– The Islamic State may have claimed responsibility for Wednesday's twin terror attacks in Tehran that killed 12, but Iran has a different culprit in mind: regional rival Saudi Arabia. "This terrorist attack happened only a week after the meeting between the US president and the (Saudi) backward leaders who support terrorists," says a statement from Iran's Revolutionary Guards, per Reuters. It acknowledges that ISIS was "involved," however, thus insinuating a link between ISIS and the Saudis, notes New York. A look at coverage: Potent symbols: The attackers hit not only the parliament building in Tehran but the mausoleum with the tomb of founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini—"the two most potent symbols of the 1979 revolution," writes Simon Tisdall at the Guardian. For Iranians, this is "deeply shocking," the equivalent of someone attacking the Lincoln Memorial in the US. The attacks: Details on how the coordinated attacks unfolded are at the New York Times. A first: Assuming the ISIS claim is legit, this would be the first ISIS attack in Iran, but the militant group has wanted to strike there for years, explains a Q&A at PRI. ISIS is Sunni, while Iran is a Shia nation, and it's no small distinction: ISIS views Shiites as apostates. The backdrop: The New York Times notes the attacks come not only after Trump's trip (seen as emboldening the Saudis) but after the Saudi move to isolate Qatar, which it accuses of supporting terrorism and Iran. It all relates to the main issue: "Iran and Saudi Arabia are the leading nations on opposing sides of the Middle East split between Shiite and Sunni Islam." Morale boost: Given ISIS retreats in Iraq and Syria, the successful strikes in Iran will clearly be a big morale boost to the group, per an analysis at the BBC. As they lose their strongholds in those countries, they want followers to launch attacks elsewhere, and no target is bigger than Iran. Trump response: It was notably mixed. "We grieve and pray for the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in Iran, and for the Iranian people, who are going through such challenging times," he said in a statement. But then added: "We underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote." The US does indeed consider Iran a state sponsor of terrorism, notes Business Insider. Ominous threat: Just hours before the attacks, the Saudi foreign minister had said Iran should be punished for supporting groups such as al-Qaeda, per Al Arabiya English.

Expand this summary.

Gunmen and bombers stunned Iran on Wednesday when they stormed parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leaving 12 people dead in what appear to be the first ISIS attacks in the country.

 After a string of ISIS-claimed attacks targeting Western countries, many are left wondering — why would the group suddenly target Iran?

 The World reached out to William McCants, author of "The ISIS Apocalypse" and director of the Project on US Relations with the Islamic World at the Brookings Institution, to get some insight.

 How do ISIS and its adherents view the Islamic Republic of Iran?

 In the first instance, they see it as a religious competitor. Iran is dominated by [Shiite Muslims], one of the two major sects of Islam, and it's a sect that ISIS views as a rival. There is also a strategic competition, of course, with Iran for control in Iraq. ISIS has been fighting Iranian forces off and on since 2006, when it was founded. And it has long wanted to carry out an attack inside of Iran, but could not do so because al-Qaeda told it "no" in the early years. And once ISIS split from al-Qaeda, it may not have had the assets to do so.

 Talk a little more about the religious rivalry. Isn't it true that in the mindset of ISIS, the Shiite [also called Shia] Muslims are not just rivals, but also apostates?

 That's right. Sunni jihadists in general have a dim view of the Shia. They believe Shia leaders are apostates, there's a debate among jihadists as to whether the hoi polloi are apostates. For ISIS, they are certainly apostates — all of them. Ignorance of religion is no excuse, they would argue. Shia Muslims are all beyond the pale, and, in ISIS's view, worse than infidels like Jews and Christians, because these Shia, they argue, have made a choice to place themselves outside of true Islam, as they would see it.

 ISIS is losing territory in Iraq and Syria, and even in its longtime stronghold of the Syrian city Raqqa. So, why would ISIS want to attack the regional power of Iran now?

 On the face of it, it doesn't seem to make much sense. But there are a couple of reasons why. One is to, of course, punish Iran for its meddling in Iraq. Two, to force Iran to go all-in in Iraq, to commit even more forces and turn this into a major sectarian war. The thinking here being that, if this war is clearly divided along sectarian lines, ISIS would gain more support from the Sunni locals, who fear Iran. Another reason to carry out an attack like this would be to push the Iranian government into cracking down domestically on the Sunnis [inside Iran]. ISIS would hope in that instance that the crackdown would be wide-ranging and would create a lot of alienation among the Sunnis in Iran, and that they would then support ISIS's cause.

 Another way to think about this is through the lens of recruitment and competition with al-Qaeda. ISIS used to be a part of al-Qaeda. They split in recent years. And they have been competing with one another for market share among global Sunni jihadists. ISIS has had trouble attracting recruits over the last year or so, because security has tightened and it's losing a lot of territory. So, it wants to retain momentum to show that it's still in the fight, and what better way to do that in the jihadist world than to carry out a strike in the heart of Iran, at two of its major symbols of power? In the same vein, this is part of a global series of attacks that have happened over the past few days, either inspired or directed by ISIS, that are also meant to show that the organization is still in the fight, can still recruit. It's the Muslim month of fasting, Ramadan. And during the same month last year, ISIS also carried out a high-profile series of attacks, probably toward the same end — to attract more recruits. So, while on the face of it, it doesn't look like a good idea to poke a bear like Iran, there can be other reasons to do it that are smart, at least from ISIS's perspective.

 Is it your sense that ISIS had been trying to carry out an attack like this in Iran for some time?

 We know from a series of internal ISIS and al-Qaeda documents that ISIS has wanted to carry out an attack in Iran for a long time. But its parent organization al-Qaeda discouraged it. That's because al-Qaeda has a logistics hub inside of Iran, and also has a number of people being held by the Iranian government. And al-Qaeda didn't want to lose either the hub or its people, so it said, "no." Once the two organizations split, then ISIS could of course pursue its designs to carry out an attack in Iran, but then it would have to build up its capability. ISIS has had a number of people — Sunnis from Iran — go fight for its organization in Iraq. And perhaps it's one of their members who carried out today's attack. We'll see about that.

 So, after 2014, when ISIS split with al-Qaeda, it was probably a matter of lacking capability rather than any other reason why we haven't seen this kind of attack before.

 What's significant about the two sites of today's attack in Tehran — at Iran's national parliament building, and the mausoleum of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini?

 Well, the parliament is the heart, of course, of the Iranian government — its lawmaking body. And the shrine is the spiritual heart of Iran's revolutionary government. Khomeini was the founder of the republic, and some whispered that he was something even more, approaching messianic status. So this is an attack that went against both the heart of Iran's premier deliberative body, but also the spiritual heart of the revolution.

 Last question, Will. What comes to mind in the aftermath of this attack when you think about what's at stake for the United States?

 It's about demonstrating solidarity with any country that has been through an attack on innocent civilians. The US terrorist list is dominated by Sunni groups, but not exclusively. In the past, the US has designated groups [as terrorist organizations] that threatened Iran domestically that did not pose a threat to the US. I think it's important to uphold that principle.

 This interview was condensed and edited for clarity. ||||| Armed assailants, including some disguised as women, stunned Iran on Wednesday with brazen attacks on the Parliament building and the tomb of its revolutionary founder, the worst terrorist strike to hit the Islamic republic in years.

 At least 12 people were killed and 46 were wounded in the near-simultaneous assaults, which lasted for hours, clearly took Iran’s elite security forces by surprise and shattered the self-proclaimed image of calm in a turbulent region.

 The six known attackers also were killed, official news media said, and five suspects were reported detained. Their identities were not made clear.

 “We will avenge the blood of those martyred in today’s terrorism attacks,” said Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the country’s powerful paramilitary force. ||||| Assaults on potent symbols of Iranian ideology, claimed by Isis, will stoke tensions with Saudi Arabia, Gulf states and Trump

 Consequences of attacks in Tehran will be felt around the world

 In targeting the Iranian parliament and the tomb of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the terrorists who went on a lethal rampage in Tehran on Wednesday chose the two most potent symbols of the 1979 revolution.

 For ordinary Tehranis, comparatively safe in recent years from such outrages, the attacks are deeply shocking.

 The apparently coordinated assaults have been blamed by Iran’s hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Saudi Arabia and, whatever the truth of the allegation, they are likely to have a big political impact far beyond Iran, stoking tensions with the US, Saudi Arabia and the Sunni Muslim monarchies of the Gulf.

 Islamic State quickly claimed responsibility – if true, it would mean the militant group has finally succeeded in importing its divisive brand of random terror into the home of its principal Shia Muslim adversary.

 Iran: 12 dead as Islamic State claims attacks on parliament and shrine Read more

 The mausoleum where Khomeini was laid to rest almost exactly 28 years ago, on 6 June 1989, is an enormous complex dominating the skyline south of Tehran. Its cavernous halls are visited by tens of thousands of Iranians each year, who treat it as a shrine. Unlike the fortress-like Majlis (parliament) building in the centre of the city, security is light. That will change now.

 For Iranians, the attack on Khomeini’s tomb is the equivalent of somebody trying to blow up the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. If the Isis claim of responsibility proves truthful, this will be the first time the group has successfully struck in the heart of Iran, although it has reportedly tried several times in the recent past.

 Isis is at war, ideologically and militarily, with Iranian forces and allies in Syria and Iraq. In a video released in March, it vowed to “conquer Iran and restore it to the Sunni Muslim nation as it was before”. The jihadis claim that Iran’s clerical leaders, and their royal Persian predecessors, have persecuted Sunnis for centuries.

 Isis has natural allies among militant groups in Iran’s restive south-eastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, which has a large Sunni population. In 2010, Sunni extremists linked to the Jundallah network killed 39 people at a mosque in the province. Minority Kurdish groups and ethnic Arabs also have a history of small-scale attacks in the north-west and south-west respectively.

 Wednesday’s atrocities will be set against the backdrop of the anticipated collapse of Isis’s self-declared caliphate, as Iranian-backed Iraqi and Syrian army forces, plus US and British-backed Kurdish militias, close in on its Mosul and Raqqa strongholds.

