Image caption Farmers used a platform to hose the European Parliament with milk

 Angry farmers protesting at falling dairy prices in the EU have sprayed fresh milk at the European Parliament and riot police in Brussels.

 Thousands of dairy farmers, accompanied by hundreds of tractors, descended on the Belgian capital on Monday for two days of demonstrations.

 Disruption has continued, with EU officials hindered from reaching their offices by tractors blocking roads.

 Farmers want an increase of up to 25% in their prices to cover costs.

 EU milk is often sold at below production costs due to a drop in international demand and increased competition.

 It's very simple: you can't live off milk any more Leopold Gruget , French farmer In pictures: Dairy farmers' protest

 The European Milk Board (EMB), which is co-ordinating the protest, says small farmers are being forced out of business.

 In Belgium, for example, the wholesale price for a litre of milk is 0.26 euros (£0.21; $0.34) but the cost of producing it is 0.40 euros, the board said.

 Dairy farmers in Shropshire, England, recently won a price increase to £0.29 (0.36 euros) per litre from a leading processor but reported that the cost of production was still £0.31 (0.38 euros).

 The EU is the world's largest milk producer and in 2010 nearly 47% of its 123bn euro budget went on subsidies and other forms of financial aid for farmers, including dairy producers.

 'Killing us'

 Police guarding the European Parliament found themselves being squirted with jets of milk on Monday as protesters directed hoses at the building.

 Image caption The burning trailer sent a plume of smoke into the air

 A trailer of hay was set alight on the nearby Place du Luxembourg, where a mock gallows was erected with what appeared to be a hanging dummy of a farmer.

 "Politics are really killing us," Belgian farmer Julien Husquet was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

 "It has to change very quickly at the European level. The way it is going, we are in big trouble."

 "It's very simple: you can't live off milk anymore," French farmer Leopold Gruget told AFP news agency.

 "If I go on, it's thanks to European aid... If they do it [phase out subsidies] there will be no more small and medium producers here in five years."

 Some of the largest farmers' contingents have come from Denmark, France, Germany, the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain, the EU Observer reports.

 Erwin Schopges, head of the EMB in Belgium, said Tuesday's protests would be "symbolic" and calmer. ||||| BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Dairy farmers sprayed thousands of litres of fresh milk at the European Parliament in Brussels on Monday in protest at what they say are excessive milk quotas and prices below the cost of production.

 Hundreds of farmers and tractors from across Europe took up position in a park near the European Commission and a square in front of the parliament in the early afternoon, after blocking traffic along several of Brussels' busiest streets.

 They then turned their hoses on parliament, a collection of vast marble, glass and steel buildings on a Brussels square, and unleashed torrents of milk, some of it raining down on police and passers-by.

 Afterwards they set alight barrels of hay and a pile of tyres, sending plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky. They plan to stay put outside parliament until Tuesday afternoon.

 The European Milk Board, which coordinated the two-day protest, said prices with current quotas were putting small farmers out of business.

 In Belgium, for example, the board said the wholesale price for a litre of milk was 0.26 euros, but the cost of producing it is 0.40 euros.

 The EU is the world's largest milk producer and spends more than 40 percent of its annual 130 billion euro budget paying subsidies and other forms of financial support to farmers, including those in the diary industry.

 It sets an annual milk quota - which sits at around 130 million tonnes, too much for EU-consumption - but has agreed to phase that out by 2015.

 Farmers have held similar protests in the past, including one in 2009 which led to a small increase in wholesale prices.

 On Monday, tractors came from across Belgium as well as neighboring France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Among a total of nearly 2,500 farmers, around 100 came from Poland, with many other nationalities also present.

 ($1 = 0.7713 euros)

 (Reporting By Philip Blenkinsop and Madeline O'Leary; Editing by Luke Baker and Alison Williams) |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Thousands of enraged dairy farmers converged on the European Parliament in Brussels yesterday, and sprayed the building, and the cops who showed up to contain them, with their stock in trade: milk. The protesters arrived on tractors, blocked traffic along many of the city's main streets, then pulled out hoses and let thousands of liters of the white stuff fly, Reuters reports. They also set fire to a trailer full of hay, and hung a nondescript body in effigy. The farmers are demanding a 25% bump in milk prices, which they say have become untenably low, the BBC reports; In Belgium, for instance, a liter sells for about $0.34 wholesale, but costs about $0.52 to produce. Part of the problem: the EU sets an annual quota of about 143 tons of milk, more than Europe can consume. "It's very simple: you can't live off milk anymore," one French farmer said. "If I go on, it's thanks to European aid."


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Ryan Seacrest is joining "Live" as Kelly Ripa's new co-host, jump-starting a new era in the morning television ratings race.

 Two sources with knowledge of the deal confirmed the news to CNN prior to Monday's broadcast, on which Ripa and Seacrest broke the news to viewers.

 "Today, the next chapter of the 'Live' story is about to be written," Ripa said.

 Ripa thanked all of the temporary co-hosts who had filled in during the search, saying, "They are a part of the 'Live' family forever."

 She then increased the anticipation by going to commercial break before bringing Seacrest on stage.

 "So happy," Seacrest said as he embraced Ripa before the audience. "So exciting."

 Seacrest, one of the world's best-known broadcasters, has co-hosted "Live" five times as a guest since ABC began the search for Michael Strahan's replacement one year ago.

 "Live" gives Seacrest, the former host of Fox's "American Idol," a new daily platform on network television. He will also be an executive producer on the show, according to The Hollywood Reporter, giving him at least nominally the same level of power over it that Ripa herself has.

 The beloved talk show airs in many markets at 9 a.m., directly against the third hour of NBC's "Today." In the fall NBC is introducing a new 9 a.m. show led by Megyn Kelly, who recently jumped from Fox News to NBC.

 Five years ago Seacrest was seen as a contender for a "Today" show co-host job. Instead, Ripa and Seacrest will be competing with Kelly.

 "Live" is based in New York. Seacrest lives in Los Angeles, but he has a home in Manhattan, and he's moving to New York to start the new job.

 Seacrest is already one of the busiest people in the media business. The new hosting gig will not affect other on-air and off-air roles. He recently renewed his contract to host red carpet specials for NBCUniversal's E! network, for example.

 Seacrest will continue to lead his nationally syndicated radio shows for iHeartMedia. According to a source, the ABC building that houses "Live" will also have a new radio studio for Seacrest.

 Seacrest is already in business with ABC as the host of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" on New Year's Eve.

 The hosting deal may open the door for further business deals with ABC's parent company, Disney.

 The seat next to Ripa was coveted by dozens of entertainment and news industry A-listers.

 The search began when Strahan abruptly left the show for "Good Morning America" after co-hosting alongside Ripa for four years. Ripa was reportedly blindsided by the news. Strahan told her about it barely half an hour before the news leaked in the press.

 Since then, Ripa's guest co-hosts have included Andy Cohen, Anderson Cooper, Jerry O'Connell, and Fred Savage.

 Ripa took to Twitter on Sunday to tell her followers that she would reveal her new co-host during Monday's show.

 Representatives for Ripa, Seacrest and ABC either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment ahead of the official announcement on Monday. ||||| Subscribe

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– ABC is apparently going big with Kelly Ripa's new morning co-host: CNN reports that Live With Kelly is about to become Live With Kelly and Ryan—yes, Ryan Seacrest. Ripa will announce the replacement for her most recent co-host, Michael Strahan, during Monday's show. The former American Idol host lives in Los Angeles, but he also has a home in New York and is expected to move there for the show. Live airs at 9am in many markets, which means it will go head to head with former Fox host Megyn Kelly's NBC show when that launches in the fall. Seacrest, 42, is expected to keep his national radio show for iHeartMedia. (Here are 5 facts you may not know about Seacrest.)


News article:

Image copyright AFP Image caption Schoolgirls staged a protest rally on 8 May after the first two rape and burning attacks

 A teenage girl in India has been raped and burned alive by her attacker - the third instance of such an attack in the same week.

 The 16-year-old girl died after being soaked in fuel and set on fire at her home in the Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh.

 Police said she was killed after telling her attacker she would inform her family about the rape.

 Two other similar attacks, one fatal, took place in Jharkhand this week.

 A 17-year-old girl remains in critical condition after being set on fire by a suspect who allegedly said he wanted to marry the victim, but had been rejected.

 The earlier case involved a 16-year-old who was burned alive after her parents complained to village elders about her rape. The accused had been ordered to do sit-ups and pay a fine as punishment, prompting them to beat the girl's parents and kill her.

 In the most recent attack, the victim was at home alone in Jujharpur village when she was attacked. Police said they had arrested a suspect, named as 28-year-old Ravi Chadhar.

 Widespread outrage

 India is facing renewed public outrage over the number of violent sexual assaults in the country.

 BBC India correspondent Soutik Biswas recently wrote that "rape is increasingly used as an instrument to assert power and intimidate the powerless in India".

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption The rape of an eight-year-old girl prompted a number of protest rallies in April

 Recent public anger over sexual assaults was sparked by the rape and murder of an eight-year old girl in January.

 The girl, a member of a Muslim nomadic tribe, was found dead in Indian-administered Kashmir.

 Eight Hindu men were arrested, and there was an outcry when two ministers from the Hindu BJP party attended a rally in support of the accused. In April, Hindu right-wing groups staged protests over the arrests.

 Another BJP politician has also been accused of raping a 16-year-old girl - a charge he denies.

 Public outrage over sexual violence in India rose dramatically after the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus.

 Four of the accused were given a death sentence, recently upheld on appeal, and the case led to new anti-rape laws. ||||| New Delhi (CNN) Police in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh are investigating the death of 16-year-old-girl who was allegedly raped and set on fire, in the third such case reported in India this month.

