For politics fans, it’s easy to get caught up in fun Electoral College scenarios — ones in which small states make a big difference or in which the House of Representatives has to decide the election. The alternative — endlessly repeating that “Florida is important; Ohio is important” — can get tiresome. That said, Ohio is important, and Florida is super important.

 Florida has a 19 percent chance of providing the decisive vote in the Electoral College according to our polls-only forecast. It’s the most likely “tipping-point state,” in FiveThirtyEight parlance. That’s up from 16 percent just two weeks ago. There’s only one other state with a better than 10 percent chance of casting the decisive electoral vote: Pennsylvania, at 12 percent.

 Florida tends to be a crucial battleground state in presidential elections (more on this in a moment), but it’s become even more pivotal in recent weeks in the race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Clinton has improved her position nationally and in Florida, but she’s made a bit more progress in the Sunshine State, moving it closer to the national average. Clinton leads by about 3 percentage points nationally and by about 1 point in Florida. That’s made it more plausible that Clinton could hold onto Florida while losing some light-blue states.

 Let’s say, for example, that on Election Day, Clinton underperforms with white voters without college degrees even more so than she is doing now. Her support would collapse in the Midwest, and her troubles in Maine would likely bleed over into New Hampshire. But Florida is more diverse, with one of the largest groups of Latino voters of any battleground state and a sizable African-American population. So, in this scenario, the nonwhite vote in Florida might allow Clinton to hold onto the state even if she were to lose Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio and Wisconsin.

 And that’s a winning map:

 If Clinton wins Florida, Michigan and New Hampshire, she can afford to lose Pennsylvania, where she’s held a lead even as she’s trailed Trump in next-door Ohio.

 Indeed, winning Florida opens up so many electoral paths for Clinton that it’s probably a must-win for Trump. If he loses Florida, Trump wins the presidency only 5 percent of the time according to our polls-only forecast. (Clinton, on the other hand, wins the election 33 percent of the time without a victory in Florida.) Considering that Clinton has led in every post-debate survey in Florida and has a small lead there in our polls-only forecast, you can understand why Clinton is currently a favorite to win the election.

 Florida has two basic things going for it that make it so pivotal. The first, as I mentioned, is how closely the state mirrors the national vote. It’s about 2 or 3 percentage points more Republican-leaning than the country at the moment. Nevada and Wisconsin are about as equally close to the national margin, and the only states closer are Colorado (the current tipping-point state according to our forecasts), New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Considering that the election is a little more than a month away and the inherent error in any forecast, it’s possible that the vote margin in Florida ends up as close or closer as in these other states.

 The other factor that makes Florida important is its large population. None of the states listed in the previous paragraph besides Florida has more than 20 electoral votes. Florida has 29. It’s possible, therefore, for a candidate to lose smaller swing states and make up for those losses by winning in Florida.

 No single state guarantees victory. The notion of a “must-win” state tends to be overplayed — instead, the states tend to move in concert, and the winner of the national popular vote almost always wins in the Electoral College. But Florida is about as close to an all-important state as we’re likely to see. ||||| NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump is making the unprecedented assertion that the general election "is going to be rigged," and many people who are drawn to his presidential campaign have major doubts about the accuracy of the Nov. 8 vote.

 Only about one-third of Republicans say they have a great deal or quite a bit of confidence that votes on Election Day will be counted fairly, according to a poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

 Half the people who have a favorable opinion of the Republican nominee say they have little to no confidence in the integrity of the vote count, the poll finds.

 "Trump has finally said something that that I've been thinking for years," said Jonathan Robinson, 30, a Trump supporter from Columbia, Missouri. "I don't think the votes have been counted properly for years. There's voter fraud and attempts to game the system. I don't trust it at all."

 Such fears of voter fraud are unfounded. There is no evidence it is a widespread problem in the United States. A study by a Loyola Law School professor found that out of 1 billion votes cast in all American elections between 2000 and 2014, there were only 31 known cases of impersonation fraud.

 Still, among people overall, only 4 in 10 have a lot of confidence in votes being counted accurately, though an additional 3 in 10 say they're at least moderately confident.

 Fifty-nine percent of those who have a favorable opinion of Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, have quite a bit or a great deal of confidence, compared with just 29 percent of those who have a favorable opinion of Trump.

 Overall, 35 percent in the poll say there's a great deal of voter fraud in American elections, 39 percent say there's only some and 24 percent say there's hardly any.

 About half of Republicans, but only about one-quarter of Democrats, say they think there's a great deal of voter fraud. Also, 58 percent of those who have a favorable opinion of Trump think there's a great deal of fraud, while just 18 percent of those who like Clinton say the same.

 Some Trump supporters said they are taking their cue from the candidate.

 In August he made the extraordinary claim — one he did not back up with any evidence — that the election will be fixed. That assertion threatens the American tradition of peacefully contested elections and the essence of a fair democratic process.

 Trump has continued to make the charge at other rallies.

 In Michigan on Friday, for example, Trump urged supporters to vote and then go to a different polling place with friends and make sure "it's on the up and up." He said voter fraud is "a big, big problem in this country" but "nobody has the guts to talk about it."

 While raising such unsubstantiated concerns about the fairness of the election, Trump said in Monday's first general election debate that he would abide by its result. Though he initially dodged moderator Lester Holt's question about accepting the outcome, Trump eventually said of Clinton, "If she wins I will absolutely support her."

 But in a New York Times interview, Trump indicated he was reconsidering that statement. "We're going to have to see. We're going to have to see what happens. We're going to have to see," he was quoted Saturday as saying.

 The poll also found that nearly 8 in 10 people say they favor requiring voters to provide photo identification in order to vote, while just 1 in 10 are opposed.

 "Any objection to having to show voter ID is just wrong," said Etan Markowitz, 76, a Democrat from Culver City, California, who is crossing party lines to vote for Trump. "I think there is voter fraud: people voting more than once, and early voting and absentee ballots give too many opportunities for fraud. We need extensive reform."

 Democrats worry that strict voter ID laws could lead to the disenfranchisement of poor, often minority voters who don't have ID.

 While most Americans feel that new technologies have made vote counting more accurate overall, many have at least some concern about hackers interfering with the election. Forty-one percent say they're extremely or very concerned and 35 percent who say they're somewhat concerned. Fifty-two percent of Republicans and 35 percent of Democrats say they're extremely or very concerned.

 The top Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence committees say they've concluded Russian intelligence agencies were trying to influence the U.S. presidential election.

 On Friday, a Homeland Security Department official told the AP that hackers have targeted the voter registration systems of more than 20 states in recent months. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and requested anonymity.

 Julio Carmona, a 31-year-old Clinton supporter from Bridgeport, Connecticut, asked: "If these people can go into the DNC and hack, who is to say that that can't get there and sway the vote to Trump? What if the Russians really can do something like that?"

