Bursting out of the blocks in Lane 8, Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa did not see another runner during the entire Olympic 400-meter final.

He didn’t need to. His only real competition was the clock.

The South African sprinter broke Michael Johnson’s 17-year-old world record on Sunday night in Rio de Janeiro, leaving two of the greatest one-lap runners of this era in his dust. Van Niekerk finished in 43.03 seconds — 0.15 of a second faster than Johnson’s time in 1999. Johnson’s mark was had been considered one of the almost untouchable records in track. The 24-year-old van Niekerk leaned at the finish line, which he really didn’t need to do as Kirani James of Grenada and LaShawn Merritt of the United States weren’t even in the picture. James, the defending Olympic champion, finished with the silver, and Merritt, who won gold eight years ago in Beijing, hung on for bronze as he staggered across the line.

“I was running blind all the way,” van Niekerk said. “I thought someone was going to catch me — what’s going on, what’s going on, and it gave me motivation to keep on pushing.”

Van Niekerk drove a wedge in rivalry between James and Merritt at the world championships last August, when he beat them both with such a lung-searing performance that he left the track on a stretcher.

Now, he is the fastest ever.

This time at the finish, instead of collapsing, van Niekerk dropped to one knee and put his head in his hands. Moments later, he put the multicolor South African flag around his shoulders and took off his spikes. As he did so, van Niekerk pointed at the clock to make sure everyone saw his time. Hard to miss. It was that impressive.

Caterine Ibargüen of Colombia leapt 15.17 meters to snatch a gold medal in the women’s triple jump, fending off Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela to continue her dominance in the event.

Ibargüen, the two-time world champion, was a favorite going into the Rio Games and produced a season’s best jump in the fourth round of the final to take gold.

Rojas’s best of 14.98 meters, also in the fourth round, was enough for silver.

Olga Rypakova of Kazakhstan, the London Olympics champion, pulled off the two best jumps of her season, but her 14.74 meters in the fifth round was good enough only for bronze.

CreditChang W. Lee/The New York Times

Simone Biles of the United States added a third gold medal to her haul at the Rio de Janeiro Games, easily winning the women’s vault final on Sunday afternoon.

Biles, 19, averaged 15.966 during her two vaults, well clear of the silver medalist Maria Paseka of Russia and the bronze medalist Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland.

Biles is the first American woman to win Olympic gold in the vault. Her three gold medals at Rio also are the most by an American female gymnast in one Olympics.

Biles will have a chance at more gold later this week when she competes in the event finals in the balance beam and floor exercise.

Aliya Mustafina of Russia ended the United States women’s team dominance atop the podium in women’s gymnastics.

Mustafina defended her Olympic title on the uneven bars, edging Madison Kocian of the United States in a tight final. Mustafina’s score of 15.900 was just a touch better than Kocian’s score of 15.833. The difference was the difficulty of Mustafina’s routine, which was one-tenth tougher than Kocian’s brilliant set.

The United States had won every gold medal available in Rio behind the superstar Simone Biles. It ended when Mustafina nailed her dismount on her way to an eighth Olympic medal.

Sophie Scheder of German was third.

Gabby Douglas of the United States, the 2012 Olympic all-around champion, finished seventh.

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Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan captured the gold medal in the light flyweight division, defeating Yurberjen Martínez of Colombia by unanimous decision.

Dusmatov swept the scorecards, winning by 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.

Nico Hernandez of the United States and Joahnys Argilagos of Cuba shared the bronze. Hernandez is the first American boxer to win a medal since 2008.

Jason Kenny defeated Callum Skinner in an all-Britain final inside the velodrome to defend his individual sprint Olympic gold medal and win his second gold of the Rio Games.

Kenny and Skinner combined with Philip Hindes to win the team sprint Thursday night.

Kenny overtook Skinner on the final straightaway to win the first of their best-of-three race, then showed some veteran poise as he held off Skinner from the lead to make it a sweep.

It was Kenny’s fifth Olympic gold medal and sixth medal over all. The performance also gave the powerful British track cycling team four gold medals and six over all in Rio.

Denis Dmitriev of Russia swept past Matt Glaetzer of Australia to take the bronze.

Andy Murray is making a habit of accomplishing things that had not been done in a while. Or ever.

Murray became the first tennis player in Olympic history with two singles gold medals, winning his second in a row by wearing down Juan Martín del Potro of Argentina, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, in a final that lasted just over four hours.

At the 2012 London Olympics, Murray won a singles gold and a mixed doubles silver at the All England Club.

Earlier Sunday, Rafael Nadal, the 2008 gold medalist, lost, 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-3, to Kei Nishikori, whose bronze is Japan’s first Olympic tennis medal since 1920.

All news by The Associated Press unless noted.

A version of this article appears in print on August 15, 2016, on page D4 of the New York edition with the headline: South African Zips to World Record in 400. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe


I told the bus driver that I knew the island. I told him that I’d spent my childhood summers here on Ischia, this volcanic island of 60,000 off the coast of Naples, and that I didn’t need directions. That was an hour ago, when I first boarded the bus at the island’s main port. Now I was stranded on a beach with my suitcase, my high heels sinking into the sand. The pastel cliff-side houses of Sant’Angelo—the fishing village that was my destination—glittered across the small bay. I’d taken the wrong bus.

I’d experienced Sant’Angelo (population about 1,000) mostly as a child. My mother, an expat living in Rome, had come here every summer for 20 years before I was born, and she brought me back almost every July until my teens. I had flashing memories of eating garlicky vongole with my fingers, of cones stuffed with gelato, of staying out until midnight, unsupervised, with the Neapolitan children of other summer regulars, the whole town firm in its conviction that nothing too bad or too dangerous could ever happen here. I had my first sip of beer here, at 12; my first illicit cigarette. But as I stood on Maronti Beach, after my bus misadventure, I wondered how well I really knew the island. Years earlier, I could have walked along the beach to Sant’Angelo, but since I was last here, the Tyrrhenian Sea had eroded the narrow shoreline. Perhaps the town had changed too. I imagined a piazza full of impossibly stylish cocktail bars, restaurants I could no longer afford. (After all, Angela Merkel had started summering here.)

But, I soon came to learn, change comes slowly to Ischia. This rugged, mountainous island has escaped the relentless gentrification of nearby Capri. Its southern coast feels especially removed from the forward march of the rest of the world. Lizards still seem to outnumber houses. Wine at beachside restaurants still goes for $4 a carafe. Though the luggage-mules of my childhood had given way, at last, to electric carts, the rock-hewn villas around Sant’Angelo were as riotously encumbered by vegetation as I remembered them.

The town remembered me, too. A lifeguard, taking pity on me, hailed a water-taxi ($3) so I could cross the bay, crystalline and virtually empty, even now, in June. The boat stopped a few feet from the beach. One of the sailors hopped out and, thigh-deep in water, lifted me straight up—as I clutched my laptop bag—above the waves. At Sant’Angelo’s Fumarole Beach, where hot springs heat the silver sands, a grey-bearded, sun-withered man called Davide, who had been selling pareos and jewelry along the water since before I could walk, recognized me and called over one of the electric carts to take me to my hotel. I had booked a few nights at the hillside Casa Garibaldi, where, as soon as I arrived, the proprietress Luisa Iacano, and her mother, Giuseppina, well into her 80s, embraced me. A new house dog had replaced the one I remembered. Their wireless internet only worked in a single corner of the sea-facing, mosaic-tiled terrace; the rooms had no phone signal. None of the many regular visitors seemed to mind.

Sant’Angelo’s sense of traditionalism, I found, bordered on the ferocious. The waterfront Ristorante Emanuela, a favorite of mine that had been run by a gregariously imperious woman of the same name, was now overseen by her two sons, Riccardo and Sergio. A vast network of relatives served as the wait staff, ferrying fresh clams and squid—seasoned with the particularly piquant peperoncino that distinguishes the island’s cuisine—from the kitchen to the seaside tables. Emanuela still insists on regularly taste-testing the mixed seafood pasta dish that bears her name. The mud baths at Terme Cavascura thermal spa, one of the island’s biggest attractions, are still inaccessible by car. The spa, a plaster shack nestled into a rock wall, overlooks a grotto of natural hot-springs in use since the days of Ancient Rome. For between $13 and $30, depending on the spa package, visitors can get a private thermal-clay mud bath and visit the naturally heated showers, pools and sauna. On days when the bay is too rough for a water-taxi, visitors must take the vertiginous, barely paved footpath to reach the spa. But the journey has its own rewards: It wends past Taverna Pietro Paolo detto Stalino, built into the cliffs. In operation since the late 19th century, it serves simple pasta dishes for as little as $6 a plate.

Meals run a little pricier at the restaurants in Sant’Angelo’s piazzetta, which faces the sea, where places like Il Peppino and Il Pescatore are as spendy as those you’d find in Capri. But the mood all around the piazzetta is relaxed and buoyant. I sensed a spirit of joyful anarchy at odds with the sizable yachts docked in the bay: Unattended children eating gelato on the rocks, teenagers drinking Peronis on the pier, diving every so often into the warm, turquoise sea. At the piazzetta’s waterfront La Tavernetta del Pirata, equal parts ceramic museum and cheesy piano bar, I drank an inexplicably delicious admixture of prosecco and port and nibbled on the olives, white bean salad and other snacks that came my way at irregular intervals, listening to lilting Italian covers of ’80s pop hits.

On my way back up the hill to the hotel, I noticed a familiar-looking, wildly handsome Italian man in his 20s. It took me a moment to realize where I’d last seen him, almost a decade ago, as a chubby teenager with blond frosted-tip hair, another regular at Casa Garibaldi. He’d been coming every summer, he said; first with his parents, then with his girlfriend. The other children I’d played with—all grown now—were heading over in a few weeks: The caretaker of slender Petrelle Beach would soon be reserving sunbeds for them.