 The attack is alleged to have been carried out by a 28-year-old man, Sagar district Superintendent of Police Satyendra Kumar Shukla said.

 The girl's family alleges that she was raped and set on fire at her home in Jhujharpura village on Thursday after her cousin told the man accused of the crime that the victim was home alone, police said.

 The girl's cousin and the 28-year-old have been arrested.

 Following a post-mortem report, local police confirmed the girl died from burns sustained in the fire, Shukla told CNN. Police have not yet been able to confirm the rape but are preserving all evidence in the case for final confirmation, Shukla said. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A horrifying incident is becoming somewhat of a trend in India, where a third teenager has reportedly been raped and then burned alive, with all the incidents happening in the span of one week. The BBC reports the 16-year-old was allegedly killed after informing her attacker, a man police have named as 28-year-old Ravi Chadhar, she wouldn't stay mum about the rape. She was reportedly doused with fuel and set on fire in her Madhya Pradesh home. CNN reports that the girl's cousin allegedly told her attacker she was home alone; both the cousin and Chadhar have been arrested. The other attacks occurred in Jharkhand, with one of the girls, 17, surviving in critical condition with burns to 70% of her body. Her attacker allegedly had wanted to marry her but had been denied. The first case involved a 16-year-old who was killed after her parents reported her rape to village leaders. Enraged by the punishment the elders imposed—100 sit-ups and a fine of roughly $750—police say Dhanu Singh Bhuiyan stormed into the girl's house in the village of Chatra, attacked her parents, and fatally set the girl on fire.


HAWTHORNE, Calif./TOKYO (Reuters) - SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space transportation company, on Monday named its first private passenger on a voyage around the moon as Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, the founder and chief executive of online fashion retailer Zozo.

 A former drummer in a punk band, Maezawa is tentatively planning to make his moon flight in 2023 aboard SpaceX’s forthcoming Big Falcon Rocket spaceship, taking the race to commercialize space travel to new heights.

 Only 24 astronauts have flown beyond Earth’s protective magnetic shield, in missions spanning a four-year period from December 1968 to December 1972. Maezawa’s identity was revealed at an event on Monday evening at the company’s headquarters and rocket factory in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne.

 “He’s a very brave person to do this,” Musk said of the Japanese entrepreneur.

 Most famous outside Japan for his record-breaking $110 million purchase of an untitled 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat painting, Maezawa said he would invite six to eight artists to join him on the lunar flyby.

 The billionaire chief executive of electric car maker Tesla Inc, Musk said the Big Falcon Rocket, or BFR, the super heavy-lift launch vehicle that he promises will shuttle passengers to the moon and eventually fly humans and cargo to Mars, could be conducting its first orbital flights in two to three years.

 Musk has previously said he wants the rocket to be ready for an unpiloted trip to Mars in 2022, with a crewed flight in 2024, though his ambitious production targets have been known to slip.

 “It’s not 100 percent certain we can bring this to flight,” Musk said of the lunar mission.

 The amount Maezawa is paying for the trip was not disclosed, but he told Reuters the total sum was “much higher” than the cost of a Basquiat painting.

 Musk said Maezawa had outlaid a significant deposit and would have a material impact on the cost of developing the BFR, which he estimated at about $5 billion.

 RESTLESS BILLIONAIRE

 The 42-year-old Maezawa is one of Japan’s most colorful executives and is a regular fixture in the country’s gossipy weeklies with his collection of foreign and Japanese art, fast cars and celebrity girlfriend.

 Maezawa made his fortune by founding the wildly popular shopping site Zozotown. His company, Zozo, officially called Start Today Co Ltd, also offers a made-to-measure service using a polka dot bodysuit, the Zozosuit..

 FILE PHOTO: Yusaku Maezawa, the chief executive of Zozo, which operates Japan's popular fashion shopping site Zozotown and is officially called Start Today Co, speaks at an event launching the debut of its formal apparel items, in Tokyo, Japan, July 3, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

 In a country known for its staid corporate culture, the businessman is one of a small group of mould-breaking billionaires widely recognized by the general public.

 With SpaceX, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and entrepreneur Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic battling it out to launch private-sector spacecraft, Maezawa will join a growing list of celebrities and the ultra-rich who have secured seats on flights offered on the under-development vessels.

 Those who have signed up to fly on Virgin Galactic sub-orbital missions include actor Leonardo DiCaprio and pop star Justin Bieber. A 90-minute flight costs $250,000.

 Short sightseeing trips to space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket are likely to cost around $200,000 to $300,000, at least to start, Reuters reported in July.

 These trips were not attractive given the limited amount of time spent in zero-gravity, Maezawa told Reuters.

 “If I’m going to go to space, I’d rather go as far as I can,” he said.

 FLY ME TO THE MOON

 Maezawa has already shown his penchant for fast machines, splashing out on vehicles including the Bugatti Chiron sports car and the Mercedes-Maybach G650 Landaulet SUV. And last month he tweeted that his new jet’s interior is being fashioned by luxury label Hermes.

 He is also looking to acquire his own baseball team, telling Reuters an announcement could come this year - a move that would mark Zozo’s place in the corporate big leagues along with team-owning tech giants such as SoftBank and Rakuten.

 While space flight is a more risky proposition - with Maezawa in his late 40s by 2023 - he said there are no training plans yet in place.

 “SpaceX is going to be doing many, many test flights to ensure safety and we will wait for that to happen before we go,” Maezawa told Reuters.

 Zozo shares fell as much as 4.7 percent and closed down 2.4 percent. Still, a jaunt around the moon would provide publicity for Zozo, which has ambitious overseas sales targets to be driven by its custom-made private clothing line.

 The diminutive Maezawa, who as a young man struggled to find clothes that fit, hopes to revolutionize the fashion industry through his Zozosuit, which, once donned, allows users to upload their body measurements and order a growing number of made-to-measure items.

 Slideshow (7 Images)

 SpaceX has already upended the space industry with its relatively low-cost reusable Falcon 9 rockets. The company has completed more than 50 successful Falcon launches and snagged billions of dollars’ worth of contracts, including deals with NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense.

 When asked about Boeing Co CEO Dennis Muilenburg’s prediction that the first humans will be carried to Mars on a Boeing rocket, Musk responded, “Game on,” to the sound of cheers from employees assembled at the event. ||||| Image copyright SpaceX Image caption Artwork: The BFR spaceship will be able to carry humans on a trip around the Moon

 Elon Musk's company SpaceX has unveiled the first private passenger it plans to fly around the Moon.

 Japanese billionaire and online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, 42, announced: "I choose to go to the Moon."

 The mission is planned for 2023, and would be the first lunar journey by humans since 1972.

 But it is reliant on a rocket that has not been built yet, and Mr Musk cautioned: "It's not 100% certain we can bring this to flight."

 The announcement was made at SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California, on Tuesday.

 The company said the flight on board the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) - a launch system that was unveiled by Mr Musk in 2016 - represented "an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of travelling to space".

 Earlier on Twitter, Mr Musk had already hinted that the passenger would be from Japan.

 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mr Maezawa said he would invite up to eight artists to join him in space

 Mr Maezawa made headlines last year after paying $110.5m (£85.4m) for a painting by the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat at an auction in New York.

 The art enthusiast said on Monday he would invite six to eight artists from around the world to join him on the trip.

 "They will be asked to create something after they return to Earth. These masterpieces will inspire the dreamer within all of us," he told reporters.

 New rocket for a new mission

 Only 24 humans have visited the Moon - all of them Americans; 12 of them landed on the moon. Nasa's Apollo 17 in December 1972 marked the last time humans landed on the moon, or went beyond low Earth orbit.

 Mr Maezawa will not land on the moon. He will travel on what is called a "free return trajectory", which will bring his BFR ship back to Earth after it has gone around the far side of the satellite.

 In 2017, Mr Musk announced that he would be sending two paying passengers on a loop around the Moon - which was to have launched as early as this year.

 At the time, SpaceX was to have used its heavy-lift Falcon Heavy rocket and the crewed version of the existing Dragon capsule.

 But in February this year, Mr Musk said SpaceX would concentrate on the BFR for future crewed missions.

 The BFR has never flown, but Mr Musk has released some technical details about it. The rocket is expected to stand 118m high and have a diameter of 9m.

 By comparison, the Falcon Heavy is 70m tall and consists of a central rocket core surrounded by two boosters, each with a diameter of 3.66m.

 On Monday, Mr Musk unveiled new artist impressions of the BFR and the spaceship which will carry passengers around the Moon.

 It appeared to confirm some design changes to the spaceship, including three large fins near the back and a black heat-shield on the craft's underside.

 Eventually, the BFR should be able to lift a whopping 150 tonnes into low-Earth orbit - that is more than the US Saturn V rockets that lofted the Apollo spacecraft.

 The SpaceX founder has attracted some uncomfortable headlines of late - he recently smoked marijuana during a webcast with a US comedian.

 Shares in Tesla have had a turbulent time after the entrepreneur said in a tweet last month that he wanted to take the carmaker private. He abandoned the idea about two weeks later.

 Earlier on Monday it emerged Mr Musk was being sued for defamation over his repeated claims that a British cave diver was a child abuser.

 The lawsuit brought by Vernon Unsworth, who helped with the rescue of 12 Thai teenagers from a flooded cave in July, seeks $75,000 (£57,000) in compensation and an injunction against Mr Musk to stop further allegations. |||||

Write a summary.