 ___

 The AP-NORC poll of 1,022 adults was conducted Sept. 15-18 using a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

 Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods, and later interviewed online or by phone.

 ___

 Online:

 AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/

 ___

 Follow Jonathan Lemire and AP Polling Editor Emily Swanson on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/JonLemire and http://twitter.com/El_Swan |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Another year, another election, and Florida still continues to be one of the most influential states in the Electoral College. Political pundits have paid special attention to this swing state after its unique role in determining the winner of the 2000 election, and the story isn't any different this cycle. Polling and statistics site FiveThirtyEight—which correctly predicted the entire Electoral College map in 2012—estimates Florida is the most likely "tipping point" state for the 2016 election. Currently, Hillary Clinton holds a 1-point lead in Florida. Florida's large allotment of 29 electoral votes means Clinton could afford to lose several other states if she was able to hold on to Florida. Trump, data shows, does not have that luxury. The businessman needs Florida to put together any sort of plausible electoral win—at least according to current polls. Trump has made no secret that he doesn't trust the polls, and according to the AP, neither do his supporters. So at least in Trump-land, there may be more paths to victory that don't include Florida. But for now, experts say Trump and his campaign should be spending a lot of time down South in the sun. Read FiveThirtyEight's full post here.


Here is a news article: February 5, 2016 at 4:00 PM Share

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 Listen, resting bitch face (RBF) is a thing -- you know it, we know it, and now science knows it. In fact, scientists even went so far as to conduct a study on resting bitch face (you know, because inquiring minds apparently want to know why some folks look uber pissed off all the time).

 We all know that Kanye doesn't think smiling is "cool," but as it turns out, he's probably just suffering from resting bitch face like many of us common folk are. The study says that while most faces register 97 percent neutral, with 3 percent underlying emotion (the part that produces resting bitch face), folks like Kanye have more than your average underlying emotion in their expression -- up to 6 percent, in fact.

 Just another reason to note that the music and fashion mogul is super special. We dug up our favorite examples of Kanye showing off his resting bitch face for you to enjoy. You can thank us later.

 Image via Splash News ||||| Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. |||||

 Actress Anna Kendrick, a self-described lifelong RBF sufferer. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

 Queen Elizabeth has it. So does fashion designer Victoria Beckham. And actress Kristen Stewart — poor thing, she’s practically the poster girl.

 Among the slew of pop culture icons said to be afflicted with so-called Resting Bitch Face (alternatively known as Bitchy Resting Face), the vast majority are women, though Kanye West is among the male examples. All of them have been mocked by Internet commenters for having a certain unintentional expression when their faces are not in motion — a look best described as vaguely annoyed, maybe a little judgy, perhaps slightly bored.

 Since the RBF meme took over the Internet in 2013, fueled by a viral mock-PSA about “Bitchy Resting Face,” legions of people have identified the dreaded phenomenon in celebrity listicles, in their own social circles, even in the mirror.

 Kristen Stewart of “Twilight” fame, often considered the poster girl for RBF.

 So Jason Rogers and Abbe Macbeth, behavioral researchers with international research and innovation firm Noldus Information Technology, decided to investigate: Why are some faces seen as truly expressionless, but others are inexplicably off-putting? What, exactly, makes us register a seemingly neutral expression as RBF?

 “We wanted this to be fun and kind of tongue-in-cheek, but also to have legitimate scientific data backing it up,” Macbeth said.

 [Why the Internet’s biggest conspiracy theories don’t make mathematical sense]

 The researchers enlisted Noldus’s FaceReader, a sophisticated tool engineered to identify specific expressions based on a catalogue of more than 10,000 images of human faces. The software, which can examine faces through a live camera, a photograph or a video clip, maps 500 points on the human face, then analyzes the image and assigns an expression based on eight basic human emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, contempt, and “neutral.”

 To establish a baseline, Rogers and Macbeth first had FaceReader assess a series of genuinely expressionless faces. Those expressions registered about 97 percent neutrality, Macbeth said; the remaining three percent included “little blips of emotion” — a touch of sadness here, a hint of surprise there, but nothing significant.

 The FaceReader software analyzes Kanye, one of the few men commonly associated with RBF. (Courtesy Noldus Information Technology)

 Then they plugged in photos of RBF all-stars Kanye West, Kristen Stewart and Queen Elizabeth. Suddenly, the level of emotion detected by the software doubled to six percent.

 One particular emotion was responsible for the jump: “The big change in percentage came from ‘contempt,’” Macbeth said.

 [Facebook’s ‘teen dating’ groups are every parent’s nightmare come to life]

 And how exactly does a piece of software measure contempt in a face?

 It’s in subtle signals, like “one side of the lip pulled back slightly, the eyes squinting a little,” Rogers explained.

 Or: “It’s kind of a tightening around the eyes, and a little bit of raising of the corners of the lips — but not into a smile,” Macbeth suggested.

 The cues are understated, yet the machine detects and interprets them the same way our human brains do, she said. “Something in the neutral expression of the face is relaying contempt, both to the software and to us.”

 Queen Elizabeth II, also considered a prime example of RBF (even this portrait bust of her, by the late British sculptor Oscar Nemon, looks a bit severe)

 But there was one big difference, she added. FaceReader, being a piece of software and therefore immune to gender bias, proved to be the great equalizer: It detected RBF in male and female faces in equal measure. Which means that the idea of RBF as a predominantly female phenomenon has little to do with facial physiology and more to do with social norms.

 [Scientists have found that smoking weed does not make you stupid after all]

 Consider actress Anna Kendrick, who has publicly bemoaned the effect of RBF on her life.

 “When she was younger, directors would say, ‘Why don’t you smile more, you need to smile more, you don’t seem like you’re very happy,’” Macbeth said. “That’s something that’s expected from women far more than it’s expected from men, and there’s a lot of anecdotal articles and scientific literature on that. So RBF isn’t necessarily something that occurs more in women, but we’re more attuned to notice it in women because women have more pressure on them to be happy and smiley and to get along with others.”

 Worried that you might have RBF? Now you can find out for sure. After publishing their results in October, Rogers and Macbeth invited members of the public to submit their own faces for analysis. Guys and gals alike are welcome to email photos of their most “neutral” facial expressions to jason@noldus.com, and FaceReader will tell you if you’re actually expressionless — or if you and the Queen have RBF in common. ||||| We all know that face. Pursed lips, daggers eyes and a look that says, "I hate you," or at least, "I'm annoyed." The expression can wreak havoc on relationships, as highlighted by this comic video from 2013 explaining the affliction popularly known as Resting Bitch Face (RBF), or sometimes, Bitchy Resting Face.

 Jason Rogers and Abbe Macbeth, behavioral researchers with Noldus Information Technology, wanted to find out why some people's neutral expressions are interpreted so negatively, and why we react to them this way.