On my last day in Ischia, I hiked from Sant’Angelo into the hill town of Serrara, where the old women gather at the 19th-century churches for vespers on Saturday nights. Then I continued on to the top of Monte Epomeo, the island’s highest peak, at 2,588 feet. Tufa rock and dry brush gave way to honeysuckle and wisteria, bird of paradise and yellow ginestra, then to thick forests. Field mice replaced the lizards. Vineyards, growing on the slopes, were each “gated” by a repurposed bedframe—an Ischian custom.

As I prepared to make the final ascent, I stopped for water at a treehouse-style cafe near a sacred grotto. One of the patrons, a jovial man named Nicola—holding court at the bar counter to the amusement of the silent proprietress—informed me that my face was red “as a Ferrari.” He followed up by offering me various items of the same color: a rose, a plate of bruschetta, an armful of fresh cherries he’d picked himself.

On my descent, halfway down Epomeo, I took a wrong turn and found myself deep into a forest carpeted with wildflowers. I was lost, once again; this time, I didn’t mind.

Getting There: Ischia’s main port, on the island’s northeast coast, is a 50-minute ferry ride (on an aliscafo, or hydrofoil) from Naples’s Beverello port. To reach Sant’Angelo, take the CS bus.

Staying There: Casa Garibaldi, a 15-minute walk uphill from the piazzetta, has its own thermal pools and a large terrace overlooking the sea (from about $100 a night in summer, casagaribaldi.it). On Sant’Angelo’s waterfront, the high-end Miramare Sea Resort shares the pools and private beach with the elegant Aphrodite Apollon spa complex (from about $375 a night, miramaresearesort.it/en).

Eating There: With the exception of La Tavernetta del Pirata (77 Via Sant’Angelo), avoid the restaurants on Sant’Angelo’s piazzetta in favor of the more casual, inexpensive spots further afield. Ristorante Emanuela, on Petrelle Beach, offers fresh, simple seafood (ristorantemanuela.com). For the tastiest version of Ischia’s signature braised rabbit, coniglio all’ischitana, book a table at Al Comignolo in Serrara; order the set menu, which consists of a whole rabbit preceded by a pasta in rabbit sauce ( ristorantealcomignolo.it).

Summary: Forget Capri. Off the coast of Naples, the small isle of Ischia has countless, picturesque villages, amazing deals and a delightful stuck-in-time quality


A 28-year-old chef was found dead in a San Francisco mall stairwell.

KGO-TV reports Frank Galicia's body was found in a private stairwell connected to Westfield San Francisco Centre. His body was found in the downtown mall Wednesday morning.

Police received a call around 10 a.m. after someone found the body. During the initial investigation, some of the area outside the mall was blocked off while the medical examiner worked on the scene.

SEE MORE: Pennsylvania Family Dies In Apparent Murder-Suicide

The San Francisco Examiner obtained a statement from the mall that said: "San Francisco police are conducting an investigation proximate to the Jessie Street East entrance. The Centre is open and operating normally, and we are cooperating fully with the investigation."

San Francisco chef found dead

Frank Galicia id'd as victim of homicide near #Bloomingdale's in #SanFrancisco. Worked chef at #Michelin restaurant. https://t.co/sZ4Cx3QPqQ

Homicide victim found Wed in a stairwell at #SF's Westfield mall was 28 y/o Frank Galicia, chef at Sons & Daughters. https://t.co/ZrNWo3qMWC

The Galicia family lost their mom in 2012 now middle brother Frank. His brother's plea for help @abc7newsbayarea 5p https://t.co/TmPaFmtDBM

Frank Galicia's brother is retracing his last steps. Galicia's body found in private mall stairwell Wednesday am https://t.co/eDlLyLbGoR

Sources close to investigation say body of 28 yr old Frank Galicia was found half clothed in mall stairwell #KTVU https://t.co/cyL8DCYcsB

Homicide victim found Wed in a stairwell at #SF's Westfield mall was 28 y/o Frank Galicia, chef at Sons & Daughters. https://t.co/ZrNWo3qMWC

A man who saw the crime scene told KBCW, "There's a lot of eyeballs everywhere, so it would be unusual for anything else to go on that's out of place."

Galicia landed his dream job as a line chef for a restaurant called Sons & Daughters not long before his death.

SEE MORE: 'Making A Murderer': Brendan Dassey's Conviction Overturned

His brother Louis Galicia told KGO-TV a little bit more about the young chef.

"His way of connecting with the family was always making us a dish, making us dinner," he said.

He went on to say: "He never wanted to be in any kind of altercation. He was the brother that always just went with the flow."

On Friday, Sons & Daughters Restaurant posted a photo of Frank Galicia along with the message: "Frank was an amazingly smart, caring, and funny individual. If you knew him, you adored him like we did. Few are as passionate about their craft as he was about cooking."

Authorities have ruled the death a homicide.

Summary: A 28-year-old chef was found dead in a San Francisco mall stairwell, and his family is completely baffled by his tragic death.


NBC News projects that Mitch McConnell will win re-election for his Kentucky senate seat.

McConnell, the current Senate minority leader, was challenged by Democratic rival Alison Lundergan Grimes.

McConnell won his race despite Kentucky voters' negative views of him. McConnell has a 52% unfavorable rating to just 46% favorable in the NBC News exit poll, which is usually dangerous territory for an incumbent. Fortunately for McConnell, his opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, proved to be a lackluster candidate.

The president has a 63% disapproval rating in the Blue Grass State to just 37% approval. According to the exit poll, Grimes' voter rating stands at 54% unfavorable to just 43% favorable. The Democrat is also seriously undercut by the broader political environment. More than half—52%—of Kentucky voters feel that the government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals.

In her concession speech, Grimes said she hopes "the message has been sent to Congress that we need to work to increase the minimum wage, to close the gender pay gap, and to bring good paying jobs back to the commonwealth of Kentucky."


Class had never been the couple’s strong suit, and the divorce trial promised to be an exercise in cheap theatrics. Still, the face-off between aging temptress Joan Collins, 54, and fourth husband Peter Holm, 40, defied all expectations: Their five-day settlement hearing in Los Angeles was a turgid scandalfest that could have been scripted by one of Dynasty‘s own sudsmeisters. Here was a teary Joan, declaring, “I’ve been taken advantage of by men since I was 20.” Here was the shameless Swede, asking his wife of 13 months for more than $2.6 million and calling her “the woman I love.” And here was a central-casting surprise-witness Other Woman—a busty striver who fainted on the stand.

And so, with a full house in the 45-seat courtroom, reporters jostling for position outside the door and TV monitors relaying increasingly improbable plot turns, a window slowly opened on one of Hollywood’s most visible, volatile and ill-fated marriages. Curiously, the one point on which attorneys for both parties agreed was that the Collins-Holm union was a bad match. With surprising candor, Joan’s attorney, the ubiquitous Marvin Mitchelson, blamed the prenuptial agreement for the failed union. “I never saw a prenuptial agreement yet that didn’t wind up in a divorce,” Mitchelson said outside the court. “With Joan and Peter, I think they were doomed from the start.”. Frank Steinschriber, Holm’s attorney, concurred. “Going into marriage not trusting each other,” said Steinschriber, was a prescription for failure.

Having met in London in 1983, Collins and Holm lived together for two and a half years, spending more than a year arguing about the prenuptial agreement. Holm, an erstwhile Swedish pop star, eventually agreed to a 20 percent take, and the happy couple then pledged their undying love in a Las Vegas chapel on Nov. 6, 1985. Approximately a year later, according to her divorce papers, Joan was suffering “extreme stress and anxiety,” abetted in no small way by Holm’s claim that the bag he always carried around contained explosives.

Holm admitted that Collins had threatened divorce, but never took her seriously because he thought “she was just acting.” In an interview given to PEOPLE a few days before the trial, while he was resisting eviction from Joan’s Bowmont Drive home above Beverly Hills, Peter claimed the divorce came as a surprise. “Everything was lovey-dovey,” he said while tossing a balled-up $20 bill to a reporter’ outside, hoping the journalist could get the electricity turned back on. “We’d had a few arguments. We agreed to meet for lunch and talk things over. Instead, someone from her attorney’s office was at the restaurant. He handed me something and said, ‘These are divorce papers.’ I was stunned and flabbergasted.”

That was the stand Holm took in court. He portrayed himself as a loyal husband and dedicated business manager. Maintaining that he was entitled to live in the manner to which he had become accustomed chez Collins, Holm asked for $80,000 a month in temporary support. Declaring that the prenuptial agreement wasn’t legally binding, he wanted an even split of the couple’s property and of the $5.2 million Collins had earned since the wedding. Collins’ response to his arguments: “Lies, lies, lies,” she scrawled on her notepad.

Mitchelson contended that the 20-percent agreement was valid. Calling Holm “aeon man,” the attorney alleged that a portion of the money Peter had managed remained unaccounted for; besides, the $2 million in salary and expenses that he already had extracted was “a lot for a 13-month marriage.” Said Mitchelson: “He’s a big, strapping fellow. If he wants more money, he can go out and earn it.”

Throughout the hearing, the subject was usually money. Lots of it. Seven-figure salaries. Million-dollar homes. Complimentary BMWs for two after Peter arranged a publicity appearance for Joan. Nasty glances careened across the courtroom on a regular basis. Peter, forbidden by a restraining order from talking to Joan, used his spare moments on the stand to stare soulfully into her eyes . She’d stare back, occasionally softening. Was a reconciliation in the offing? If not, who the hell was winning the case? The main barometer of success seemed to be the press. Each day an envelope marked “Confidential” would be messengered from Collins’ public relations firm. Inside were photostats of articles about the hearing from the London and New York papers. Collins and her camp would pour over them, gauging public reaction.