– "I choose to go to the moon," Japanese fashion tycoon Yusaka Maezawa declared at an event at SpaceX's California headquarters Monday night. SpaceX founder Elon Musk revealed Maezawa as the company's first paying passenger on a voyage around the moon scheduled for 2023, reports Reuters. Maezawa, who will become the first person to travel that far into space since the Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972, has signed up for the voyage in SpaceX's still unbuilt Big Falcon Rocket spaceship. Musk, who described the 42-year-old Mawzawa as "very brave," admitted it is not "100% certain we can bring this to flight." Musk said the BFR launch vehicle, which he envisions carrying passengers and cargo to the moon and Mars, will be ready for orbital flights in two or three years. SpaceX did not disclose how much Maezawa is paying for the out-of-this-world trip, but he tells Reuters it's more than the $110 million he famously paid for a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting. The tycoon said he would invite six to eight artists to travel with him on the spacecraft, which will loop around the moon without stopping, the BBC reports. "They will be asked to create something after they return to Earth," he said. "These masterpieces will inspire the dreamer within all of us." (SpaceX's earlier plan to fly two people to the moon this year has been shelved.)


There are estimated to be about four to 12 million crown of thorns starfish on the Great Barrier Reef. Photo: ARC Centre of Excellence Coral Reef Studies

 An outbreak of coral-eating starfish on the Great Barrier Reef could become the worst on record, conservationists fear.

 A report commissioned by WWF-Australia says the number of crown of thorns starfish could soar from between four and 12 million to 60 million by 2020.

 "It would be like a locust plague devastating vegetation," Glen Holmes, co-author of The Starfish That Eat The Reef, said.

 The devastating starfish are already believed to be responsible for the loss of around 60,000 hectares of live coral over the past 30 years.

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 While there is nothing that can be done to halt the current outbreak, experts are appealing for tougher measures to prevent future plagues.

 Harmful chemical fertilisers flowing off agricultural farming land and into the reef waters are fuelling the outbreaks by triggering algal blooms which feed the starfish.

 "If we cut catchment pollution we can starve the baby crown of thorns starfish and prevent the next outbreak before it happens," Dr Holmes said.

 "This will give the reef a chance to rebuild its coral cover and grow again."

 Current state and national government investment has failed to achieve even modest targets and more money is needed to reduce pollution, he added.

 If the outbreak follows the patterns of previous plagues then coral cover could be reduced to below 10 per cent, the report said.

 AAP

 Stay informed. Like the Brisbane Times Facebook page ||||| The Great Barrier Reef collection was part of the first group of underwater panoramic images added to Google Maps, the next step in our quest to provide people with the most comprehensive, accurate and usable map of the world. With these vibrant and stunning photos you don't have to be a scuba diver—or even know how to swim—to explore and experience six of the ocean's most incredible living coral reefs. Now, anyone can become the next virtual Jacques Cousteau and dive with sea turtles, fish and manta rays.

 Starting today, you can use Google Maps to find a sea turtle swimming among a school of fish, follow a manta ray, and experience the reef at sunset. You can also find out much more about this reef via the World Wonders Project, a website that brings modern and ancient world heritage sites online.

 We partnered with The Catlin Seaview Survey, a major scientific study of the world's reefs, to make these amazing images available to millions of people through the Street View feature of Google Maps. The Catlin Seaview Survey used a specially designed underwater camera, the SVII, to capture these photos. Whether you're a marine biologist, an avid scuba diver or a landlocked landlubber, we encourage you to dive in and explore the ocean with Google Maps. |||||

Write a summary.

– The number of coral-plundering crown of thorns starfish could boom from some 12 million to 60 million over the next four years, the Brisbane Times reports, and for Australia's Great Barrier Reef that would be akin to "a locust plague devastating vegetation," says Glen Holmes, co-author of The Starfish That Eat The Reef. This winter, though, an aquatic robot will be deployed to help slow the invasion of the invertebrates … by killing them, Scientific American reports. The COTSbot, developed at the Queensland University of Technology, is a small submarine outfitted with cameras, sonar, GPS, and a syringe-tipped arm. Following a pre-programmed path along the reef, the robot scans for crown of thorns starfish. Once it identifies its target, the COTSbot pumps it full of bile salts that, as Scientific American puts it, "digest the animal from the inside" before it can separate and regenerate (one starfish can produce millions of young). The COTSbot, which can kill more than 200 starfish in eight hours, will augment the efforts of human divers. “It's now so good it even ignores our 3D-printed decoys and targets only live starfish,” one researcher says. It is believed the starfish has destroyed some 230 square miles of live coral in the past three decades, per the Times, which says the outbreak may be linked to starfish-nourishing algal blooms resulting from fertilizer runoff. Overfishing of the starfish's predators may also be to blame, per Scientific American. Check out the COTSbot in action in this video.


News article:

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish police said on Saturday divers had found the head and the legs of Swedish journalist Kim Wall, who died in mysterious circumstances on an inventor’s homemade submarine.

 Peter Madsen has been charged with killing the Swedish journalist who disappeared after she went on a trip with him in his submarine on August 10. He denies the charges.

 Madsen, a Dane, was arrested after his submarine sank and he was rescued. His lawyer Betina Hald Engmark told Reuters that she had been informed of the development, but had not received any material or documentation and decline further comment.

 Police identified a headless female torso that washed ashore in Copenhagen later in August as Wall‘s, but a cause of death has not been determined.

 Madsen has said Wall died in an accident when she was hit by a heavy hatch cover on board his submarine.

 Copenhagen Police Chief Investigator Jens Moeller gives a news conference in Copenhagen, Denmark October 7, 2017. Scanpix Denmark/Jens Noergaard Larsen/via REUTERS

 On Saturday a police spokesman told reporters in Copenhagen that there were no fractures to Wall’s skull.

 The body parts, a knife and some of Wall’s clothes in bags weighted down by bits of metal were found in Koge Bay on Friday by Danish navy divers who are assisting the police.

 Slideshow (2 Images)

 Police spokesman Jens Moller Jensen told reporters on Saturday that the body parts will be investigated further to try and determine a cause of death.

 He said that the Madsen and his lawyers had not had time yet to react to the new evidence.

 A police prosecutor said earlier this week that officers had found images “which we presume to be real” of women being strangled and decapitated on Peter Madsen’s computer in a laboratory he ran.

 Madsen said the computer searched by police was not his but was used by everyone in the laboratory. ||||| Copenhagen, Denmark (CNN) Divers have found the head and legs of Swedish journalist Kim Wall, Danish police said Saturday at a news conference.

 The freelance journalist went missing after boarding a privately built submarine with its Danish inventor, Peter Madsen, on August 10. She was working on a story.

 Madsen is accused of killing Wall. He denies the allegation and has called her death an accident.

 The police conducted an autopsy on Wall's head and found no sign of cranium fracture or violence, said Jens Moeller Jensen, who is leading the murder investigation for Copenhagen police. Identification was based on dental records from Sweden, he said.

 "We found a bag with Kim Wall's clothing; shirt, skirt, socks and shoes, and also a knife and lead pieces weighing them down," Moeller Jensen said. "Around noon we found a leg, then another leg, and shortly thereafter we found a head, also in a bag weighted down by several metal pieces."

 The submarine dove for several hours overnight from August 10 to 11, during which time police believe Wall's body was cut to pieces, Moeller Jensen said.

 Officers search for missing body parts of Swedish journalist Kim Wall on August 23, close to the site where her torso was found two days earlier.

 Divers continued to search Koege Bay on Saturday for the journalist's arms.

 Police were still working to determine Wall's cause of death, Moeller Jensen said, adding that investigators were focusing on her neck and throat area.

 Wall's headless torso washed up on August 21 on an island near Copenhagen, and investigators were able to match blood in the submarine and torso. The charge sheet alleges Madsen cut Wall's body into pieces, punctured her torso and tied pipes to it to make it sink to the bottom of the sea.

 Madsen: Wall was hit by metal hatch

 According to Madsen, Wall was climbing to the top of a platform where he was holding the hatch. He slipped and lost his grip on the hatch, which then hit her on the head, he said. He told the Copenhagen City Court that Wall was badly injured and probably dead.

 The inventor said he panicked and thought about suicide before deciding instead to dump her body at sea and sink the submarine.

 He denied having a saw on his vessel when Wall accompanied him, DR reported.

 Madsen remains in custody while the investigation continues. He has denied accusations that he was responsible for her death.

 Peter Madsen, pictured on August 11, claims Kim Wall died in an accident aboard his submarine.

 Talented writer goes missing

 The submarine was found on August 11, about 15 hours after it had departed Copenhagen. Madsen was rescued from the sinking vessel and brought ashore, where he was picked up by police, but there was no trace of the missing journalist.

 Madsen was later arrested and held in custody on suspicion of killing Wall. The inventor originally claimed he had dropped Wall off on land on the night of August 10, according to a police statement.

 If Madsen is charged with murder and convicted, he faces a sentence of five years to life. The next pre-trial hearing is scheduled for October 31.

 Wall, a graduate of Columbia University and London School of Economics, was based between Beijing and New York. A talented writer, her work appeared in The New York Times, the Guardian and TIME, among publications.

 Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that some of Wall's remains were found in a separate bag from her clothing. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Danish divers made a grisly discovery Friday: They found the head and legs of journalist Kim Wall in a bay near Copenhagen, reports Reuters. What's more, the discovery appears to further undermine the unraveling story of inventor Peter Madsen, who has been accused of killing her. Divers in Koge Bay found two bags, one with Wall's remaining body parts—her torso had previously washed up—and another containing her clothes and a knife, per CNN. The bags had been weighted down with pieces of metal. The 30-year-old was last seen alive on Aug. 10 when she boarded Madsen's submarine. Madsen, whose story has changed, maintains that Wall died accidentally when the sub's heavy metal hatch struck her in the head. However, authorities say an autopsy shows no such damage to Wall's head, reports the BBC. Madsen, 46, remains imprisoned as the investigation continues. He has admitted to disposing of Wall's body at sea, but says he did so in a panic because he blamed himself for losing his grip on the hatch. Prosecutors, however, paint a much darker picture. They point to disturbing videos found on Madsen's computer showing the torture and decapitation of women and to a post-mortem examination that revealed knife wounds to Wall's genitals and rib cage "around or shortly after her death." Authorities say they hope the new evidence will help them determine a cause of death.


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– Scientists hoped they'd find some exotic creatures burrowing through some of the deepest caves in Croatia, and they did not come up short. Meet Geophilus hadesi—or "Hades," named for the Greek god of the underworld—a subterranean centipede discovered in the Velebit mountain range by the Croatian Biospeleological Society, per a press release. The carnivore eats other invertebrates and also shows some longer-than-average legs and antennae (which help it find prey in total darkness, LiveScience notes), as well as jaws filled with poison. But what really makes this "centipede from hell" unique is that it's one of "only two remarkably troglomorphic geophilomorphs hitherto known," per the study in ZooKeys. Translation: It's one of only two centipede species that never leaves its cave dwellings, earning it its alternate title of "king of the underworld." And Hades has a queen, too, who never leaves her own underground domicile: Geophilus persephones, or "Persephone," named for the Greek goddess of the underworld, per LiveScience. That species was discovered in southern France in 1999, the study notes. Hades has a couple of features that scientists believe emerged as evolutionary adaptation traits, including long claws at the end of its 33 pairs of legs (perhaps so it can cling to rocks) and the ability to withstand the caves' chilly temps, which can hover in the 30s. How they migrated to these underground dwellings in the first place isn't certain, but the lead author of the study tells LiveScience that it could have been "a dramatic change in the outside temperatures and overall conditions that forced less-adaptive organisms to seek shelter underground where the conditions are more stable and less dependent on the outside fluctuations." (A centipede bite could provide more pain relief than morphine.)

Deep beneath the surface of the Earth, in a dank and dismal cave, lives Hades, the invertebrate king of hell.

 Named for the mythological god of the underworld, Geophilus hadesi is a newly discovered species of centipede that inhabits the deep caves of the Velebit Mountains in Croatia. Unlike most centipedes of the order Geophilomorpha, which only occasionally seek shelter in caves, G. hadesi spends all its life in this dark, underground environment. Today (June 30), the team of scientists who discovered the remarkable critter published the first-ever description of the animal in the journal ZooKeys.

 G. hadesi is one of only two known species of centipedes that never leave their cavernous homes. The other underground dweller, Geophilus persephones (named for the queen of the underworld, Persephone), was first discovered in a cave in France in the 1990s. G. hadesi was named with this mythical queen in mind, according to Pavel Stoev, an associate professor of zoology at the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia, Bulgaria, and lead author of the paper detailing the new centipede species. [Creepy Crawlies & Flying Wonders: Incredible Cave Creatures]

 Though its home, located nearly two-thirds of a mile (1 kilometer) below the Earth's surface, is a bit dark and gloomy, G. hadesi survives just fine, Stoev told Live Science. It has "exceptionally elongated" antennae and furlike body hair, or setae, covering its appendages, and these two features let the animal detect prey in total darkness, Stoev told Live Science.

 Like most centipedes, G. hadesi feeds on living animals — most likely larvae, springtails (tiny, insectlike hexapods), worms, woodlice, spiders and other small prey. Though the centipede's bite is venomous, this "hellish" creature is likely completely harmless to humans, Stoev said. Not that G. hadesi spends much time with people. While scientists from the Croatian Biospeleogical Society have explored the Velebit Mountains where the Hades centipede lives, some of the crevices it inhabits are unreachable. One specimen was collected from a depth of 3,609 feet (1,100 meters), the deepest known habitat for any centipede.

 G. hadesi has a long, flattened body that makes crawling around such rocky crevices easy. And its 33 pairs of legs end in thin claws that are "unusually long," according to the researchers. Like other creatures with pointy claws, such as the yeti crabs that inhabit the waters off Antarctica, the Hades centipede may have developed this feature in order to cling more securely to rocks.

 "The change of a species' appearance is usually a result of a long evolution that is likely to have happened [over] the course of millions of years," said Stoev, who noted that the Hades centipede has also adapted to the deep caves' cold temperatures, which can drop as low as 37 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius).

 Scientists aren't exactly sure why the Hades centipede started living underground in the first place (though it likely had nothing to do with losing a bet to Zeus and Poseidon).

 "It could be a dramatic change in the outside temperatures and overall conditions that forced less-adaptive organisms to seek shelter underground where the conditions are more stable and less dependent on the outside fluctuations," Stoev said.

 The Hades centipede isn't the only critter that inhabits the caves of Velebit mountain range, which spans 90 miles (145 km) of northwest Croatia. Scientists have already discovered a whole host of pale, cave-dwelling creatures there. And many more creatures likely remain to be discovered, Poev said.

 Follow Elizabeth Palermo @techEpalermo. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. ||||| An international team of scientists has discovered the deepest underground dwelling centipede. The animal was found by members of the Croatian Biospeleological Society in three caves in Velebit Mts, Croatia. Recorded as deep as -1100 m the new species was named Geophilus hadesi, after Hades, the God of the Underworld in the Greek Mythology. The research was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

 Lurking in the dark vaults of some of the world's deepest caves, the Hades centipede has also had its name picked to pair another underground-dwelling relative named after Persephone, the queen of the underworld.

 Centipedes are carnivores that feed on other invertebrate animals. They are common cave inhabitants but members of this particular order, called geophilomorphs, usually find shelter there only occasionally. Species with an entire life cycle confined to cave environments are exceptionally rare in the group.

 In fact, so far the Hades and Persephone centipedes are the only two geophilomorphs that have adapted to live exclusively in caves, thus rightfully bearing the titles of a queen and king of the underworld.

 Like most cave-dwellers, the newly discovered centipede shows unusual traits, some of which commonly found in cave-dwelling arthropods, including much elongated antennae, trunk segments and leg claws. Equipped with powerful jaws bearing poison glands and long curved claws allowing to grasp and tightly hold its prey, the Hades centipede is among the top predators crawling in the darkness of the cave.

 The new species is yet another addition to the astonishing cave critters that live in the Velebit, a mountain that stretches over 145 km in the Croatian Dinaric Karst, which is as a whole considered a hot spot of subterranean diversity. The deepest record comes from the Lukina jama - Trojama cave system, which is 1431 meters deep and is currently ranked the 15th deepest cave in the world.

 Just like Hades who ruled over the kingdom of shadows, the new centipede dwells among an extraordinary number of pallid cavernicolous animals, some known to science and many yet to be discovered.

 "When I first saw the animal and its striking appearance, I immediately realized that this is a new, hitherto unnamed and highly adapted to cave environment species. This finding comes to prove once again how little we know about the life in caves, where even in the best prospected areas, one can still find incredible animals" says the lead author Pavel Stoev, Pensoft Publishers and National Museum of Natural History, Sofia.

 ###

 Original Source:

 Stoev P, Akkari N, Komerički A, Edgecombe GD, Bonato L (2015) At the end of the rope: Geophilus hadesi sp. n. - the world's deepest cave-dwelling centipede (Chilopoda, Geophilomorpha, Geophilidae). In: Tuf IH, Tajovský K (Eds) Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Myriapodology, Olomouc, Czech Republic. ZooKeys 510: 95-114. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.510.9614 ||||| Discussion

 On the taxonomic position of G. hadesi sp. n

 On the habitat of G. hadesi sp. n |||||


– One of the world's weirdest bromances appears to be alive and well: Dennis Rodman has returned to Pyongyang for his first visit to North Korea since his former Celebrity Apprentice boss became president, the BBC reports. Rodman, who has described dictator Kim Jong Un as a "friend for life," told reporters he was "just trying to open a door" and he is sure President Trump will be "happy with the fact that I'm over here trying to accomplish something that we both need," the AP reports. In a tweet, Rodman thanked Potcoin, a cybercurrency used in marijuana transactions, for sponsoring his trip. He wore a Potcoin T-shirt at the airport. Rodman's visit, the first since early 2014, comes at a time of growing US-North Korea tensions. "I know the Trump administration has been trying half-heartedly to start a dialogue with the North Koreans," analyst Joel Wit tells the Los Angeles Times. "It would be strange to use Dennis Rodman as an intermediary," he says, "but under the Trump administration a lot of things are possible that wouldn’t have been with other administrations." When Rodman suggested in 2014 that Trump was interested in visiting Pyongyang, Trump tweeted: "Dennis Rodman was either drunk or on drugs (delusional) when he said I wanted to go to North Korea with him. Glad I fired him on Apprentice!"

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Image copyright Reuters Image caption Dennis Rodman was mobbed by the press at Beijing airport en route to Pyongyang

 Controversial US basketball star Dennis Rodman is returning for a visit to North Korea.

 The former NBA player is travelling as a private citizen.

 "I'm just trying to open the door," he told reporters at Beijing airport, en route to the reclusive state.

 He made headlines after befriending North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on previous trips to Pyongyang in 2013 and 2014. Mr Rodman has called him his "friend for life".

 The US state department said it is aware of his visit.

 "We wish him well. But we have issued travel warnings to Americans and suggested they not travel to North Korea for their own safety," said US Under Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, according to Reuters news agency.