 They ran a series of videos and images through FaceReader, a software program that maps more than 500 points on a face to determine the emotional expression on display. The software looked for signs it associates with the six universally identified emotions: happy, angry, sad, scared, disgusted and surprised. The software could also identify an expression as "neutral" or as displaying contempt. (According to the study, contempt is a more recently recognized emotion with universal reach that is visually defined as "lips and brow not quite angry or sad, the lip tightened and raised more strongly on one side than the other.")

 They tested images and videos featuring celebrities who are famous for displaying RBF, including Kristen Stewart, Queen Elizabeth and Kanye West.

 Neutral test faces measured very low for signs of contempt, accounting for only 3 percent of the overall emotional expression, but that figure spiked to 5.76 percent on faces displaying RBF.

 This illustration shows how the software interpreted study author Abbe Macbeth's neutral expression, which registered low in contempt:

 Noldus Information Technology

 By contrast, video of this woman in the study registered high in contempt:

 Noldus Information Technology

 "What we take away from this study is that there is an underlying, unconscious contempt aspect to the neutral face of people who are said to have RBF," study author Macbeth told CBS News in an email. "Something in the person's face is relaying greater-than-trace amounts of contempt, but they don't intend that to be the case. Yet the software (and we as humans, viewing the face) see that contempt and react negatively to it."

 A scan of Kanye West's face also registered traces of contempt, the researchers said.

 NOLDUS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

 Want to know if you have RBF? You can test yourself on the Noldus Information Technology website.

 And to people who do have RBF -- this author included -- Macbeth says not to worry. "At this point, we can't 'fix' anyone's face, even though we've had requests from people to do so, as this study has hit the internet this week," she said. "I don't think that it's worth getting stressed out over." |||||
A summary of this is?

– What do Queen Elizabeth, Kanye West, and Kristen Stewart have in common? They all have Resting Bitch Face—or, as New York puts it, a "face combining disgust, better-than-you snobbery, and boredom." Actress Anna Kendrick even once tweeted, "Is there a filter on Instagram that fixes Bitchy Resting Face? Asking for a friend." The not-so-formal condition came to prominence in 2013 with a "Bitchy Resting Face" PSA by Funny or Die. Now, behavioral researchers Jason Rogers and Abbe Macbeth with Noldus Information Technology have used science to uncover why some people's resting faces are expressionless while those of others are considered angry and judgmental, the Washington Post reports. The pair used software called FaceReader, which maps 500 points on the human face and assigns expressions based on the emotions of happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, contempt, and "neutral." When the researchers plugged in faces of famous RBF faces, the software lit up. "Something in the person's face is relaying greater-than-trace amounts of contempt, but they don't intend that to be the case," Macbeth tells CBS News. That includes signals, Rogers tells the Post, such as "one side of the lip pulled back slightly, the eyes squinting a little." One key point: The researchers found that the condition afflicts men and women equally. "This means that classifying RBF as a female-dominant expression of bitchiness is actually quite wrong, and probably a reflection of societal expectations of women," observes the post at New York. (The Stir amplifies the point that men are affected, too, with a gallery of Kanye West RBF photos.) Can anything be done about RBF? "We can't 'fix' anyone's face," Macbeth, also a sufferer tells CBS. But, she adds, "I don't think it's worth getting stressed out over." (Here's one woman talking about her RBF.)


Article:

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A convicted killer who is the subject of the Netflix series "Making a Murderer" filed a wide-ranging appeal claiming authorities used an improper warrant and that a juror was out to get him, among other things.

 FILE - In this March 13, 2007 file photo, Steven Avery listens to testimony in the courtroom at the Calumet County Courthouse in Chilton, Wis. Avery, a convicted killer who is the subject of the Netflix... (Associated Press)

 Steven Avery, who's seeking to be released on bond, was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide in the death of photographer Teresa Halbach a decade ago. Avery had been wrongfully convicted years earlier in a rape case and served 18 years in prison. He had sued Manitowoc County for tens of millions before he and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, were arrested in Halbach's death.

 The appeal, filed Monday in an appeals court in Madison, bears Avery's signature and contains numerous spelling and grammar errors. His new attorney's name doesn't appear on it.

 Manitowoc County Sheriff Robert Hermann said Tuesday he hasn't seen the appeal, but he has said in the past that the investigation was proper.

 The filmmakers behind "Making a Murder" cast doubt on the legal process used to convict Avery and Dassey, and their work has sparked national interest and conjecture. Armchair investigators have flooded Twitter and message boards, and key players in the case have appeared on national news and talk shows.

 Authorities involved in the case have called the 10-hour series biased. Filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos, meanwhile, have stood by their work.

 Avery's new attorney, Kathleen Zellner, wasn't immediately available for comment Tuesday.

 In the filing, Avery takes issue with a search conducted during the murder investigation, saying it improperly included multiple properties and therefore any evidence that was uncovered "is clearly 'FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE.'" The appeal also says that a juror tainted other jurors "THROUGH DIRECT OR INDIRECT IN FLUENCE," stating numerous times that Avery "IS F------ GUILTY."

 He also said Judge Angela W. Sutkiewicz made misleading statements and that his lawyers were ineffective.

 ___

 Follow Greg Moore at https://twitter.com/writingmoore . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/greg-moore ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

 Steven Avery, the convicted killer featured in Netflix's "Making a Murderer," won't be pardoned if Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has anything to do about it.

 Tens of thousands of people have signed petitions for Avery to be exonerated in the October 2005 killing of Teresa Halbach after the documentary suggested that Avery might have been a stooge for a conspiracy.

 Avery, 53, insists he didn't kill Halbach, a 25-year-old freelance photographer. He is serving life in prison for murder, and Brendan Dassey, his nephew, who was a teenager at the time of the killing, is serving life as an accessory.

 The White House has previously pointed out that President Barack Obama can't pardon Avery because he wasn't convicted of a federal crime.

 Related: 'Making a Murderer' Inspires Pardon Petitions for Steven Avery

 And Monday, Walker — a tough-on-crime Republican who has never issued a pardon during his five years in office — indicated in a statement posted to social media that he wouldn't start with Avery.

 The statement links to an August 2011 decision by a three-judge panel of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. The judges upheld Avery's conviction, ruling that the removal of a juror from his trial and the introduction of key evidence found in his home were proper.

 Kathleen Zellner, an Illinois lawyer who specializes in seeking reversals of convictions, took over last week as head of Avery's defense. She said in a statement that the defense has uncovered new evidence that will exonerate Avery — but she didn't say what it was. |||||
What is a summary?

