart beating again,” Middleton said. “It needs to take on a new presence, and it’s got the bones to do that. You see the building and say, ‘Thank God it didn’t get knocked down.’ ”

Their plan is to bring back many original features, including metal and glass canopies, outdoor lighting, and a wall of glass along Washington and Summer streets. They will also complete a full restoration of the facade, repairing its damaged terra cotta panels large Chicago-style windows. Construction is expected to start by the middle of next year.

While the store’s layout was tailored to an old-fashioned retail use, Pangaro said it has many features that are popular among today’s office and retail tenants, including high ceilings and the generous amount of glass used in the design of stores by Apple Inc. and others.

“The building sort of tells you what to do in a funny way,” he said. “The context of what we’re doing is a guy who left us something valuable, perhaps overlooked, that has a life of its own that goes well beyond the mere occupancy of a fleeting owner.”

The revised building will have retail space in its basement and on the first few floors, with several levels of offices above. On the lower floors, it will be connected to stores at the base of the adjacent residential tower, which will have up to 600 units. The project replaces a prior version that called for construction of a 39-story tower that would have risen over the Filene’s store — instead of setting it off as a distinct structure.

“If people know that this building has been restored, then they will realize that there was something special here and that it has a kind of permanence going forward,” said Pangaro. “If it’s done right, it will take you back in history 100 years, and presumably you’ll be able to see your way forward for the next 100 when you’re there.”

Summary: The executives in charge of the $620 million Filene’s redevelopment in Boston say that the restoration of the flagship store is crucial to brining crowds back to Downtown Crossing. They will seek to bring back many of its original features, including intricate metal and glass canopies, and a solid wall of glass will stretch along Washington and Summer streets.


UPDATED 06/07/2005 at 02:20 AM EDT • Originally published 06/07/2005 at 08:00 AM EDT

Diane Sawyer and Brad Pitt

Despite calling the media attention on his personal life "misguided," Brad Pitt manages to share some insights into his recently ended marriage to Jennifer Aniston as well as Angelina Jolie's affect on his life in remarks made to Diane Sawyer.

Pitt and Sawyer sat down for an ABC

special set to air Tuesday night. His appearance is tied to the Friday opening of his new movie with Jolie,

though Pitt wishes to bring attention to the victims of AIDS and poverty in Africa.

As for the tabloid coverage, "It's a strange focus, isn't it? That my relationships or relationship mishaps ... take precedent over something like that. I understand it's about entertainment, but man, it's misguided a bit, isn't it?" Pitt, 41, asks Sawyer, according to excerpts made available by ABC.

"I can't get out of the press," he goes on to say. "These people can't get in the press. So let's redirect the attention a little bit. ... We have the potential to end poverty (in Africa) in our time. ... Man – I mean, what is more exciting than that? The potential's there. We gotta go for it."

Still, Pitt tells Sawyer that tabloid stories saying that his 4-1/2-year marriage ended because he wanted children and Aniston did not are "Ridiculous bull---t ... completely fabricated. You know, you find that these stories ... will turn one of us into the good guy and one of us into the bad guy. ... Most of these stories, you get probably two-percent real fruit juice and the rest is just garbage with no nutritional value."

As for what happened in the relationship, Pitt tells W magazine that couples often experience an "unidentifiable malaise. " "You donât know what's wrong because the marriage is everything you signed up for."

So did Jolie have anything to do with the breakup? "Everyone says she's a home-wrecker, " says Sawyer in her interview. "It's a good story," responds Pitt. Suggesting "That's painful too," Sawyer is told by Pitt: "Let me speak from my experience. You know I've been in these tabloids for 14 years now. And at some point you just become a Zen master of it all."

Are he and Aniston still in touch? "Yeah," he says. "I mean, it's difficult now as we determine what the next juncture is. But yeah, always, I predict."

And the "no-read" policy he and Aniston shared regarding the tabloids reporting on them? "Now it's a no-looking policy," he answers. "There's bigger fights to fight."

He says he does want children, "absolutely. The dreams don't change. The dreams become more vivid." Would he adopt? "Oh, I don't know. I'm certainly open to it. I think it's a beautiful idea ... especially meeting these kids (in Africa) firsthand, but at this point, I don't know."

Eventually, however, he thinks starting a family "just feels like a natural progression. And, you know, anything to get the focus off myself. It's gotta be a healthy thing."

Summary: The star tells Diane Sawyer that stories about his collapsed marriage are "ridiculous bull---t"


LONDON Asia's main stock markets continued to fall Tuesday on concerns that trouble in China's credit system could hurt growth in the world's second-largest economy. Markets stabilized elsewhere, however, with European indexes rebounding.

