News article:

Zimbabwe local media is reporting that the presidential limousine made a sudden movement as the First Lady was getting in, resulting in her injuring her ankle.

 JOHANNESBURG – Zimbabwe's first lady, Grace Mugabe suffered a minor injury at Harare International Airport after the presidential limousine tried to drive off before she’d got in.

 The incident occurred shortly after President Robert Mugabe and his wife landed back in the country from a week in Singapore, where the president had gone for a medical check-up.

 The state-run Sunday Mail says the presidential limousine made a sudden movement as the First Lady was getting in; as a result, she lost her balance and injured her ankle.

 Her shoe was run over by the rear wheel of the car.

 In a statement, presidential spokesman George Charamba, described this as a “freak car incident”.

 He says the first lady was treated at a local clinic and discharged, although she was said to be in pain.

 The state-run newspaper says a police motorcyclist escorting the motorcade into town fractured his arm after he rammed into a pick-up truck on the main airport road. ||||| Image copyright Gabriella Engels

 Zimbabwean First Lady Grace Mugabe has so far failed to appear in a South African court over an assault case despite officials saying she would do.

 South African police said in the late afternoon they did not know where Mrs Mugabe was.

 A 20-year-old South African woman has accused Mrs Mugabe of hitting her on the head with an extension cord during a confrontation at a hotel.

 She released an image of a face injury online. Mrs Mugabe has not commented.

 Gabriella Engels accused Mrs Mugabe, 52, of hitting her after finding her with her two sons in a hotel room in Sandton, a plush suburb north of Johannesburg, the BBC's Pumza Fihlani reports.

 The attack is said to have happened on Sunday evening.

 Africa Live: Updates on this and other African stories

 "The negotiations over the suspect handing herself over have not concluded and our investigations have not finalised," police spokesman Vishnu Naidoo told AFP news agency.

 Police Minister Fikile Mbalula earlier said Mrs Mugabe had handed herself over to police but was not under arrest, and would appear in court early on Tuesday afternoon local time.

 Hours later Mr Naidoo clarified: "The minister learned later that it just didn't materalise as it was supposed to."

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Grace Mugabe may face assault charges

 What does Engels say?

 In a phone interview for South Africa's News24 news site, she said she and a friend had been visiting the sons, Robert and Chatunga, at the Capital 20 West Hotel.

 A bodyguard asked her and her friend to wait in a separate room, after which the assault occurred, she said.

 "When Grace entered I had no idea who she was," she told News24.

 "She walked in with an extension cord and just started beating me with it. She flipped and just kept beating me with the plug. Over and over. I had no idea what was going on. I was surprised… I needed to crawl out of the room before I could run away.

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Grace Mugabe, 52, is the Zimbabwean president's second wife

 "Her ten bodyguards just stood there watching, no-one did anything, no-one tried to help me."

 "There was blood everywhere," she added. "Over my arms, in my hair, everywhere."

 What do the police say?

 In a statement, they confirmed that on Monday an unnamed 20-year-old South African woman had registered a "case of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm".

 She was "allegedly assaulted by a prominent woman at a hotel in Sandton," they said, without naming Mrs Mugabe.

 Who is Grace Mugabe?

 Image copyright AFP

 Began affair with Robert Mugabe, 41 years her senior, while working as a typist in state house

 Mr Mugabe later said his first wife Sally, who was terminally ill at the time, knew and approved of the relationship

 Married Mr Mugabe, her second husband, in 1996 in an extravagant ceremony. They have three children

 Nicknamed "Gucci Grace" by her critics who accuse her of lavish spending

 Along with her husband, is subject to EU and US sanctions, including travel bans

 Praised by supporters for her charitable work and founding of an orphanage

 Received a PhD in September 2014, a month after being nominated to take over the leadership of the Zanu-PF women's league

 Why was she in South Africa?

 She was due to be treated for an ankle injury, sustained during a road accident last month, according to Zimbabwean media.

 It is not clear whether she was travelling on a diplomatic or a normal passport.

 Mrs Mugabe is seen as a staunch defender of her husband, 93, and is the leader of the powerful women's league of Zimbabwe's governing Zanu-PF party.

 Zimbabwean Information Minister Christopher Mushowe told the BBC he was unaware of the allegations against her. ||||| JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The wife of Zimbabwe's president handed herself over to police in South Africa on Tuesday after being accused of assaulting a young woman Sunday night at an upscale Johannesburg hotel, South Africa's police minister said.

 Grace Mugabe was due to appear in court Tuesday afternoon, local news outlet eNCA reported.

 Mugabe is "not under arrest because she cooperated and handed herself over," Minister of Police Fikile Mbalula said in a video posted on eNCA.

 Twenty-year-old Gabriella Engels has accused Mugabe of assaulting her while she was visiting Mugabe's sons in a hotel room in an upscale Johannesburg suburb. She claims the first lady's bodyguards stood by and watched as Mugabe attacked her.

 Engels posted several photos on social media showing a gash in her forehead, which she calls a result of the alleged encounter.

 "I had no clue who this woman was when she started beating me," Engels told local radio station 702.

 Police confirmed that a 20-year-old woman registered "a case of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm" on Monday, but said the suspect could not be named as she had not yet appeared in court.

 "The investigation into this case has already reached an advanced stage," a police statement on Tuesday said. ||||| Gabriella Engels following an alleged assault by Grace Mugabe on Sunday (Supplied)

 Johannesburg – A twenty-year-old model claims Zimbabwean first lady Grace Mugabe assaulted her with an extension cord in Sandton on Sunday evening.

 Mugabe may face prosecution for the alleged assault in South Africa. Diplomatic immunity can only be granted if the first lady was in the country for official business, Department of International Relations spokesperson Clayson Monyela told IOL.

 The Zimbabwean Mail reported that Mugabe was in the country to have her foot examined following an accident at the Harare international airport.

 Gabriella Engels on Monday said she was visiting Mugabe’s two sons Robert and Chatunga at the Capital 20 West Hotel whom she met through a mutual friend on Saturday.

 Engels said a bodyguard asked her and a friend to wait in a separate room before Mugabe allegedly started beating her.

 "When Grace entered I had no idea who she was. She walked in with an extension cord and just started beating me with it," Engels told News24 over the phone.

 Engels said Mugabe accused her of living with her sons.

 "She flipped and just kept beating me with the plug. Over and over. I had no idea what was going on. I was surprised… I needed to crawl out of the room before I could run away.

 "Her ten bodyguards just stood there watching, no one did anything, no one tried to help me."

 Engels said hotel staff escorted her out of the hotel. She immediately tried to open a case of assault at the Sandton police station.

 A police officer, however, advised her to seek medical attention first.

 'Blood everywhere'

 "There was blood everywhere. Over my arms, in my hair, everywhere."

 She opened a case of assault against the 52-year-old Mugabe on Monday afternoon. Gauteng police were unable to verify whether a case of assault had been opened.

 Both Robert and Chatunga have not responded to messages from News24 on Monday afternoon.

 Calls to Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba went unanswered.

 The Capital Hotel Group wished not to comment on the incident.

 Engels said she had not been contacted by either Mugabe or her children following the incident.

 She said she is unable to "deal" with the trauma she experienced.

 "I am a model, with this scar over my face my whole career is ruined," an emotional Engels told News24.

 "I don’t know how to deal with this, but I am trying hard. I am trying so hard to be strong." |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– The wife of Zimbabwe's president handed herself over to police in South Africa on Tuesday after being accused of assaulting a young woman Sunday night at an upscale Johannesburg hotel, South Africa's police minister said. Grace Mugabe was due to appear in court Tuesday afternoon, local news outlet eNCA reported. The 52-year-old is "not under arrest because she cooperated and handed herself over," Minister of Police Fikile Mbalula said in a video posted on eNCA. Gabriella Engels, 20, has accused Mugabe of assaulting her while she was visiting Mugabe's sons in a hotel room. She claims the first lady's bodyguards stood by and watched as Mugabe attacked her. Engels posted several photos on social media showing a gash in her forehead, which she calls a result of the alleged encounter, reports the AP. Engels told News24 she had no idea who Mugabe was when she walked into the room "with an extension cord and just started beating me with it. ... She flipped and just kept beating me with the plug." Engels claims the first lady accused her of living with her sons. "The investigation into this case has already reached an advanced stage," a police statement on Tuesday said. The BBC reports Mugabe was in the country to receive treatment for an ankle injury; she reportedly injured it in July when the presidential limo began to drive away as she was climbing in.


News article:

An anatomy scan is routine for pregnant women at 20 weeks. That was when Kristine Barry learned her baby had a heart defect that would require what’s believed to be the world’s first use of in utero surgery to treat this condition. Doctors at the Hospital for Sick Children and Mount Sinai Hospital were quick to assure Barry, 25, and her husband, Christopher Havill, 27, that they could fix the problem.