– Steven Avery has filed a fresh appeal in his Wisconsin murder case—and thanks to the hit Netflix documentary Making a Murderer, there are now a lot more people paying attention. The appeal filed in a Madison court on Monday, which can be seen in full here, accuses authorities of searching his property illegally and claims that a juror with a preconceived notion that he was guilty improperly influenced other jurors during his 2007 trial for the murder of Teresa Halbach, the AP reports. Avery recently secured new legal representation from Chicago-area lawyer Kathleen Zellner and the Midwest Innocence Project, reports WBAY, but Monday's court filing appears to have been prepared without the new legal team. Zellner specializes in reversing convictions, and she says she has found new evidence that will exonerate Avery, reports NBC News. The Netflix documentary suggests that Avery—who served 18 years for a rape he didn't commit before being released two years before the Halbach murder—is the victim of a conspiracy, and a petition urging President Obama and Gov. Scott Walker to free him now has more than 415,000 signatures. Walker, however, has never pardoned anybody, and WBAY reports that he has signaled he isn't going to start with Avery. Netflix viewers "should read the unanimous opinion of the Court of Appeals before jumping to conclusions," he said in a Facebook post.


Article:

Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| Casey Anthony's Parents Defend Themselves in First Interview

 Two months after their daughter was acquitted of murdering their granddaughter, Casey Anthony's parents, George and Cindy Anthony, have broken their silence and granted an interview to Dr. Phil McGraw , who confronts them about certain aspects of the case.In excerpts that aired Monday on NBC's Today show, McGraw asks Cindy about her distraught MySpace message that began "My Caylee is missing," which she posted on July 3, some 12 days before 2-year-old Caylee Anthony was reported missing. Did Cindy know Caylee had vanished?"Caylee was missing in my heart that day. She wasn't missing physically. I thought I knew where she was at," Cindy says. "I wanted Casey to know how much she was hurting me. And I thought she was purposely keeping Caylee away from me."McGraw also asks both parents about the smell in the trunk of Casey's car. What do they believe caused that odor now?"Truthfully, to this day, I don't know, to be honest," says Cindy. George adds: "Do I want to believe Caylee was back there? I don't want to believe it. I'm going by what the investigators have told me. All I know is that Caylee is not with us anymore. I know that. I know that."Cindy also defends George against the suggestion that he knew of Caylee's disappearance. "George would have never have put us through those six months of not knowing where Caylee was if he knew where Caylee was," she says. "I watched his heart break every single day. And I watched him as frantic as he was."The full interview – for which McGraw's production company reportedly paid a fee to Caylee's Fund, not directly to the Anthonys – will air Tuesday and Wednesday on his TV show.For more on Casey Anthony's true-crime drama, based on PEOPLE's unparalleled access at key moments of the case, buy PEOPLE's book Outrage, available now at People.com/caseyanthony |||||
What is a summary?

– Casey Anthony’s parents are finally speaking out about their daughter’s case in an interview with Dr. Phil McGraw set to air tomorrow and Wednesday, and tidbits are trickling out, People reports. In a clip aired this morning on Today, McGraw asks Cindy Anthony about a post she wrote on MySpace 12 days before Caylee was reported missing that read, prophetically-seeming, "Caylee is missing." But Cindy had no idea Caylee was actually gone that day. She was "missing in my heart," she explains. "She wasn't missing physically. I wanted Casey to know how much she was hurting me. And I thought she was purposely keeping Caylee away from me." Cindy says she "truthfully" doesn’t know why the trunk of Casey’s car smelled suspicious. "Do I want to believe Caylee was back there?" asks George Anthony. "I don't want to believe it. I'm going by what the investigators have told me." As for questions over whether her husband was aware Caylee was missing: "George would have never have put us through those six months of not knowing where Caylee was if he knew where Caylee was," Cindy says. "I watched his heart break every single day."


Here is a news article: Three law enforcement agencies have been searching for a 19-year-old Johns Creek man since last Saturday; now they're asking for help from the public in finding him.

 Aftab M. Aslam, who is 5 feet, 10 inches tall, 165 pounds and has medium-length black hair, was first reported as being kidnapped on April 27 at 10 a.m. Johns Creek Police responded to his Morton Crossing address, where officers were told he was missing from his home.

 "Aslam's family reported that they had received a phone text stating that he had been kidnapped," a news release from the city said.

 Bringing the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) into the case, investigators found the phone used to send the text and discovered that Aslam had been the one to purchase it. Now authorities believe Aslam may have sent the text to his family.

 Anyone who has had contact with Aslam or has any information regarding his whereabouts should contact Det. James Harris at 678-274-8348 or by e-mail at: james.harris@johnscreekga.gov. ||||| This post was contributed by a community member.

 A Johns Creek man originally reported to be kidnapped April 27 returned to his Morton Crossing home unharmed Sunday evening around 9. Aftab Aslam told investigators he left on his own.

 Aslam was reported missing about 10 a.m. on April 27 from his parents' home. They received an early morning text saying the 19-year-old was kidnapped.

 Investigators from Johns Creek, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation discovered that Aslam had bought the cell phone that sent the text, and that no one else had handled the phone.

 Aslam told police he left home for personal reasons. Investigators are verifying his account, and charges have not been filed yet. ||||| Just One More Thing...

 We have sent you a verification email. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your profile.

 If you do not receive the verification message within a few minutes of signing up, please check your Spam or Junk folder.

 Close |||||
A summary of this is?

– A 19-year-old college student was flunking English again, so he did what any struggling student fearful of mom and dad's wrath would do: faked his own kidnapping, police say. Aftab Aslam's parents got a text saying the Georgia Gwinnett College student had been kidnapped; if they called police, he'd be killed, the message said. Turns out the text came from a phone Aslam himself had bought at Target, according to police, who were in fact told of the text by Aslam's parents right after they received it on April 27, reports Johns Creek Patch. Aslam surfaced at his home eight days later, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. At first, he told police he'd been taken and drugged, but eventually he retracted the story, and the truth came out. He had actually camped in a tent in an undeveloped section of Forsyth County but returned when the weather got bad, police say. He turned himself in last week and now faces a slew of charges, including three felony counts each of false statements, tampering with evidence, and terroristic threats.


Write a summary based on this article:

About 10,000 people from Myanmar fled across the border into Thailand on Monday to escape fighting between Myanmar government forces and a splinter group of rebels of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, military and border officials told CNN.

 The rebels and Myanmar forces clashed over control of the town of Myawaddy, which sits across the Moei River from Mae Sot, Thailand. The Thailand-Burma Friendship bridge connects the two towns.

 Lt. Col. Vannathit Wongwai, commander of Thailand's 3rd Region Army, said Myanmar military officials told him they had retaken control of Myawaddy at 5 p.m. local time after bringing in 500 reinforcements to battle the Karen splinter group.

 At least five Myanmar refugees and five Thais were injured in the fighting. Shells fell on the Thai side of the border, but the Thai military did not return fire, military officials told the Bangkok Post.

 According to a report on the website Burma Election Tracker, the clashes began when DKBA militia members who had been employed as government border security troops rebelled because the Myanmar military was forcing people to vote at gunpoint.

 "In order to win votes in the elections, [the junta] is bullying and forcing people to vote. But the people want to boycott [the vote], so the soldiers are holding them at gunpoint and our troops had to intervene and take sides with the people," the website report quotes Brig. Gen. Na Kham Mwe, head of the breakaway DKBA faction, as saying.