Chinese stocks extended the previous day's heady declines as investors worried that measures to curb so-called shadow banking - the unregulated lending to companies starved of credit by China's traditional banks - would cause an increase in borrowing rates for many companies, hurting business.

The Shanghai Composite Index fell another 0.2 percent to close at 1,959.51 after plunging nearly 6 percent the day before, its biggest loss in four years.

The jitters caused a sell-off across the globe on Monday, but nerves seemed steadier outside Asia on Tuesday.

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 recovered some of the previous day's losses, adding 1 percent to 6,087.44 in early trading. Germany's DAX rose 1.5 percent to 7,809.23 and France's CAC-40 gained 1.4 percent to 3,645.77.

Wall Street also appeared set to recoup losses from the day before. Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial futures were up 0.6 percent to 14,672. The broader S&P 500 futures were also 0.6 percent higher, at 1,576.30.

Besides China's credit problems, markets have also been jolted by an increase in U.S. bond yields. The rise is due to expectations that the Federal Reserve will soon start winding down its monetary stimulus, allowing borrowing rates to edge up from their current lows as the economy improves.

The Fed's bond-buying stimulus program has been keeping rates low, encouraging traders to buy riskier assets such as stocks and to invest in emerging markets, driving many equity indexes to record or multiyear highs. Concern over how markets will handle the end to the program, however, has made investors nervous and caused volatility.

Investors will later in the day monitor U.S. figures on durable goods sales and consumer confidence to judge the strength of household spending, a key pillar of the world's largest economy.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.2 percent to 19,855.72, overcoming earlier losses, while the Shenzhen Composite Index lost 0.2 percent to 879.93.

Japan's Nikkei 225 shed 0.7 percent to 12,969.34. South Korea's Kospi dropped 1 percent to 1,780.63 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.3 percent to 4,656. Stocks in the Philippines and Indonesia also declined while India and Singapore gained.

In energy markets, the benchmark oil contract for August delivery was up 62 cents to $95.80 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.49 to close at $95.18 in New York on Monday.

In currencies, the euro was steady at $1.3119 while the dollar fell 0.5 percent against the Japanese yen, to 97.26 yen.

Summary: Investors worried that measures to curb so-called shadow banking would cause an increase in borrowing rates for many companies


Every camera angle and move in “Breaking Bad” is deliberate. The AMC show, which recently returned for its final string of episodes, is one of the most carefully filmed series on TV, and that’s saying plenty in the era of “Mad Men,” “Boardwalk Empire,” and “Game of Thrones.” The artful framing, the slow creeping up on a subject, the lingering in a person’s face, they all work intimately with the dialogue to make “Breaking Bad” a complete experience.

The first episode of season 5B unfolded like a visual essay. When DEA agent Hank sees Walt for the first time after knowing he is Heisenberg, understanding at long last that his nebbish brother-in-law is the famed meth-maker, he sees him through opaque curtains. The truth, the shot seems to say, is coming clear. When we first see Jesse in the episode, he’s sitting and staring emptily while a bad-trip light show plays on the large TV screen behind him. It’s an externalization of his internal horror, compounded by the nattering inanity of his friends’ “Star Trek” rap.

And on and on, brilliantly, if you watch what you’re watching. Michael Slovis, the “Breaking Bad” director of photography, confidently works in concert with, or in ironic contrast to, the psychological action of the scenes. Slovis doesn’t let his style overwhelm the substance of the script so much as he supports it, adds accents to the meter. One scene in the first episode that has stuck with me is when Walt comes to see the depressed Jesse, knocking ominously at the door of Jesse’s roach-filled home. As Walt lectures Jesse about Jesse’s guilty feelings, calling him “son,” they sit together on the couch. Slovis gives us a profile of Jesse with Walt behind him, just as Walt says, “You need to stop focusing on the darkness behind you, the past is the past.” At that moment, Jesse is in perfect focus, but Walt is blurry as he goes on justifying their blood money and lying about Mike being alive. He looks like a devil perched on Jesse’s shoulder, a fuzzy voice of twisted reason.

In that exchange, they are presented as a pair of shaved heads that are like Janus masks, both caught in their pasts, both unhappy.

Summary: Every camera angle and move in “Breaking Bad” is deliberate. The AMC show, which recently returned for its final string of episodes, is one of the most carefully filmed series on TV, and that’s saying plenty in the era of “Mad Men,” “Boardwalk Empire,” and “Game of Thrones.” The artful framing, the slow creeping up on a subject, the lingering in a person’s face, they all work intimately with the dialogue to make “Breaking Bad” a complete experience.  The first episode of season 5 unfolded like a visual essay. When DEA agent Hank sees Walt for the first time after knowing he is Heisenberg, he sees him through opaque curtains. The truth, the shot seems to say, is coming clear.