 Doctors in Toronto performed in-utero surgery when a now two-month-old baby boy had a life-threatening heart condition. The boy?s parents say it was ?intense? to learn the procedure would be carried out in the womb. (The Canadian Press)

 They diagnosed the couple’s first child, Sebastian Havill, now 9 weeks old, with severe complete transposition of the great arteries (TGA). It’s a congenital heart defect that occurs when the pulmonary artery and aorta are switched, and the heart can’t adequately circulate blood through the body. Barry said her first thoughts were “Why me, why my baby?” To fix the problem, surgeons normally perform open-heart surgery on the infant to switch the arteries within a week of birth. But there was a complication in this case.

 Article Continued Below

 All the walls in Sebastian’s heart were closed shut, meaning his blood wouldn’t get oxygen after his birth, which could have led to severe brain damage or death within minutes. “Previously, doctors had the baby born by C-section and then rushed it over to Sick Kids for a balloon procedure,” Barry said. “If he was born over at Mount Sinai, he wouldn’t have enough time to be moved to Sick Kids. He likely wasn’t going to make it.” So the doctors — Edgar Jaeggi, Rajiv Chaturvedi and Greg Ryan — devised a different plan to save her baby. On May 18, Barry went into the operating room, and Sebastian had what’s believed to be the world’s first balloon atrial septoplasty surgery in utero to treat TGA. With ultrasound guidance, the doctors inserted a needle into Barry’s uterus and into Sebastian’s heart to blow up a tiny ballon, making a hole about 3.5 millimetres wide in his atrial septum. This allowed the blood and oxygen to circulate properly, a temporary fix until they could perform surgery after birth.

 Baby Sebastian with his parents Christopher Havill and Kristine Barry at The Hospital for Sick Children. Five days before he was born, a surgical procedure was performed on Sebastian's heart while he was still in his mother's womb. ( Randy Risling / Toronto Star )

 About 30 medical staff were there to assist in the procedure, including surgeons, cardiologists, a person with an incubator and a doctor to do a caesarean section in the likely case that Barry had to give birth early. “I was weirdly calm. I put all my belief in that it was going to work, but I went in with the mindset that I was having a baby that day,” Barry said. “The way they described our options for that day, I had a two-out-of-three chance for having a baby, so I went in thinking, ‘I could be meeting my son today.’”

 Article Continued Below

 Just 20 minutes later, the surgery was over and the room erupted in applause, said Barry, who cried when she realized that her baby could be born healthy. Five days after the surgery, Barry was induced into labour and gave birth to Sebastian only 10 minutes in. “He came out pink and screaming, and I was just in shock. I didn’t believe that was what was going to happen,” she said. A week after his birth, Sebastian successfully underwent the open-heart surgery that babies with congenital TGA must have, and he was sent home the week after. About three babies a year in Ontario have the same extreme case of congenial heart defect that Sebastian has. His parents will take him to a neuro-development program at Sick Kids to make sure he’s hitting all his milestones at 6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months old. Barry and Havill have been told that Sebastian may run into issues at any stage in his development, but in general he is expected to lead a normal life. If Sebastian has any development problems, Barry said, the doctors at Sick Kids can help by teaching them exercises to do at home, or sending a support worker to help with speech or physiotherapy. “They want us to let him be a kid and run around and get his blood pumping and his heart working really well. They don’t want us bubble-wrapping him and being too protective,” Barry said. “They want him to live a normal life as much as possible.” ||||| Kristine Barry says when she heard her newborn baby Sebastian scream, it was "the most amazing sound I've ever heard."

 "They always prepped us for a blue baby," she said. "They always said that he was going to be blue and not vocal because of the lack of oxygen."

 But when Sebastian arrived at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto in May, "there's this little guy all pink and screaming."

 It would have been a very different and traumatic birth if Sebastian had not undergone a surgical procedure on his heart, known as a balloon atrial septoplasty, five days earlier — while he was still in his mother's womb.

 During Barry's prenatal checkups, Sebastian was diagnosed with a severe congenital heart defect, in which the two main arteries of the heart are reversed. His case was especially complex because the interior walls of his heart were sealed shut, so that blood couldn't flow between the chambers to pick up oxygen.

 "We had a baby with the two sides of the circulation that were not communicating. There was no opening between the upper chambers and the lower chambers and the vessels were coming off the wrong side," says Dr. Greg Ryan, head of the fetal medicine program at Mount Sinai Hospital.

 "So what we had to do was to create a communication to allow the blood to mix."

 'The clock ticks'

 In most cases, newborn babies with heart defects can be rushed from the neonatal unit at Mount Sinai Hospital to the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) across the street, says Dr. Rajiv Chaturvedi, a cardiologist at SickKids.

 But the closed walls of Sebastian's heart made it unable to automatically circulate oxygen once he lost access to the oxygen supplied via the placenta. That meant there would be little time to save Sebastian from severe complications after he left his mother's womb.

 "The clock ticks [so] that you have a few minutes and you start having brain damage and other organ damage," says Dr. Edgar Jaeggi, head of the fetal cardiac program at SickKids.

 Christopher Havill and Kristine Barry are enjoying a normal life at home with their newborn son, Sebastian, thanks to his heart surgeries — one of which was performed while he was still in his mother's womb. (CBC News)

 So on May 18, Ryan, Chaturvedi and Jaeggi, along with dozens of clinicians from both Mount Sinai Hospital and SickKids performed a risky and remarkable procedure: a balloon atrial septoplasty while the baby is still in the uterus.

 With neonatal and cardiac surgeons on standby in case an emergency cesarean section became necessary, the doctors used a needle to insert a balloon through Barry's uterus and into Sebastian's heart, making a small hole to open up the heart's interior wall, so oxygenated blood could pass through.

 Although the procedure was a success, it wasn't a cure for Sebastian's original heart defect, and he would still require open-heart surgery after birth. But it meant that Barry could deliver him normally, without the trauma of knowing it would be a frantic race against time to whisk her baby away and supply him with oxygen.

 A healthy start

 In fact, Sebastian's father, Christopher Havill, had time to cut the umbilical cord — and he remembers the team even told them they could take pictures.

 Surgeons repeated the same procedure they had done in-utero on Sebastian that day to further ensure the flow of oxygen. A week later, he had open-heart surgery to fix his reversed arteries. Two months later, he's a normal baby at home in Barrie, Ont., fussing on his mother's lap as his dad smiles and soothes him.

 "He's such a good little cuddle buddy," Havill says.

 The doctors have even told the couple that Sebastian's scar from his open heart surgery will eventually fade, and will be barely visible by adulthood.

 "These kids can play soccer, play hockey, go to university, have pretty normal lives," Chaturvedi says. |||||

 Sheryl Ubelacker, The Canadian Press

 TORONTO -- Watching Kristine Barry and husband Christopher Havill cuddle their two-month-old son Sebastian, it's hard to believe their little guy has been through more major medical procedures in his short life -- and even before being born -- than many people experience in a lifetime.

 Weeks before his birth in May, Toronto doctors discovered through imaging scans that Sebastian had not one, but two congenital heart defects -- and they knew they had to do something fairly radical to bring him into the world and give him a chance at a full and healthy life.

 That something was an in-utero procedure to poke a hole in the wall between the upper chambers of his tiny heart, which had developed with no opening, followed by an operation after birth to repair his major cardiac arteries, which weren't in the proper locations.

 Scans of Sebastian while in his mother's womb showed his aorta, the vessel that takes oxygen-rich blood to the brain and body, and his pulmonary artery, which channels blood to the lungs to be oxygenated, were switched -- a condition known as transposition of the great arteries, or TGA.

 Doctors also discovered there were no openings in the walls between either the two upper chambers (the atria) of his heart or the bottom two chambers (the ventricles), which would have prevented his blood from circulating properly after birth. While in the womb, fetal blood is oxygenated through the placenta.

 "If a baby doesn't have any holes between the two sides, so the right and left half, the child would be deeply blue, and eventually will die from this condition unless we are able to create the hole after birth rapidly," said cardiologist Dr. Edgar Jaeggi, head of the fetal cardiac program at Sick Kids Hospital and part of the two-hospital team that cared for Barry and her soon-to-be born baby.

 "This is a life-threatening condition that could result in rapid brain damage, with the baby doing very poorly and dying from this," Jaeggi explained.

 However, after Sebastian's birth, doctors would have had only a few minutes to open up his chest and repair his heart, requiring full neonatal resuscitation and cardiac surgery teams to be on stand-by.

 To avoid such a high-risk delivery and the dangers to the newborn, a team of doctors from Mount Sinai Hospital and Sick Kids opted to perform the procedure to create an opening between the upper chambers of Sebastian's heart while he was in the womb.

 "It's pretty intense hearing something like that, that they're going to do it while he's still inside of her," Havill, 27, said Tuesday after he and his wife travelled to Sick Kids from their home in Barrie, Ont., north of Toronto.