Thursday morning brought a sign that something was up. Suddenly communicative with the media, Collins waved a victory sign to the camera crews on her way into the courtroom and sashayed over to a PEOPLE reporter parked inside. “I feel fabulous—ready to win,” she said. “I’ve finally gotten myself back together.”

Her secret tonic was discovered hours later, when a flurry of activity announced the arrival of a young woman who looked to have been invented by Frederick’s of Hollywood. Wearing a white babushka and a skintight white dress with a zipper down the front, she tottered into the courtroom in leopard-print spikes. She was Romina Danielson, 23, a bronzed bombshell who had been married to a friend of Holm, real estate developer Axel Danielson, 80. In histrionic testimony delivered throughout the afternoon, Holm was accused of being Romina’s lover during his marriage to Collins. Barely audible and appearing sedated, Romina said the affair began in 1985. “Peter called me his passion flower….He told me the color gets deeper and deeper red if the flower had not been pulled from the ground. He said I haven’t blossomed yet.”

Weeping, Romina told the court that Holm had hatched a scheme to stay with Joan for a length of time, then split with jointly held property. About 10 minutes into her testimony, she wilted. “We continued our…sexual liaison through 1985. There came a time when I thought I was pregnant….” Incredibly, on that note, her head rolled back and she slithered down in her chair, moaning and sobbing. A wide-eyed, smiling Collins stood up, straightened her skirt, picked up her purse and walked past the faded heap of passion on her way out of court. The room erupted. Romina came around and clawed at her bodice to free her heaving breasts as she gasped for air. Mitchelson and a female sheriff dashed to her side. With the cameras crowding in, she screamed hysterically until she was trundled into an ambulance. “I didn’t believe it,” recalled Mitchelson. “I couldn’t have scripted that scene any better.”

By Friday, Holm was wondering if Mitchelson had written the script. By a fortuitous twist of fate, Romina—whose testimony Peter had called “rubbish”—was indisposed and thus unavailable for cross-examination. Judge Earl F. Riley ordered her testimony stricken from the record, but its memory lingered: Riley thanked both lawyers for “a very interesting trial” before ruling that the prenuptial agreement was valid.

Leaving the court, Collins was triumphant but somber. “I’d always hoped that if anything went wrong, Peter and I would remain friends and walk away from it,” she said. “Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to do that. I wish him well. He’s a stubborn man.” Mitchelson came up and threw his arm around her. She gave him a big kiss. The two of them posed, smiling for the cameras, and the court was finally afforded the sight of a truly happy couple.

Summary: Class had never been the couple’s strong suit, and the divorce trial promised to be an exercise in cheap theatrics. Still, the face-off between aging temptress Joan Collins, 54, and fourth hu…


A man has been left in a critical condition with a fractured skull after he was allegedly punched and kicked on an inner-Sydney street.

Police allege a 34-year-old man approached and then attacked the 55-year-old, who was known to him, at Darlinghurst on Thursday morning.

They say the victim struck the footpath and lost consciousness before he was taken to St Vincent's Hospital. The accused remains in custody at Kings Cross Police Station assisting with inquiries.

Summary: A man is fighting for life after his skull was fractured during an alleged assault on a Sydney street.


The family and friends of a Perth man who failed to return from an “impromptu dash” to Bali with a woman he met on Tinder fear he has met with foul play.

New Zealander Josh Goudswaard, 32, was due to arrive in Perth last Sunday but has not been heard from since messaging his friends to say he would be at home that evening.

A missing persons poster says he told colleagues that he was going on holiday with a woman named Anita, who he had met through online dating app Tinder.

He is believed to have arrived in Bali on October 24 or 25.

He contacted family and friends to say that he was going trekking and would be unreachable for a few days but later messaged them on November 6, and said he would be home later that day.

Friend Aaron Smith took to Facebook to appeal for information about Mr Goudswaard.

“He’s been missing for 14 days now and it’s totally out of character… leaving his business and staff in limbo,” Mr Smith wrote.

“It’s totally out of character… it was an off the cuff impromptu dash to Bali”.

WA police have revealed Mr Goudswaard’s last credit card transaction was made in Stoke-on-Trent in the United Kingdom.

They said his mobile phone was no longer connected and immigration have insisted he has not left Bali.

Police in Bali are reportedly not investigating Mr Goudswaard's disappearance.

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016

Summary: The family and friends of a Perth man who failed to return from a “impromptu dash” to Bali with a woman he met on Tinder fear he has met with foul play.


Donald Trump, during Wednesday night’s debate, painted a picture of a US economy in shambles. Here in Massachusetts, we could be forgiven for wondering what he was talking about.

Bay State workers are enjoying one of the best job markets in recent history. According to data released Thursday, the state’s unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent in September, from 3.9 percent the prior month. That’s not just substantially below the national average of 5 percent, it’s about as low as unemployment ever gets.

So here’s the question (with apologies to Chubby Checker): How low can we go?

Ultimately, the weight of evidence suggests that we could probably push the unemployment rate down a little further, but not much.

There is a point, according to economists, at which unemployment actually gets too low. If it becomes too easy for workers to find jobs, businesses start fighting over them, offering ever-larger raises and bonuses. That may sound great for workers, but for employers it means higher costs.

The state’s unemployment rate, which was 3.9 percent in August, fell even further last month, to 3.6 percent.

And that can set off an inflationary spiral. Wages go up, forcing companies to boost prices, which then requires ever larger raises to keep up with spending needs — and on and on.

The goal, in economic policy, is to find the sweet spot called “full employment,” where jobs are plentiful, wages are rising, and inflation is under control.

No one knows exactly where this mystical sweet spot lies, but most economists think it corresponds to a nationwide unemployment rate between 4 and 5 percent, with the best-performing states in the 3 to 4 percent range. In other words, just about where we are right now.

And here’s another reason to think we might really be approaching full employment: Other, broader measures paint the same picture of a roaring job market.

Take what’s called the prime age employment rate. It’s a very simple measure, telling us how many 25- to 54-year-olds have jobs. But over time it has proved to be an extremely accurate indicator. And it suggests that Massachusetts has made up for all the losses of the Great Recession. Right now, 81.1 percent of 25- to 54-year-olds have jobs, according to calculations from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that focuses on the needs of low- and middle-income workers. In 2007, before the financial crisis, it was 81.2 percent.

Having said all that, there are reasons to think the Massachusetts job market can get even better.

For one thing, there’s no sign of a wage-price spiral. Census data from 2015 show that Massachusetts workers got a relatively slim boost in 2015, well under 2 percent. And while separate numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics tell a rosier story, they don’t show a recent surge.

Even more revealing, this isn’t our best work. In 2000, at the tail end of the dot-com boom, the unemployment rate in Massachusetts was 2.6 percent, a full percentage point lower than today’s. And at that time, over 84 percent of prime age workers had jobs, also substantially higher than today.

So while September’s unemployment rate shows remarkable economic strength, it’s probably not the peak of Massachusetts’ potential.

Whether we reach that peak, however, is mostly out of our hands. The near-term fate of Massachusetts’ economy depends on a pair of fateful political decisions happening far from Beacon Hill.

One: Will the Federal Reserve Board raise rates in December, tapping the brakes in order to slow economic growth?

Two: Who will carry the election and set the agenda for America’s economic future?

Summary: The evidence suggests we could probably push the unemployment rate down a little further, but not much.


Friends of Shanna Vandewege say she and her new family were smoothly settling into their new lives in Fort Worth, Texas, after moving in May from Colorado.

The 36-year-old and her husband, Craig Vandewege, had recently welcomed their son, Diederick, after moving from Colorado after Craig got a promotion at work.

“She had wanted a family since she was a little girl. She planned it out, including names, before she was 12,” childhood friend Monica Vance writes in an email to PEOPLE.

But last Thursday night, Shanna and her three-month-old son, Diederick, were found in their beds with their throats slit, a Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office spokeswoman tells PEOPLE. Their deaths were ruled homicides.

The news shocked and saddened her friends and family.

“Shanna was wonderful,” longtime friend Cindy Prevatt writes in an email to PEOPLE. “I can not think of one single thing that she ever did wrong. We are heartbroken, confused and angry.”

Mark Riddle, Shanna’s father, told ABC8 that his daughter’s husband, Craig Vandewege, found his wife and son’s bodies after coming home from work.

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“They tried so long to have a baby,” Riddle told ABC8. “She had three miscarriages prior to having one.”

Shanna was a registered nurse at a nearby hospital but was on maternity leave, friends tell PEOPLE. She had recently received a promotion.

“[She] became a nurse to help people. She cared about others wherever she was,” Vance writes.

Vance tells PEOPLE Shanna was making friends at work and excited about meeting her neighbors.

“We were sad that we were moving away from each other, but excited about the way our lives were playing out,” she continues.

Police have not released a suspected motive in the murders and no suspects have been named, the Dallas Morning News reports.

During an interview with Fort Worth police on Monday, Craig Vandewege at one point said he wanted to speak with his attorney before speaking to investigators further, and he has not been in touch with police since, the Star-Telegram reports.

Craig Vandewege’s attorney, Leslie Barrows, could not be reached for comment.

• Pick up PEOPLE’s special edition True Crime Stories: Cases That Shocked America, on sale now, for the latest on Casey Anthony, JonBenét Ramsey and more.

The Star-Telegram reports that police used a search warrant to take a second look at the family’s residence, but they did not say what they were looking for or if they had removed anything from the home.

Shanna’s family declined comment to PEOPLE.

“No matter what she was going through, [Shanna] was happy, she stayed positive [and] never let anyone get her down,” Prevatt writes. “She loved, she cared. She was just so sweet.”

Summary: Shanna Vandewege had dreamed of starting a family since she was a girl, her friends tell PEOPLE


Over the past couple weeks, we’ve learned a lot about upcoming changes to Facebook that will significantly change the nature of the site. For example, a new publisher option will allow you to post completely “public” updates, or post them to select groups of friends. Meanwhile, you’ll soon be able to become a “fan” of a user profile (in addition to fan pages), in the same way you can follow someone on Twitter.