 In response to this pressure, Isis has called on its followers to take the fight to its enemies wherever they live. Recent terror attacks in Manchester, Kabul, Baghdad, Marawi in the southern Philippines and London may fit this emerging pattern of displaced activity by Isis followers.

 Conservative Iranian leaders and commentators will certainly follow the IRGC’s lead and discern the hand of Saudi Arabia – and, by association, that of the US president, Donald Trump – in Wednesday’s attacks.

 Well-documented covert efforts by George W Bush’s administration in the 2000s to destabilise Iran by funding militant internal opposition groups are not forgotten in Tehran. Nor is unofficial, on-off American support for the Mujahedin e-Khalq, or People’s Mujahadin of Iran, a group formerly backed by Saddam Hussein that was responsible for numerous armed attacks inside Iran.

 US officials scramble to limit Donald Trump's diplomatic damage over Qatar tweets Read more

 The question now is whether Trump’s overt hostility is encouraging a repeat of past destabilisation efforts, directly or indirectly. Overturning the previous US president Barack Obama’s policy of limited engagement, Trump launched a blistering attack on Iran last month. Speaking during a visit to Riyadh, he demanded Iran’s international isolation, claiming Tehran was the world’s main exporter of “the fires of sectarian conflict and terror”.

 His host, King Salman, accuses Iran of “spearheading global terrorism”. Egged on by Israel, Trump has threatened to tear up Obama’s landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

 He trumpeted a big arms deal with the Saudis. And this week he threw his support behind Riyadh’s diplomatic and commercial ostracism of Qatar, which almost alone among Gulf Arab states has tried to keep on good terms with Iran. This has led regional politicians to warn of imminent war.

 Iran’s leaders reject Trump’s accusations out of hand. They say Riyadh is Isis’s biggest inspiration and supporter, and point out that Iran and the US are on the same side fighting the jihadis in Iraq.

 Unlike the autocratic Gulf regimes, Iran also has a quasi-democratic political system, with an elected parliament and president, that confounds the “sponsor of terrorism” image. This awkward fact seems to enrage Trump, the Saudis and Isis in equal measure. ||||| The video shows a bloody body on the floor next to a desk. An Iranian member of Parliament said the images in the video were from inside his office, and he said the victims were his “colleagues.”

 A voice on the video is heard in Arabic saying: “Do you think we will leave? We will remain, God willing.” ||||| LONDON (Reuters) - Suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Iranian parliament and Ayatollah Khomeini’s mausoleum in Tehran on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people in an unprecedented assault that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards blamed on regional rival Saudi Arabia.

 Islamic State claimed responsibility and threatened more attacks against Iran’s majority Shi’ite population, seen by the hardline Sunni militants as heretics.

 Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted: “Terror-sponsoring despots threaten to bring the fight to our homeland. Proxies attack what their masters despise most: the seat of democracy.”

 He did not explicitly blame any country but the tweet appeared to refer to comments made by Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud, in May, saying that that Riyadh would bring “the battle” for regional influence to Iran.

 Sunni Saudi Arabia denied any involvement in the Tehran attacks, but the assault further fuels tensions between Riyadh and Tehran as they vie for control of the Gulf and influence in the wider Islamic world. It comes days after Riyadh and other Sunni Muslim powers cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of backing Tehran and militant groups.

 They were the first attacks claimed by Islamic State inside the tightly controlled Shi’ite Muslim country, one of the powers leading the fight against IS forces in nearby Iraq and Syria.

 The deputy head of Iran’s National Security Council, Reza Seifollhai, told state TV late on Wednesday that the attackers were people from Iran who had joined Islamic State. Iranian police said they had arrested five suspects

 Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: “These fireworks have no effect on Iran. They will soon be eliminated.”

 “They are too small to affect the will of the Iranian nation and its officials,” state TV quoted him saying.

 The powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accused Riyadh of being behind the attacks and vowed to seek revenge.

 “This terrorist attack happened only a week after the meeting between the U.S. president (Donald Trump) and the (Saudi) backward leaders who support terrorists. The fact that Islamic State has claimed responsibility proves that they were involved in the brutal attack,” a Guards statement said.

 Trump said in a statement that he prayed for the victims of the attacks but added that “states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote.” The U.S. State Department and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres both condemned the attacks.

 Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said he did not know who was responsible for the attacks and said there was no evidence Saudi extremists were involved.

 DRESSED AS WOMEN

 Attackers dressed as women burst through parliament’s main entrance, deputy interior minister Mohammad Hossein Zolfaghari said, according to the Tasnim news agency. One of them detonated a suicide vest, he said.

 On a video released by the IS news agency Amaq a man purportedly inside the parliament says in Arabic: “Oh God, thank you. [Gunshots]. Do you think we will leave? No! We will remain, God willing.”

 Police helicopters circled over parliament, with snipers on its rooftop. Within five hours, four attackers were dead and the incident was over, Iranian media said.

 “I was inside the parliament when shooting happened. Everyone was shocked and scared. I saw two men shooting randomly,” said one journalist at the scene.

 Soon after the assault on parliament began, a bomber detonated a suicide vest near the shrine of the Islamic Republic’s revered founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, a few kilometers south of the city, Zolfaghari said.

 A second attacker was shot dead, he said. The shrine is a main destination for tourists and religious pilgrims.

 “The terrorists had explosives strapped to them and suddenly started to shoot around,” said the shrine’s overseer, Mohammadali Ansari.

 By late evening, deputy interior minister Zolfaghari put the death toll at 13, with 43 wounded.

 Members of Iranian forces take cover during an attack on the Iranian parliament in central Tehran, Iran, June 7, 2017. Tasnim News Agency/Handout via REUTERS

 The Intelligence Ministry said security forces had arrested another “terrorist team” planning a third attack. The National Security Council’s Seifollhai said Iran had foiled 58 similar attacks, without specifying a time period.

 REGIONAL ANIMOSITY

 The attacks follow several weeks of heightened rhetorical animosity between Riyadh and Tehran.

 In unusually blunt remarks on May 2, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is Saudi defense minister and a son of King Salman, said he would protect his country from what he called Iranian efforts to dominate the Muslim world.

 Any struggle for influence between the Sunni Muslim kingdom and the revolutionary Shi’ite theocracy ought to take place “inside Iran, not in Saudi Arabia,” he said without elaborating.

 The next day Iran accused Saudi Arabia of seeking tension in the region, saying the prince had made “destructive” comments and it was proof that Riyadh supported terrorism.

 The attacks could also exacerbate tensions in Iran between newly re-elected President Hassan Rouhani, who positions himself as a reformer, and his rivals among hardline clergy and the Revolutionary Guards.

 But Rouhani said Iran would be more united and more determined in the fight against regional terrorism and violence.

 “We will prove once again that we will crush the enemies’ plots with more unity and more strength,” he said.

 In an appeal for unity, Rouhani’s chief of staff, Hamid Aboutalebi, took to Twitter to praise the security services.

 “Applause to the power and firmness of our revolutionary guards, Basij (volunteer militia), police and security forces,” he wrote.

 However, two senior government officials, who asked not to be named, said the attacks might prompt a blame game.

 Slideshow (23 Images)

 “They (hardliners) are very angry and will use every opportunity to grow in strength to isolate Rouhani,” said one. The other said the attacks would push Iran toward “a harsher regional policy”.

 Militant attacks are rare in Tehran and other major cities although two Sunni militant groups, Jaish al-Adl and Jundallah, have been waging a deadly insurgency, mostly in remote areas, for almost a decade.

 Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province, in the southeast on the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, is home to the Balouch minority and has long been a hotbed of Sunni insurgents fighting the Shi’ite-led republic.

 Last year Iranian authorities said they had foiled a plot by Sunni militants to bomb targets in Tehran and other cities during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. ||||| Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir said Iran must be punished for its interference in the region and support for terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda, Al Arabiya News Channel reported him as saying early Wednesday.

 Jubeir, who is in Paris since Tuesday, said that Iran is a host for some Al-Qaeda leaders as well as other commanders from other terrorist organizations.

 The minister further urged Iran not to interfere, describing Tehran as the number one supporter for terrorism in the world.

 For Iran to be a “normal state,” it must respect international law, he said. Jubeir also said that the Iranian regime’s “political ideas” are completely rejected.

 The minister said the Iranian regime for the past 37 years attacked more than 12 embassies.

 Saudi Arabia alongside seven other countries, including Egypt, UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen, Maldives, Mauritius and Mauritania, have recently severed its ties with Qatar.

 Jubeir said Riyadh severed ties with Doha due to Qatari policies, which harmed the region especially the Gulf states.

 He also said that Qatar did not commit to anti-terrorism agreements signed years ago, and instead continued to show support for terrorist groups.

 He urged Qatar to “change their policies” and stop supporting “extremist groups”.

 Jubeir said that harming Qatar was not Riyadh’s goal, but that it had to make a necessary choice.

 “Qatar has to stop its support of groups such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood,” Jubeir said in statements on Tuesday in Paris.

 “We decided to make it clear that enough is enough,” Jubeir added. “We want Qatar to be an ally in finding peace and stability in the region.”

 His statements come as Kuwait has begun mediation efforts in Saudi Arabia to ease tensions between Qatar and several of its Gulf neighbors.

 Last Update: Wednesday, 7 June 2017 KSA 05:08 - GMT 02:08 ||||| Police officers control the scene, around of shrine of late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, after an assault by several attackers in Tehran, just outside Tehran, Iran.

 Armed militants, some apparently dressed as women and equipped with suicide vests, stormed the Parliament building in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday morning around 10:30 a.m. About a half-hour later, another group of attackers rushed the mausoleum of the Ayatollah Khomeini. The assailants went on a murderous spree, firing on people, holding hostages, and blowing themselves up with explosives. The twin terror attacks — rare in the tightly controlled Iran, with its elite security forces — left 12 people dead and more than 40 wounded. Iran’s intelligence ministry said it had arrested another “team” plotting a third attack, says Reuters.