 "It's something you would think would only happen on a TV medical show, not in real life," agreed Barry, 25. "Doing the in-utero procedure actually sounded like the best possible thing. In my gut, we knew this was what we wanted to happen, what we needed to do."

 On May 18, doctors at Mount Sinai took the first steps, injecting drugs through Barry's abdomen that put Sebastian to sleep, paralyzed his body to prevent him from moving, and provided pain relief.

 "The baby obviously has to be in the right position," said Dr. Greg Ryan, head of the fetal medicine program at Mount Sinai.

 "Because if the baby is not aligned in-utero, it's a non-starter, and we've sometimes had to wait for two or three days for the baby to come into position where it gives us our best shot -- because you have one shot and you need to make that work."

 Barry was then transported to Sick Kids across the street via an underground tunnel that connects the two hospitals, where Ryan performed the next part of the procedure under ultrasound-guided imagery, inserting a fine needle through Barry's abdomen and uterus, then into the upper chamber of Sebastian's heart and passing it through the wall to the adjacent atrium.

 A catheter was then fed through the needle and a tiny balloon inserted between the wall, a process that's similar to balloon angioplasty to open up a blocked coronary artery in those at risk of a heart attack.

 "Then, essentially, we blow up the balloon in that wall which had been closed," explained Ryan. "By blowing it up, we could open up a hole in the wall between the two chambers, and this allows the mixing of the blood.

 "Once we've done that, we withdraw the needle and withdraw the catheter out of the baby's heart," he said, adding that he believes this is the first time in the world that the in-utero procedure has been performed in a fetus with TGA.

 Jaeggi said the team waited until Sebastian was almost full-term to do the in-utero surgery -- called a balloon atrial septoplasty, or BAS -- because doing so earlier might have allowed the hole to close up again.

 "We wanted the biggest hole closest to delivery," he said, describing the opening as about 3.5 millimetres in diameter.

 On May 23, Barry gave birth through a regular vaginal delivery after being induced and Sebastian was born "pink and screaming."

 "They always primed us that we would be having a blue baby, so when he came out, I'm like 'That's not blue,"' said Barry, recalling her huge sense of relief. "He was here and he looked as babies should when they're born."

 Sebastian had a second BAS procedure after birth to ensure the atrial opening was large enough. Then five days later, surgeons at Sick Kids performed open-heart surgery on the infant to switch his aorta and pulmonary artery into their proper positions.

 Now weighing 10 pounds and meeting all his developmental milestones, Sebastian is like any other healthy two-month-old, his parents say.

 "He's a pretty calm, pretty chill baby. He lets us know when he's not happy. He still has that very strong set of lungs that he was born with," Barry said. "We just recently started getting our smiles from him."

 "You barely even know that anything had happened to him unless you take off his shirt and see his scars," added Havill. "He's just awesome."

 The couple say it's hard to express how grateful they are to the medical teams at the two hospitals.

 "Thank you doesn't seem like enough, but definitely thanks to them for saving my baby's life," Barry said.

 "It's just amazing what they're able and capable of doing." |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Doctors in Canada are patting themselves on the back after what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind heart surgery that saved the life of an unborn child. Halfway through her pregnancy, Kristine Barry of Barrie, Ont., learned her unborn son had a heart defect in which the two main arteries of his heart were reversed, reports the CBC. Putting the aorta and pulmonary artery in their rightful places would require open-heart surgery after birth. But because Barry's unborn son also had no opening to allow blood to flow between the upper and lower chambers of his heart, he would be unable to circulate oxygen through his body once separated from his mother's placenta, with brain and other organ damage occurring within minutes. "He likely wasn't going to make it," Barry, 25, tells the Toronto Star. But doctors weren't about to give up. In what may be the first balloon atrial septoplasty performed on a baby in the womb, doctors from Mount Sinai Hospital and Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto used a needle to insert a balloon through Barry's uterus and into the boy's heart, opening a passageway between the chambers. Five days later on May 23, Sebastian was delivered "all pink and screaming," rather than "blue and not vocal" as initially expected, Barry says. Two months after undergoing open-heart surgery to repair his heart defect, he's healthy and happy and Barry can't thank doctors enough. "It's just amazing what they're able and capable of doing," she tells the Canadian Press. (Read about another heart surgery in the womb.)


– Italians are a wee bit upset about an ArmaLite ad that shows a massive $3,000 rifle cradled in the arms of Michelangelo's David, the BBC reports. "The image of David, armed, offends and infringes the law," tweeted culture minister Dario Franceschini. He vowed to take action against the Illinois-based small arms company for its AR-50A1 rifle ad, which reads "a work of art" along the top. A gallery director in Florence noted that the law forbids distorting a work of art's aesthetic value: "In this case, not only is the choice in bad taste but also completely illegal." "It is an act of violence towards the sculpture; like taking a hammer to it and perhaps, actually, even worse," said a city councilor in Florence, reports the Guardian. But Italian art critic Philippe Daverio pooh-poohed the uproar, comparing ArmaLite's ad to cheeky images of a mustached Mona Lisa: "Certain cultural icons belong to everyone and no one; to humanity in general," he said. If true, that's good news for ArmaLite, which has another ad showing its AR-301A on a museum wall between American Gothic and the Mona Lisa—pointed at Mona Lisa's head, The Wire reports.

Expand this summary.

In 1527 his arm was smashed by rioters. In 1991 a man attacked his toe with a hammer. Now, however, Michelangelo's David has suffered arguably his greatest indignity to date.

 To the horror of many in the Italian cultural establishment, the world-famous marble statue has been pictured in an advertisement cradling not a slingshot but an American-made rifle.

 An image of David brandishing an AR-50A1 sold by ArmaLite, a 60-year-old Illinois-based small arms engineering company, has provoked such ire in Italy that the culture minister took to Twitter to demand the advert be "immediately" ditched.

 "The advertisement image of the [statue of] David armed offends and infringes the law," read a post by Dario Franceschini. "We will take action against the American company which must immediately withdraw the campaign."

 Entitled A Work of Art, the advert shows David preparing to take on Goliath with the large rifle instead of his humble sling and stones.

 Florence, home not only of the 16th-century statue but also of the new prime minister, Matteo Renzi, has expressed particular indignation. The superintendent for the city's historical heritage and fine arts board, Cristina Acidini, has reportedly issued the company with a legal notice asking for the image to be withdrawn.

 A philosopher and the city's councillor for culture, Sergio Givone, claimed in newspaper La Repubblica the depiction was "a real abuse". "It is an act of violence towards the sculpture; like taking a hammer to it and perhaps, actually, even worse," he said.

 But art critic Philippe Daverio poured cold water on the row, comparing the US advert to tongue-in-cheek images of the Mona Lisa with a moustache. "Certain cultural icons belong to everyone and no one; to humanity in general," he was quoted as saying. ||||| An American assault rifle manufacturer has drawn the ire of Italy's culture minister after an advertisement depicting Michelangelo's David holding a massive AR-50A1 was published in an Italian newspaper.

 The ad is actually a year old -- the company tweeted it on May 15, 2013 -- and part of the company's "work of art" campaign:

 Another ad shows an ArmaLite AR-301A on the wall of a museum in between American Gothic and the Mona Lisa. The barrel of the gun is pointed at Mona Lisa's head. Italy's probably not going to like that one, either.

 The country, which claims the copyright to the statue, is trying to force ArmaLite to remove its ad. The director of the Accademia Gallery, where David (sans weapon) is on display, said the ad was both in "bad taste" and "completely illegal."

 "The image of David, armed, offends and infringes the law. We will take action against the American company so that it immediately withdraws its (advertising) campaign," Culture Minister Dario Franceschini tweeted (translation per the AFP).

 And the Historical Heritage and Fine Arts Board curator Cristina Acidini has issued a "legal notice" to the company demanding that it withdraw the ad.

 It's always nice to see America making such positive impressions overseas.

 ArmaLite is currently having a "McArmaLite March Sale" on its weapons, featuring the image of a leprechaun wielding one of its assault rifles. |||||


Summarize this article:

New California lawyers will soon have to swear to be courteous and dignified under a change in the legal oath approved by the California Supreme Court, it was announced Thursday.

 As of May 23, the oath required of lawyers admitted to the California bar will include a so-called civility pledge. The court adopted it at the urging of the American Board of Trial Advocates, which has pushed for the change nationwide, and the State Bar of California.

 New lawyers previously have been required to say this oath: “I solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of an attorney and counselor at law to the best of my knowledge and ability.”

 In the future, lawyers will have to make one more promise: “As an officer of the court, I will strive to conduct myself at all times with dignity, courtesy, and integrity.”

 Douglas DeGrave, a former president of the California Chapters of the American Board of Trial Advocates, called the revision a “historic moment for the legal community.”

 “As professionals, we have an obligation to conduct ourselves with dignity, courtesy, and integrity,” DeGrave said in a statement released by the court. “Many have forgotten these very principles to which we, as professionals, should always adhere.”