 Polls were supposed to have closed Sunday in Myanmar's first election in 20 years, which critics have called a façade of democracy put forth by the ruling military junta.

 Opposition parties were either limited in the candidates they could run or boycotted the election altogether. The junta did not allow international monitors.

 The Karen ethnic minority in Myanmar is divided into two main groups, Buddhists who support the ruling junta and Christians who do not. Those behind Monday's clashes have split from the pro-junta group. ||||| Thousands of Myanmar refugees have crossed into Thailand amid the clashes [Reuters] Fighting between Myanmar government troops and ethnic fighters has sent at least 10,000 people fleeing into Thailand a day after the military-led nation held a much-criticised election.

 Clashes were reported on Monday at key points on the border with Thailand, leaving at least three people dead and 10 others wounded on both sides of the frontier.

 The clashes follow a demonstration by the fighters over Sunday's general election, Myanmar's first in 20 years, as well as attempts to force ethnic minority troops to join a border guard force - which would put them under state control. A simmering civil war has wracked parts of Myanmar since independence in 1948 and observers say the state's determination to crush ethnic anti-government fighters appeared to have increased in the lead up to the election.

 In the heaviest fighting, Karen fighters reportedly seized a police station and post office on Sunday in the Myanmar border town of Myawaddy.

 Sporadic gun and mortar fire continued into Monday afternoon. Stray rocket

 Al Jazeera's Marga Ortigas, reporting from the Thai border town of Mae Sot, said that a stray rocket propelled grenade crossed into Thailand, injuring five people.

 "The clashes appear to be between a faction linked to the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and government-backed troops," Ortigas said.

 "This faction has said it did not support the ceasefire the DKBA signed with the Myanmar government, and have reiterated that they want their own autonomy."

 Our correspondent also said refugees from Myanmar who crossed the border into Thailand feared government troops would shoot them for failing to vote on Sunday. Zipporah Sein, the general secretary of the Karen National Union (KNU), said fighting broke out between up to 300 DKBA soldiers and government forces. "We don't know definitely but I think last night the army sent over more troops, they negotiated and the DKBA retreated but this morning they were blocked by army trucks and then it started," she said. 'Foul play'

 Myanmar, also known as Burma, drew international criticism over Sunday's vote with Barack Obama, the US president, saying the election was stolen.

 Al Jazeera's special correspondent reports on the difficulty in ascertaining the true will of the people "It is unacceptable to steal elections, as the regime in Burma has done again for all the world to see," Obama, currently on a tour of four Asian nations, said in a speech to India's parliament in New Delhi.

 Europe and Japan also condemned the conduct of the poll as state TV reported that voters "freely and happily" cast their ballots.

 State media, featuring photos of Than Shwe, the country's ruling general and other senior leaders voting, announced the "winners" in 57 constituencies, 55 of which were contested by just one candidate, more than two thirds of those with the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

 In many constituencies, the poll was a two-way battle between the USDP and the National Unity Party (NUP), which is the successor to former leader Ne Win's party and also closely aligned with the military. A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said voter turnout was estimated at more than 60 per cent but that the results from the whole country could take one week. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said voting conditions had been "insufficiently inclusive, participatory and transparent". Than Nyein, chairman of the National Democratic Force, created by former members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said the election was marred by irregularities.

 "It's very different from our expectation because of foul play," he told the AFP news agency.

 "We have our evidence. Some candidates complained ... because there was vote cheating."

 'Missed opportunity' Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Thai prime minister, has said that ethnic minority clashes with the military in eastern Myanmar could continue for months. He also said that the country was ready to provide humanitarian assistance as refugee numbers continue to rise.

 "It is possible that it will carry on during the next three months, particularly during the transition from the current government to an elected government," Abhisit told reporters in the Bangkok, the Thai capital.

 With no specific time given for the release of election results, Western powers were labelling the vote as a "missed opportunity". But some saw the poll as a small step towards democracy after almost five decades of military rule, with opposition parties confident of success in areas they did contest.

 However, with 25 per cent of the seats in parliament reserved for military appointees regardless of the outcome, the two main pro-military parties needed to win just 26 per cent of the remaining seats to secure a majority.

 Al Jazeera's correspondent in Myanmar added that despite opposition groups running in the polls, electoral advantages had been skewed towards the USDP. Advance ballots

 Two opposition parties accused the USDP of illegally collecting advance ballots. Election Facts 29 million eligible voters 40,000 polling stations 3,071 candidates from 37 political parties 82 independent candidates 494 seats in the two-chamber parliament 665 seats spread among 14 regional parliaments The NDF said some people had complained that they were told by the USDP there was no need to vote as their ballots had already been collected. More than 29 million people were eligible to vote but it remains uncertain as to how many actually cast ballots.

 International condemnation of the polls continued to grow, with Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, saying Washington would maintain "rigorous sanctions" against the Myanmar government.

 The electoral process was "severely flawed, precluded an inclusive, level playing field, and repressed fundamental freedoms," Clinton said. After the election, attention is now turning to whether the government will release Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday, when her current term of house arrest ends.

 The Nobel Peace Prize winner led the NLD to power in 1990 but the result was never recognised by the ruling generals.

 She has been detained for most of the last 20 years and supported a boycott of Sunday's election. |||||

– Some 10,000 people fled across the border from Myanmar into Thailand today to escape fighting between government troops and a splinter of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army rebel group. At least three people have been killed and 10 others wounded in the battle, which broke out in the eastern border town of Myawaddy, according to Al Jazeera. Members of the DKBA militia had been working as border security troops for the government, but rebelled when they saw that the military was forcing people to vote at gunpoint, according to a Burmese web report quoted by CNN. “The people want to boycott [the vote], so the soldiers are holding them at gunpoint and our troops had to intervene and take sides with the people,” a militia general said.


News article:

(CNN) Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, has been "under criminal investigation" for months in New York because of his business dealings, the Justice Department said Friday.

 The revelation comes amid a courtroom drama that unfolded Friday, as Cohen's attorneys and Trump's attorneys began a fight hours before with the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan over a massive raid of Cohen's records.

 Cohen's attorneys have filed a temporary restraining order in the matter, asking the court to stop federal prosecutors from using some of the records they seized. Cohen did not appear in court Friday morning and has not been charged with a crime.

 In response to Cohen's motion to prevent prosecutors from using evidence collected in Monday's raids of his home and office, the US attorney in New York asserted the raids were authorized by a federal judge to seek evidence of conduct "for which Cohen is under criminal investigation."

 A court filing did not detail what Cohen is under investigation for.

 But the filing contains the first details released by the Justice Department on the searches, which covered Cohen's residence, hotel room, office, safety deposit boxes and two cell phones. Previous search warrants allowed New York federal prosecutors to search multiple email accounts, the filing said. In them, they found that Cohen had done "little to no legal work, and that zero emails were exchanged with President Trump."