 An undercover Iranian policeman (L) holds a weapon outside the Iranian parliament in the capital Tehran on June 7, 2017, during an attack on the complex. Photo: AFP/AFP/Getty Images

 ISIS immediately claimed responsibility for the rampage, and released a graphic video that was allegedly filmed by one of the attackers. If confirmed, this attack would be the jihadist organization’s first in Iran, according to The Guardian. The terrorist group adheres to a bastardized version of Sunni Islam, and it considers Shiite Muslims — Iran’s majority religion — apostates.

 Iran’s revolutionary guard, however, accused Saudi Arabia of being behind the attack. “This terrorist attack happened only a week after the meeting between the U.S. president and the backward leaders who support terrorists,” a statement from the revolutionary guard read, indicating Trump and Saudi Arabia. The statement added that “the fact that Islamic State has claimed responsibility proves that they were involved in the brutal attack,” an insinuation that Saudi Arabia is tied to the Sunni extremist group.

 An Iranian policeman holds a weapon as he stands by a window at the Iranian parliament in the capital Tehran on June 7, 2017, during an attack on the complex. Photo: AFP/AFP/Getty Images

 Iran’s accusation comes at a particularly tense time in the region. Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-majority nations cut diplomatic ties with Qatar this week, over its alleged “embrace” of radical groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS. Yet Qatar’s recognition and willingness to work with Iran clearly factored into that decision to sever relations. President Trump, visiting the Saudi Arabian capital on his first foreign trip, made it clear that isolating Iran was a shared goal between the U.S. and its Sunni allies in the region.

 The Saudi foreign minister denied that Saudi extremists were involved in the attack, but Wednesday’s attack adds fuel — bolstered by Trump’s pointed statements against Iran — to the volatile regional rivalry. As Reuters points out, it may also roil tensions within Iran between the more moderate forces — which claimed victory in the recent reelection of President Hassan Rouhani — and conservative hard-liners. ||||| U.S. President Trump speaks during an event announcing the Air Traffic Control Reform Initiative at the White House in Washington Thomson Reuters President Donald Trump released a statement Wednesday on the terrorist group ISIS' first attack in Iran, appearing to blame the country for "falling victim to the evil they promote."

 Suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Iranian parliament and the Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people in a twin assault that Iran's Revolutionary Guards blamed on regional rival Saudi Arabia. ISIS claimed responsibility and released a video purporting to show gunmen inside the parliament building.

 "We grieve and pray for the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in Iran, and for the Iranian people, who are going through such challenging times," Trump said in the statement. "We underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote."

 The US has designated Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism.

 Iran provides arms and funding to some terrorist groups, including the Shia group Hezbollah. Iran has also been expanding its influence throughout the Middle East and has aligned itself with embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has been accused of war crimes as he fights to maintain control over his country.

 Trump has taken a hard line on Iran and often condemns the deal the Obama administration cut with the country to curb its nuclear program.

 The ISIS attacks there took place at a particularly charged time after Saudi Arabia and other Sunni powers cut ties with Qatar on Monday, accusing it of backing Tehran and militant groups.

 ISIS has regularly threatened Iran, one of the powers leading the fight against the militants' forces in neighboring Iraq and, beyond that, Syria.

 Reuters contributed to this report. ||||| Image copyright Tima via Reuters Image caption Wednesday's attacks on Iran's parliament and the Imam Khomeini Mausoleum killed 12 people

 Iran has been at the top of so-called Islamic State's target list for a number of years.

 Despite appearing to be a more vulnerable target than European countries and the United States because of its proximity to territory controlled by the jihadist group, Iran had until Wednesday been able to prevent an attack within its borders.

 In May 2016, the Iranian authorities announced that they had dismantled 20 terrorist cells and foiled a plot involving 50 different targets throughout the country.

 Such operations were the result of an extensive counter-terrorism programme.

 Image copyright Tima via Reuters Image caption The jihadist group Islamic State said it was behind the attacks

 Iran also launched an anti-IS messaging campaign, sought to contain the conflict with IS inside Syria and Iraq to stop it reaching Iranian borders, engaged with various political and religious groups, and carried out extensive intelligence operations.

 Iran also has a relatively strong and stable state, with notoriously effective security services.

 The goal has been to undermine IS and its ideology, while working to prevent attacks on Iranian soil.

 But given that Iran was a major target, it was unlikely to escape attacks completely.

 Image copyright AFP Image caption Officials said both incidents were now over and the situation was returning to normal

 Today, IS militants are facing a losing battle in Iraq and are retreating in Syria.

 One consequence of this has been a greater focus on carrying out attacks outside those two countries.

 In the past few months, the group has upped its anti-Iran propaganda, and aimed to recruit from the country's Sunni minority community.

 Wednesday's attack will therefore significantly boost IS morale, particularly as it is the first to have been carried out in Iran - the region's biggest Shia country and a relatively stable one at that.

 Image copyright AFP Image caption Iran has suffered many losses in Syria over the past six years

 In Iran, there will be calls for revenge - especially amongst hardliners - making it more difficult for President Hassan Rouhani's administration to reduce the country's involvement in Iraq and Syria.

 The attack will also increase public support for the Revolutionary Guards, who are viewed as the protectors of the country, and for Iran's efforts to combat IS, as happened when the jihadist group seized large swathes of territory in Iraq in 2014.

 However, Iran is already extensively involved in both Iraq and Syria, and does not have unlimited resources to spare.

 In addition, Iran's involvement in Syria is not popular. Rather, it is viewed as a costly endeavour that has not benefitted the country much and resulted in far too many Iranian deaths.

 Dina Esfandiary is a Centre for Science and Security Studies (CSSS) Fellow in the War Studies Department at King's College London, and an Adjunct Fellow (non-resident) in the Middle East Programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). |||||


News article:

VIRGINIA BEACH

 The Navy identified the two sailors who died and a third, who went missing, after a Navy helicopter crashed into the frigid Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, about 20 miles east of Cape Henry.

 Lt. Wesley Van Dorn, 29, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Brian Collins, 25, died at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital Wednesday, officials told reporters at a Thursday afternoon news conference at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek. Both were members of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 14, based at Norfolk Naval Station.

 The missing pilot, Lt. Sean Christopher Snyder, 39, of Santee, Calif., was identified by the Navy late this evening.

 In a statement issued by the Navy, the Snyder family thanked the Navy, Coast Guard and Virginia Beach fire crews for their efforts to rescue him.

 "At this time, our hearts and prayers are for Sean's recovery, the other families who have suffered loss, and for the health of the hospitalized sailors," the statement said.

 Van Dorn, a pilot, was from Greensboro, N.C. and had served for more than six years.

 Collins, an aircrewman, was from Truckee, Calif., and had been in the Navy about two years, officials said.

 Four of the five crewmembers, including Van Dorn and Collins, were pulled from the water after the crash Wednesday morning. The search for Snyder has been ongoing.

 The Coast Guard and Navy searched an area of more than 600 square miles before suspending its active search for the missing crew member at 3:30 this afternoon, said Coast Guard Capt. John Little said. Crews will continue working to recover wreckage and search for remains.

 "It was a very challenging decision to make, but it's one that we felt we had to make," Little said. "It was an exhaustive search."

 The Navy also requested assistance from the Virginia Beach fire and police departments again today. The Fire Department sent its mobile command center to First Landing State Park to be used as the Coast Guard's command post for the day, said Battalion Chief Amy Valdez. A fire boat with side-scan sonar capability assisted along with a police boat that has a tow sonar.

 During a news conference this afternoon, the Navy said one sailor had been released from Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and a second was in stable condition.

 The Navy promptly launched an investigation Wednesday to determine what caused the late-morning crash, but the day's efforts were focused on the five sailors who went down aboard the troubled aircraft.

 With the water temperature around 40 degrees, Navy and Coast Guard officials feared their rescue mission could soon become a recovery operation.

 The day began routinely enough, with two MH-53 Sea Dragons from Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 14, aka HM-14, leaving Norfolk Naval Station on a training mission. One of the aircraft made a distress call about 10:45 a.m., only moments before hitting the water.

 It was unclear whether the crew performed an emergency water landing or lost control and crashed, said Capt. Todd Flannery, the commander of Helicopter Sea Combat Wing Atlantic.

 "I don't know," said Flannery, repeating a line he uttered more than a half-dozen times during a somber news conference on the flight line where the downed aircraft had taken off hours earlier. "There's a lot we don't know right now."

 After impact, the second helicopter dropped a raft into the water, and two crew members climbed in.

 The Coast Guard cutter Shearwater was 2 miles away - close enough to hear but not see the crash - and made its way to the scene as the Navy dispatched two MH-60 Seahawks from Norfolk Naval Station.

 The rescue helicopters arrived within 30 minutes of impact and hoisted the two sailors from the raft. Two other crew members were pulled from the chilly water about 45 minutes after the crash and were hoisted into the second Seahawk. The four sailors were flown to Norfolk General. Two died there, one was listed in serious condition, and the other was upgraded to fair.

 When Virginia Beach rescue boats arrived near the crash location, they encountered a large debris field that spread over a half-mile area, Battalion Chief Tracy Freeman of the Virginia Beach Fire Department said.

 Pieces of the helicopter were scattered across the water. A fireboat with side-scan sonar helped find the fuselage and tail section, which had sunk by the time rescue crews arrived.

 The Coast Guard and Navy planned to search through the night for the fifth crew member. All would have been wearing survival suits for a flight over cold water, Flannery said, but it's unclear how long someone could survive in those conditions.

 The Navy sent divers from Little Creek to the crash site. Other ships assisting the joint search and rescue operation include the guided missile destroyer Jason Dunham, the amphibious transport dock Mesa Verde, the salvage vessel Grasp and a cargo ship, the Medgar Evers.

 At the Norfolk hospital, Chris Goetz said he saw two Navy helicopters land and drop off two crew members each.

 "They came in fast, that's why I noticed," said Geotz, an electrician who was working at the facility. "They started screaming. The first person was unconscious, and his arms were dangling. The second person had his hands bandaged, and his face was burned, but at least he held his hands up."