 Patrick Kelly, former president of the state bar, said the promise to be civil would remind lawyers to adhere to principles of professionalism, particularly in their dealings with clients, other attorneys and judges.

 Mark Robinson Jr., president of the American Board of Trial Advocates and a member of California’s Judicial Council, which sets policy for state courts, called the added language "a great thing for justice here in California."

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 Twitter:@mauradolan

 maura.dolan@latimes.com ||||| California’s 250,000 lawyers joined the bar by taking an oath to support the Constitution and do their best to “faithfully discharge the duties of an attorney.” Starting May 23, new lawyers will have to additionally swear to conduct themselves with “dignity, courtesy and integrity.”

 The so-called civility oath was approved Thursday by the California Supreme Court at the request of former State Bar President Patrick Kelly. As he was winding up his one-year term last October, the Los Angeles attorney said he was pushing for the new language based on his observation, after 45 years of practice, that too many lawyers aren’t treating each other as well as they used to.

 More than in the past, Kelly said, lawyers shout and swear at one another, make personal attacks in court filings, reject their adversaries’ routine requests to extend deadlines and adjust schedules, and even try to intimidate judges.

 Maybe some of that behavior would change, he said, if newly enrolled attorneys took a pledge of civility. It would at least remind them, Kelly said, that there’s more to being a lawyer than winning cases and billing clients. A lawyers’ association, the American Board of Trial Advocates, is campaigning to get other states to adopt the same language.

 Cynics among the public will probably compare the new oath to extracting a vow of gentility from a shark, and some specialists in legal ethics doubt that it will deter any uncivil behavior. On the other side, some have expressed concern that the State Bar would start disciplining lawyers for failing to act with “dignity” or “courtesy,” terms that are subject to a wide range of definitions.

 But both Kelly and a spokesman for the state’s high court said the civility oath was a general admonition that would not be a basis for discipline — unlike, say, lying or stealing, which can get a lawyer disbarred.

 “It’s a reminder of positive professional behavior, rather than a stick,” said the court spokesman, Cathal Conneely. |||||

– All new lawyers in California will soon have to make an added promise when joining the bar—to be nice to one another, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Beginning May 23, the oath one takes to "faithfully discharge the duties of an attorney" will be joined by language stating the lawyer "will strive to conduct myself at all times with dignity, courtesy, and integrity." The added language was OKed Thursday by the California Supreme Court at the urging of a former state bar president, who over his 45 years in the industry has found lawyers' bad behavior—swearing at peers, attacking each other in court filings, and bullying judges—on the rise. The civility oath will remind lawyers that the profession isn't just about winning cases, says Patrick Kelly. But as there's no penalty for breaking said promise, legal ethics experts wonder if it will deter such conduct at all. "It’s a reminder of positive professional behavior, rather than a stick," says a court rep. The pledge may not be unique to California for long. The American Board of Trial Advocates is campaigning to take the oath nationwide, the Los Angeles Times reports.


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See more of Princeton University on Facebook ||||| "He is a mathematical genius."

 So ends a recommendation letter written for the late John Forbes Nash, Jr., who was applying to attend Prince University's graduate college in 1948. The famed mathematician, whose life was the subject of Oscar-winning film A Beautiful Mind, is globally recognized for his research in game theory, as well as his struggle with schizophrenia. He won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1994.

 See also: A math question has been stumping thousands of British students

 The letter, which is dated Feb. 11, 1948 was written by well-known mathematician Richard J. Duffin, who kept it short and to the point:

 Princeton published the letter online Thursday.

 John and his wife Alicia Nash died in a car accident in New Jersey late last month. ||||| Mathematician Richard J. Duffin kept his letter recommending John Nash for graduate school at Princeton University brief.

 But the Feb. 11, 1948 letter includes a powerful line in support of Nash: "He is a mathematical genius."

 Nash was accepted.

 The man whose life was the subject of the movie "A Beautiful Mind" went on to win the Nobel Prize for economics in 1994. Nash was recently awarded the Abel Prize for mathematics.

 Nash, and his wife, Alicia Nash, died last month in a crash on the New Jersey Turnpike after returning from Norway to receive the top mathematics award.

 Princeton University posted the letter from Duffin, as well as other documents from Nash's academic record, online last week.

 Erin O'Neill may be reached at eoneill@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LedgerErin. Find NJ.com on Facebook. ||||| John Nash — the Princeton game theorist who shared the 1994 Nobel Prize in economics and was portrayed by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind — died in a car crash on May 23, along with his wife, Alicia. In light of his passing, Princeton has digitized his academic file and released it to the public; you can see the full PDF here.

 Probably the best document it contains is a recommendation letter by Richard Duffin, Nash's undergraduate advisor at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon), to Solomon Lefschetz, a math professor at Princeton, where Nash was applying to grad school:

 The letter was successful. Nash went on to get his PhD at Princeton. His dissertation, "Non-cooperative games," introduced a concept that would become known as the "Nash equilibrium," a crucial concept in game theory. Khan Academy explains the idea, and how it relates to the famous prisoner's dilemma game, here:

 Nash's dissertation has been cited about 7,189 times, according to Google Scholar, though that excludes many uses of the term "Nash equilibrium" that don't cite the actual paper. "If Nash got a dollar for every time someone wrote or said 'Nash equilibrium,'" Princeton economist Avinash Dixit once wrote, "he would be a rich man."

 Nash submitted his thesis in May 1950, when he was 21 years old. It was a mere 27 pages long, which includes an acknowledgements section and a very short bibliography. The entire dissertation cites only two sources: game theory's founders John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, and John Nash. |||||

– Like a strong, simple letter of recommendation? Well it helps if the subject is a genius. Mathematician Richard Duffin wrote a letter to Princeton University for John Forbes Nash, Jr., who became an esteemed mathematician and the subject of the film A Beautiful Mind, Mashable reports. Dated Feb. 11, 1948, the letter reads: "This is to recommend John F. Nash, Jr. who has applied for entrance to the graduate college at Princeton. Mr. Nash is 19 years old and is graduating from Carnegie Tech in June. He is a mathematical genius. Yours Sincerely, Richard J. Duffin." The letter was successful, notes Vox, and Nash went on to win the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994, the Star-Ledger reports. Nash and his wife died in a taxi crash last month, but weren't supposed to be in that taxi.


WASHINGTON — Searching for a way to satisfy both the United States government and its own shareholders, the board of BP was examining three options for what to do with its next dividend, a person with direct knowledge of the board’s discussions said Monday.

 The company’s $10.5 billion annual dividend has become a point of contention as President Obama has said BP should not be paying stockholders when fishermen, oil workers and small business owners are saying they cannot get the company to pay their loss claims from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

 The discussions came as Mr. Obama headed to the Gulf Coast on Monday, his fourth trip to the region since the disaster struck, and as the company said that it would increase the amount of oil they would recover from the damaged well daily.

 In answer to a request by the administration over the weekend that BP provide “a faster plan” to siphon off and collect the gushing oil, one with “greater redundancy and reliability,” the company said in a statement on Monday that it would move ahead with improvements to the system being used to siphon oil from the gushing well to boats on the surface, with the aim of increasing the amount of oil and gas it was collecting.

 Mr. Obama’s trip to the Gulf Coast will be his first overnight visit since the April 20 rig explosion that caused the spill and, after three trips to Louisiana, his first tour of the states to the east — Mississippi, Alabama and Florida — that are in the direction of the spewing oil’s drift. With each trip, he has grown more critical of BP’s response, channeling the increasing anger and desperation of coastal residents and politicians.

 The visit is part of a week of activities intended to convey presidential command of a crisis that continues to test both the government and BP, which said Monday that its costs of responding to the spill had risen to $1.6 billion.

 On his return, Mr. Obama will speak to Americans from the Oval Office, a setting that past presidents have often used but which Mr. Obama never has, despite the gravity of the issues his administration has already faced, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and the president’s signature domestic initiative, overhauling the health care system.

 Mr. Obama is expected to outline in his speech a plan to legally compel BP to create an escrow account to compensate businesses and individuals for their losses from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, administration officials said on Sunday.

 BP has said it does not expect to announce decisions about its dividend until after its chairman and chief executive speak with Mr. Obama at a meeting he has called for midweek.

 “We are considering all these issues and look forward to constructive conversations on Wednesday in the White House,” said Andrew Gowers, a senior BP spokesman.

 A person with direct knowledge of the board’s discussions said Monday that the board was considering three possible options: suspending payment of the dividend for two quarters, paying the dividend in bonus shares or escrowing the amount of the dividend while paying for the cleanup. Under the last option, BP would use cash generated from revenues to pay for the cleanup and would not tap the fund unless it was needed. This option, the person said, could offer some reassurance to both Washington and to shareholders that BP will pay for the cleanup while also trying to accommodate shareholders.

 As critics continue to fault Mr. Obama less for his administration’s overall response to the spill than for what they say has been his own slow and reactive leadership style, the ultimatum to BP and the president’s use of the solemn setting of the Oval Office escalate his personal engagement to a new level.