 The prosecutors assert that they have confidence that any seized material would not fall under the significant amount of attorney-client privilege that Cohen has claimed. They said Cohen has told at least one witness that his only client was Trump.

 The prosecutors noted Cohen had personally not turned over any documents to Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation. Initially, Mueller had requested some records from Cohen while he was with the Trump family company — a position he held for about a decade — yet dropped the request after Cohen pushed back. Mueller's office referred the case about his business dealings to New York but hasn't been involved since, the Manhattan prosecutors said.

 Monday's raids included a search for communications related to efforts to suppress negative information ahead of the election, including communications that Trump had with Cohen regarding the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape that captured Trump making lewd remarks about women that surfaced a month before the election, CNN reported this week

 It also potentially involved records related to porn star Stormy Daniels, who was paid $130,000 weeks before the election to silence an alleged affair she had with Trump. Records related to Cohen's taxi medallion business were also sought.

 Prosecutors say they've set up what's known as a " taint team " or "filter team" to review Cohen's documents so nothing they seized is used improperly or breaches client confidentiality.

 Each search warrant specifically describes how records seized that may fall into attorney-client privilege will be filtered out by a team that's walled off from the federal agents who have conducted the investigation, the prosecutors wrote.

 Once they've reviewed the records, the filter team can give to the investigators communications "between Cohen and persons with whom Cohen undisputedly does not have an attorney-client relationship," likely meaning the records wouldn't be between Cohen and Trump, prosecutors said. The filter team is working from a list of individuals and companies they've compiled regarding people who aren't Cohen's legal clients.

 Cohen's lawyers, for their part, have asked to review the material for themselves, a proposal which the Manhattan prosecutors are fighting.

 The Southern District of New York prosecutors also heard from Trump Organization lawyers, who want them to throw out all communication between Cohen, the company and its employees.

 Following the hearing Friday, the judge ordered the parties to return to court Monday for another hearing, where Cohen will have to be present.

 Joanna Hendon, a new lawyer for Trump who appeared in court, said her law firm, Spears & Imes LLP, was engaged by Trump on Wednesday and she was "not prepared" to present her argument.

 The Justice Department is asking for a so-called taint team to vet the material seized in the raids Monday, as is standard process. Cohen's lawyer is asking for the lawyers themselves to review the material or a "special master" to decide what is relevant to the case, and Hendon is concerned about a taint team or however the material is handled.

 On Monday, Cohen's attorney called the searches "completely inappropriate and unnecessary."

 "It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his client," attorney Stephen Ryan said in the statement.

 Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for Stormy Daniels, also made an appearance at the hearing. In a footnote in its filing, the prosecutors expressed doubt that any communications between Trump and Cohen regarding a payoff to Daniels before the election would be covered under attorney-client privilege. They cited the President's own comments. ||||| President Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen has been under criminal investigation for months, largely centering around his business dealings, federal prosecutors in New York said in court documents obtained by ABC News.

 Interested in Donald Trump? Add Donald Trump as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Donald Trump news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest

 Today, prosecutors acknowledged publicly for the first time Friday that they seized records this week from Cohen.

 The revelation came as Cohen and Trump sought a court order barring federal prosecutors from accessing the records they took during raids on his home and office Monday morning.

 Lawyers for Cohen and Trump, neither of whom was present in court, argue that at least some of the records are subject to attorney-client privilege and should not be viewed by prosecutors until they, or an independent third party appointed by the court, have a chance to review the material.

 Cohen "applied [Thursday] evening for an opportunity to take the first cut" at determining whether the documents are privileged or relevant to the investigation, Judge Kimba Wood said. "Both parties recognize the search of an attorney's devices and offices are subject to special consideration."

 Jeenah Moon/Reuters

 A hearing Friday in Manhattan federal court was put on hold until Monday after an attorney for Trump intervened and requested additional time.

 "He as an acute interest in these proceedings," said Joanna Hendon, an attorney for the president who said she was hired Wednesday night.

 Hendon noted the "exceptional nature" of her client and expressed concern about the prosecutors' internal "taint team" that separates evidence that is privileged from evidence that is available for prosecutors to view.

 "We don't need to rush," Hendon said. "There is an appearance of fairness problem."

 A taint team is a group of people who help determine what falls under attorney-client privilege and should not be shared with investigators. It's standard when searching a lawyer's office.

 “The government’s use of a filter team appropriately protects applicable privileges," the court documents obtained by ABC News state.

 Monday’s search was broader than previously reported: in addition to Cohen's home and office, there were court-authorized searches of a safety deposit box and two cellphones.

 Cohen “is being investigated for criminal conduct that largely centers on his personal business dealings,” according to court documents.

 The federal prosecutor’s office “has already obtained search warrants -- covert until this point -- on multiple different email accounts maintained by Cohen, and has conducted a privilege review of the materials obtained pursuant to those warrants,” the court documents state.

 That review, prosecutors said, showed that Cohen "is in fact performing little to no legal work and that zero emails were exchanged with President Trump."

 Cohen has not been charged with anything. He has not responded to news he is under investigation, declining to comment when contacted by ABC News.

 Justin Lane/EPA via Shutterstock

 Thomas McKay, one of the prosecutors handling the case, said the president's attorney-client privileges are no different than anyone else's. He accused the president and Cohen of delay tactics but promised prosecutors would not view any of the seized material until the judge makes her ruling following the hearing on Monday.

 Also at issue was how much of this dispute will happen in open court. News organizations objected to parts of the hearing -- originally scheduled without notice -- taking place outside of public earshot.

 “I don’t take this position lightly,” said Wood.

 Rachel Strom, an attorney for ABC News, successfully argued to keep most of the hearing open to the public.

 "This is the most important hearing that’s happening today and the public has a right to know how the court is going to handle the search of the president’s lawyer’s documents," Strom said. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Trump attorney Michael Cohen is indeed under criminal investigation. That might not be a huge shock given that FBI agents raided his office earlier this week, but the Justice Department revealed that fact for the first time in a court document Friday, reports CNN. Cohen “is being investigated for criminal conduct that largely centers on his personal business dealings,” according to the document, though any further details were redacted. Another nugget: The raid turned out to be more extensive than thought, reports ABC News, with agents also searching a safety deposit box and two cellphones, in addition to Cohen's home and office. All of this came to light as part of a legal fight related to the raid. Attorneys for Cohen and President Trump want to block federal prosecutors from the seized documents until it can be properly determined if any should be shielded by attorney-client privilege. Friday's hearing in Manhattan was pushed into Monday when an attorney hired Wednesday by Trump, Joanna Herndon, requested more time. "He has an acute interest in these proceedings," she said of the president.


Dartmouth College accused 64 students of cheating in a sports ethics class last semester, the latest in a string of cases of academic dishonesty involving athletes at elite U.S. colleges.