 Navy officials said they would not identify the crew members who died until 24 hours after relatives were notified.

 "Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to the families and the loved ones of those hurt and killed in today's crash," Flannery said.

 Wednesday's crash was the second tragedy to strike the small MH-53 Sea Dragon community in as many years. It's also the latest accident for a workhorse airframe that the Navy had planned to retire more than five years ago.

 According to the Naval Safety Center, the crash is the fourth major accident involving a Sea Dragon since 2012. MH-53s have crashed at a rate more than 10 times greater than other Navy helicopters over the past five years, according to the center's data.

 Assigned to just two Norfolk-based squadrons, HM-14 and HM-15, Sea Dragons are equipped to detect and clear submerged mines - a critical capability in the Navy's mission of ensuring clear shipping channels abroad. The massive $50 million helicopters are also used to move people and cargo and are the Navy's preferred option for heavy-lift operations.

 Sea Dragons were introduced to the fleet in the early 1980s. The service had planned to begin phasing them out in the mid-2000s, but without a viable replacement, it kept the Sea Dragons flying. The goal is to use them through 2025.

 After a crash in July 2012 claimed the lives of two Norfolk-based sailors during a heavy-lift mission in Oman, the Navy uncovered systemic problems within the Sea Dragon community stemming from a lack of investment in the aging airframes.

 "This didn't just happen overnight," Flannery said during a November interview with The Virginian-Pilot. "This was an atrophy over a long period of time, and the reason was, the Navy slowly but surely kind of forgot about the HM community.... It was absolutely tragic that it came to a head the way that it did."

 After the Oman crash, the Navy invested millions of dollars to upgrade and better maintain its remaining 29 Sea Dragons, Flannery said in November. It added more than 100 maintenance personnel to the two Norfolk-based squadrons, enhanced pilot training and installed new leadership.

 There are currently no plans to ground the Sea Dragons.

 Asked Wednesday whether he had concerns about the safety of the MH-53s, Flannery said: "No, I don't. I do not."

 Pilot reporters Cindy Clayton, Lauren King and Gary Harki contributed to this report.

 Mike Hixenbaugh, 757-446-2949, mike.hixenbaugh@pilotonline.com ||||| Toby Melville / Reuters A Pave Hawk helicopter, military personnel and emergency services attend the scene where another helicopter crashed near the village of Cley in Norfolk, eastern England.

 Four American airmen were killed when a U.S. military helicopter carrying live ammunition crashed into a nature reserve on the east coast of England on Tuesday, spreading debris including "hazardous" bullets across an area the size of a soccer field, police said.

 The Air Force HH-60 Pave-Hawk chopper — a modified version of the Army's Black Hawk — was practicing flying at low altitudes when it went down, the U.S. officials said. It was assigned to RAF Lakenheath, the British base that is also home to the U.S. Air Force's 48th Fighter Wing.

 The airmen were named as Capt. Christopher S. Stover, Capt. Sean M. Ruane, Tech. Sgt. Dale E. Mathews, and Staff Sgt. Afton M. Ponce.

 "The actual crash site I would describe as an area of debris on difficult terrain on the marsh about the size of a football field,” Chief Bob Scully of Norfolk Police said early Wednesday, adding that the area had been cordoned off from locals because the crashed aircraft had strewn live ammunition across the crash site on impact.

 "Bullets are scattered about the area of the site," he said. "So that is hazardous to members of the public."

 He added that another helicopter had been taking part in the training mission.

 “Because they were both airborne the most immediate aircraft to provide assistance or be available at the scene was the other aircraft,” Scully said.

 He added that at the present time British police had jurisdiction over the investigation because the crash happened on English soil.

 "At the present time the police on behalf of her majesty’s coroner are responsible for conducting an investigation into deaths that have occurred here in the U.K.," he said. "Once we are satisfied and the coroner is satisfied we will then pass the management of the scene to the air investigation branches of the U.K. and U.S, military.

 “They will carry out a more technical investigation that may last for some considerable time,” he added.

 Police have been assisted by investigators from both Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Air Force.

 “(We) have been conducting a full scene assessment in difficult terrain and that has allowed us to plan for the activities today which will involve further close examination and scene examination and preserving evidence from the crash site,” he said.

 The bodies were removed from the scene early Thursday after the British coroner conducted a daylight assessment of the scene.

 Sadly, we confirm the loss of four of our Liberty Airmen. Please keep them in your thoughts. http://t.co/S4CdD6yrzb #JollyDown — RAF Lakenheath (@48FighterWing) January 8, 2014

 The commander of the 48th Fighter Wing, Colonel Kyle Robinson paid tribute to his colleagues and thanked the British people for their support.

 "They have made the ultimate sacrifice while training to save the lives of others," he said, adding that as a husband and father he could not imagine the heartbreak the families were experiencing.

 "I speak for the entire wing when I say we're thinking of you, we're here for you and we're praying for you," he said.

 Although the base is owned by the RAF, it has been used by the United States Air Force for over 50 years.

 NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski, Courtney Kube and Marc Smith of NBC News contributed to this report.

 Related:

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What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A Navy helicopter went down this morning about 18 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, reports the Virginian-Pilot. The Navy confirms that the chopper, a Sea Dragon, was one of two on a training mission and had to make an emergency landing in the water. Four of the five crew members were rescued, but two died later at the hospital. Another is in serious condition. The last member of the crew still has not been found, and the Navy and Coast Guard planned to search through the night. Sea Dragons are used mainly in heavy-lifting operations and in clearing mines from shipping lanes, notes the Pilot; the Navy has only 29 left, as they had been scheduled to be eliminated in the mid-2000s. Meanwhile, NBC reports that yesterday's helicopter crash in England, which killed four US servicemen, spread hazardous debris across "difficult terrain" in an area the size of a soccer field.


A new study finds that 260 million people a day cross bridges in the USA that are structurally deficient.

 A collapsed section of the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River is seen in an aerial view on May 24 in Mount Vernon, Wash. (Photo: Mike Siegel, AP) Story Highlights Federal Highway Administration estimates repairs would cost $76 billion

 Average age of the structurally deficient bridges is 65 years old

 One expert says: 'We've never had a better bridge system"

 More than one in nine bridges in the USA — at least 66,405, or 11% of the total — are structurally deficient, according to a new report.

 These are not rarely used, out-of-the way structures: Each day, Americans take 260 million trips over structurally deficient bridges, says the report from Transportation for America, a Washington, D.C.-based coalition that works to improve transportation.

 The report comes less than a month after the May 23 collapse of a span of the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River in Washington state. Part of the bridge collapsed when it was struck by a truck with an oversize load. That bridge, built in 1955, was not structurally deficient.

 The structurally deficient bridges are 65 years old on average, and the Federal Highway Administration estimates that repairing them would cost $76 billion.

 A structurally deficient bridge isn't necessarily one that's dangerous or about to collapse; rather, they are bridges that require significant maintenance, rehabilitation or replacement.

 A truck is removed May 27 from the wreckage of an Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River in Mount Vernon, Wash. That bridge, which was built in 1955 and collapsed May 23, was not structurally deficient. (Photo: Washington State Department of Transportation via AP)

 The repair bill will likely increase as many of the nation's most heavily traveled bridges, including those built as part of the interstate system, near the end of their expected life spans. "You're seeing the aging of the system," says David Goldberg, a co-author of the report. "It really does parallel the (aging of) the Baby Boomers in a startling way."

 This is a problem that has worsened since Transportation for America's last report on bridges, in 2011: Fifteen states have seen an increase in their structurally deficient bridges. The report projects that in 10 years, one in four bridges will be 65 years old or older.

 In the two-year federal transportation funding bill it passed last year, Congress eliminated a dedicated fund for bridge repair. "The upshot is that bridge repair now must compete with other transportation needs," the report says. Money previously targeted for bridge repair was rolled into a new National Highway Performance Program, which can be spent only on highways that are part of the National Highway System, which includes interstates and major state highways. Nearly 90% of structurally deficient bridges are not part of the National Highway System.

 Transportation for America recommends that Congress raise new dedicated revenues for transportation programs including bridges; that 180,000 bridges be made eligible for the new funding program, and that repair of bridges and highways be made a national priority.

 Not everyone is alarmed over the state of the nation's bridges. "From my perspective, we've never had a better bridge system than we have right now," says David Hartgen, senior fellow at the libertarian Reason Foundation who co-authored a February report on the condition of roads and bridges in the USA. "The overall system is getting better slowly and steadily over time" as states work to improve their roads and bridges.

 Hartgen, emeritus professor of transportation studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, says it's good that more responsibility for repairing bridges is shifted from the federal government to the states. "The states are closer to the problem," he says. "I'm not overly pessimistic about the funding picture. At the state level, there is more willingness to raise state taxes for bridges."

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/11XSsQ1 ||||| Elaine Thompson / AP The north end of the Interstate 5 bridge crossing the Skagit River lies collapsed in the water on Friday, in Mount Vernon, Wash. A truck carrying an oversize load struck the four-lane bridge on the major thoroughfare between Seattle and Canada, sending a section of the span and two vehicles into the Skagit River below Thursday evening. All three occupants suffered only minor injuries. At an overnight news conference, Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste blamed the collapse on a tractor-trailer carrying a tall load that hit an upper part of the span.

 The Washington state bridge collapse that spilled two cars into the Skagit River could give Americans pause as they hit the roads for Memorial Day holiday travel.

 With good reason.

 This weekend, millions will cross 66,000 bridges that the federal government has deemed "structurally deficient," meaning key elements are in poor condition.

 The Federal Highway Administration hastens to note that label doesn't mean they are unsafe or in danger of collapse, but transportation advocates say it highlights a growing crisis of aging infrastructure, deferred maintenance and rebuilding, and design flaws.

 "We don't expect an epidemic of collapses — that's the extreme," said Dan Goldberg, communications director for Transportation for America, a coalition that identified the busiest deficient bridges in the nation in a 2011 report.

 "We are going to see probably some more of this, but the more likely scenario is contending with the issues of decay that happen before the collapse."