 Mr Rodman told reporters, "My purpose is to actually see if I can keep bringing sports to North Korea, so that's the main thing."

 It is unclear whether he will also bring up the detention of US citizens in the country.

 Image copyright AFP / Getty Images Image caption North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and Dennis Rodman watched basketball together in 2013

 US and North Korean tensions have intensified under President Donald Trump, who has said he fears a "major, major conflict" breaking out between the two countries.

 However, the president has also said he would be "honoured" to meet Mr Kim, in the right circumstances.

 Trump's old apprentice

 Speaking at the airport on Tuesday, Mr Rodman said: "I am pretty much sure that he [Trump] is happy with the fact that I am over here trying to accomplish something that we both need."

 When asked about Mr Rodman's North Korea visits in 2013, Mr Trump told Fox News: "You look at the world, the world is blowing up around us. Maybe Dennis is a lot better than what we have."

 Mr Rodman had been a contestant on Mr Trump's reality TV show The Celebrity Apprentice that same year.

 In 2014, Mr Trump flatly dismissed rumours that the pair might travel to North Korea together.

 Image copyright Twitter / Donald Trump Image caption Donald Trump's 2014 tweet

 The former Chicago Bulls star also once encouraged former US President Barack Obama to "pick up the phone and call" Mr Kim, emphasising that the two leaders both liked basketball.

 His trips have been referred to as "basketball diplomacy" in the US press.

 In 2014, Mr Rodman told luxury lifestyle magazine DuJour he had approached the US government for support but was rejected.

 Tears and favours

 He has previously broken down in tears during TV interviews, saying he has had death threats over his trips, which have been condemned by human rights activists.

 Although at one point he did tweet Mr Kim to ask if he would "do me a solid and let Kenneth Bae loose" - referring to a US-Korean missionary who served two years in prison for trying to overthrow the government.

 Mr Bae later thanked Mr Rodman for raising public awareness of his case.

 On Twitter on Tuesday, Mr Rodman said his latest trip was being sponsored by a company that provides digital currency for the marijuana industry. He wore fully branded clothes to the airport.

 A previous trip to the country was sponsored by a betting company. ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Former NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman, center, is greeted by North Korea's Sports Ministry Vice Minister Son Kwang Ho, right, upon his arrival at Sunan International Airport on Tuesday, June 13, 2017,... (Associated Press)

 PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Dennis Rodman, the former NBA bad boy who has palled around with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, flew back to Pyongyang on Tuesday for the first time in Donald Trump's presidency. He said he is "just trying to open a door" on a mission that he thinks his former "Celebrity Apprentice" boss would support.

 Rodman, one of the few people to know both of the nuclear-armed leaders, sported a black T-shirt advertising a marijuana cybercurrency as he talked to reporters briefly before his flight from Beijing to the North Korean capital.

 Asked if he had spoken to Trump about his trip, he said, "Well, I'm pretty sure he's pretty much happy with the fact that I'm over here trying to accomplish something that we both need."

 Rodman has received the red-carpet treatment on four past trips since 2013, but has been roundly criticized for visiting during a time of high tensions between the U.S. and North Korea over its weapons programs.

 His entourage includes Joseph Terwilliger, a professor who has accompanied Rodman on previous trips to North Korea.

 Rodman said the issue of several Americans currently detained by North Korea is "not my purpose right now."

 In Tokyo, a visiting senior U.S. official said Rodman is making the trip as a private citizen.

 "We are aware of his visit. We wish him well, but we have issued travel warnings to Americans and suggested they not travel to North Korea for their own safety," U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon told reporters after discussing the North Korean missile threat and other issues with Japanese counterparts.

 In 2014, Rodman arranged a basketball game with other former NBA players and North Koreans and regaled leader Kim with a rendition of "Happy Birthday." On the same trip, he suggested that an American missionary was at fault for his own imprisonment in North Korea, remarks for which he later apologized.

 A North Korean foreign ministry official said Rodman would stay until Saturday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the ministry had not issued a formal statement.

 Any visit to North Korea by a high-profile American is a political minefield, and Rodman has been criticized for failing to use his influence on leaders who are otherwise isolated diplomatically from the rest of the world.

 Americans are regarded as enemies in North Korea because the two countries never signed a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War. Thousands of U.S. troops are based in South Korea, and the Demilitarized Zone between the North and South is one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world.

 A statement issued in New York by a Rodman publicist said the former NBA player is in the rare position of being friends with the leaders of both North Korea and the United States. Rodman was a cast member on two seasons of Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice."

 Rodman tweeted that his trip was being sponsored by Potcoin, one of a growing number of cybercurrencies used to buy and sell marijuana in state-regulated markets.

 North Korea has been hailed by marijuana news outlets and British tabloids as a pothead paradise and maybe even the next Amsterdam of pot tourism. But the claim that marijuana is legal in North Korea is not true. The penal code lists it as a controlled substance in the same category as cocaine and heroin.

 Americans have been sentenced to years in North Korean prisons for such seemingly minor offenses as stealing a political banner and likely could not expect leniency if the country's drug laws were violated.

 ___

 Associated Press journalists Mark Schiefelbein in Beijing and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report. ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. |||||


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SALT LAKE CITY — Who is the most hated Star Wars character of all time?

 If you think it’s Jar Jar Binks, youssa wrong.

 A new poll from Morning Consult just offered a clue as to which characters Star Wars fans favor and dislike the most.

 The poll, which surveyed 2,200 people, asked respondents to pick their favorite Star Wars character. Leia led the list with a 73 percent favorability rating.

 Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, Yoda and R2-D2 were close behind, all within 2 percent of Leia.

 Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) escape from the Death Star in “Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.”

 Here’s where it gets interesting: Anakin Skywalker received a 55 percent rating, while Darth Vader (who is Anakin Skywalker) received a 49 percent rating.

 “That appears to be the first evidence we've ever found that slaughtering Jedi children, torturing your daughter and cutting off your son's hand will only cost you a 6 percent dip in the polls,” according to Mashable.

 A look at another part of the poll reveals the most hated character. None of the original trilogy characters made that list, all of them receiving at least 40 percent in favorability.

 And it wasn’t Jar Jar Binks, who had a 37 percent approval rating (only one spot behind "Force Awakens" heroine Rey). As writer Chris Taylor for Mashable pointed out, according to the poll's statistics, Republican men seemed to really appreciate Jar Jar Binks. Draw your own conclusions from that.

 Jar Jar Binks finished ahead of Mace Windu, Kylo Ren, Emperor Palpatine, Jyn Erso and Wedge Antilles, too. (Though we wonder if this would change if people knew Jar Jar is secretly a Sith Lord).

 But it was Supreme Leader Snoke who bottomed out on the list with 26 percent.

 Snoke, who first appeared in “The Force Awakens," finished lower than Count Dooku (the villain from “Attack of the Clones”) and Donald Trump, who’s favorability sits at 32 percent.

 The Morning Consult poll, which asked 2,200 people about their opinions on the Star Wars movies, also broke down the results by demographics and political preferences, providing a wealth of data that can be scavenged for weeks after the upcoming "Last Jedi" film drops.

 Examining how politics mix with Star Wars, statistics from the poll revealed that 53 percent of respondents don't consider Star Wars to be political, and that of the 17 percent who do, 41 percent are bothered by the series’ political tone, according to Morning Consult.

 “While the poll found a small minority of respondents who find the politics of Star Wars bothersome, among a number of enthusiasts, fanatics — and well, geeks — the movies’ perceived political undercurrents have long been a source of fascination and fierce debate,” according to a press release on the poll. ||||| Even if you were the kind of Star Wars true believer who found it impossible to like Jar Jar Binks, trust me: You’d have an even harder time disliking Ahmed Best. We meet on a midsummer Sunday morning in Los Angeles. Best, now 43, is wearing a sky-blue Henley shirt, tan pants, and thick-framed black glasses. He is tall and fit, with an easy smile and a tattoo across his right arm that reads “Fighting Without Fighting”—a reference to Enter the Dragon, his second-favorite movie of all time (The Empire Strikes Back is number one). “My father was a martial arts teacher,” Best says. “And when my mom went into labor with me and my twin brother, he said, ‘Let’s go see Enter the Dragon.’ When Bruce Lee came on the screen, I was like, ‘It’s time to get out this womb, and into the world.’”

 The week had been a busy one for Best. The night before, he’d helped coordinate visuals for a multimedia live show celebrating the music of the late hip-hop producer J Dilla. And a few days before that, Best had launched The Afrofuturist Podcast, a new series in which he interviews authors, creators, and technologists about where things are heading. It’s a show about the future that’s closely linked to Best’s past. “For Star Wars, I was a part of this new hybrid-performance technology that eventually ended up changing movies,” he says. “That put me in this very, very forward-thinking mindset.”

 Best has been interested in technology since childhood. He spent his early years in the Bronx before his family relocated to Maplewood, New Jersey. “Growing up, I wanted to be a mechanical engineer, or a computer scientist, or a physicist,” he says. “I didn’t realize you could do a bunch of stuff and be a polymath, because at that time everybody was like, ‘Figure out that one thing that you’re great at, and do that one thing.’”

 As it turned out, Best was pretty great at computers: He learned BASIC programming, started working with music software, and, along with a friend, sold books via a rudimentary retail site he launched (and quickly abandoned) in the early ’90s. “People we were hanging out with were like, ‘Whatever, nerds,’” he says, laughing. “But we saw the potential of the web really early on.”