 On Sunday, the company used underwater robots to position sensors inside the well to measure how much oil is spilling, The Associated Press reported.

 The robots were expected to insert the sensors through a line used to inject methanol, an antifreeze meant to prevent the buildup of icy slush, into the containment cap over the ruptured pipe, said a BP spokesman, David Nicholas. The work should be completed by Tuesday.

 The actions set for this week reflect the administration’s efforts, nearly two months into the crisis, to telegraph a take-charge decisiveness when Mr. Obama and the federal government are all but powerless to actually resolve the calamity, given the sheer technological challenge of plugging a leak a mile below the gulf’s surface. Mr. Obama’s moves this week, together with events in Congress, put BP on the defensive more than at any other time since the explosion.

 The administration has said that while BP alone has the technological capability to stop the leak, it must take direction from Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard, Mr. Obama’s designated chief of the federal response, and other senior administration officials.

 The president’s meeting on Wednesday will be his first face-to-face contact with top company officials, after weeks of questions about why he has not done so before. BP has notified the White House that, as requested, the chairman of BP’s board, Carl-Henric Svanberg, will come. He will bring along the company’s embattled chief executive, Tony Hayward, who has been much criticized for statements that have been considered insensitive and self-serving.

 Mr. Hayward will be in the hot seat on Thursday as well, testifying before one of several Congressional committees investigating the spill.

 Although a containment cap has apparently reduced the amount of oil surging from the gulf floor, BP will face questions about last week’s determination from government scientists that the volume of spilled oil has been as high as 40,000 barrels a day — many times higher than BP ever acknowledged. Admiral Allen said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the “mid-30,000 range is what we’re looking at.”

 The installation of the sensors on Sunday was done at the request of the team of scientists, according to The A.P. ||||| In his showdown Wednesday with BP's top executives, President Obama will demand that they turn over a "substantial" amount of money to an independent mediator who will handle claims from people and businesses harmed by the environmental disaster, administration officials said Sunday.

 The White House wouldn't say how much money it wants BP to put in the new escrow account, but Senate Democrats named their number Sunday, sending a letter to BP asking it to create a $20 billion fund to handle economic damages and cleanup costs.

 BP did not reject the demands out of hand, and it took pains to avoid anything resembling a confrontational posture as it prepares for Wednesday's session.

 Behind the scenes, the situation is much tenser. The administration, under immense political pressure to show that it's fully in charge, is pressing BP to fully clean up the mess both environmentally and economically. BP, however, fears any plan going forward that would create a potentially unlimited liability.

 Whether BP accedes to the administration's latest demands will probably depend on the precise details of the third-party mediator process -- and most critically on what specifically will be considered a legitimate claim against the company.

 "We're looking forward to a very constructive discussion with the administration. We will want to explain what we're doing, but we'll also be very much in listening mode," BP spokesman Andrew Gowers said Sunday.

 The company's position is that it will pay for claims directly associated with the oil in the gulf. The Obama administration, however, ratcheted up the potential scope of BP's liability last week when Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told Congress that the administration wants BP to pay for the lost wages of oil industry workers affected by the moratorium on deep-water drilling. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, responding to questions from reporters, affirmed Salazar's position: "The moratorium is a result of the accident that BP caused. . . . Those are claims that BP should pay."

 The comments triggered a one-day slide of 16 percent in BP's share price on Wednesday, alarming shareholders and company officials, who regard such a plan as a deal-breaker. The stickiest issues could be hashed out in private before the White House meeting, where Obama will go face to face with BP's controversial chief executive Tony Hayward and the little-seen chairman of the board, Carl-Henric Svanberg, among other BP executives.

 "BP will not hand over a blank check to anyone, whether it's the administration or an independent mediator," said a person familiar with senior BP executives' thinking, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations. "BP will constructively engage in a process -- on the basis of transparent and pre-agreed rules -- a claims oversight process. That's a different matter."

 This has become a transatlantic issue that has alarmed officials in the United Kingdom, where BP plays an outsize role in pension funds. Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke Saturday and agreed that the company must do all it can to respond to the spill, the White House said.

 Obama will make his fourth trip to the gulf region Monday, then return to the capital for a Tuesday night address to the nation in which he is set to discuss the details of the escrow account, senior adviser David Axelrod said Sunday.

 "We want to make sure that money is escrowed for the legitimate claims," Axelrod said on NBC's "Meet the Press." The president's discussion with BP executives will focus on the amount of money that should be set aside in the account, Axelrod said. |||||

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– In his first-ever Oval Office speech tomorrow night, President Obama will demand that BP hand over billions of dollars to an independent mediator who will handle the claims of people and businesses affected by the Gulf oil spill. The White House hasn't named a sum, but House Dems asked BP for $20 billion for the escrow fund yesterday. The speech will come amid a week of activities that the president hopes will convince the public he's in control of the oil spill crisis, the New York Times reports. Those the administration wants BP to compensate include all oil industry workers affected by the current moratorium on drilling. The oil giant fears the plan would create unlimited liability for it, the Washington Post reports. Another current sore point as both sides gear up for Obama's meeting with BP leaders Wednesday is the $10.5 billion dividend BP had planned to pay out to shareholders, likely unfeasible in the current political environment. Topping off the week's confrontations with the government, BP head Tony Hayward will go before a congressional committee Thursday.


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America

 Edison's Talking Dolls Can Now Provide The Soundtrack To Your Nightmares

 i itoggle caption Collection of Robin and Joan Rolfs/Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park Collection of Robin and Joan Rolfs/Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park

 Back in 1890, Thomas Edison gave us some of the world's first talking dolls. Today, the glassy-eyed cherubs that are still around stand about 2 feet tall; they have wooden limbs and a metal body; and they sound supercreepy. (If you're looking for a soundtrack to your nightmares, listen to the audio story above.) Edison built and sold about 500 of them back in 1890. Now, new technology has made hearing them possible for the first time in decades.

 Jerry Fabris, who curates sound recordings at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, says part of what makes the recordings so unsettling is that they were most likely read by a female factory worker imitating a little girl. (For example: Here's a shrieking recitation of "A Child's Prayer" that you will never unhear.)

 Fabris says Edison was, for the first time, trying to market the then-brand-new wax cylinder phonograph for people to use at home, and he thought the best vehicle would be a doll. Its metal body held a miniature phonograph that was spring-activated by a crank sticking out of the doll's back. Edison knew the sound quality was raw, so he had the dolls recite recognizable verses like "Hickory Dickory Dock."

 i itoggle caption John Reed/National Park Service John Reed/National Park Service

 The recordings didn't sound much better in 1890 than they do today. Fabris says, "Edison himself thought they were unpleasant." And so did everyone else. The dolls flopped in the market, not because people thought they were creepy but because they were expensive — about $200 in today's money. People also thought the dolls weren't lifelike enough; they wanted moving mouths and for the dolls' voices to be understandable. Edison stopped making the dolls after about a month.

 "After the business failed, he referred to them as 'little monsters,' " Fabris says.

 And that raises a larger question: Why do we find talking dolls so scary? Talking toys occupy a horror subgenre so established that it's led to parodies. According to Georgetown University horror scholar Caetlin Benson-Allott, a talking toy belongs in an unsettling middle space: It's human, but not that human.

 "It's both familiar and different," she says, "and we don't kind of understand if it's entirely dead or entirely alive."

 It's what Sigmund Freud called "the uncanny," and we can feel it as a subconscious holdover from childhood, when we pretended our dolls were real. Even as knowing grown-ups, Benson-Allott says, there's a lurking apprehension "that that doll is actually alive and watching me."

 She says we've probably freaked ourselves out with dolls for as long as we've used dolls — in ritual and in play. From a talking doll to technology, she says, when we give anything power there's a sense — even a fear — that that power might turn back on us. ||||| Published on May 5, 2015

 Thomas Edison's talking dolls contain some of the oldest surviving voice recordings. A government laboratory was able to scan the fragile recordings and make them available to the general public. |||||

– We can thank Thomas Edison for plenty of things, but the world had little use for one of his inventions. Edison's talking dolls were among the first of their kind, NPR reports. But even in the 1890s, they scared kids—and were expensive—and only about 500 of them were built and sold. (Edison reportedly later referred to the failed dolls as "little monsters.") Some still exist, but they've been silent for years. Robin and Joan Rolfs, owners of two dolls, feared that operating the cranks on their backs could break them, the New York Times reports. Their voices came from recordings on wax cylinders, but if a doll's phonograph needle hit the cylinder again today, it could ruin it. The good news, at least for fans of extremely creepy 19th-century recordings, is that we can finally hear them again. That's thanks to the work of a physicist and an engineer, who developed a technology that uses a microscope to study the grooves on the cylinders before they are re-created as computer images and, ultimately, extremely accurate sounds. The cylinders don't have to be touched at all, the Times notes. "We are now hearing sounds from history that I did not expect to hear in my lifetime," the curator of the Thomas Edison National Historical Park tells the paper. The recordings feature what are supposed to be the voices of little girls reading nursery rhymes. But the curator tells NPR that they more likely contain recordings of factory workers mimicking little kids. "Edison himself thought they were unpleasant," he notes. PBS NewsHour calls them "nightmare fuel." (But is it enough to knock Edison off the list of the 10 most popular Americans?)