Today, Facebook held a press event to discuss these changes in detail. The key announcement, beyond what we already knew, is Facebook’s upcoming “transition tools,” which the social network is launching to try and get users opted in to the new settings with limited chaos.

The transition tools – of which there are several – allow users to change their sharing settings in one quick action – to “recommended,” custom, friends-of-friends, only friends, or the everyone option. An important point is that Facebook is not changing anything by default (users were clearly concerned about “everyone” becoming the default).

Most of these settings were available previously, but rather complicated because of how many options Facebook currently gives you – for example, making photos available only to a custom group of “close friends," but letting everyone in your work network see your status updates. That complication, Facebook believes, has lead to many users simply avoiding these settings.

Odds are you won’t see these changes today – Facebook is currently testing its 6 different transition tools with just 40,000 users, will expand that to 80,000 users next week, and then begin a gradual rollout to all users later this month as it determines which tools users respond to most favorably.

Ultimately, Facebook users that are deeply concerned with privacy can breathe a deep sigh of relief – your profile will remain just as private as before if you want it to. Meanwhile, for those that want to broadcast their updates publicly like they do on Twitter, have them indexed by search engines, and link to them from their blogs and other social networking profiles, those features are on the way.

Summary: Over the past couple weeks, we’ve learned a lot about upcoming changes to Facebook that will significantly change the nature of the site. For example, a new publisher option wil...


Sorry, Maks fans! Maksim Chmerkovksiy says he will not be returning to Dancing with the Stars as a pro dancer next season.

Instead, the 36-year-old is going to be taking time off to be with fiancée Peta Murgatroyd, 30, and their son, whom they are expecting in January.

Growing up, Chmerkovskiy never expected he’d be able to take a break from working to be a parent.

“I come from a dirt broke family. I just started to be able to afford things in 2005 when [Dancing with the Stars] started. For me to be able to take time off in this way … [to have] what we have to enjoy and be proud of, that’s anybody’s dream,” the pro dancer told PEOPLE backstage after being eliminated on Monday’s episode of DWTS.

He added, “I’m doing exactly what I set out to do. That’s why I worked my butt off.”

Want all the latest pregnancy and birth announcements, plus celebrity mom blogs? Click here to get those and more in the PEOPLE Babies newsletter.

While Chmerkovskiy told reporters he would return to DWTS “in any capacity that doesn’t require me to put in 60 hours a week,” the dancer is also ready to fully embrace diaper duty.

“I hope I am 1/10th of what my father is,” he said. “If that’s the case, then this kid will be the luckiest on the planet.”

Dancing with the Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Summary: “I hope I am 1/10th of what my father is,” says Chmerkovskiy


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

WASHINGTON -- U.S. home resales rose in June to their fastest pace in eight months, a signal that the housing market was pulling out of a slump.

The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday existing home sales increased 2.6 percent to an annual rate of 5.04 million units.

That was above analyst expectations and marked the third straight month the pace of home resales accelerated.

The housing recovery stalled in the second half of 2013 as interest rates increased and a dwindling supply of properties available for sale pushed prices sharply higher.

But mortgage rates have eased a bit in recent months and the nation's job market has improved, helping the market for homes.

May's rate of sales was revised upward to a 4.91 million unit pace from the previously reported 4.89 million unit rate.

Also supporting home sales, more homes are being put on the market, keeping prices from rising as quickly.

The number of homes on the market for resale rose to 2.3 million in June, the highest level since August 2012 and 6.5 percent more than in June of last year.

The 7 Biggest Financial Mistakes 40-Somethings Make

Pace of Existing Home Sales Rises to 8-Month High

If you've been making mortgage payments for a while now, it may have become just another task you do automatically each month. But it's time to start thinking about your end game. When will your house officially be paid in full, and how will that date intersect with your other plans? Do you need to adjust anything to make your "mortgage freedom" date align with the rest of your life? For example: Do you want to have your house paid off by the time your kids leave for college? If so, start scrutinizing the timing, so you can figure out if you need to make extra payments.

The average student graduating in 2014 emerged with $29,000 in student loan debt. There's no predicting what that number will be once your children are ready to don a cap and gown. But you don't want your kids to be saddled with tens of thousands in debt as they begin their adult lives (or potentially live in your basement well into their 30s because of that debt). While your children should absolutely apply for every scholarship they can, you can't count on them getting what they'll need. So. there's no time like the present to start seriously building up their college funds. If you're not quite sure about the best ways for you to do that (529 plans are great, but they're not the only good choise), a fee-only financial adviser can walk you through your options.

Are you putting aside enough for retirement? Aim to

, or save 25 times your current annual expenses. Once you have that final number in mind, use an online retirement calculator or sit down with a financial adviser to come up with a plan for how much you'll need to save each year to reach it. If you haven't already done this, don't delay another day. Future You will thank you.

Credit card debt is a shackle that can prevent you from reaching every other monetary goal on your list. One of the first things you need to do to get your financial house in order is to eliminate all consumer debt -- the sooner, the better. Otherwise, you're losing money each month that could be put to better use elsewhere. Make debt payoff a top priority. Try an aggressive method like the "debt snowball," where you throw every extra dime you can at your smallest balance until you've decimated that bill. Then move to the next one on the list and continue amassing "victories" until you're done with every debt. Where can you find the money to accelerate your debt payoff? Reduce your expenses or take a temporary second job, if necessary. The sooner you free yourself from debt, the better.

Your current vehicle won't last forever, no matter how diligent you are at taking care of it. When it comes time to buy a new car, will you have saved enough to make the purchase in cash? As you get older, you should be systematically reducing the number of financial obligations you're saddled with -- not adding on new ones. Car loans take from three to seven years to pay off. (The current average length is around 5½ years.) Even if your current car lasts you well into your 50s, financing a new one could mean that you'll be facing loan payments into your retirement years. Instead, plan ahead so you can pay cash.

If you're married, have children or support your parents financially, you should have term life insurance. Tragedies can happen at any time, and term insurance can help you create a Plan B for the benefit of those who rely on you. If you're healthy, you can get term life insurance coverage with a $500,000 benefit for roughly $29 a month. That's a small price to pay to know your family will be cared for if anything happens to you. The longer you wait to get that coverage, the higher your price will be.

Just like life insurance, disability insurance is a wise investment. (And, just like life insurance, the longer you wait to get it, the higher your monthly payments will be.) Should you fall ill or get injured and be unable to work for a period of time, disability insurance can pay out 50 percent to 70 percent of your income. Hopefully, you'll never need to use it -- but you never want to be in a spot where you do need it and you don't have it.

Summary: Existing home sales rose in June to their fastest pace in eight months, a signal that the housing market was pulling out of a slump.


The National Audit Office (NAO) plans to examine the advice the Treasury received before it sold shares in Royal Bank of Scotland last year at a £1.1bn loss.

The spending watchdog has come under pressure from the influential Treasury Select Committee (TSC) of MPs to review the guidance that UK Financial Investments (UKFI) gave the Government prior to the taxpayers’ stake in RBS being cut in August 2015.

In correspondence published by the TSC today, Sir Amyas Morse, the head of the NAO, confirmed the watchdog expects to look at the controversial share sale as part of a broader review of the stewardship of the Government’s investment banks bailed out during the financial crisis.

“It is likely that my review will consider how UKFI makes key decisions relating to Government’s shareholdings in RBS,” Sir Amyas wrote in a letter to Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP who chairs the TSC. “It is also likely that this will extend to a number of case studies, including the decision to sell RBS shares.”

The move was welcomed by Mr Tyrie, who in the past has unsuccessfully recommended that UKFI be abolished because of his belief it did not stop political interference in the state-owned banks.

“Parliament and the public will want reassurance that the Government secured the best value for money for the taxpayer,” he said today.

UKFI is the arm's-length agency that manages the taxpayers’ stakes in both RBS and Lloyds Banking Group. While the Government has cut its stake in the latter from 43pc to less than 8pc, it still holds 73pc of RBS, which is led by boss Ross McEwan. It has only sold shares in RBS once, when the then-Chancellor George Osborne came in for criticism for incurring a loss.

In 2013, the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, which was chaired by Mr Tyrie, raised concerns that UKFI would “increasingly be perceived as a fig leaf to disguise the reality of direct Government control” at RBS and Lloyds. It concluded that political interference at the banks was inevitable and it would be better that UKFI be wound up and its resources be pumped into the Treasury, advice that Mr Osborne rejected.

Philip Hammond, Mr Osborne’s successor as Chancellor, has indicated a further reduction of the Government’s stake in RBS is unlikely for some time.

He wants the bank to reach a potentially costly settlement with the US Department of Justice over its sale of mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the crisis before any more shares are offloaded. Mr Hammond also wants RBS to divest its William & Glyn branch network, a disposal forced on the bank by the European Commission as a condition of its 2008 bailout and which the lender is struggling to achieve.


Queensland motorists shouldn't be adversely affected by a looming ethanol mandate, the state's peak motoring body says.

Large fuel retailers will be required by state law from January 1 to ensure three per cent of their petrol sales each quarter are biofuel-based.

RACQ spokeswoman Lauren Ritchie said the mandate shouldn't affect competition across the state or fuel choices at the bowser.

"There's been some concern retailers will opt to remove unleaded petrol altogether to reach the E10 sales quota, as was the case in NSW, but we are assured the lower mandate in Queensland will prevent this from occurring," she said.

An RACQ fuel sales data analysis showed that 35.6 million litres of E10 was sold in Queensland in October, which was an 11 per cent increase on the previous month but still only half of the mandated volume.

Acting Premier Jackie Trad said the government would continue to work with the fuel industry to ensure the mandate was taken up without affecting motorists.