 Students used a hand-held device known as a clicker to answer questions for classmates who were absent, according to Randall Balmer, who teaches the class, “Sports, Ethics and Religion.”

 “I feel pretty burned by the whole thing,” Balmer, chairman of Dartmouth’s religion department, said in a telephone interview. “I’ve never faced anything on this scale before.”

 The class was designed in part to appeal to athletes at Dartmouth, Balmer said. He said he discovered 43 of the almost 300 students in the class were cheating and reported them to Dartmouth’s judicial board as a violation of the school’s honor code. Another 21 then came forward and turned themselves in to the school, he said.

 An appeal process is under way and should be finished by the end of this month to determine how many students will be suspended, said Diana Lawrence, a spokeswoman for the college in Hanover, New Hampshire. The disciplinary action was reported earlier by the local Valley News newspaper.

 Harvard University investigated 125 students in 2012 for inappropriate collaboration on a take-home final exam in a U.S. government course. Half were told to withdraw for a year, including the senior co-captains of the basketball team, while the rest were given probation.

 Paper Classes

 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last year detailed an academic fraud that spanned 18 years and made it easier for student athletes to maintain eligibility to play. An independent investigation found that 3,100 students took so-called paper classes with no faculty involvement or class attendance.

 Aine Donovan, director of Dartmouth’s ethics institute, said more students are cheating at colleges, reflecting a culture where students are “raised with the notion that they are the best, not with the notions of integrity, responsibility and self-sacrifice.”

 “It’s a difficult notion for an 18-year-old -- self-regulation,” Donovan said. “Our society doesn’t encourage that anymore.”

 To contact the reporter on this story: Michael McDonald in Boston at mmcdonald10@bloomberg.net

 To contact the editors responsible for this story: John Hechinger at jhechinger@bloomberg.net Stephen West ||||| According to the Valley News, 64 Dartmouth students have been charged with honor code violations after the school discovered widespread cheating in an ethics course designed to help struggling student-athletes.

 Almost a quarter of those enrolled in "Sports, Ethics and Religion" this fall are said to have participated in the scheme, which involved students answering questions for absent classmates on electronic devices designed to record attendance.

 "I feel pretty burned by the whole thing," religion professor Randall Balmer told Bloomberg. "I've never faced anything on this scale before."

 Rather than flunk the accused students, Balmer ultimately decided dropping their scores by a letter grade was the right thing to do, not that any of them would know it. ||||| Department of Religion Chairman Randall Balmer, who in November accused some of his students of misrepresenting their class attendance, said that “with a few exceptions, most of the students were suspended for a term.”

 The college’s head of judicial affairs, Leigh Remy, declined to comment, though spokeswoman Diana Lawrence confirmed the number of students facing possible sanctions.

 Lawrence said that the college would not make detailed comments on the judicial proceedings until the appeals process ends in mid-January.

 According to Balmer, in late October, students who failed to attend class passed off handheld devices known as “clickers” to classmates. Those students then used the gadgets to answer questions on the absent students’ behalf to make it appear as though they were present in class, Balmer said.

 Though Balmer said that 43 students — less than the total number of students facing sanctions — handed off their clickers to their peers, some others confessed to him that they had helped their friends cheat.

 The course in question was originally intended to help student-athletes, who sometimes had trouble with the coursework at Dartmouth, Balmer said. After a popular first run last year, the fall term’s class swelled to more than 280 students, and attendance and cheating became a problem.

 Balmer left Columbia University to teach at Dartmouth in 2012. He also contributes regular essays to the Valley News’ Perspectives section.

 In the Dec. 7 Valley News piece “Whatever Happened to Honor at College?”, Balmer argued that the college’s 53-year-old academic honor principle was out of touch with the mores of current-day society, where he said personal advancement outranks abstract moral principles.

 “The whole affair is sad and regrettable,” he wrote. “Dozens of students will very likely have a stain on their college transcripts. A level of trust between professor and student, so necessary for effective teaching and learning, has been broken. Dartmouth’s reputation as a first-class educational institution (which it is) has taken a hit, at least in the short term.”

 He said that he had first sought to resolve the matter outside of the college judicial process, but that academic regulations forced him to report the students.

 Dartmouth’s student handbook outlines the potential sanctions a student faces for honor code violations.

 “Given the fundamental nature of the Academic Honor Principle in an academic community, students should expect to be suspended if they engage in acts of academic dishonesty,” it says. “Any student who submits work which is not his or her own, or commits other acts of academic dishonesty, violates the purposes of the College and is subject to disciplinary action, up to and including suspension or separation.”

 Additionally, faculty members “may reserve the right to fail the student for the exercise, the course, or both.”

 Balmer said in an email Wednesday night that “after many sleepless nights,” he had decided to drop the marks of the accused students by a full letter grade, rather than fail them.

 Dartmouth runs on 10-week terms, and as part of the “D-Plan” schedule, students may be away from campus during the year for internships, foreign study programs or other reasons. The college judicial affairs website says that suspended students may not participate in any of Dartmouth’s academic or extracurricular activities, nor may they obtain course credits elsewhere during their punishment.

 A spokesman for the athletic department could not be reached for comment Wednesday on whether sports players could see additional sanctions from their coaches.

 Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or 603-727-3242. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– One might expect students taking a class called "Sports, Ethics, and Religion" to know better, but Dartmouth College says that it's uncovered widespread cheating in a class with that title, reports Bloomberg. "I feel pretty burned by the whole thing," says class professor Randall Balmer, who says he found 43 kids were using a clicker to answer questions for absent students. "I’ve never faced anything on this scale before." After he made the bust, and reported it as an honor code violation, another 21 students came forward. The class was aimed at jocks, and many of those accused are student athletes, notes the Valley News. Laments Dartmouth's ethics institute director, the current generation was "raised with the notion that they are the best, not with the notions of integrity, responsibility, and self-sacrifice. It’s a difficult notion for an 18-year-old—self-regulation." Balmer opted to drop students by a letter grade rather than flunk them, in what Gawker says is "the right thing to do, not that any of them would know it."


Article:

SEOUL (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he plans to visit North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, North Korean state media reported on Sunday, potentially the first meeting between Kim and another head of state in Pyongyang.

 “I am going to visit the DPRK and meet HE Kim Jong Un,” Assad said on May 30, North Korea’s KCNA news agency reported, using the initials of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

 There was no immediate comment from the Syrian president’s office.

 Assad reportedly made the remarks as he received the credentials of North Korean Ambassador Mun Jong Nam.

 Pyongyang and Damascus maintain good relations, and United Nations monitors have accused North Korea of cooperating with Syria on chemical weapons, a charge the North denies.

 Both countries have faced international isolation, North Korea over its nuclear weapons program, and Syria over its tactics during a bloody civil war.

 Since the beginning of the year, however, North Korea’s Kim has launched a flurry of diplomatic meetings with leaders in China and South Korea, and is scheduled to hold a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12.