 Big potholes, weight restrictions and lane closings are some of the inconveniences bridge users face unless reconstruction and replacement is ramped up across the nation, Goldberg said.

 The Interstate 5 bridge in Mount Vernon, Wash., which apparently crumpled after being hit by an oversized truck, was not on the Federal Highway Administration's structurally-deficient list.

 Famed spans aren't the problem. San Francisco's Golden Gate, for instance, is in pretty good shape. The Brooklyn Bridge is undergoing a massive rehabilitation project to correct its deficiencies.

 But hundreds of less glamorous bridges — many of them generic overpasses that take commuters over cross streets or other highways — remain vulnerable.

 Here are six crossings, together used by more than 1 million vehicles each day, that don't make the grade:

 Maryland DOT A view of I-695 crossing over Liberty Road in Maryland in August 2012.

 I-76 over Klemm Ave. in Gloucester, N.J.: The deck and superstructure are in poor condition on this 11-lane interstate overpass that dates to 1956. More than 191,000 vehicles use it every day, and $30 million has been earmarked for deck replacement.

 IS-695 over Milford Mill Road in Baltimore, Md.: Built in 1961 and reconstructed in 1979, this eight-lane overpass on the Baltimore Beltway has a deck and substructure in poor condition. But good news for nearly 190,000 vehicles that cross each day: It will be replaced in a two-year project starting this summer.

 Halona St. Bridge in Honolulu, Hawaii: Built in 1938, this slab bridge over the Kapalama Canal is not slated for replacement until 2019. Some 184,000 vehicles travel the two-lane crossing, which has a deck and substructure in poor condition.

 Colorado DOT A view of the I-70 bridge over Havana Street in Denver, Colo. E-17-JP

 I-70 over Havana St. in Denver, Colo.: This 10-lane structure, which has a deck and substructure in poor condition, is slated for a rebuild in the next few years. Built in 1964 and reconstructed in 1978, it services 183,000 vehicles a day.

 I-278 approach to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in Staten Island, N.Y.: On an average day, 182,700 vehicles take this overpass to a majestic double-decker bridge. The substructure of the two-lane approach, built in 1961, is in poor condition.

 I-95 over Hendricks Ave. in Jacksonville, Fla.: The deck is in poor condition on this nine-lane section of interstate that handles 121,000 vehicles a day. Built in 1959 and reconstructed in 1989, it is undergoing a replacement.

 Source: Information about the structures was compiled by Nationalbridges.com, a website that analyzes data in the Federal Highway Administration's national bridge inventory. ||||| Visualizing the numbers

 Did you know that in another ten years, one in four bridges will be 65 years old or older? And today, almost 50 percent of bridges of that age are structurally deficient?

 In the minute it’ll take you to view this full infographic with more facts like that, another 180,000 trips will be taken on deficient bridges. Click to see the whole graphic, learn more, and share it with your friends.

 Click for more details about the data. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– If this story didn't already cause you to develop a mild case of gephyrophobia, then this one may do the trick: Some 11% of America's bridges are structurally deficient and in need of repair, according to a new report from Transportation for America. It's a stat made more serious when you consider this next one: 260 million trips are made across the 66,405 problematic bridges each day. As USA Today explains, these bridges aren't necessarily dangerous, they just need a lot of work, which has been priced at $76 billion by the Federal Highway Administration. That amount will just get larger as the years pass. These bridges are, on average, 65 years old, and in 10 years, the number of "senior citizen" bridges will be one in four. "You're seeing the aging of the system," says a co-author of the report. "It really does parallel the [aging of] the Baby Boomers in a startling way." Congress recently eliminated a dedicated bridge repair fund, meaning "bridge repair now must compete with other transportation needs," the report states. Rather than "an epidemic of collapses," the more common consequences of the aging bridge system will be things like more large potholes and closed lanes, the co-author tells NBC News.


Write an article based on this summary:

– Amy Schumer took the long way around to announce she's pregnant with husband Chris Fischer. The comedian and actress broke her baby news Monday on the Instagram stories of friend and journalist Jessica Yellin, the AP reports. Yellin, of the site NewsNotNoise.org, showed at the end of a list of Schumer's recommended congressional and gubernatorial candidates the line: "I'm pregnant-Amy Schumer." Schumer had teased the announcement on her own Instagram page, captioning a photo of hers and Fischer's heads atop Prince Harry's and Meghan Markle's bodies, "About to announce some exciting news on @jessicayellin insta page. Please follow her for up to the minute #newsnotnoise she breaks down what’s really going on. She agreed to post a lil noise today for me! Follow her and VOTE!!" "We are 15 days out from the midterms and there is a lot going on," Yellin explained before going into Schumer's "lengthy" list of recommendations, per Bustle. "I wanted to share some news from our community. Maybe it's noise, but it's happy noise," Yellin continued. "These are the recommendations of Amy Schumer, one of the most consistent and early supporters of #NewsNotNoise. Now, read all the way to the bottom. You'll see there's some news down there. Congratulations, Amy." Schumer is known for her liberal politics: She was recently arrested protesting the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court. The 37-year-old married Fischer, a chef, in February. (Here's why Schumer won't appear in any Super Bowl ads.)

FILE - In this April 17, 2018 file photo, Amy Schumer arrives at the world premiere of "I Feel Pretty" at the Westwood Village Theater in Los Angeles. Schumer says don’t look for her in a Super Bowl... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this April 17, 2018 file photo, Amy Schumer arrives at the world premiere of "I Feel Pretty" at the Westwood Village Theater in Los Angeles. Schumer says don’t look for her in a Super Bowl... (Associated Press)

 Don't look for Amy Schumer in any Super Bowl LIII commercials this time around. She's sitting this one out as she stands with Colin Kaepernick and his take-a-knee protest against racism and police brutality.

 The comedian and "I Feel Pretty" actress explained her stance at length Friday on Instagram, challenging white NFL players to kneel as well. Addressing them directly, she wrote: "Otherwise how are you not complicit?"

 Of her plan to steer clear of Super Bowl ads, she said: "I personally told my reps I wouldn't do a Super Bowl commercial this year. I know it must sound like a privilege ass sacrifice but it's all I got."

 Diddy, Jessica Seinfeld and Christie Brinkley offered her support among more than 8,000 comments left on her post. It was not immediately clear whether she had been approached to appear in an ad during the big game.

 In 2016, Schumer appeared with Seth Rogen in a political-themed campaign for Bud Light, "Raise One to Right Now," during Super Bowl 50.

 "Hitting the nfl with the advertisers is the only way to hurt them," Schumer wrote of her ban. "I know opposing the nfl is like opposing the nra. Very tough ..." ||||| There's some exciting news in Hollywood: Amy Schumer is expecting her first child and she's expecting you to head to the polls this November. The comedian teased a big announcement on Instagram on Monday, while also directing her followers to go to Jessica Yellin's Instagram page. On her page, Yellin shared that Schumer is pregnant, as she promoted her #NewsNotNoise campaign. (When Bustle reached out for comment, Schumer's rep directed us to Yellin's Instagram page.)

 Along with a photo of her and husband Chris Fischer's faces photoshopped on Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's bodies (who are also expecting their first child), Schumer wrote on Instagram:

 "About to announce some exciting news on @jessicayellin insta page. Please follow her for up to the minute #newsnotnoise she breaks down what’s really going on. She agreed to post a lil noise today for me! Follow her and VOTE!!"

 Over on Yellin's page, she shared Schumer's picks for candidates in the upcoming midterm elections — but that's not all. In a series of videos on her Instagram Story, the former CNN Chief White House Correspondent explains,

 "We are 15 days out from the midterms and there is a lot going on ... I wanted to share some news from our community. Maybe it's noise, but it's happy noise... These are the recommendations of Amy Schumer, one of the most consistent and early supporters of #NewsNotNoise. Now, read all the way to the bottom. You'll see there's some news down there. Congratulations, Amy."

 As Yellin hinted, at the very bottom of the lengthy list, the note reads: "I'm pregnant-Amy Schumer."

 Leave it to Schumer to double her pregnancy announcement as a political one. She likely knew the baby news would spark attention regardless, so she harnessed that platform to remind everyone about the midterms. Honestly, it's perfectly strategic. As for #NewsNotNoise, a quick look at Yellin's Instagram page explains what the movement is all about:

 "Political Jargon: Say What?! Lean Blue. Lean Red. Trump state. Blue wave. Early voting. Early returns. • What political jargon do you want explained? Post your question in comments. • I’ll pick a few and in the lead up to the election I’ll do a bunch of posts to help you better understand what it all means!"

 Considering how passionate Schumer is about politics, it's not all that surprising that she's supporting an effort to educate people about what they need to know, versus what noise they can tune out. (Even if celebrity baby news might sometimes fall in the latter category, as Yellin said herself, it's "happy noise.")

 The Trainwreck star isn't one to back down from her beliefs. Earlier this month, Schumer was reportedly detained and arrested for protesting Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, according to CNN.

 Over the years, she's also been a vocal advocate for gun control, as well as other causes she cares about. In the last week alone, she's spoken out about supporting the transgender community, in the wake of the Trump Administration's memo reported on by the New York Times. She also supported Colin Kaepernick's peaceful protest of the NFL by urging Maroon 5 to pull out of the Super Bowl Halftime Show as Rihanna reportedly did.

 Suffice to say, Schumer commits to political causes. And that's exactly why tying her baby announcement to a voting announcement isn't the least bit surprising — but it is pretty great. ||||| This will appear next to all of your comments

 This will NOT appear anywhere on Newser |||||


Alan Rickman’s most iconic role may very well be Professor Snape from the Harry Potter series. Throughout those films, we see his character go from a brooding villain to heartbreaking hero who would do anything for the ones he loved.

 However, when the first films in the series were being made, JK Rowling had not yet published The Deathly Hallows and Severus Snape was presumed to be a bad guy the whole way through.

 Rickman knew he wasn’t aligned with Voldemort the whole time, Rowling having previously told him how Snape was a secret agent, working for Dumbledore. Apparently he had to hide his knowledge even to the directors of the films.