"We have a voluntary E10 or ethanol blend at every service station ... and what we do see is differences in the choice that consumers have at the bowser, and that will continue," Ms Trad said on Friday.

"The government is very happy to keep working with petrol stations and the fuel industry to make sure our commitment is delivered on."

Summary: The RACQ says it's been assured Queensland petrol retailers won't remove unleaded fuel, as was the case in NSW, to reach an E10 sales quota.


In the Pittsburgh Pirates' case, the dream could become a reality for fans. The Pirates are strongly considering a plan in which it would offer shares of stock in the club to the public.

Major League Baseball's ruling Executive Council gave permission for clubs to sell public shares last summer. So far, no team has taken that action but the Pirates could become the first.

Other major professional sports leagues allow teams to offer stock. So far, it's the Green Bay Packers, the NBA's Boston Celtics and NHL's Florida Panthers.

When asked about the idea of offering public stock following the Executive Council's ruling last year, Pirates Chief Executive Officer Kevin McClatchy said it was doubtful his club would go through with such a plan.

McClatchy, though, now acknowledges the Pirates are considering the plan but said only "it's in the exploratory states."

However, club sources say McClatchy believes the Pirates could generate as much as $45 million through the sale of stock.

Sources also say McClatchy's plan is unrelated to the Pirates' effort of securing funding for a baseball-only stadium in Pittsburgh. In November, southwestern Pennsylvania voters overwhelming rejected a proposed sales tax that would have funded new stadiums for the Pirates and NFL's Steelers along with other projects.

"Going public is more a move to reduce some of the club's debt than anything," one source said. "It would generate revenue independent of any stadium. Kevin thinks it would be a good novelty item, something that would get the fans involved while adding some revenue."

McClatchy led a group that purchased the Pirates for $95 million on Feb. 14, 1995 from a public-private consortium of 12 owners.

While McClatchy claimed to have lost in excess of $10 million in '96, the Pirates figured to turn a profit in 1997 after finishing second in the National League Central despite having the smallest payroll in baseball. The Pirates' payroll was $9 million at the start of last season before growing to $12 million by the end of the year

The Packers were the first to try selling shares to the public, beginning in 1950 when the organization sold about 2,000 shares to raise $116,000 to keep the team in Green Bay. Each share sold for $25, and a stockholder could hold no more than 200 shares.

The shares, however, were not publicly traded, so they never increased in value. They also could not be redeemed, meaning the only value they have to stockholders is sentimental.

Shares in the Celtics and Panthers are actively traded on the New York Stock Exchange and fluctuate in value, like any other stock.

While the Pirates ponder their stock options, they have come up with a more tried and true way of generative more revenue. They have raised ticket prices at Three Rivers Stadium for only the second time in seven years.

The price of first-level club boxes, which will now be known as field boxes, will be $17, a $2 increase. Second-level club boxes will go up $1 to $16. Terrace boxes on the fourth and fifth levels will also increase $1 to $11.

Prices for the remaining 27,871 seats remain the same: $10 for family boxes, $8 for reserved, $5 for general admission and $1 for youth general admission.

The Pirates' average ticket price is $9.67, making them just one of four teams in the major leagues under $10.

NOTES, QUOTES, ANECDOTES The Pirates signed seven minor-league free agents last Wednesday (Jan. 7), including former San Francisco Giants reliever Steve Mintz.

Mintz, 29, was 5-2 with an 8.05 ERA in 27 relief appearances for San Diego's Triple-A Las Vegas farm club last year. He pitched in 14 games with San Francisco in 1995, going 1-2 with a 7.45 ERA.

Also signed were left-handers Kevin Tolar and Scott Wiegandt, right-hander Todd Bussa, first basemen Kevin Grijak and Dave Kennedy and outfielder Phil Geisler. None have played in the major leagues.

Tolar, 26, was 1-1 with a 5.12 ERA in 22 games with the New York Mets' Double-A Binghamton farm club last season and 0-0 with a 2.03 ERA in nine games with Single-A St. Lucie.

Wiegandt, 30, was 1-3 with a 4.45 ERA in 40 games, three starts, with St. Louis' Triple-A Louisville farm club last season.

Bussa, 25, was 5-4 with a 1.75 ERA in 30 games with Oakland's Single-A Modesto farm club last season and 2-1 with a 4.22 ERA in 19 games with Double-A Huntsville.

Grijak, 24, hit .250 with 13 homers and 48 RBIs in 72 games with Atlanta's Double-A Greenville farm club last season.

Kennedy, 27, played for St. Paul in the independent Northern League last season and hit .293 with 19 homers and 80 RBIs in 92 games.

Geisler, 28, hit .256 with nine homers and 57 RBIs in 109 games with the Mets' Triple-A Norfolk last season.

The Pirates began their three-week promotional winter caravan on Monday (Jan. 12). It will continue through Jan. 30. Manager Gene Lamont will participate in part of the tour along with left-hander Jason Christiansen, right-hander Rich Loiselle, catchers Jason Kendall and Keith Osik, second baseman Tony Womack, shortstop Kevin Polcovich and outfielder Emil Brown.

The caravan will make stops in Washington, Uniontown, Connellsville, Punxsutawney, DuBois, Clearfield, Greensburg, Latrobe, Altoona, Johnson, Indiana, Somerset, Clarion, Erie, Beaver, New Castle, Franklin and Butler in Pennsylvania; Cambridge and Youngstown in Ohio and Wheeling, New Martinsville, Morgantown, Fairmont and Weirton in West Virginia.

ROSTER REPORT FREE AGENCY UPDATE -- Shortstop Shawon Dunston (not offered salary arbitration), shortstop Kevin Elster (signed with the Rangers), infielder Dale Sveum (signed with the Yankees).

MEDICAL WATCH -- Right-handed pitcher Esteban Loaiza (recovering from arthroscopic surgery to remove bone chips from right ankle), second baseman Tony Womack (recovering from arthroscopic surgery to remove to have bone chips removed from left knee).

WINTER WATCH --- Well-traveled outfielder Darryl Brinkley at least put himself in the Pirates' consciousness with a fine winter season for Mexicali in the Mexican Pacific League. The 28-year-old hit .284 with 11 homers and 27 RBIs in 59 games. He led the league in runs (46), tied for first in hits (67), tied for second in homers (11) and tied for third in steals. The Pirates acquire Brinkley from San Diego's Double-A Mobile farm club midway through last season and assigned him to the Mexico City Reds of the Mexican League.

Summary: PITTSBURGH PIRATES team notebook


eople came from all over last week to attend a Federal Trade Commission workshop in Washington on spyware, one more plague of the digital age. They all agreed on one thing: they could not define spyware.

"Spyware is in the eye of the beholder," said Ari Schwartz, associate director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a policy research group in Washington.

In general, spyware - called adware by its proponents - is software that shows up on a computer unannounced, often because the owner has signed up for a free service like a file-sharing network or has agreed to receive messages in return for gaining access to a Web site. The software usually delivers pop-up ads, but sometimes performs other actions without the owner understanding what is going on or how to stop it.

The controversy involves more than consumer inconvenience, tech companies say. Such software is now the No. 1 reason that consumers call Dell for technical support, Maureen Cushman, legal counsel to Dell's consumer division, told a meeting of the trade commission. "It damages the Dell brand," she said.

The activities of spyware programs can be relatively benign, obnoxious or even blatantly illegal. Computer users may be driven to distraction by pop-up ads, some pornographic, or find that their PC's become sluggish, laboring under the computing burden of the unwanted programs. Some programs monitor Internet use or even record keystrokes, such as password entries.

Given its range of activities, fighting spyware is a minefield for lawmakers and regulators, but that did not stop one state, Utah, from stepping in. On March 23, Gov. Olene S. Walker signed the nation's first antispyware law, which prohibits software that is installed without the user's consent and programs that send personal information.

The antispyware efforts, like the recent federal move to regulate spam, are following what has become an increasingly familiar pattern in online technology.

In the first phase, after a honeymoon period of increasing popularity, unpleasant practices emerge: once a broad swath of the public had been introduced to the wonders of the Internet, they found themselves bombarded with spam, advertising pop-ups and full-blown spyware. In the second phase, consumers howl and politicians get concerned, but the affected industries urge caution, arguing that regulation will stifle innovation and hurt legitimate business.

Eventually, phase three arrives: states begin to enact laws against the offending practice. Faced with the prospect of a patchwork of possibly conflicting legislation, the industry asks Congress for a uniform, but often less stringent, federal law.

Three other states - California, Iowa and Virginia - are considering legislation aimed at spyware, so it is no surprise that federal legislation has been introduced. In February, Senator Conrad Burns, Republican of Montana, and two Democratic senators, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Barbara Boxer of California, offered a bill titled Software Principles Yielding Better Levels of Consumer Knowledge, known as Spyblock. It would require notice and consent before software could be added to a computer.

Online companies greeted Utah's move with apprehension. The legislation, "while very well-intentioned, would have serious unintended consequences on everyday, legitimate activities on the Internet," a coalition of companies - including America Online, Amazon.com, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo - warned in a letter to Utah officials.

The new law was immediately challenged by WhenU.com, a company based in New York that puts Internet advertising software on people's machines. "If the statute goes into effect it's going to outlaw what WhenU does," said Jeffrey D. Neuburger, a lawyer in New York who deals with high-tech issues but does not represent anybody involved in the case.

Mr. Neuburger said that he was no fan of the practices of WhenU and its chief competitor, the Claria Corporation, once known as Gator. But he argued that the Utah law was drafted too broadly and would lead to "frivolous litigation" by companies that say they have been victimized by adware.

The bill's sponsor, state Representative Stephen H. Urquhart, said that the law focused on giving computer owners notice of what was being done to their machines and the opportunity to refuse the software or remove it easily. "I'm convinced over 75 percent of the people who have this on their computers have no idea it's there," he said.