 In his late teens, Best moved on to music—studying percussion, playing with the New York City-based acid-jazz collective Jazzhole, and eventually landing a role in the award-winning theatrical production Stomp. “We did an open call where about 600 people turned up to audition, and Ahmed stood out straight away,” Stomp co-creator Luke Cresswell says. “We were looking for charisma and for people with something to say. And the best thing about Ahmed was the fact he was so confident and so self-assured. He could be loud, he could be opinionated. But those are all qualities that pushed him to where he is now.”

 Best puts it a bit more bluntly: “I was very arrogant in Stomp,” he says. “The show came from street performers in Brighton, and British performers have always been a little bit acerbic, in a ‘The fuck you looking at?’ kind of way. And we were New York kids, street performers. So that [attitude] was right up our alley.”

 By the spring of 1996, Best had earned a lead role in the show’s San Francisco company. One night, Lucasfilm casting director Robin Gurland wound up in the audience, trying to find someone who could play a new kind of film character—one that would be rendered digitally on-screen, but drawn from an actor’s performance. The search was taking forever. “Jar Jar was one of the last roles we cast,” Gurland says. “I was looking for someone who could really sell the physical aspect of the character, but who also had the acting chops to give it a literal voice—and it’s very difficult to find that in one performer.”

 Best didn’t know Gurland was watching the performance, which was probably a good thing. That night, an out-of-town Stomper was visiting the city, so Best was relegated to a supporting role, leaving him fuming. “I turned into an asshole that night,” Best says. “I thought, ‘If you think you can out-anything on me onstage, you got another fucking thing coming, and I’m going to prove it.’ And I did. Had I been a little bit older, I would’ve handled that a little bit more gracefully.”

 But Best’s show-offy turn wound up winning over Gurland. “I couldn’t take my eyes off him,” she says. “There’s an unknown quality that true performers have—the ability to relate to an audience and to come across as if they’re directing their performance to you specifically.” She eventually invited him to Skywalker Ranch, where Best was squeezed into a tight-fitting motion-capture suit and asked to move about. (When Lucas himself eventually showed up, Best broke into what was once described as a “break-dance glide.”) Not long afterward, he was summoned overseas to begin his work as Jar Jar. His Star Wars saga had begun. |||||

– Jar Jar Binks is one of the most hated, and almost certainly the most widely ridiculed, character in the Star Wars universe. But there was an actor behind the character, Ahmed Best, who was just 25 at the time—and he recently revealed on Twitter that the negative reaction to Jar Jar led him to a very dark place. "20 years next year I faced a media backlash that still affects my career today," he tweeted alongside a picture of him and his son looking out over the ocean. "This was the place I almost ended my life. It’s still hard to talk about. I survived and now this little guy is my gift for survival." Last year, Best told Wired he got death threats and people told him he had destroyed their childhoods. He's now planning a one-man show for the 20th anniversary of The Phantom Menace, and wondered on his tweet if the effect of the character might be good subject matter for it.


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– Although you wouldn't know it from the constant barrage of pregnant celebrity pics on social media, the fertility rate in the US—the number of births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44—fell to 60 last year, its lowest level since the government started tracking the figure in 1909, reports NPR. Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the birth rate is down in nearly every age group tracked. The 3,853,472 births in the US last year represent a 3% drop from 2016, the largest single-year decline since 2010 and the fewest babies born in one year since 1978. A country’s fertility rate is an important measure of its sustainability, reports the New York Times. Too many births put a strain on education and housing. Too few births, and over time the labor pool declines, which in turn tightens resources. In the US, the decline has not yet led to a drop in overall population, because it has been offset to some degree by immigrants. The decline is a bit surprising because in 2017 there were about 7% more women in their prime childbearing years of 20 to 39. One group that ran against the trend was older women. The birth rate among women age 40 to 44 was up 2% over the previous year. In fact, almost one in five births were to women 35 or older. Although it’s difficult to say for certain what's causing the decline, several factors may be at work, including economic uncertainty stemming from the economic downturn in 2007, reports LiveScience. In addition, women have been waiting longer to have children, and millennial women appear to be waiting even longer than previous generations as they build their careers. One happy finding: Births in the 15 to 19 age group were down 7%, down 55% since 2007, and down 70% from a high in 1991, a trend one statistician called "phenomenal."

It could be that the new generation of millennial women is delaying having children even longer than the women who came before them, as prime childbearing years are also critical years for advancing in a career. A recent study shows that the marital pay gap that springs up after a first child is born typically does not close if the birth happens between age 25 and 35.

 Shannon Hettinger, a 32-year-old from Washington, D.C., said she definitely wanted children. She grew up in a large family in a small town in Pennsylvania and almost all her high school friends are married with children. But she moved to Washington, and spent her 20s deciding on a career. Now that she has one she loves — she works in residential real estate sales — she is not going to stop until she gets established. That means not having children for a while.

 “I just want to build my book of business and see where I can go from here,” she said. “My whole focus is career growth. That’s my No. 1 priority.”

 “Once I achieve a certain level of success,” she added, “then I’ll start thinking about a family.”

 Ivy Gray-Klein, 26, who lives in Philadelphia and works at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, said she was open to having children but cannot imagine doing so until she is 30 or 35. She wants to feel settled in her own life first. Now she has three roommates, is paying down her student loans and is working to build a little bit of savings.

 “I’m just really trying to get myself to a place that is solid,” she said by phone. “Having a child right now would be so destabilizing. Children just seem like such an enormous financial undertaking.”

 The country has had declines before. The longest period of continuous decline on record was from 1958 to 1968, according to Brady E. Hamilton, a statistician and demographer with the National Center for Health Statistics. The United States has been tracking the number of births and birthrates since about 1910.

 The most recent decline has been deepest for minorities. The fertility rate among Hispanic women dropped more than 27 percent between 2007 and 2016, the most recent year of data by race. The rate for whites has dropped about 4 percent, for blacks about 11 percent and for Asians about 5 percent. ||||| U.S. Births Dip To 30-Year Low; Fertility Rate Sinks Further Below Replacement Level

 Enlarge this image toggle caption AGF/UIG via Getty Images AGF/UIG via Getty Images

 Updated at 8:48 p.m. ET

 The birthrate fell for nearly every group of women of reproductive age in the U.S. in 2017, reflecting a sharp drop that saw the fewest newborns since 1987, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 There were 3,853,472 births in the U.S. in 2017 — "down 2 percent from 2016 and the lowest number in 30 years," the CDC said.

 The general fertility rate sank to a record low of 60.2 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44 — a 3 percent drop from 2016, the CDC said in its tally of provisional data for the year.

 The results put the U.S. further away from a viable replacement rate – the standard for a generation being able to replicate its numbers.

 "The rate has generally been below replacement since 1971," according to the report from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

 The CDC calculates a "total fertility rate" by estimating how many babies a hypothetical group of 1,000 women would likely have over their lifetime. That measure now stands at 1,764.5 births per 1,000 women — a 3 percent drop from 2016. The replacement rate is 2,100 births per 1,000 women.

 "The decline in the rate from 2016 to 2017 was the largest single-year decline since 2010," the CDC said.

 The 2017 numbers also represent a 10-year fall from 2007, when the U.S. finally broke its post-World War baby boom record, with more than 4.3 million births.

 Historically, the number of babies born in the U.S. has gradually risen since a sharp decline in the early 1970s. But that growth has been inconsistent, and over the same time frame, the birthrate has shown a general decline. The numbers are often subject to spikes and sudden dips, driven in large part by the country's economy, generational size and other factors.

 The numbers seem to correspond with what the Census Bureau and others have been predicting for years: America's population growth will increasingly depend on immigrants, after decades in which the U.S. enjoyed a relatively high fertility rate when compared with that of other developed countries.

 As The Associated Press reports, the U.S. birthrate is "still above countries such as Spain, Greece, Japan and Italy, but the gap appears to be closing."

 Broken out by age, the 2017 birthrate fell for teenagers by 7 percent, to 18.8 births per 1,000, a record low. That figure is for women from 15 to 19 years old. For that same group, the birthrate has fallen by 55 percent since 2007 and by 70 percent since the most recent peak in 1991, the CDC said.

 Women in their 40s were the only group to see a higher birthrate last year. Between the ages of 40 and 44, there were 11.6 births per 1,000 women, up 2 percent from 2016, according to the CDC's provisional data.

 Birthrates fell by 4 percent both for women from 20 to 24 years old and for women of ages 25 to 29.

 For women in their 30s — a group that had recently seen years of rising birthrates — the rate fell slightly in 2017. The drop included a 2 percent fall among women in their early 30s, a group that still maintained the highest birthrate of any age group, at 100.3 births per 1,000 women.

 For the third year in a row, both the preterm birthrate and the low birth weight rate rose. The CDC said that the 9.93 percent rise in preterm births was due to late preterm births and that the early preterm rate had not changed from 2016's 2.75 percent.

 Low birth weight — defined as newborns that weigh less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces — rose slightly above the highest level previously recorded, with 2017's 8.27 percent topping 2006's 8.26 percent.

 The overall cesarean delivery rate nudged upward in 2017, rising to 32 percent from 31.9 percent – still below the all-time high of 32.9 percent in 2009.

 The CDC also tallied births by race and cultural data (but it doesn't yet have the data to compare those figures to the overall populations).

 Here's how some of the 2017 numbers were reported: |||||


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– The first lady offers her thoughts on the #MeToo movement in a new interview with ABC News' Tom Llamas set to air in its entirety Friday night. "I support the women and they need to be heard. We need to support them, and also men, not just women," Melania Trump said in a preview of the sit-down shown on Good Morning America Wednesday. Asked if she thinks some accused men have been treated unfairly, Trump, who was in Kenya while on her tour of Africa when the interview was filmed, responded, "We need to have really hard evidence that, you know, that if you accuse [someone] of something, show the evidence." Asked to clarify, she continued, "I do stand with women but we need to show the evidence. You cannot just say to somebody, I was, you know, sexually assaulted or you did that to me—because sometimes the media goes too far and the way they portray some stories, it's not correct. It's not right." Per the Evening Standard, the full interview also delves into such touchy subjects as allegations that President Trump has not been faithful to her ... and that controversial jacket she once wore.