 "It was quite amusing, too, because there were times when a director would tell Alan what to do in a scene and he would say something like, 'No I can't do that - I know what is going to happen and you don’t,'" series producer David Heyman told the LA Times.

 Alan Rickman: Life in pictures 30 show all Alan Rickman: Life in pictures 1/30 Alan Rickman at the UK premiere of 'A Little Chaos' at ODEON Kensington in London, 2015 Getty Images 2/30 Alan Rickman poses with actress Kate Winslet and actress Helen McCrory as they attend the UK premiere of 'A Little Chaos' at ODEON Kensington in London, 2015 Getty Image 3/30 4/30 Alan Rickman signs autographs for fans before the opening ceremony during the Febiofest Prague International Film Festival in Prague, Czech Republic, 2015 Getty Images 5/30 Alan Rickman poses with 'Elle & The Pocket Belles' as he attends on day two of the Qatar Goodwood Festival at Goodwood Racecourse in Chichester, 2015 Getty Images 6/30 Alan Rickman shakes hands with the Queen Elizabeth II during the Dramatic Arts reception at Buckingham Palace, 2014 7/30 8/30 Alan Rickman arrives at the Giffoni Film Festival meeting with the jurors in Giffoni Valle Piana, Italy, 2014 9/30 'A Promise' film photocall, 70th Venice International Film Festival, Italy, 2013 Rex 10/30 Alan Rickman walks on the red carpet as he arrives to attend the World Premier for the film 'Gambit' in Leicester Square, in London, 2012 11/30 (L-R) Alan Rickman, Tom Felton, Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Matthew Lewis attend the New York premiere of 'Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2' at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center in New York, 2011 12/30 13/30 Alan Rickman attends the 'John Gabriel Borkman' after party at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City, 2011 14/30 Alan Rickman at the Broadway opening night of 'Seminar' at The Golden Theatre in New York, 2011 15/30 Actors Sir Christopher Lee (L) and Alan Rickman attend the Royal World Premiere of 'Alice In Wonderland' at Odeon Leicester Square in London, 2010 16/30 17/30 Alan Rickman poses at the Gibson Guitar celebrity hospitality lounge held at the Miners Club during the 2008 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah 18/30 Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver attend the photocall for 'Snow Cake' as part of the 56th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) in Berlin, 2006 19/30 Alan Rickman shares a laugh with Mos Def at the premiere of HBO's 'Something The Lord Made' in New York, 2004 20/30 Alan Rickman attends the UK Premiere of 'Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban' at the Odeon Leicester Square in London, 2004 21/30 Actor Alan Rickman and Lyndsey Duncan attend the '2002 Tony Award' nominees brunch in New York, 2002 22/30 23/30 Alan Rickman and Julia Roberts at 'Hollywood Salutes Bruce Willis: An American Cinematheque Tribute' at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, 2000 24/30 Sigourney Weaver (L), Tim Allen (C) and Alan Rickman (R), pose for the premiere of the science fiction, action comedy film 'Galaxy Quest' outside Mann's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, 1999 25/30 Alan Rickman at the Golden Globe Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles, 1997 Rex 26/30 Alan Rickman with Laim Neeson, Natasha Richardson in 1997 Rex 27/30 Actresses Cybill Shepherd (L) and Christine Baranski (C) present an Emmy to Alan Rickman (R) for outstanding lead actor in a mini-series or special for his lead role in the HBO production of 'Rasputin' during the 48th Annual Emmy Awards in Pasadena, California, 1996 28/30 Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson and Phyllida Law at the Premiere of "Winter Guest" in Glasgow, Scotland, 1993 Rex 29/30 Alan Rickman, Juliette Stevenson and Michael Maloney in 1990 Rex 30/30 Alan Rickman in 1984 1/30 Alan Rickman at the UK premiere of 'A Little Chaos' at ODEON Kensington in London, 2015 Getty Images 2/30 Alan Rickman poses with actress Kate Winslet and actress Helen McCrory as they attend the UK premiere of 'A Little Chaos' at ODEON Kensington in London, 2015 Getty Image 3/30 4/30 Alan Rickman signs autographs for fans before the opening ceremony during the Febiofest Prague International Film Festival in Prague, Czech Republic, 2015 Getty Images 5/30 Alan Rickman poses with 'Elle & The Pocket Belles' as he attends on day two of the Qatar Goodwood Festival at Goodwood Racecourse in Chichester, 2015 Getty Images 6/30 Alan Rickman shakes hands with the Queen Elizabeth II during the Dramatic Arts reception at Buckingham Palace, 2014 7/30 8/30 Alan Rickman arrives at the Giffoni Film Festival meeting with the jurors in Giffoni Valle Piana, Italy, 2014 9/30 'A Promise' film photocall, 70th Venice International Film Festival, Italy, 2013 Rex 10/30 Alan Rickman walks on the red carpet as he arrives to attend the World Premier for the film 'Gambit' in Leicester Square, in London, 2012 11/30 (L-R) Alan Rickman, Tom Felton, Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Matthew Lewis attend the New York premiere of 'Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2' at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center in New York, 2011 12/30 13/30 Alan Rickman attends the 'John Gabriel Borkman' after party at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City, 2011 14/30 Alan Rickman at the Broadway opening night of 'Seminar' at The Golden Theatre in New York, 2011 15/30 Actors Sir Christopher Lee (L) and Alan Rickman attend the Royal World Premiere of 'Alice In Wonderland' at Odeon Leicester Square in London, 2010 16/30 17/30 Alan Rickman poses at the Gibson Guitar celebrity hospitality lounge held at the Miners Club during the 2008 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah 18/30 Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver attend the photocall for 'Snow Cake' as part of the 56th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) in Berlin, 2006 19/30 Alan Rickman shares a laugh with Mos Def at the premiere of HBO's 'Something The Lord Made' in New York, 2004 20/30 Alan Rickman attends the UK Premiere of 'Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban' at the Odeon Leicester Square in London, 2004 21/30 Actor Alan Rickman and Lyndsey Duncan attend the '2002 Tony Award' nominees brunch in New York, 2002 22/30 23/30 Alan Rickman and Julia Roberts at 'Hollywood Salutes Bruce Willis: An American Cinematheque Tribute' at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, 2000 24/30 Sigourney Weaver (L), Tim Allen (C) and Alan Rickman (R), pose for the premiere of the science fiction, action comedy film 'Galaxy Quest' outside Mann's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, 1999 25/30 Alan Rickman at the Golden Globe Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles, 1997 Rex 26/30 Alan Rickman with Laim Neeson, Natasha Richardson in 1997 Rex 27/30 Actresses Cybill Shepherd (L) and Christine Baranski (C) present an Emmy to Alan Rickman (R) for outstanding lead actor in a mini-series or special for his lead role in the HBO production of 'Rasputin' during the 48th Annual Emmy Awards in Pasadena, California, 1996 28/30 Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson and Phyllida Law at the Premiere of "Winter Guest" in Glasgow, Scotland, 1993 Rex 29/30 Alan Rickman, Juliette Stevenson and Michael Maloney in 1990 Rex 30/30 Alan Rickman in 1984

 "He had a real understanding of the character and now looking back, you can see there was always more going on there - a look, an expression, a sentiment - that hint at what is to come... the shadow that he casts in these films is a huge one and the emotion he conveys is immeasurable.”

 On numerous occasions, Rickman had to hide his knowledge from journalists asking difficult questions about the Harry Potter story. In an interview with RTE, he hinted at a “little piece of information, which I always said I would never share with anybody and never have, and never will.”

 "Certainly, I did say I needed to talk to her before I could get a handle on how to play it, and we did have a phone conversation," he said. "She certainly didn't tell me what the end of the story was going to be in any way at all, so I was having to buy the books along with everybody else to find out, 'And now what?'

 "No, she gave me one little piece of information, which I always said I would never share with anybody and never have, and never will. It wasn't a plot point, or crucial in any tangible way, but it was crucial to me as a piece of information that made me travel down that road rather than that one or that one or that one.”

 Rickman passed away at the age of 69 after suffering with cancer. ||||| Fans of Harry Potter (i.e. people who breathe) no doubt had a love-hate relationship with Hogwarts' complicated potions master Professor Snape. Alan Rickman's brilliant portrayal in the films brilliantly captured Snape as he is in the books -- the total best and the total worst.

 While Snape's backstory in the movies is told in disjointed order in flashbacks and revelations, a YouTube user uploaded this video of all of Snape's most important moments into one heartbreaking 14-minute gut check to your emotions. You have to watch all of it.

 All the big moments are in there, from Snape's feelings for Harry's mother Lily, to the moment (do we still have to say spoilers? Well, SPOILERS) he kills Dumbledore.

 Severus isn't the only person in Harry Potter who's hard to pin down. Tom Felton, who plays the awful, awful Draco Malfoy is a really nice dude in real life who wouldn't in a million years be sorted into the Slytherin House! |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– When Alan Rickman started playing Professor Severus Snape, the end of the Harry Potter series was not yet written—but JK Rowling already had Snape's story arc figured out, and she hinted to Rickman that (spoiler alert!) there was more to Snape than met the eye so that he'd understand the character's motivation and know how to play him. Rickman had hinted at that fact in interviews, Mashable reports, but he never revealed exactly what Rowling told him—but now Rowling finally has, thanks to a fan on Twitter who asked her, "Will you tell us the piece of information that you told Alan Rickman about Severus Snape? Or will that forever be a secret?" As the Independent explains, Rickman once said that Rowling didn't reveal the entire ending of the series to him, but rather gave him "one little piece of information, which I always said I would never share with anybody and never have, and never will," and that helped him "travel down that road rather than that one or that one or that one." Rowling's response to the aforementioned fan explains what that "one little piece" was: "I told Alan what lies behind the word 'always,'" she wrote. Spoiler alert part 2: She's referring to the fact that, as Snape reveals to Dumbledore toward the end of the series, he's "always" loved Harry's mother, and thus felt compelled to protect Harry. (Watch Snape's scenes in chronological order and all will become clear.)