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– After enduring a ruckus over its segregated student government elections, a Mississippi middle school has nixed rules it says were put into place some three decades ago in order to ensure minority representation. Under the rules, white students were allowed to run for class president one year, black students the next. Other positions were similarly segregated at Nettleton Middle School, reports AP. The brouhaha began when a mother learned her white daughter could not run for the position of sixth-grade reporter. It spread to the blogosphere and ultimately led to the superintendent's reversal: "It is the belief of the current administration that these procedures were implemented to help ensure minority representation and involvement in the student body," the statement said. "It is our hope and desire that these practices and procedures are no longer needed."

A policy intended to achieve racial equality at a north Mississippi school has long meant that only white kids can run for some class offices one year, black kids the next. But Brandy Springer, a mother of four mixed race children, was stunned when she moved to the area from Florida and learned her 12-year-old daughter couldn't run for class reporter because she wasn't the right race.

 The rules sparked an outcry on blogs and other websites after Springer contacted an advocacy group for mixed-race families. The NAACP called for a Justice Department investigation _ not surprising in a state with a history of racial tension dating to the Jim Crow era.

 By Friday afternoon, the Nettleton School District announced on its website that it would no longer use race in school elections.

 Superintendent Russell Taylor posted a statement saying the practice had been in place for 30 years, dating back to a time when school districts across Mississippi came under close scrutiny from the U.S. Justice Department over desegregation.

 "It is the belief of the current administration that these procedures were implemented to help ensure minority representation and involvement in the student body," the statement said. "It is our hope and desire that these practices and procedures are no longer needed."

 Springer, who moved to Lee County from Florida in April, said her daughter was told the office of sixth-grade class reporter at Nettleton Middle School was available only to black students this year.

 Her anger grew when she saw school election guidelines that allowed only whites to run for class president this year. In alternating years, the positions would be reversed so blacks could run for president and whites could hold other positions, district officials said.

 Even if the rule is an attempt to ensure black and white participation, Springer said diversity is no longer a black and white issue, with a growing number of mixed-race children, Hispanics and other ethnicities attending school together.

 The school agreed, saying it the statement that it "acknowledges and embraces the fact that we are growing in ethnic diversity and that the classifications of Caucasian and African-American no longer reflect our entire student body."

 Springer is white. Her two older children, including the sixth grader, are half Native American. Her two younger children have a black father.

 "How are they supposed to be classified?" she asked.

 "My main concern is that the object of school is to prepare people for life. An employer could never do this: Advertise a position for a white man only or a black man only," she said. "This is not a lesson we want to teach."

 The changes in school elections may have come too late for Springer. Springer said she moved to another school district last week and pulled her kids from Nettleton Middle School.

 School administrators did not immediately respond to messages seeking further comment left Friday by The Associated Press.

 Nettleton is a town of about 2,000 people with a population that is about 66 percent white and 32 percent black.

 Springer's plight demonstrates the complexities faced not only by interracial families, but by school officials trying to achieve racial equality in a state known for tensions between blacks and whites. The school district also manipulated prom and homecoming elections so that the outcome is an equal division of blacks and whites.

 Springer and others worried that could leave out Hispanics, Asians or any other student from another race or ethnicity, Springer said.

 Springer's story spread rapidly on the Internet after she contacted a website for mixed families _ mixedandhappy.com.

 Suzy Richardson, the website's founder and the mother of four mixed-race children, said she and her husband have "raised our children to tell them they are black and white. They're half of me and half of dad."

 "It really made me upset (to hear Springer's story). The message that were sending to kids is that they have to choose one side of who they are," she said. "The message that we're sending our children is that we do things based on race."

 Before the school announced it was changing its practices, Charles Hampton, a vice president of the Mississippi NAACP, said he would ask the U.S. Justice Department to investigate.

 "That's something that shouldn't be happening anywhere in America, but we still have pockets of it happening at certain schools," Hampton said. "The local community needs to get involved and demand they change the policy." ||||| If we still have segregated proms in the American South, including in Mississippi, why not segregated middle school elections? Welcome to Nettleton Middle School, where not only are class elections segregated, but the president slots are designated for white students.

 But even segregated proms have an apparent black equivalent. In this middle school class officers election, there's no pretense of separate but equal: The highest a black student can aspire to is vice president of just one of the classes. Because it's not like a black person can be president or anything!

 Mixed And Happy, an online community for mixed-race families, first got wind of the situation from a parent at the school, who also found out that there are segregated prom and homecoming kings and queens. Among the many things that are wrong with this scenario is the fact that multiracial students, or those who are neither black or white, are erased. As the mother, Brandy, wrote Mixed And Happy,

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 "My son and daughter that go to this middle school are Native American and Italian. But, we also have 3- and 6- year olds that are African American and Italian. I would like to know which category they would lump them in. I have always taught my children not to see race. This is so disgusting to me."

 Brandy's daughter had wanted to be class 'reporter," but because her mother is white and her father is black, she wasn't eligible for the black-designated position. When Brandy complained to the School Board, "They told me that they 'Go by the mother's race b/c with minorities the father isn't generally in the home.' They also told me that 'a city court order is the reason why it is this way.'"

 Late last night, the principal of the school posted a statement on its website:

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 "Student elections have not yet been held at Nettleton Middle School for the 2010-2011 school term. The processes and procedures for student elections are under review. We are reviewing the origin of these processes, historical applications, compliance issues, as well as current implications and ramifications. A statement will be released when review of these processes is complete."

 Apparently it's just come to their attention that they're systematically racist! Thanks, Internet.

 Update: More details on the school, including its handbook-mandated homecoming segregation and black principal, as well as further comments from the mother who first complained.

 : Second Update: The school has reversed its policy, saying it was a rotation put into place 30 years ago to ensure diversity.

 Class President? Must Be White To Apply At This Mississippi School! [Mixed And Happy]

 Class Officers Segregated By Race [TSG]

 Earlier: Morgan Freeman Brings Integrated Prom To Mississippi School

 When Tradition Destroys Progress |||||


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Story highlights A man in England is infected with a form of the bacteria that is completely resistant to the first line of treatment

 Gonorrhea has been a growing concern as the bacteria adapt

 (CNN) Public Health England is investigating the case of a UK man infected with a multidrug-resistant form of gonorrhea.

 The man attended sexual health services this year and was found to be infected with a form of the bacteria that is completely resistant to the first line of treatment used against it.

 First-line treatment for gonorrhea is a combination of two antibiotics (azithromycin and ceftriaxone), and this is the first global report of an infection with high-level resistance to both drugs, according to Public Health England.

 The man caught the sexually transmitted infection in Southeast Asia one month before his symptoms began, the case report states.

 His infection is "is very resistant to the recommended first-line treatment," said Dr. Gwenda Hughes, consultant scientist and head of the sexually transmitted infection section at Public Health England. "This is the first time a case has displayed such high-level resistance to both of these drugs and to most other commonly used antibiotics."

 Read More ||||| Image copyright Getty Images

 A man in the UK has caught the world's "worst-ever" case of super-gonorrhoea.

 He had a regular partner in the UK, but picked up the superbug after a sexual encounter with a woman in South East Asia.

 Public Health England says it is the first time the infection cannot be cured with first choice antibiotics.

 Health officials are now tracing any other sexual partners of the man, who has not been identified, in an attempt to contain the infection's spread.

 He picked up the infection earlier in the year.

 The main antibiotic treatment - a combination of azithromycin and ceftriaxone - has failed to treat the disease.

 Dr Gwenda Hughes, from Public Health England, said: "This is the first time a case has displayed such high-level resistance to both of these drugs and to most other commonly used antibiotics."

 Discussions with the World Health Organization and the European Centres for Disease Control agree this is a world first.

 What is gonorrhoea?

 Image copyright CAVALLINI JAMES/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

 The disease is caused by the bacterium called Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

 The infection is spread by unprotected vaginal, oral and anal sex.

 Of those infected, about one in 10 heterosexual men and more than three-quarters of women, and gay men, have no easily recognisable symptoms.

 But symptoms can include a thick green or yellow discharge from sexual organs, pain when urinating and bleeding between periods.

 Untreated infection can lead to infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease and can be passed on to a child during pregnancy.

 Analysis of the man's infection suggests one last antibiotic could work. He is currently being treated and doctors will see if it has been successful next month.

 So far no other cases - including in the British partner - have been discovered, but the investigation is still under way.