The law that WhenU.com is challenging has its origins in a lawsuit against the company by a Utah company that sold contact lenses. The company, 1-800-Contacts, said it was losing customers because WhenU was placing ads for lens-selling rivals when visitors came to the 1-800-Contacts site. It sued WhenU in federal court in New York.

"We've made substantial investments in our trademark and copyrights and consumer awareness," said R. Joe Zeidner, vice president for legal affairs at 1-800-Contacts, and "we think there needs to be protection in place for business."

Last December, Federal District Judge Deborah A. Batts granted an injunction prohibiting WhenU from serving pop-up ads for rivals of 1-800-Contacts - a departure from other case law that had supported WhenU's practices.

The chief executive of WhenU, Avi Z. Naider, said that the issue should be resolved in Congress, not on a state-by-state basis. He also said that any law should focus on stopping "rogue behavior," not outlawing technologies like his company's software-based advertising. He said that WhenU's software had been installed on 100 million machines, and was no longer active on 80 million, indicating it was easy to remove.

Mr. Naider's argument is not convincing to Mr. Zeidner.

"His business model, and Gator's business model,'' Mr. Zeidner said, "is to put this on computers faster than the public is being educated and removing it from their computers."

Summary: At a conference last week, participants discussed the controversial issue of spyware. Some critics said it should be outlawed.


Worse still, no one wants to hear about them. Because crocked footballers have taken one for the team, they've earned the right to prod, rub, bandage and, most importantly, discuss their ailments – at length – in the changing room. Injured runners invariably wind up bored, frustrated and alone.

My training injuries for the Bupa Great South Run have thankfully been minor: a sore knee, a trio of blisters and a left Achilles tendon as tight as a banjo string. Some of my Telegraph team-mates, however, have not been so lucky.

Peter Hutchison suffered an injury to the patellofemoral joint in his right leg or, to quote his layman's diagnosis, "a knackered knee”. Although Bupa sports physiotherapist Russell Stocker massaged Pete's knee and strapped his foot up with a special tape that would act as a shock absorber, Pete's "anterior knee pain” (Stocker's diagnosis) curtailed his training for several weeks.

But Pete's pain was nothing compared to the agonies suffered by Catalina Stogdon, whose sore and swollen ankle turned out to be – after an MRI scan – the ultimate runner's curse: a stress fracture. There was literally nothing Catalina could do. As she was told by Dr Tom Crisp, a Bupa consultant sports and orthopaedic physician, "running on a stress fracture can set your healing back by months, if not a year”. And so that was that: Catalina was out of the race – and our substitute, news sub editor Lloyd Hook, was in.

Reading Catalina's dispirited blog posting about this injury reminded me that amateur athletes can experience the same kind of heartache that David Beckham suffered when he was badly injured in March. "It's broken, it's broken,” wailed Becks as he limped off the pitch, crushed by the knowledge that his dream to become the first English player to appear at four World Cups was now in the same condition as his Achilles tendon.

What's more, in terms of the variety of injuries they can pick up, runners are spoilt for choice. According to Alex Floyd, a Bupa musculoskeletal physiotherapist, the most common is runner's knee – or iliotibial band friction syndrome – which is "an irritation of the tendon on the outside of the knee and is largely due to an imbalance of muscle around the hips, pelvis and knee”.

Other common running injuries include shin splints (an umbrella term that is applied to "anything from medial tibial stress syndrome up to a stress fracture of the bone”), tendonitis, irritated tissue on the sole of the foot and all manner of stress fractures major and minor that can strike at different areas of the foot.

Fortunately, many of these injuries are preventable. Floyd's tips are refreshingly straightforward: make sure you have the correct equipment, especially a pair of running shoes that fit and support you properly; follow an approved training programme so you build up your speed and stamina over weeks rather than days; take regular rests, especially in the early phases of training; and don't try to run while carrying an injury.

There is a wealth of further information about injury prevention and recovery at the Bupa Running website (www.bupa.co.uk/running) plus a series of recommended training programmes that you can tailor to your running level and the distance of your race (www.bupa.co.uk/running/training).

But what if, despite all your meticulous preparation and planning, lightning strikes? Can a runner stay fit while nursing an injury?

This, says Floyd, entirely depends on the type of injury you have. "Some injuries you have to rest completely. But in many cases we can recommend a fitness programme that will keep you as fit as possible while allowing your injury to heal.

"Swimming, cycling, or using a cross trainer or step machine might be fine. In Australia, where I come from, a lot of recuperating athletes use deep-water running, in which you run in the sea or a swimming pool wearing a flotation belt.”

Thanks to Floyd's help and advice, I am injury-free and looking forward to the Bupa Great South Run. There is one drawback, however: unlike Fernando Torres, I no longer have an excuse for looking off the pace.

Are you ready to run?

Find out with Bupa's free online running health check - www.bupa.co.uk/readytoruncheck

- For free training programmes and health advice see www.bupa.co.uk/running

- The Bupa Great South Run will take place on October 24 in Portsmouth

Summary:
Injury is a curse and a bore: but you can avoid it, says Team Telegraph member
  Andrew Pettie as he prepares for the Bupa Great South Run.


The President has just issued a Proclamation which forms another step in the grand proces against the giant crime of Rebellion. By this Proclamation, made in pursuance of the sixth section of the act of Congress, entitled "An Act to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate the property of rebels, and for other purposes," approved July 17, 1862, he warns "all persons within the contemplation of said sixth section, to cease participating in, aiding, countenancing or abetting the existing rebellion, or any rebellion against the Government of the United States, and to return to their proper allegiance to the United States, on pain of the forfeitures and seizures as within and by said sixth section provided."

The historian who shall record the progress of the present war will have no trouble in determining the theory on which it was conducted by the United States. Vast though the proportions were which the revolt assumed from the very start, the Government had no difficulty in at once making the diagnosis of the disease in the body politic as an insurrection, a rebellion. The acts of hostility against the Government had, perhaps, assumed such formidable proportions as to be appropriately designated as war; but it was a war of persons owing allegiance to the General or National Government, and not a war of Governments. As Prof. PARKER has well said, those acts were not more than acts of treason because millions were engaged in them, and they were not less than treason because of the assumed titles, military and civil, or of the assumption of State or Confederate authority, under color of which they were committed. Gigantic though the proportions are which the rebellion has since grown to, and complicated though the relations which we hold to the revolted States have become, the complexion of the Southern treason remains, in the eyes of the Government, unchanged. No lapse of time, no change of circumstance, has produced any alteration in the mode of treatment of the "so-called Confederacy" by the United States. The rebels who opened their batteries on Sumter are rebels still, not "belligerents." The Proclamation which the President issues to-day is the same in theory as that which he made fifteen months ago. In his proclamation of the 15th April, 1861, he called on the persons forming treasonable combinations to "disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes, within twenty days from this date." He now addresses the same combinations, commanding them within sixty days to "cease participating in, aiding, countenancing or abetting the existing rebellion." It is probable enough that the last Proclamation will be heeded no more than was the first. But with that fact we are not now dealing.

In a superficial aspect, it may seem inconsistent with this theory, that not only has the Government repeatedly entered into various transactions of a quasi-international character, such as flags of truce, exchanges, &c, with the Confederates; but that it has just concluded with the rebel authorities a general cartel for the exchange of prisoners, based on the cartel of 1812. The Richmond journals, it will have been noticed from the extracts we have given, are jubilant over this procedure as an acknowledgment of the "quasi-nationality" of the Confederates. "This cartel," says the Enquirer, "marks an important era in the war. We are by it made belligerents, and the Government of the United Slates treats with the Government of the Confederate States through Commissioners." The rebels are welcome to whatever comfort or encouragement they can extract from this transaction. But the journal mentioned is entirely off the mark, in claiming that it inaugurates any "new era" in the war. It is needless, at this late day, to recur to the principles and precedents that govern the exchange of prisoners between parties holding to each other the relations that obtain between the United States and the rebels. The whole matter is summed up in the one principle that, in a civil war such as ours, the Sovereign has all the rights of a belligerent in addition to those of Sovereign. This doctrine, though held by the masters of international law, from SUAREZ downwards, we have, it must be confessed, been somewhat slow to understand and take advantage of. And this jealousy of our sovereignty, and the attendant unwillingness to do aught that might seem to recognize the rebels even by implication -- a spirit shared to some extent by the Government as well as by the people -- have proved no inconsiderable drawback to an efficient conduct of the war. But the potent education of events has not been without avail. Henceforth woe put forth all our strength unweakened by any such pedantic legal limitations. Whatever belligerent rights it may be conducive to the great end of the war to employ, them we may freely put forth. The rights of sovercignty meanwhile reside in the United States, where they have been from the beginning and where they shall continue to be. And while in our sovereign capacity we may show toward those misguided men who have lifted up their hands against their country all needed forbearance -- while we make the war what Mr. SEWARD at its outbreak announced in his diplomatic correspondence that it should be, "An example of moderation and generosity such as history does not show the like of;" it is our own fault if we do not call out all the means that can give unity, energy and success to the work of putting down utterly the rebellion.


Jonathan Lethem's dazzling but fundamentally flawed new novel, ''The Fortress of Solitude,'' is at once wildly ambitious and quietly intimate. It aspires to the social range and reach of John Updike's Rabbit novels and Michael Chabon's 2000 novel, ''The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,'' but it also resonates with the personal, confessional tone of ''Catcher in the Rye.'' It borrows contemporary riffs from sources like Eminem's ''8 Mile'' and Nick Hornby's ''High Fidelity,'' but at the same time tries to frame its coming of age story with coy, Coover-esque allegories and high jinks.