Here is a news article: More than three dozen Pennsylvania college students spending spring break in Kentucky on a mission trip were safe Friday after becoming lost for hours when a sightseeing mountain hike unexpectedly stretched into the night, officials said Friday.

 Rescuers were able to find them _ hungry and cold _ after an hours-long effort in rough terrain and freezing temperatures.

 Most of the hikers were seen in the emergency room at Appalachian Regional Hospital in Whitesburg, with one woman admitted and listed in good condition, spokeswoman Dena Sparkman said Friday.

 The few who declined to be seen at the hospital "were like, `feed me and we're good,'" Sparkman said.

 "I think the best medicine we gave them was chicken soup," Sparkman said.

 The group was made up of 37 students and three staff members from La Salle University on an annual mission trip called Project Appalachia, said John Caroulis, spokesman for the Philadelphia school.

 Caroulis said the group was helping build houses in Harlan, about a half-hour from Whitesburg, and had gone on a hiking trip that was made every year on the trip.

 Rescuers said the group got disoriented when it got dark while they were hiking near Bad Branch Falls, an area on the Bad Branch Nature Preserve.

 A search began about 7 p.m. EST Thursday, and it took until 3:30 a.m. Friday to get the entire group off the mountain, said Mayking Volunteer Fire Chief Tony Fugate, who helped.

 "It's pretty rough country back in there," Fugate told The Associated Press.

 Fugate said the group apparently hiked to a popular spot above the Bad Branch Falls waterfall, but it got dark and they couldn't find the trail back. When they got disoriented, they called 911 from their cellphones and were able to talk rescuers toward them.

 They were on a 5-mile trail shaped like a lollipop headed to an area called High Rock, which is known for its breathtaking views, according to Shad Baker, a local resident who created many of the public trails used in the area and helped guide rescuers via cell phone.

 "Rescuing 37 people is a monumental undertaking," Baker said. "So the fact that they got them out is really good."

 The trail, lined with hemlock trees and rhododendron bushes, takes hikers immediately into the deep woods. A sign at the trail head warns hikers to stay on the trail. A visitor log at the entrance to the trail was signed "La Salle University" for March 8.

 Baker said the hikers didn't arrive at High Rock until 5 p.m., it began to get dark, and much of the trail was covered by trees, branches and snow. He said the group would have had to cross three streams to reach the destination, and rescuers said by the time they arrived, many of the hikers said their feet were numb.

 "I think once they got up there, there's 37 footprints going every which direction. ... I think they couldn't figure out which way they came from," Baker said.

 Baker said to make things more confusing, the trail that would have taken them down the mountain actually goes uphill before it goes downhill.

 "It's counterintuitive," he said.

 He said the group was not dressed for the weather, with most of them wearing just sneakers, jeans and light jackets as temperatures began dropping into the 20s.

 Fugate said only a few of the students had flashlights.

 The group had to be walked down the mountain using an alternate route that had fewer obstacles but took more time, Baker said.

 National Weather Service meteorologist Ed Ray said temperatures in the Pine Mountain area dipped into the low 20s overnight. He said the high Thursday reached only into the mid-20s.

 Caroulis said the group was expected to return to Pennsylvania on Saturday as scheduled.

 ___

 Associated Press writers Rebecca Yonker and Janet Cappiello contributed to this report. ||||| One hiker remained hospitalized Friday morning after 37 Pennsylvania college students and three staff members were rescued Thursday night from Pine Mountain in Letcher County, police said.

 The hikers from La Salle University in Philadelphia called for help about 7 p.m. Thursday and were found by 11 p.m., Kentucky State Police trooper Tony Watts said.

 The group, which was hiking near Bad Branch Falls at a place called High Rock, stayed together near a campfire and stayed in contact with police and rescue workers by cellphone after that first call, Watts said.

 The hikers had to leave the mountain by foot, and that took until 3:45 a.m. Friday, Letcher County Fire and Rescue Ambulance Service Director Gary Rogers said.

 All 40 of the hikers were taken to Whitesburg Appalachian Regional Hospital, where one remained Friday, hospital spokeswoman Hollie Phillips said.

 The remaining hiker is in stable condition and is expected to be released Saturday, said Dena Sparkman, Community CEO for Whitesburg ARH.

 The students were treated for possible hypothermia, dehydration and exhaustion, Sparkman said. One hiker had strained knees, she said.

 In addition to medical treatment, she said, hospital staff provided the cold, wet students with chicken noodle soup, dry hospital scrubs and pajama pants.

 "The other thing was loaning them cellphones so that they could call their parents. That was an emotional time," Sparkman said.

 LaSalle spokesman Jon Caroulis said the person who was hospitalized Friday was there for observation because of a pre-existing condition. Caroulis declined to elaborate. The group was expected to return to Philadelphia on Saturday.

 Caroulis said the group, including three non-faculty staff members, was on an alternative spring break trip to Eastern Kentucky that the university has offered for several years.

 The students had stayed in Harlan County, where they were volunteering for a non-profit organization, Caroulis said.

 The students had hiked during previous trips, but this time, they took the wrong path down the mountain, he said.

 Blake Enlow, executive director of a Harlan-based group called Christian Outreach with Appalachian People, said the college group was helping to remodel a home and build another.

 "Thankfully, they are all OK, just worn out," Enlow said.

 Valarie Honeycutt Spears: (859) 231-3409. Twitter: @vhspears. |||||
A summary of this is?

– It is not your typical lost-hiker story: For one thing, it was a group of 40 hikers who could not find their way down a remote mountain in Kentucky as night fell and freezing temperatures set in, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader. Luckily, they still had phone reception. The group of 37 students and three staffers from La Salle University in Pennsylvania called for help about 7pm yesterday, and rescuers got them off the trail about 3:45am. All were checked out for hypothermia, and only one was admitted to a local hospital. She is expected to be out tomorrow. "It's pretty rough country back in there," one rescuer tells the AP of the Bad Branch Nature Preserve. The main treatment provided by hospital staffers was, yep, chicken soup. "The other thing was loaning them cellphones so that they could call their parents," says a hospital official. "That was an emotional time." The students are in the area to build houses for Project Appalachia.


Article:

Of all the falsehoods and distortions in the political discourse this year, one stood out from the rest.

 "Death panels."

 The claim set political debate afire when it was made in August, raising issues from the role of government in health care to the bounds of acceptable political discussion. In a nod to the way technology has transformed politics, the statement wasn't made in an interview or a television ad. Sarah Palin posted it on her Facebook page.

 Her assertion — that the government would set up boards to determine whether seniors and the disabled were worthy of care — spread through newscasts, talk shows, blogs and town hall meetings. Opponents of health care legislation said it revealed the real goals of the Democratic proposals. Advocates for health reform said it showed the depths to which their opponents would sink. Still others scratched their heads and said, "Death panels? Really ?"

 The editors of PolitiFact.com, the fact-checking Web site of the St. Petersburg Times , have chosen it as our inaugural "Lie of the Year."

 PolitiFact readers overwhelmingly supported the decision. Nearly 5,000 voted in a national poll to name the biggest lie, and 61 percent chose "death panels" from a field of eight finalists. ( See the complete results .)

 This is the story of how two words generated intense heat in the national debate over health care.

 • • •

 The former governor of Alaska had been out of the headlines since she announced her resignation on July 3; the Facebook message instantly brought her back to the political stage.

 "As more Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we're saying not just no, but hell no!" Palin wrote.

 "The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's ‘death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

 It wasn't the first time opponents of the Democratic plans for health care had raised the specter of euthanasia. In February, the conservative editorial page of the Washington Times compared plans for more funding for health information technology with eugenics programs instituted in Nazi Germany.

 Democrats in the House introduced a bill July 14 that closely mirrored President Barack Obama's campaign promises on health care. The bill increased regulation of insurance companies, proposed a national health insurance exchange where individuals and small business could shop for plans, expanded health programs for the poor, and gave incentives to doctors and hospitals for efficiency and improved care. It did not promote euthanasia.

 On July 16, Betsy McCaughey, the former lieutenant governor of New York and a conservative health care commentator, suggested that the Democratic plan included a measure requiring seniors be told how to end their lives. "Congress would make it mandatory — absolutely require — that every five years people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner," she said on a radio show hosted by conservative Fred Thompson.

 PolitiFact gave McCaughey a Pants on Fire rating for that statement. There were no mandatory sessions proposed. Instead, for the first time, Medicare would pay for doctors' appointments for patients to discuss living wills, health care directives and other end-of-life issues. The appointments were optional, and the AARP supported the measure.

 Nevertheless, Republican officials began amplifying McCaughey's comments.

 House Republican Leader John Boehner issued a statement July 23 that said, "This provision may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia if enacted into law."

 Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said on the House floor July 28 that a Republican alternative for health reform was "pro-life because it will not put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government."

 Palin's statement then launched the health care debate into overdrive. The term was mentioned in news reports approximately 6,000 times in August and September, according to the Nexis database. By October, it was still being mentioned 150 to 300 times a week.

 • • •

 The phrase "death panels" appears to be original to Palin. A search of news databases showed no use prior to her Facebook posting.

 History professor Ian Dowbiggin, who has written several books on medical history, euthanasia and eugenics, said he had never heard the term before Palin used it. He said the phrase invokes images of Nazi Germany, which denied life-saving care to people who were not deemed useful enough to broader society. Adolf Hitler ordered Nazi officials to secretly register, select, and murder handicapped people such as schizophrenics, epileptics, disabled babies and other long-stay hospital patients, according to Dowbiggin.

 "It's not far-fetched to make the historical argument that as you get government more and more involved in health care, you create an environment that is more hospitable to the legalization of forms of euthanasia," Dowbiggin said. "But the Nazi example should be used very advisedly."

 "This is an issue that's being exploited by political figures who are opposed to the health care legislation," he added. "They're trying to sensationalize the issue as much as possible to drum up opposition."

 On Aug. 10, PolitiFact rated Palin's statement Pants on Fire. In the weeks that followed, health care policy experts on both the right and the left said the euthanasia comparisons were inaccurate. Gail Wilensky, a health adviser to President George H.W. Bush, said the charge was untrue and upsetting.