 Dr Hughes added: "We are following up this case to ensure that the infection was effectively treated with other options and the risk of any onward transmission is minimised."

 Doctors have long been warning this could happen.

 In 2015, there was an outbreak of azithromycin-resistant gonorrhoea centred on Leeds.

 The fear is the bug could eventually become untreatable by any antibiotic.

 You may also be interested in:

 Dr Olwen Williams, the president of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV said: "The emergence of this new strain of highly resistant gonorrhoea is of huge concern and is a significant development.

 "We are concerned that the problem will worsen due to the dramatic cuts that have been delivered to the public health budget.

 "Worryingly this has left sexual health services at 'tipping point', with clinic closures coming at the worst possible time."

 Follow James on Twitter. ||||| This article is over 9 months old

 Public Health England say case is first global report of strand resilient to main antibiotic care

 A man in the UK has contracted a super-strength strand of gonorrhoea believed to be the first case globally to resist the main antibiotic treatment.

 Calls to rein in antibiotic use after study shows 65% increase worldwide Read more

 Public Health England (PHE) said the patient had a regular female partner in the UK, but contracted the infection from a sexual encounter with a woman in south-east Asia. He visited a health clinic for treatment in early 2018.

 Attempts to get rid of the sexually transmitted infection with the recommended treatment – a combination of antibiotics azithromycin and ceftriaxone – have failed.

 “We are investigating a case who has gonorrhoea which was acquired abroad and is very resistant to the recommended first line treatment,” Dr Gwenda Hughes, the head of PHE’s STI section said.

 “This is the first time a case has displayed such high-level resistance to both of these drugs and to most other commonly used antibiotics.”

 An analysis of the case for PHE notes it is the “first global report” of the infection resisting both antibiotics.

 Gonorrhoea can lead to infertility if left untreated and is known to cause symptoms including unusual discharge from the sexual organ and inflammation.

 Fears of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea spreading in the UK has prompted health officials to trace the man’s sexual partners to try to contain the spread.

 The man’s UK partner tested negative for the infection, the PHE report said.

 Dr Hughes added: “PHE actively monitors, and acts on, the spread of antibiotic resistance in gonorrhoea and potential treatment failures, and has introduced enhanced surveillance to identify and manage resistant strains of infection promptly to help reduce further spread.” |||||

– Learning you have gonorrhea is bad; learning officials consider your case of gonorrhea the "worst ever" is something else entirely. The Press Association reports a man in the UK was diagnosed earlier this year with what is believed to be the first strain of gonorrhea to be resistant to the main antibiotic treatment. Public Health England says the man contracted this super-gonorrhea during a sexual encounter with a woman in Southeast Asia. His symptoms appeared about a month later, according to CNN. As is usual with gonorrhea, doctors attempted to treat it with the antibiotics azithromycin and ceftriaxone. Unusually, the antibiotics didn't work. "This is the first time a case has displayed such high-level resistance to both of these drugs and to most other commonly used antibiotics," Dr. Gwenda Hughes with PHE says. The World Health Organization and the European Centres for Disease Control agree that it's a global first, the BBC reports. The man's antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea is a major concern for experts, who fear the STD becoming untreatable. "The bacteria that cause gonorrhea are particularly smart," Teodora Wi at WHO said last year. "Every time we use a new class of antibiotics to treat the infection, the bacteria evolve to resist them." Health officials are going back through the man's sexual history to keep the gonorrhea from spreading. So far no other cases have appeared, including in the man's regular female partner in the UK. Doctors are trying a final antibiotic on the man and will know if it worked next month.


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– A California man whose life was forever altered by donning a chicken suit for a high school pep rally has been awarded a lot more than chicken scratch in a lawsuit against Kern High School District. Mitch Carter was a 17-year-old student at Bakersfield High School in 2010 when he dressed up in the suit to mock the Golden Hawk mascot of arch-rival Golden West High School for an ill-fated skit, the Los Angeles Times reports. Students—including plenty of football players—piled on top of him, delivering kicks and punches in a beating that lawyers said left Carter with a traumatic brain injury. After a jury found the district liable for his injuries, it decided to settle with him for $10.5 million, most of which will be covered by insurance. Lawyers said Carter, once an honor roll student, has struggled with depression and poor grades in college since the beating. His future medical care costs will be more than $5 million, according to the lawyers. "I would trade everything just to have a full functioning brain," he said after the award was announced. The Bakersfield Californian recaps the wild trial that was brought to an end by the settlement. It included accusations of conspiracy and cover-up from Carter's lawyers, who brought in students to testify that the high school was obsessed with football and protected star players. During closing arguments, attorney Nicholas Rowley donned a chicken costume to make a point.

Mitch Carter testifies during the civil trail of his lawsuit against the Kern High School District for negligence as a result of injuries he sustained from a beating during a pep rally at Bakersfield High School in 2010.

 Attorney Nicholas Rowley donned this costume to make a point during closing arguments in the case of his client Mitch Carter versus the Kern High School District. Carter was roughed up while wearing a similar chicken outfit at a 2010 BHS pep rally skit meant to mock Clovis West school’s mascot, the Golden Eagles.

 Mitch Carter testifies during the civil trail of his lawsuit against the Kern High School District for negligence as a result of injuries he sustained from a beating during a pep rally at Bakersfield High School in 2010.

 Attorney Nicholas Rowley donned this costume to make a point during closing arguments in the case of his client Mitch Carter versus the Kern High School District. Carter was roughed up while wearing a similar chicken outfit at a 2010 BHS pep rally skit meant to mock Clovis West school’s mascot, the Golden Eagles.

 The Kern High School District agreed Wednesday to pay $10.5 million to a former student injured in a violent dog pile that broke out during a 2010 Bakersfield High School pep rally, cutting short an ongoing civil trial that threatened to cost the district’s insurance company even more money.

 The student, Mitch Carter, will use that money for healthcare-related costs, his trial attorney Nicholas Rowley said during a press conference outside Kern County Superior Court.

 A jury had already found the district liable for Carter’s injuries, which his lawyers said included brain damage. It was in the process of determining monetary damages and was expected to award more than $45 million, Rowley said based on interviews his side conducted with jurors in court Wednesday.

 “They would have given him more, but the school district would have appealed,” Rowley said, adding the appeals process could have lasted years. Carter needs that money now, he said.

 The district’s insurance company, New Jersey-based Everest National Insurance Company, will pay the lion’s share of that $10.5 million settlement, Rowley said.

 “No matter what, I'd trade everything just to have a full functioning brain,” Carter said outside court Wednesday. “But I think that this is a good step in the right direction.”

 INEXCUSABLE BUT A SURPRISE

 Carter was mobbed by a group of students in 2010 when he put on a chicken costume meant to mock an opposing team’s mascot during a pep rally the day of a championship football game. Members of the football team pounced on him, punching, kicking and leaping onto a dog pile that Carter has said left him with a traumatic brain injury.

 Jurors found the district negligent.

 Defense attorney Michael Kellar on Wednesday described what happened to Carter in 2010 as “embarrassing and inexcusable,” and that it never should have occurred, “but came as a total surprise and sudden surprise to school staff.”

 He said KHSD’s insurance company made the decision to settle, wanting to reduce the risk of an even higher jury award than the $10.5 million.

 In an emailed statement, KHSD officials said they will reevaluate their safety policies in light of the incident and accept responsibility.

 “We understand the reasons why Self-Insured Schools of California and the excess insurance carrier chose to settle this case,” the statement reads. “The District is going to take this opportunity to evaluate its standards, policies and practices to ensure that every student is educated in a safe and secure environment — because every parent and student should expect nothing less.

 “We sincerely wish Mr. Carter and his family all the best as they move forward.”

 The settlement ended a seven-day civil trial that shed light on shoddy safety practices at Kern High School District, revealed questionable policies and disorganization between the KHSD Police Department and school administrators, was fraught with accusations of conspiracy and cover-up and concluded with a lawyer donning a chicken suit in court.

 At one point, when Kellar made an objection asking what the “chicken dance” was early in the trial, Rowley came close to demonstrating it in court.

 “Do we need to go over what the chicken dance is?” Rowley asked.

 A CHANGE IN POLICY

 When Carter stepped into his chicken suit Dec 10, 2010, his attorneys said he became part of a tradition at Bakersfield High School. That tradition is one where students or teachers are asked to dress up in a costume of the opposing team's mascot and take a beating before a big game.

 It happened to teacher Bob Stone in 2005, they said, something defense attorneys attempted to have excluded as evidence.

 Rowley said he's confident the jury's verdict and the settlement will force KHSD to change policy and never allow this to happen again or else “we'll be at that next school board meeting.

 “When a jury speaks, people listen,” he said.

 Carter's lead attorney, Ralph Wegis, had in the past turned down settlement offers of $50,000 and $1 million before the trial began June 16.

 KHSD IS ‘DESPICABLE’

 Rowley, who questioned the majority of witnesses, said he bears “no bad blood” with Bakersfield High School. But Wegis, who has called the district's actions “despicable,” won't be satisfied until administration reorganizes, he said.