This last element is a vestige of the postmodernist techniques this author used in earlier works like ''Girl in Landscape'' and ''Motherless Brooklyn,'' which mixed genre conventions, surreal special effects and playful deconstructions to create clever but somewhat aloof narratives. In this case it yields a series of unconvincing and weirdly forced passages that break the spell that Mr. Lethem has so assiduously created in the remainder of the novel.

It is a testament to his sheer verve as a writer and the acuity of his social and psychological observations that the novel as a whole manages to override these awkward interludes in which the hero and his best friend (as both children and adults) play at being superheroes, using a special ring to invoke magical powers of invisibility.

Happily, the bulk of ''The Fortress of Solitude'' -- which takes its title from Superman's arctic retreat -- avoids such cutesy pyrotechnics to focus on the story of Dylan Ebdus's coming of age. This is a story about fathers and sons, about best friends who grow apart, about the nervous subtext of race as it has played out in American society in the last three decades, and it demonstrates that Mr. Lethem does not need the tricked-up narrative strategies of his earlier books to hold the reader's attention. More important, it attests to a new virtuosity on his part: an ability to conjure disparate worlds from Brooklyn to Berkeley to Hollywood with uncommon energy and skill, as well as an ability to map the bumpy terrain of childhood and adolescence with humor and compassion and seemingly total recall for the enthusiasms and humiliations of those years.

Dylan Ebdus, we learn, grows up in the 1970's on Dean Street in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn. His father, Abraham, is an eccentric and reclusive artist who spends most of his time in an upstairs studio working on an experimental film that may never see the light of day; his mother, Rachel, is a manic and possibly mad hippie, who one day abruptly picks up and leaves to traipse around the country with a boyfriend.

His mother, Dylan recalls, made a stupid, beautiful and very American mistake: she cast him in the honorable role of ''a whiteboy integrating public schools.'' But those schools, he adds, ''were just then being abandoned'' and becoming ''rehearsals for prison,'' and the daily reality of Dylan's boyhood was often one of hunched trepidation. One of the few white children in his neighborhood, Dylan was routinely mocked and hassled: he took to carrying his money in his shoes, with some spare ''mugging money'' in a pocket to pay off would-be assailants. Halloween was an annual ordeal to be endured, and school another gantlet to be run.

Throughout Dylan's boyhood his idol and sometime protector was Mingus Rude, the ultracool son of a once famous black musician, who lived down the street. Whether he's playing ball or simply hanging out with the other kids on the block, Mingus radiates a laconic perfection. He turns Dylan on to comic books and the hit-and-run art of graffiti, and the pair soon develop a shared obsession with a mysterious ring acquired from a homeless man who believed he could fly; in the boys' fantasies the ring has the power to transform them into Aeroman, a superhero who helps thwart crime.

Despite the dubious Aeroman passages that pop up throughout this novel, Mr. Lethem does a magical job of conjuring up Dylan's day-to-day life: the multiple worlds that children inhabit -- at home, at school, on the street -- each world segregated from the other, each defined by unalterable codes and freighted with desperately guarded secrets.

There is a stereoscopic vision to the author's portrait of Dylan's Brooklyn: Mr. Lethem captures with perfect pitch the grunginess and fear of the boy's life, the undertow of anxiety that constantly tugs at him; but he also captures the adrenaline rush of the city, its tumult of change and changing expectations, as gangs and gentrification vie for ascendancy on Dean Street, and hip-hop, cocaine and punk music begin to permeate teenagers' lives.

Mr. Lethem, guest editor of ''The Year's Best Music Writing 2002,'' writes about music with enormous authority and ardor, and he uses it to chronicle the lives of Dylan and his friends, and of their parents. In giving us a soundtrack for their lives, he also limns the changing spirit of the nation, as R&B and rock gave way to hip-hop, as the lines between white and black music converged and blurred.

Dylan will grow up to become a music writer, too. But while he sees his love of music as a way to keep in touch with his roots, it provides him with a way to intellectualize his past. Having left Brooklyn to go to college -- first to an artsy New England campus, later to Berkeley -- Dylan is deeply conflicted about who he is and what he has left behind. He maintains a cordial distance from his father and loses touch with Mingus, who has spent many years in and out of prison. Dylan's belated decision to return home will spur him to try to come to terms with the childhood he has tried to escape and the past and people he has left behind.

Although the ending of ''The Fortress of Solitude'' is contrived and melodramatic -- full of annoying Aeroman asides and pretentious efforts to turn the adventures of Dylan and Mingus into a mythic ballad of lost hopes -- the novel's hold on the reader's imagination is strong enough to overpower this conclusion's tinny echoes.

Mr. Lethem has written a novel with many defects, but a novel that nonetheless attests to his potent storytelling talents.

Summary: THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE  By Jonathan Lethem  511 pages. Doubleday. $26.      Jonathan Lethem's dazzling but fundamentally flawed new novel, ''The Fortress of Solitude,'' is at once wildly ambitious and quietly intimate. It aspires to the social range and reach of John Updike's Rabbit novels and Michael Chabon's 2000 novel, ''The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,'' but it also resonates with the personal, confessional tone of ''Catcher in the Rye.'' It borrows contemporary riffs from sources like Eminem's ''8 Mile'' and Nick Hornby's ''High Fidelity,'' but at the same time tries to frame its coming of age story with coy, Coover-esque allegories and high jinks.


“Red Tails,” the story of World War II’s heroic Tuskegee Airmen fighter pilots, feels and moves like classic war films from decades past. Like those golden aged movies, the characters aren’t very deep and there’s a trite and superficial love story, but boy is this George Lucas-produced film replete with bravado and astounding aerial combat scenes.

The Tuskegee Airmen were 13 African Americans who were trained as pilots to fight for the Allied Forces, but they were heavily discriminated against by the military, and told they lacked the intelligence to man aircraft or fly for their country. “Red Tails” tells the heroic story of these men who fought in the face of bigotry and flew countless missions in Europe which helped bring about Allied victories over Germany.

Where “Red Tails” soars is with the spectacular aerial dogfights. Ben Burtt’s sound design and the incredible photography and special effects create realistic and phenomenal sky battles. Each mission is more intense and suspenseful than the previous. Every time the men take off in their red-tailed Mustangs you’ll be on the edge of your seat.

“Red Tails” boasts fine performances from the ensemble, especially David Oyelowo (“The Help”) as obstinate Joe ‘Lightning’ Little. Terrence Howard also packs some punches as the Colonel who comes face-to-face with the white opposition.

Unfortunately the character development is mediocre. The bonds between the airmen are superficial at best and the love story between Little and the young Italian belle Sophia (Daniela Ruah) is flimsy and unnecessary. But you’ll be hard-pressed not to cheer as the airmen take down both the Nazis and put their bigoted commanding officers in their place. There’s a huge helping of cheesy dialogue, especially from the cartoonish Nazis, and a few rousing speeches, but in the end it’s all about the battle scenes.

George Lucas claims to be retiring from film making after producing “Red Tails” and if this film is his swan song, he could have gone out on much worse.

Summary: REVIEW: 'Red Tails' pairs fantastic battle scenes with so-so characters


AN FRANCISCO, Nov. 3 - California voters approved a ballot measure on Tuesday to spend $3 billion over the next 10 years on research of human embryonic stem cells, the largest state-run scientific research effort in the country.

Unofficial results showed the measure passed with 59 percent of the vote.

The measure, Proposition 71, was backed by an assortment of wealthy business people, Hollywood personalities, scientists and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, who broke ranks with President Bush and the California Republican Party on the contentious issue.

The Bush administration has placed restrictions on using public money for research on embryonic stem cells, citing opposition to the destruction of human embryos. Last year, the federal government spent $25 million on stem cell studies; with the passage of Proposition 71, California will spend $300 million a year beginning in 2005.

The measure calls for the establishment of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which is expected to become the nation's incubator for stem cell studies. The state will pay for the effort by issuing $3 billion in general obligation bonds at an estimated cost of $6 billion over the next 30 years.

Though there is disagreement over the use of human embryos for research, many scientists and patient advocacy groups say they believe stem cells have great potential for deriving therapies and cures for diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Voters in California, where legislating by initiative has been a long established practice, had 15 other measures on the ballot, the most of any state. They covered such subjects as relaxing the state's "three strikes" law for repeat offenders and establishing a mandatory "pay or play" system of health coverage for certain employers. Both measures were defeated.

Nationwide, voters in 34 states considered a total of 163 statewide ballot measures, approving or rejecting new laws on taxation, gambling, hunting, health care, immigration, election reform and a host of other subjects.

In Arizona, immigration was the topic of a fiercely contested measure that was approved with 56 percent of the vote. The measure, Proposition 200, requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote and denies certain state and local benefits to illegal immigrants.

Opponents are expected to mount legal challenges to the law. That was the case in California, when a similar measure passed 10 years ago but was struck down in the courts.

Several states had ballot measures dealing with marijuana. Montana voted to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, and Oregon turned down a proposal to expand its uses of medical marijuana. In Alaska, voters rejected a measure that would have legalized marijuana use for those over 21, with 57 percent opposed. Hunting and sportsmen groups fought back efforts in both Alaska and Maine to place restrictions on the use of bait in bear hunting.

In Florida, a constitutional amendment related to abortion and teenage pregnancy won handily with 65 percent of the vote. The law limits the privacy rights of girls under 18, paving the way for parental notification before a minor has an abortion.

Several states had measures dealing with election changes. In Arkansas, voters rejected Amendment 1, which called for extending term limits for state legislators to 12 years from 6 years. In California, voters turned down a measure that would have replaced party primaries with open primaries, while voters in Washington approved a modified open primary system.

Mr. Schwarzenegger took a particular interest in 10 of the California initiatives, though he was not the author of any of them, unlike the budget-related measures on the ballot in March.

The governor spent the final days before the election traversing the state, with his stated priority the defeat of two competing measures that would allow the expansion of casino-style gambling. The two measures were defeated by big margins.