 "I think it is really unfortunate that this has been raised and received so much attention because there are serious issues to debate in health care reform," she said at a forum on Sept. 3.

 But some prominent Republicans didn't reject the death panels claim.

 Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, told people at a town hall meeting on Aug. 12 that people "have every right to fear. You shouldn't have counseling at the end of life; you ought to have counseling 20 years before you're going to die. You ought to plan these things out. And I don't have any problem with things like living wills, but they ought to be done within the family. We should not have a government program that determines you're going to pull the plug on Grandma."

 Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, asked about the issue on This Week with George Stephanopoulos , said, "You are asking us to trust turning power over to the government, when there are clearly people in America who believe in establishing euthanasia, including selective standards."

 • • •

 Democrats responded by saying the accusation wasn't true and highlighting the actual Medicare provision and what it said.

 That wasn't necessarily an effective strategy, said Drew Westen, a psychologist who studies political communication and advises Democrats on messaging. "Instead of stopping and asking themselves, 'What are Republicans trying to appeal to?' the Democrats rolled their eyes and said, 'Isn't this stupid,' " he said. "On one level, it was stupid, but on another level, it was hitting seniors very close to where they live."

 People intuitively understand that health care reform is about lowering costs, and end-of-life care can be quite costly, he said. The "death panels" claim exploited fears that people already had. Rather than just saying the claim wasn't true, Westen said, a better response would be that there already are "death panels" — run by insurance companies.

 "That's the response that should have been there, from the first day the attack was made," Westen said. "You never let an attack like this stand or go unresponded to in any 24-hour cycle."

 The charge was raised repeatedly during August town hall meetings. The claim particularly caught the attention of seniors, said John Rother, a health policy expert with the AARP. "That's who's most sensitive to any suggestion of denial of necessary care or being told you can't get the care you need from your doctor," he said.

 The town hall meetings highlighted the partisan divisions when it came to death panels. The claim, along with the Tea Party movement, excited the Republican base to mobilize a vocal opposition, Rother said. "If your start-out stance is being distrustful of government, then this fit right into your worldview." Though nonpartisan, AARP has generally supported Democratic efforts to pass health care legislation.

 • • •

 Two independent polls showed that about 30 percent of the public believed death panels were part of health care reform, both the week after Palin made the comment and a month later.

 Yet seniors were no more likely to believe it than other age groups. The polls showed a closer correlation by party, with Republicans more likely to say that death panels were part of the plans pending in Congress. It's not clear whether Palin's comments swayed anyone who was undecided or unsure about health care reform.

 "It touched a nerve of anxiety, and then there was a big response from the press and from experts that assured people that euthanasia wasn't anywhere near this debate," said Robert Blendon, a Harvard University researcher who studies public opinion on health care. "Most people, at the end of the day, did not believe it was being proposed."

 As the furor over the phrase settled down, Democrats used it as evidence that Republicans were unreasonably opposing health reform.

 President Obama rebutted the claim in a major health care address on Sept. 9: "Some of people's concerns have grown out of bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost. The best example is the claim, made not just by radio and cable talk show hosts, but prominent politicians, that we plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens. Such a charge would be laughable if it weren't so cynical and irresponsible. It is a lie, plain and simple."

 The phrase has been mentioned in the Congressional Record about 40 times since Palin's Facebook posting, but virtually all were Democrats citing it as an example of Republican intransigence.

 "You know, GOP used to stand for Grand Old Party," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., on Nov. 7. "Now it stands for Grandstand, Oppose, and Pretend. They grandstand with phony claims about nonexistent death panels. They oppose any real reform." The House voted in favor of health care legislation the same day.

 • • •

 Rep. Earl Blumenauer, the Oregon Democrat who promoted the provision that allowed Medicare to pay for doctor appointments about end-of-life counseling, said he sees both positives and negatives from the controversy.

 On the positive side, he said he's optimistic the Medicare provision will make it into the final version of health care reform, which is still pending in the Senate, and people had more conversations about making their wishes known for things like living wills or do-not-resuscitate orders.

 "It really did energize people who deal with palliative care," he said. "Ultimately, it helped advance the cause of giving people more control over end-of-life decisions."

 On the other hand, he said, the episode suggests that political distortions need to be confronted faster and more forcefully.

 "It's a sobering prospect that political discourse is going to resemble hand-to-hand combat for the foreseeable future," he said.

 That doesn't bode well for keeping average citizens involved in the political process, especially those who are independent or not particularly partisan.

 "I think they're losing their appetite to wade through the vitriol, and I'm in the same boat," Blumenauer said. "We are moving to a point where we drive normal people away, and everybody else gets their news and increasingly opinion prescreened, going for days never hearing an opposing viewpoint. That gives me pause."

 • • •

 As for Palin, she told the conservative National Review in an interview on Nov. 17, the same day her bestselling memoir Going Rogu e was released, that she didn't regret her comments. (PolitiFact's calls and e-mail to Palin were not returned.)

 "To me, while reading that section of the bill, it became so evident that there would be a panel of bureaucrats who would decide on levels of health care, decide on those who are worthy or not worthy of receiving some government-controlled coverage," she said. "Since health care would have to be rationed if it were promised to everyone, it would therefore lead to harm for many individuals not able to receive the government care. That leads, of course, to death."

 "The term I used to describe the panel making these decisions should not be taken literally," said Palin. The phrase is "a lot like when President Reagan used to refer to the Soviet Union as the 'evil empire.' He got his point across. He got people thinking and researching what he was talking about. It was quite effective. Same thing with the ‘death panels.' I would characterize them like that again, in a heartbeat." ||||| Sarah Palin is standing by her claim that Democratic-authored health care legislation includes the infamous "death panels" -- even after the assertion was labeled the "lie of the year" by a prize-winning fact checking organization.

 The former Alaska governor told Sean Hannity, in a taping of the conservative firebrand's radio program on Wednesday, that she was "not gonna back off" the criticism that the health care bill would pursue cost saving measures by rationing end of life care.

 "If the health care bill goes the way Obama wants it, we're gonna have something very much like foreign countries' systems of health care like the British, and it's the American people -- if we have our health care paid for by the bureaucracy, by government -- depending on our health condition, depending on our age -- we're gonna be subject to bureaucrats deciding, panels and commissions deciding -- just like they do overseas -- who will be worthy of receiving the health care that government is going to provide."

 "So that is the death panel that I referred to, and I won't back off on criticizing that aspect of the health care bill."

 COMMENTS COME ABOUT SEVEN MINUTES IN:

 The remarks come roughly two weeks after Palin took to her Facebook page to re-assert the validity of the much-criticized (and thoroughly debunked) death panel. That entry from the former vice presidential candidate, in turn, was in response to PolitiFact.com post that dubbed the argument the "lie of the year." |||||
What is a summary?

– Sarah Palin yesterday vehemently reiterated her controversial criticism of "death panels" that she is convinced are part of health reform, reports Huffington Post. "If we have our health care paid for by the bureaucracy, depending on our health condition, depending on our age, we're going to be subject to bureaucrats deciding, in panels and commissions—just like they do overseas—who will be worthy of receiving the health care that government is going to provide," Palin says in the first of a two-part interview with Sean Hannity. "That is the death panel that I've referred to, and I won't back off on criticizing that aspect of the health care bill. It's a scary situation for us to be in. We can't give up. We have to be more vigilant than ever." Palin surmised the existence of "death panels"—a phrase coined by her—from optional end-of-life counseling to be paid for by Medicare mentioned in versions of the health care bill. The creation of death panels was recently named the No. 1 lie of the year by the St. Petersburg Times.


News article:

For nearly seven years, Wati's parents believed their daughter had died when a tsunami hit Indonesia's Aceh in December 2004. Yet on Wednesday, the 15-year-old returned home alive, according to reports by Indonesia's state news agency Antara.

 Wati was 8 when the tsunami hit Aceh and she lost grip of her mother's arm, Antara reports. For years, the family believed the girl had drowned in the water. Yet on Wednesday, Wati's grandfather Ibrahim received a visit from an acquaintance who brought a young girl that was looking for her home. The news service writes that the girl was seen in a coffee shop where she sat in silence, and people had thought she was a beggar. She reportedly did not remember her parents' or relatives' names, except for one -- Ibrahim.

 According to Antara, Wati's parents were reunited with their daughter and reportedly confirmed the teenage girl was their child after recognizing a mole and a scar.

 The tsunami that hit the coast of Aceh on December 26, 2004, was triggered by the world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years. The tsunami hit more than 10 countries. Nearly 170,000 people were killed and almost 130,000 went missing. ||||| A girl who was believed to have been swept away by a massive tsunami that devastated coastlines in Asia has reportedly shown up alive, nearly seven years to the day after she vanished.

 Indonesian state news agency Antara reported the girl, named only as Wati, was aged eight when she was ripped from her mother's arms by the rushing waters near her home in West Aceh, Indonesia, in December 2004. Her mother, Yusniar, was trying to get her and two other children to safety at the time.

 Antara reported Wednesday that the girl's grandfather, Ibrahim, met a teenager who had traveled from another region, Banda Aceh, saying she was trying to find her way home.

 The girl said she could not remember any of her relatives' names apart from one -- Ibrahim, Antara said.

 He became convinced the girl was Wati, and her parents also later identified the girl as their daughter by a small mole and a scar over her eyebrow, Antara said.

 It added that reporters were not immediately told what had happened to the girl during the time she was away. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Seven years ago, an 8-year-old girl was pulled from her mother's arms by the tsunami in Indonesia; now, word is she's been discovered alive. An acquaintance brought a 15-year-old girl to her grandfather's home this week; his name—Ibrahim—was the only one she could remember, state news reported. The acquaintance had found the girl in a nearby coffee shop, where she'd been taken for a beggar. Ibrahim was sure the girl, who was reportedly seeking her old home, was his missing granddaughter Wati, the Huffington Post reports. Her parents later recognized a mole and scar on her face. The rest of her story remains a mystery so far, MSNBC notes. It's a storybook tale—let's hope it isn't too good to be true.