 “It's going to continue to be despicable until I hear from the school district that we have fired somebody and we have fired them because that's not who we want to be in the future,” Wegis said.

 He'd start by eliminating top administrators, he said, and terminating anyone who lied during the trial. That includes Bakersfield High School Head Football Coach Paul Golla, whom Wegis says he was able to impeach as a witness.

 Golla testified Thursday that he wasn’t in the gym when the dog pile took place. But a scout from USC testified Monday that he watched the dog pile form and was sitting next to Golla at the time.

 “I would go down with every single person that had their fingerprints on this, so everybody who doesn't have their fingerprints on it says you could lose your job if safety isn't No. 1,” Wegis said. “If you lie in court you could lose your job. That’s not the example we're setting for our children.”

 Rowley told reporters Wednesday that there “was some confusion” when Golla said he was not in the gym. Kellar remains steadfast in his Golla’s testimony.

 “He said he wasn't there. So I'm taking him at his word, and you know, there may be some misunderstanding from the other coach as to when they did leave or if Golla left before him or if Coach Golla's attention was distracted somewhere else,” Kellar said.

 That testimony, however, didn’t play a significant role in determining the district’s liability, Kellar said.

 “I think it's incorrect to assign any claim that these employees lied or intentionally misled. Because I think that’s just the opposite and they had nothing to gain by it,” Kellar said.

 CONSPIRACY THEORY ‘RIDICULOUS’

 Meanwhile, during his closing statements, Rowley accused the district of carrying on a “conspiracy” and “cover-up.”

 Neither Golla nor BHS Activities Director Anna Lovan saw the dog pile form, they both testified. The lone KHSD police officer investigating the matter hadn’t seen the witness reports taken by school administrators until he was presented with them during the trial.

 BHS Principal David Reese testified that he had no advance knowledge that a chicken suit would be used in a pep rally skit, but Lovan testified later that he approved it.

 This was all orchestrated, Rowley asserted during trial.

 Kellar called that assertion “ridiculous” Wednesday.

 “There was no conspiracy,” Kellar said. “There may have been some lack of appreciation for what went down in the gym because the principal wasn't there, there was no video available immediately and Miss Lovan's view was obstructed in the initial moments of the dog pile.”

 Rowley painted a picture during the trial of a school obsessed with football, creating a culture where star players are looked on as gods and protected by administrators. Students testified to that.

 When Carter turned in a starting player who he said was stealing from backpacks, and later stole Carter’s wallet while he was in the shower, Golla shined him off, he testified. Golla offered Carter $20 from his wallet as consolation and didn’t discipline the player, Carter said.

 “He's not 'Mitch the snitch' anymore, or the kid in the chicken suit,” Rowley said Wednesday. “He's somebody who stood up for himself in our justice system and made the world a safer place.”

 Carter said he hopes to someday attend law school so he can stand up for those who need their voices heard.

 “I had a great man stand up for me when no one else would,” Carter said. “I’d love to do that and stand up for the kid who needs to be stood up for.” ||||| Midway through the skit but before the public beating, Carter had tried to stop his performance. After two students hit and knocked him over, he told a school administrator that he would not continue wearing the chicken costume, Rowley said. |||||


Government requests directed to Google and YouTube

 Like other technology and communications companies, we regularly receive requests from government agencies around the world to remove content from our services, or provide information about users of our services and products. The map shows the number of requests that we received between July 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009, with certain limitations.

 We know these numbers are imperfect and may not provide a complete picture of these government requests. For example, a single request may ask for the removal of more than one URL or for the disclosure of information for multiple users. See the FAQ for more information.

 (Data in JSON format.)

 We’re new at this, and we’re still learning the best way to collect and present this information. We’ll continue to improve this tool and fine-tune the types of data we display. ||||| Google Inc. moved to highlight the issue of government censorship and demands for information about Web users, just as the Internet company came under fire from a group of government officials over the way it handles user privacy.

 The Silicon Valley giant Tuesday disclosed for the first time the number of requests it has received from government agencies for data about its users. Google also disclosed how many government requests it gets to remove content from its search engine, YouTube video site, Blogger blogging software and other services.

 Jessica Vascellaro and Julia Angwin talk to Simon Constable about the letter issued by 10 countries demanding that Google build more privacy protections into its services.

 Google is also showing how often it complies with government demands to remove Web content and said it later plans to include how often it turns over data on users. Google's disclosure tool, an online country map, excluded data for China where Google says numerating the requests would be illegal.

 David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, said the company decided that "greater transparency" about its activities could lead to less censorship. "We hope this tool will shine some light on the scale and scope of government requests for censorship and data around the globe," he wrote in a blog post.

 Google's move comes as its critics continue to accuse the company and its peers of being reckless with user data. On Tuesday, a group of privacy commissioners from countries including Canada, France and the United Kingdom held a press conference to push Google to build better privacy protections into its services. On Monday, the group sent a letter scolding Google over privacy.

 A Google spokesman said the company "released the tool now because we thought it would be useful in conversations about this trend."

 Google is pushing a broad campaign to try to curb censorship, an issue that contributed to a recent decision to shut down its censored search service in China. While Google faces heightened criticism for not doing enough to explain how it uses the information it collects, the company is trying to draw attention to other entities that seek user data.

 Privacy advocates—who have long hounded Internet companies to be more open about how they use what they collect—praised the move. "It puts some numbers behind all the stories we have," said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based digital rights non-proft organization.

 Others cautioned the raw numbers are hard to interpret, in part because there is little to compare them with. But they said that showing how countries stack up is a first step.

 Google says government requests for user data go through Google's legal team, which examines each to see if it is valid based on the law, narrows the request if possible and complies only when it must legally do so. Some requests are backed by court order; others aren't.

 View Full Image Associated Press A Google sign at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

 The company says it tries to notify users when information about their accounts has been requested. A Google spokesman said it is sometimes asked for account and log-in information.

 The company's new disclosure tool shows that Brazil made the most requests for user data during the last six months of 2009, with 3,663. The U.S. was second with 3,580. Brazil also led with 291 requests for removal of content, with Germany in second place and the U.S. fourth, behind India.

 Brazil's Ministério Público Federal, its federal prosecution service, said in a statement late Tuesday that it "acts based on reports of crime or complaints received directly from users" or forwarded by a nonprofit dedicated to child safety, according to a translation of the statement.

 "The information released today by Google demonstrates the care with which all levels of law enforcement agencies treat electronically protected data," said a spokeswoman for the Justice Department. She said the number of requests in the U.S. "reflects a targeted approach by law enforcement agencies to effectively root out" crimes by criminals such as identity thieves and child predators.

 The Mountain View, Calif., company stressed limitations to the data, which don't include countries where it receives a small amount of requests or statistics that could jeopardize important investigations. In the case of YouTube, the company said the data doesn't include requests by government agencies for removal of copyrighted content.

 In their Monday letter to Google, the privacy commissioners scolded the company for what they describe as a range of privacy abuses, ranging from inadequate protections in its social-networking service Buzz to its procedures for retaining images it gathers for its Street View mapping services. It calls on Google to create "privacy-protective" default settings and make it easy for people to delete their accounts, among other measures.

 "We are increasingly concerned that, too often, the privacy rights of the world's citizens are being forgotten as Google rolls out new technological applications," reads the letter, which also asks for Google to issue it a response for how it plans to meet these requirements. "Privacy cannot be sidelined in the rush to introduce new technologies to online audiences around the world," it states.

 A Google spokesman said in its response to the letter Monday that the company has "discussed all these issues publicly many times before" and had nothing to add.

 European authorities have been among the Internet giant's harshest critics when it comes to privacy issues, pressuring the company to shorten the time it retains search logs, for example.

 European governments blasted a settlement between Google, authors and publishers over digital books in part over concerns with what Google would do with users' reading records.

 Criticism is the U.S has been building too. A group of lawmakers recently asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google's roll-out of its Buzz service, which they contend exposed private information about Google users. Monday's letter also dwells on Buzz, claiming its launch "betrayed a disappointing disregard for fundamental privacy norms and laws." Days after launching Buzz, Google acknowledged it should have made some user privacy controls more prominent and adjusted the service.

 Write to Jessica E. Vascellaro at jessica.vascellaro@wsj.com |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Google has won the praise of privacy advocates by rolling out a tool that shows just how often governments ask for information about its users. Of the countries listed on Google Disclosure—which omits China—Brazil leads the way with 3,663 requests for data during the second half of 2009, the Wall Street Journal reports. The US is second with 3,580 requests. The tool also reveals demands that certain content be removed. Each request for information is run through the company's legal department, said a Google spokesman. "We hope this tool will shine some light on the scale and scope of government requests for censorship and data around the globe," said Google's chief legal officer. "We also hope that this is just the first step toward increased transparency about these actions across the technology and communications industries."