On crime, Californians defeated a measure that would have limited the state's three-strikes law.

Summary: The measure was backed by an assortment of wealthy business people, Hollywood personalities, scientists and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican.


NEW YORK - Just three days after abruptly stopping service and leaving travelers stranded, the parent of discount airline Direct Air has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Southern Sky Air & Tours LLC filed for Chapter 11 protection late Thursday in Worcester, Mass. Court documents show the company has between $10 million and $50 million in debt and just $500,000 to $1 million in assets. The company has not yet filed a list of its top 20 creditors. The airline said it has 100 to 200 creditors, which could include everything from fuel suppliers to airports.

The airline abruptly stopped flying Monday afternoon - at the peak of the spring break travel season - apparently because it could not pay its fuel bills. Direct Air, based in Myrtle Beach, S.C., says it will not fly again until May 15. Ticket holders were told to contact their credit card companies for refunds.

Direct Air began flying in March 2007. It serves 17 cities in the Midwest, East, and South. It has faced increased competition in recent years from a number of discount carriers including Spirit, Allegiant, and Southwest. Rapidly accelerating fuel prices this year were also a culprit in the company’s filing.

Direct Air offers the only scheduled service out of Worcester Regional Airport.

Summary: Just three days after abruptly stopping service and leaving travelers stranded, the parent of discount airline Direct Air has filed for bankruptcy protection. Southern Sky Air & Tours LLC late Thursday filed for Chapter 11 protection in Worcester, Mass. Court documents show the company has between $10 million and $50 million in debt and just $500,000 to $1 million in assets. The company has not yet filed several documents required by the court as part of the bankruptcy filing process, including a list of its top 20 creditors.


Vijay Kumar and his team build flying quadrotors, small, agile robots that swarm, sense each other and form ad hoc teams â for construction, surveying disasters and far more. Talk recorded 29 March 2012.

At the University of Pennsylvania, Vijay Kumar studies the control and coordination of multi-robot formations. At the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (Grasp) Lab, at the University of Pennsylvania, US, flying quadrotor robots move together in eerie formation, tightening themselves into perfect battalions, even filling in the gap when one of their own drops out. You might have seen viral videos of the quads zipping around the netting-draped Grasp Lab (they juggle! they fly through a hula hoop!). Vijay Kumar headed this lab from 1998-2004; he's now the Deputy Dean for Education in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, where he continues his work in robotics, blending computer science and mechanical engineering to create the next generation of robotic wonders.

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Summary: How to build small, agile robots that swarm and sense each other for construction, surveying disasters and much more.


IN YET another symbol of Myanmar’s reform and reintegration into the world, August 1st saw the opening of a World Bank office in its main city, Yangon. The Bank has not lent to Myanmar since 1987, the year before the military junta bloodily suppressed a popular uprising, and led the country into even greater international isolation.

Ever since, America has blocked new World Bank lending. Now that Myanmar has a notionally civilian government, and Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader, has been freed from detention and sits in parliament, the talk is all of economic and political reform, and of hope that Myanmar’s unfortunate people might escape both the desperate poverty the country has suffered, and political repression as severe as anywhere outside North Korea.

So it was an unfortunate coincidence that August 1st also saw the publication of a report that raises serious questions about whether, in the fundamental brutality of its rulers, Myanmar has changed much at all. Human Rights Watch, a monitoring and lobbying group, interviewed 57 people who lived through the dreadful ethnic violence in Myanmar’s Western state of Rakhine (formerly Arakan) in June.

The violence followed the alleged rape and murder in late May of a Buddhist woman by three members of the Muslim “Rohingya” minority, of whom between 800,000 and 1m live in Rakhine. On June 3rd Buddhist villagers attacked a bus and killed ten Muslim passengers. The police stood by and watched.

The cycle of ethnic retaliation worsened. Dozens died. Still the authorities intervened at best lackadaisically. The title of the Human Rights Watch report is “The Government could have stopped this”, quoting the identical words uttered by two interviewees, one Buddhist, one Muslim. Specifically, it is the security forces that are accused of perpetrating crimes, including rape, murder and unjustified mass detention against Rohingyas, and of doing little to prevent the violence from escalating.

Few in Myanmar accept that the Rohingyas are true Burmese, although many they have lived in Myanmar for generations. Rather they are subject to racial discrimination as “Bengalis”, and, under a 1982 law, are denied citizenship.

Analysts in Myanmar speculate that senior generals might have had reasons for letting the violence spread: that the carnage showed the need for a strong army; and that it would embarrass Thein Sein, the reformist president, as well as Miss Suu Kyi, as she toured Europe shortly afterwards.

No Burmese politician will gain kudos for backing the Rohingyas. Mr Thein Sein’s solution to the problem they pose was alarmingly candid: “We will send them away if any third country would accept them.” Miss Suu Kyi, asked if the Rohingyas are Burmese citizens, was at least more cautious in her reply. She said she did not know. Other, heroic, freed political prisoners, were even less sympathetic.

Yet the Rohingyas' plight is horrific. The report estimates that over 100,000 have been displaced by the unrest. Many are in grim, unhealthy camps. Rakhine’s capital, Sittwe, once a mixed city, is now almost wholly Buddhist. And some of the Rohingyas who tried to escape to neighbouring Bangladesh, where some 250,000 took refuge in 1991. But Bangladesh has turned some back, flouting international law, according to Human Rights Watch. Nobody wants the Rohingyas. Last year Thailand faced criticism for sending some Rohingya boat people back out to sea.

There is so much justified excitement about Myanmar’s reforms and emergence, that the chances the Rohingyas’ suffering will be taken seriously are even lower than usual. But it is hard to quibble with the analysis of Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch’s Asia director: “If the atrocities in Arakan had happened before the government’s reform process started, the international reaction would have been swift and strong. But the international community appears to be blinded by a romantic narrative of sweeping change in Burma [Myanmar], signing new trade deals and lifting sanctions even while the abuses continue.”

Correction: The above article was amended on August 5th 2012 to correct an error. The ten victims of the attack on a bus on June 3rd were Muslims but not Rohingyas.

Summary: Correction to this articleIN YET another symbol of Myanmar’s reform and reintegration into the world, August 1st saw the opening of a World Bank...


Did America pick the right 'American Idol' winner?

The country boy beat the county girl for this year's "American Idol" title Wednesday night.

Scotty McCreery, 17, became the youngest singer ever to win Idol, taking the prize over rival Lauren Alaina, who's actually one year younger than he.

Over 122 million votes figured into the tally - at least according to unverifiable figures trumpeted by host Ryan Seacrest.

As usual, Wednesday night's event saved the big reveal for the final few minutes, bloating its two hour bulk with guest stars out to piggy back on a ratings collosus. This year's starry list included everyone from Lady Gaga to Beyonce to The Edge and Bono performing a song from "Spiderman." Yet, the peak turned out to be finalist James Durbin in a screech-off with his own idols, Judas Priest.

While the two top singers Wednesday night may boast different genders, they honor the same genre: country. That augers well for the winner's potential as a recording artist. "Idol"'s strongest selling champ to date - Carrie Underwood - caters exclusively to the Nashville sound.

Though McCreery had been favored to win for some time, in some ways his triumph Wednessday night represented an upset. Alaina came into Wednesday night's show with a late breaking advantage. On Wednesday night's final sing-off, all three judges - J.Lo, Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson - leaned towards her side. More, Alaina came armed with a triumph-over-adversity story. She lost her voice during Tuesday afternoon's rehearsals, only to regain it through the wonders of modern medicine for the final face-down.

To boot, Alaina owns the bigger voice - one which actually recalls the iron-lunged Underwood. By contrast, McCreery's strength lies in his velvety tone and deep pitch rather than his ample lungs.

Then again, McCreery had never been considered for elimination in a given week, while Alaina had. "Idol" itself can be considered a winner this year. While many pundits had left it for dead after the departure of its star meanie Simon Cowell, plus its decline in ratings of ten percent over the previous year, this year's ratings ticked up 4 percent. With an average of 24.9 million viewers, it remains TV's most watched show.

That was hardly a sure thing this season, considering the introduction of two untested judges: J.Lo and Tyler. But the star power of both turned out to be a boon. It also helped that they switched the tone of the panel from judgement to mentoring, thereby purifying the show's cornfed character.

What could be more country than that?


Convicted shoplifter Winona Ryder is caught in the middle of an alleged jewelry theft.

The "Reality Bites" actress has been accused of swiping more than $124,000 worth of Bulgari jewels she borrowed for a Nov. 20 event sponsored by Marie Claire magazine in Madrid, according to TMZ.com.

Ryder, who was caught stealing from a Saks Fifth Avenue store in 2001, reported the diamond-encrusted bracelet and ring missing sometime after she left them in her hotel room to be picked up by someone from Marie Claire, the site says.

But according to French celebrity magazine Voici, Ryder says she left the jewels at the hotel's front desk for safekeeping. Hotel management , meanwhile, claims they never received the jewels, insisting that they have no surveillance footage showing Ryder handing over the diamonds.The jewels are reportedly still M.I.A.This is the second time Ryder has made headlines in recent weeks. The 37-year-old developed a mystery illness while flying to London earlier this month, causing the plane to make a special landing. She was hospitalized and later released.

Ryder served three years of probation and 480 hours of community service after her 2001 shoplifting incident.

"I didn't have this tremendous sense of guilt, because I hadn't hurt anyone," she later told Vogue of the "embarrassing" incident.

"Had I physically harmed someone or caused harm to a human being, I think it would have been an entirely different experience."

Reps for Bulgari and Ryder could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

Summary: Convicted shoplifter Winona Ryder is caught in the middle of an alleged jewelry theft. The "Reality Bites" actress has been accused of stealing more than $124,000 worth of Bulgari jewels she borrowed for a Nov. 20 event in Madrid, according to French celebrity magazine, Voici.