Transcript for Melania Trump weighs in on the #MeToo movement

 We move to ABC's interview with the first lady, chief national affairs correspondent Tom llamas traveled with Melania trump on her first solo trip to Africa and she addressed several sensitive topics including the me too movement. Tom is here. Good morning. We sat do you know with the first lady in Kenya but we were with her every step of the way during her tour through four African countries seeing firsthand how this first lady is trying to make her mark. On the road from Cairo to Giza we see them and guarding every stretch of highway. We're in an armored van traveling in the first lady's motorcade. Mrs. Trump's first solo trip abroad means ovary step will be guarded. In Egypt, the first lady touring some of history's greatest landmarks. At times appearing to make these monuments part of her own personal runway. In many ways like the great sphinx she visited Melania trump also remains a mystery but now for the first time opening up about her life and her time in the white house during our exclusive sit-down interview and revealing some of the obstacles she's faced. What's the most surprising thing about being first lady for you? It's sad to see that organizations and foundations I want to partner with choose not to because of the administration and I feel they are choosing the politics over helping others. Can you give me any examples? I would not talk about it. They know who they are. I don't want to put them out in front of the world but they know who they are. Reporter: In our interview we also asked the first lady about some of the major events that have shaped and rocked her husband's white house. And the country, including the me too movement. Think of your son, think of your husband. I've had many false accusations. Reporter: Just last week her husband sharing that as the FBI investigated judge Brett Kavanaugh over an accusation of high school sexual assault. What is your take about the me too movement, though? Do you believe in them? Do you support the me too movement? I support the women and they need to be heard. We need to support them and also men, not just women. Do you think men in the news that have been accused of sexual assault have been treated unfairly. We need to have hard evidence that, you know, that if you are accused of something, show the evidence. Some women might hear that and say how can you say that. You need to stand with women. I do stand with women but we need to show the evidence. You cannot just say to somebody, I was, you know, sexually assaulted and or you did that to me or -- because sometimes the media goes too far and the way they portray some stories, it's not correct. It's not right. We spoke much more about the me too movement along with other current issues. No question was off the table and tomorrow right here on "Gma" why she personally wanted to take on cyberbullying. It's likely not what you think. Her revelation shocked us. Can't wait for that. "Being Melania: The first lady" airs Friday at 10:00 P.M. Right here on ABC.

 This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate. ||||| ES News Email Enter your email address Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid Email cannot be used. Try another or register with your social account

 Melania Trump is set to bare all in a rare interview covering topics from her husband's alleged infidelity to her past fashion faux pas.

 The First Lady of the USA will face questions on what it is like to be married to Donald Trump and how she has coped through allegations of infidelity.

 She will also face down the criticism over a slogan 'I don't care' jacket she wore on a trip to visit migrant children at the Texas-Mexico border.

 ABC's chief national affairs correspondent and "World News Tonight" anchor Tom Llamas sat down with Mrs Trump during her African tour as she promoted her "Be Best" initiative in Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt.

 Melania Trump in Kenya - In pictures 28 show all Melania Trump in Kenya - In pictures 1/28 U.S. first lady Melania Trump holds a child during her visit to The Nest Children's Home near Nairobi, Kenya Reuters 2/28 First lady Melania Trump holds a baby as she visits the Nest Orphanage in Limuru, Kenya AP 3/28 U.S. first lady Melania Trump lifts a child during her visit to The Nest Children's Home near Nairobi, Kenya Reuters 4/28 Children rehearse ahead of U.S. first lady Melania Trump arrival to watch a play at the Kenya National Theatre in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters 5/28 First lady Melania Trump is handed a baby as she visits the Nest Orphanage in Limuru, Kenya AP 6/28 First Lady of Kenya Margaret Kenyatta (R) and US First Lady Melania Trump stand alongside prior to their meeting at the State House in Nairob AFP/Getty Images 7/28 US First Lady Melania Trump (L) and the First Lady of Kenya Margaret Kenyatta greet children as they arrive to attend a performance at the Kenyan National Theater in Nairobi AFP/Getty Images 8/28 First lady Melania Trump visits the Nest Orphanage in Limuru, Kenya, Friday, Oct. 5, 2018. Melania Trump has fed baby elephants as she visits a national park in Kenya to highlight conservation efforts. The U.S. first lady also went on a quick safari. Mrs. Trump is on her first-ever visit to Africa and her first extended solo international trip as first lady AP 9/28 US First Lady Melania Trump walks and sings with children as she visits the Nest Childrens Home Orphanage in Nairobi, on October 5, 2018, which primarily cares for children whose parents have been incarcerated. AFP/Getty Images 10/28 US First Lady Melania Trump walks and sings with children as she visits the Nest Childrens Home Orphanage in Nairobi, on October 5, 2018, which primarily cares for children whose parents have been incarcerated. AFP/Getty Images 11/28 US First Lady Melania Trump feeds a baby elephant at The David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi on October 5, 2018, as she pays a one day visit to the country during her solo tour of Africa promoting her children's welfare programme. AFP/Getty Images 12/28 AFP/Getty Images 13/28 US First Lady Melania Trump (L) holds a baby as she visits the Nest Childrens Home Orphanage in Nairobi, on October 5, 2018, which primarily cares for children whose parents have been incarcerated. AFP/Getty Images 14/28 US First Lady Melania Trump walks and sings with children as she visits the Nest Childrens Home Orphanage in Nairobi, on October 5, 2018, which primarily cares for children whose parents have been incarcerated. AFP/Getty Images 15/28 US First Lady Melania Trump walks and sings with children as she visits the Nest childrens home orphanage, which primarily cares for children who's parents have been incarcerated, in Nairob AFP/Getty Images 16/28 US First Lady Melania Trump uses a smartphone as she travels in a vehicle while on a safari at The Nairobi National Park in Nairob AFP/Getty Images 17/28 United States First Lady Melania Trump (C, top) drops a bottle of milk as she feeds a baby elephant at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya EPA 18/28 A Secret Service agent (L) steps forward to protect US first lady Melania Trump as she steps backwards after being nudged by a baby elephant she petted, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya AFP/Getty Images 19/28 A Secret Service agent, left, holds U.S. first lady Melania Trump to protect her as she steps backwards after being nudged by a baby elephant she petted, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya AP 20/28 U.S. first lady Melania Trump, accompanied by CEO Angela Sheldrick, looks at the ear of a baby elephant, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters 21/28 AFP/Getty Images 22/28 AFP/Getty Images 23/28 US First Lady Melania Trump travels in a vehicle while on a safari at The Nairobi National Park in Nairobi AFP/Getty Images 24/28 US first lady Melania Trump laughs after she was nudged by a baby elephant she petted, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya AFP/Getty Images 25/28 U.S. first lady Melania Trump pats a baby elephant, accompanied by CEO Angela Sheldrick (C), and Kenya's first lady Margaret Kenyatta (R), at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters 26/28 U.S. first lady Melania Trump shoes are seen as she stands next to Angela Sheldrick, Executive Director of The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust during her visit to the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters 27/28 Elephant keepers prepare to receive U.S. first lady Melania Trump during her visit to the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters 28/28 U.S. first lady Melania Trump feeds a baby elephant milk with a bottle, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters 1/28 U.S. first lady Melania Trump holds a child during her visit to The Nest Children's Home near Nairobi, Kenya Reuters 2/28 First lady Melania Trump holds a baby as she visits the Nest Orphanage in Limuru, Kenya AP 3/28 U.S. first lady Melania Trump lifts a child during her visit to The Nest Children's Home near Nairobi, Kenya Reuters 4/28 Children rehearse ahead of U.S. first lady Melania Trump arrival to watch a play at the Kenya National Theatre in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters 5/28 First lady Melania Trump is handed a baby as she visits the Nest Orphanage in Limuru, Kenya AP 6/28 First Lady of Kenya Margaret Kenyatta (R) and US First Lady Melania Trump stand alongside prior to their meeting at the State House in Nairob AFP/Getty Images 7/28 US First Lady Melania Trump (L) and the First Lady of Kenya Margaret Kenyatta greet children as they arrive to attend a performance at the Kenyan National Theater in Nairobi AFP/Getty Images 8/28 First lady Melania Trump visits the Nest Orphanage in Limuru, Kenya, Friday, Oct. 5, 2018. Melania Trump has fed baby elephants as she visits a national park in Kenya to highlight conservation efforts. The U.S. first lady also went on a quick safari. Mrs. Trump is on her first-ever visit to Africa and her first extended solo international trip as first lady AP 9/28 US First Lady Melania Trump walks and sings with children as she visits the Nest Childrens Home Orphanage in Nairobi, on October 5, 2018, which primarily cares for children whose parents have been incarcerated. AFP/Getty Images 10/28 US First Lady Melania Trump walks and sings with children as she visits the Nest Childrens Home Orphanage in Nairobi, on October 5, 2018, which primarily cares for children whose parents have been incarcerated. AFP/Getty Images 11/28 US First Lady Melania Trump feeds a baby elephant at The David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi on October 5, 2018, as she pays a one day visit to the country during her solo tour of Africa promoting her children's welfare programme. AFP/Getty Images 12/28 AFP/Getty Images 13/28 US First Lady Melania Trump (L) holds a baby as she visits the Nest Childrens Home Orphanage in Nairobi, on October 5, 2018, which primarily cares for children whose parents have been incarcerated. AFP/Getty Images 14/28 US First Lady Melania Trump walks and sings with children as she visits the Nest Childrens Home Orphanage in Nairobi, on October 5, 2018, which primarily cares for children whose parents have been incarcerated. AFP/Getty Images 15/28 US First Lady Melania Trump walks and sings with children as she visits the Nest childrens home orphanage, which primarily cares for children who's parents have been incarcerated, in Nairob AFP/Getty Images 16/28 US First Lady Melania Trump uses a smartphone as she travels in a vehicle while on a safari at The Nairobi National Park in Nairob AFP/Getty Images 17/28 United States First Lady Melania Trump (C, top) drops a bottle of milk as she feeds a baby elephant at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya EPA 18/28 A Secret Service agent (L) steps forward to protect US first lady Melania Trump as she steps backwards after being nudged by a baby elephant she petted, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya AFP/Getty Images 19/28 A Secret Service agent, left, holds U.S. first lady Melania Trump to protect her as she steps backwards after being nudged by a baby elephant she petted, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya AP 20/28 U.S. first lady Melania Trump, accompanied by CEO Angela Sheldrick, looks at the ear of a baby elephant, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters 21/28 AFP/Getty Images 22/28 AFP/Getty Images 23/28 US First Lady Melania Trump travels in a vehicle while on a safari at The Nairobi National Park in Nairobi AFP/Getty Images 24/28 US first lady Melania Trump laughs after she was nudged by a baby elephant she petted, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya AFP/Getty Images 25/28 U.S. first lady Melania Trump pats a baby elephant, accompanied by CEO Angela Sheldrick (C), and Kenya's first lady Margaret Kenyatta (R), at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters 26/28 U.S. first lady Melania Trump shoes are seen as she stands next to Angela Sheldrick, Executive Director of The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust during her visit to the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters 27/28 Elephant keepers prepare to receive U.S. first lady Melania Trump during her visit to the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters 28/28 U.S. first lady Melania Trump feeds a baby elephant milk with a bottle, at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya Reuters

 Hype around the interview is building as the channel prepares to air the frank conversation on Friday only hinting at how Mrs Trump is to open up to viewers.

 What few words she did say came when the reporter probed: "Let's talk about the Jacket," referring to a parka Mrs Trump wore on an official visit to a child immigration centre, emblazoned with the words "I really don't care. Do U?"

 First Lady promises to get personal in interview In ABC's preview of the "Being Melania" programme, the first lady isn't shown to answer any questions, but there are hints as the interviewer asked the following: Finish this sentence for me: 'Melania Trump is...'

 Can women in the #MeToo movement call you a supporter?

 You're not the first first lady to have to deal with her husband's alleged infidelities. Has this put a strain on your marriage?

 Let's talk about the jacket ... Why did you wear it?

 What's the biggest misconception about you?

 She nodded in response and repeated "The jacket..."

 But the preview does not reveal her full answer or whether she bats away the question as she has before.

 The sit-down follows an off-the-cuff interview during a visit to ancient sites in Egypt where she said: "I think (Judge Kavanaugh) is highly qualified for the Supreme Court.

 "I'm glad Dr Ford was heard. FBI investigation was done, is completed, and Senate voted.

 When asked "Did you believe Christine Ford?" she said: "I will move on that."

 "I don't always agree with what he tweets," she went on to tell reporters on her disagreements with the President.

 "I give him my honest opinion. Sometimes he listens and sometimes he doesn't, but I have my own opinions and my own voice.

 "I'm not elected, so, he's the president, but I give him my opinion."

 She responded to questions about wearing an "iconically colonial pith hat" on the trip.

 "I want to to talk about my trip, and not what I wear. What we're doing with US aid and our initiatives... I wish people would focus on what I do, not what I wear."

 The tour came shortly after her husband made "disparaging remarks" about African nations, so her appearance was seen by some as a way of re-building bridges.

 She visited hospitals, schools, rural tribes-people to shine a light on children's development and conservation efforts.

 Her selection of outfits during the trip was acutely analysed by the press, with some saying it had "Colonialist" connotations, and others claiming it showed her more "Trump-like" side.

 Kate Bennett, a CNN White House correspondent who covers the first lady, said Melania’s “menswear-inspired” Egypt outfit sent a clear message that “women are equal.” |||||


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These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| IRVINE – UC Irvine took a stricter approach on processing admissions this year – contributing to the withdrawal of some 500 admission offers – because more freshmen accepted spots than anticipated.

 “I acknowledge that we took a harder line on the terms and conditions this year, and we could have managed that process with greater care, sensitivity, and clarity about available options,” Thomas Parham, vice chancellor for student affairs, wrote in a message to prospective students on Friday.

 “We are committed to correcting any errors swiftly and providing the help you need in an empathetic and understanding way,” Parham wrote.

 The Science Library at UCI. (File photo, Orange County Register/SCNG)

 A goup of high school students and their parents take a tour of the UCI campus. (Photo by Ana Venegas, Orange County Register/SCNG)

 UCI campus buildings sprawl around Aldrich Park, center in this August 5, 2010 aerial photo .(File photo, Orange County Register/SCNG)

 Parham’s letter, apologizing to “those who felt ignored or mistreated,” comes two days after UCI’s student government association sent a letter and a petition demanding that administrators apologize, reimburse all students whose admission status has been revoked and guarantee them admission to UCI following two years at a community college.

 As with other colleges and universities, admission is considered provisional until final transcripts are submitted by a deadline, and a determination is made that there are no discrepancies between the grades and courses on the application and those on the official final transcript.

 And that final grades are acceptable.

 This year, UCI withdrew 499 admissions: 299 were transcript related, with 185 students appealing; another 209 were grade-related, with 110 appeals, UCI spokesman Tom Vasich said Friday.

 As of Friday, 63 students who appealed were reinstated, Vasich said.

 “We were less lenient (this year) on missed deadlines and documentation than in the past, when there weren’t enrollment issues involved,” Vasich said.

 UCI received more than 104,000 applications from both freshmen and transfer students for the 2017-18 year – one of the highest numbers in the country.

 The university offered admission to 31,103 freshmen and about 7,100 accepted, university officials said. But the school had planned a freshman class of approximately 6,250 students.

 Students complained on social media that the university over-enrolled and used any excuse to trim its number.

 UCI’s Parham acknowledged “missteps” but emphasized that all students “who meet the terms and conditions of the admissions offer will be welcomed into the Anteater family.

 “No acceptance will be withdrawn due to over-enrollment, despite external reports to the contrary,” Parham wrote.

 Related Articles UCI rescinds 500 admission offers, student leaders demand apology

 UC system says it’s on track to increase number of California freshmen enrolled Many of the prospective students who saw their offers rescinded said that either the university or their high school made mistakes. And those errors, they said, have caused them a lot of anxiety.

 Johnny Wang, 18, of Glendale, is appealing. UCI withdrew his offer of admission because it didn’t receive a transcript from his high school.

 “It’s been confusing and sad for me,” said Wang, who graduated from La Canada High School with a weighted grade-point average topping 4.3.

 Simran Chopra, 18, of Los Angeles, said that she locked herself in a bathroom and cried when she learned of the withdrawal. Chopra said she has proof that her transcript was sent via certified mail before the July 1 deadline.

 “This was really heartbreaking for me,” said Chopra, who chose UCI over UC Berkeley because she’s a fan of the Irvine school’s Bollywood dance team.

 While students were told that their appeals could take four to six weeks, UCI has increased the number of people reviewing appeals, and those already on appeal will be expedited and are expected to be completed by the end of next week, Vasich said late Friday.

 For Julia Kim, 18, of Claremont, it’s too late.

 Kim, who took a bevy of advanced classes and racked up a 4.3 grade-point average in high school, wanted to go to UCI to stay close to her family.

 “I listed a course as a computer class on my application but because the name was called technical education, they didn’t think it was a computer class,” Kim said.

 With less than two months before school starts, Kim didn’t want to wait until the last minute to find out whether her appeal would be approved. She considered community college or taking a gap year. But then she called a school that had previously accepted her.

 “I’m going to Clark University in Massachusetts,” she said. |||||

– Admissions goofs are nothing new. Learning you've lost your admission in July is another matter. That's the situation with the University of California Irvine, which withdrew 499 offers of admission two months before the fall term is to begin. By the Los Angeles Times' count, that's abnormally high: Other UC campuses gave "recession" numbers ranging from seven to 150. Per the school, 290 of the reversals were because of transcript issues; the rest were over low senior-year grades. Many of the newly disappointed are accusing the school of fishing for slight or even unsubstantiated reasons to dump would-be freshmen after too many made the choice to enroll. The LAT cites numbers that suggest they may not be off base: The UC Office of the President says 7,100 students made the decision to enroll, versus a planned freshman class of 6,250. A rep for the school concurs that the admissions office has been cracking down on verifying requirements "as a result of more students [having] accepted admissions to UCI than it expected." In case after case, the crackdown smells off: One student was told only one of the two required copies of her transcript was mailed; she says they were sent in the same envelope. Another student says he was told his transcript didn't contain a graduation date; he says it did. They're appealing, and they're not the only ones: Some 409—or 82%—have, with many of the students quoted by the LAT and OC Register as having 4.0-plus GPAs ... and having already turned down other schools and scholarships. As of Friday, 63 have emerged victorious. The school says the appeals process, which normally takes up to six weeks, has been accelerated.