 Since taking power in 2011, Kim has not publicly met with another head of state in North Korea.

 “The world welcomes the remarkable events in the Korean peninsula brought about recently by the outstanding political caliber and wise leadership of HE Kim Jong Un,” Assad said, according to KCNA. “I am sure that he will achieve the final victory and realize the reunification of Korea without fail.”

 Slideshow (2 Images)

 According to South Korea’s foreign ministry, North Korea established diplomatic relations with Syria in 1966, opening its embassy in Damascus. Syria opened its mission in Pyongyang in 1969.

 Close military cooperation between the two countries began when North Korea sent some 530 troops including pilots, tank drivers and missile personnel to Syria during the Arab-Israeli war in October 1973.

 “The Syrian government will as ever fully support all policies and measures of the DPRK leadership and invariably strengthen and develop the friendly ties with the DPRK,” Assad said, as quoted by KCNA. ||||| SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea's state-run news agency reported Sunday that Syria's President Bashar Assad is interested in visiting North Korea and meeting leader Kim Jong Un.

 The KCNA report said Assad made the comments May 30 while receiving the credentials for the North Korean ambassador.

 "I am going to visit the DPRK and meet HE Kim Jong Un," Assad was quoted saying, using the acronym for the North's official name.

 There was no indication that such a trip had been planned.

 The report also quoted Assad saying he was sure Kim that would "achieve the final victory and realize the reunification of Korea without fail."

 Syria's government did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.

 The report comes as international attention is focused on a summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump scheduled for June 12 in Singapore. |||||
What is a summary?

– North Korea's state-run news agency reported Sunday that Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is interested in visiting North Korea and meeting leader Kim Jong Un. The KCNA report said Assad made the comments May 30 while receiving the credentials for the North Korean ambassador, reports the AP. "I am going to visit the DPRK and meet HE Kim Jong Un," Assad was quoted as saying, using the acronym for the North's official name. There was no indication that such a trip had been planned. "The world welcomes the remarkable events in the Korean peninsula brought about recently by the outstanding political caliber and wise leadership of HE Kim Jong Un," Assad said, according to KCNA, via Reuters. "I am sure that he will achieve the final victory and realize the reunification of Korea without fail." Syria's government did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday. The report comes as international attention is focused on a summit between Kim and President Trump scheduled for June 12 in Singapore.


Write a summary based on this article:

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 Get digital access ||||| NORMAN — A conservative state senator who once wanted to be a missionary was accused Thursday in a child prostitution case of offering to pay a 17-year-old boy for sex.

 Sen. Ralph Shortey, R-Oklahoma City, was charged with three felony counts, one week after police found him with the teenager in a Moore hotel room.

 Gov. Mary Fallin, Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb, Senate leaders and many others called Thursday for him to resign.

 The accusations "do not reflect the character and decorum that we expect of an elected official," Fallin said. "It is not acceptable."

 The evidence against Shortey includes a graphic online conversation where the two discuss having sex and smoking marijuana, police reported in a court affidavit. The conversation was found on the teenager's Kindle tablet.

 Shortey, using the online name "Jamie Tilley," at one point during the discussion about sex called the teenager "baby boy," according to the affidavit.

 Police reported finding an open box of condoms in Shortey's backpack and a bottle of lotion in the teenager's backpack after confronting them at the Super 8 in Moore.

 Shortey, 35, turned himself in at the Cleveland County Detention Center around noon Thursday and was released about two hours later after posting bail. He had no comment.

 The state Senate on Wednesday voted to punish Shortey for "disorderly behavior." The unanimous vote stripped him of most of his privileges at the Capitol, including his office and parking space.

 Shortey has been a senator since 2010 and has championed law-and-order issues. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has spoken repeatedly of her importance in his life. They have three children.

 Shortey is charged with engaging in child prostitution, engaging in prostitution within 1,000 feet of a church and transporting a minor for prostitution. Bail was set at $100,000.

 Prosecutors specifically allege in the case that Shortey offered the teenager "money in exchange for sexual contact." They allege that he knowingly took the teenager to the hotel room "for the purpose of engaging in prostitution." They allege the hotel is within 1,000 feet of the First Christian Church in Moore.

 The maximum punishment, if convicted, is 25 years in prison.

 The teenager was not charged because prosecutors consider him to be a victim. He is listed on the charge, by his initials, as a witness against Shortey.

 Police found Shortey and the teenager in the hotel room early March 9, according to a police report on the investigation. Police described the room as reeking of raw marijuana.

 Police reported Shortey at first refused to open the door and initially told officers no one other than him was inside the room. Shortey had rented the room for one night, a front-desk manager said.

 Police went to Room 120 about 1 a.m. March 9 after being called by the teenager's father, according to the police report. The father had been contacted by the teenager's girlfriend. She had seen the teenager picked up by a male in a white Jeep Cherokee and followed them.

 Police were told the teenager has a history of soliciting himself on Craigslist for sexual conduct and also had a history of drug abuse. The girlfriend was watching his house because he had said he was "going to get paid tonight" and she feared he was still involved in illegal narcotics, according to the police report.

 Police reported in the court affidavit that the teenager, in the online conversation, told Shortey, "I need money for spring break." Police reported Shortey replied, "I don't really have any legitimate things I need help with right now. Would you be interested in 'sexual' stuff?" Police reported the juvenile then wrote, "Yes."

 Police reported the teenager later wrote, "Hey keep updated cause I want you bad daddy." Police reported Shortey, using a graphic word, replied he was going to have sex with the teenager "like a good little boy if you keep calling me daddy."

 The teenager told police he had known Shortey for about a year and the two originally met through a Craigslist personal encounter ad, according to the court affidavit.

 The teenager said the two were smoking marijuana in the hotel room when police knocked on the door, police reported. He also told police both he and Shortey brought marijuana to the room.

 Police reported later seizing a green plastic container with the label, "Colorado Retail Marijuana." Police reported the container smelled of marijuana and contained a small amount of marijuana residue.

 Police also reported Shortey had asked the teenager during the online conversation, "You gonna wanna smoke?" The teenager wrote back, "That's up to you." Police reported Shortey then wrote, "Sounds good, can you bring a pipe or something, and a lighter?"

 Prosecutors said they did not file a marijuana charge against Shortey primarily because of evidence issues. Police did not find the container until officers returned to the hotel room.

 Shortey had studied in college to do mission work in Uganda but decided to go into the oil and gas industry after having his first child. "I actually planned my life around being a missionary," he said in a TV interview.

 He later went into politics — both as an elected senator and as a paid political consultant.

 Last year, he helped former state Rep. Mike Christian, who lost a bid to become Oklahoma County sheriff. Christian is running again for sheriff this year in a special election but has a different consultant.

 Christian was among those calling for Shortey to immediately resign. "Sen. Shortey has betrayed our trust and violated our values," Christian said.

 Contributing: Staff writers Brianna Bailey, Randy Ellis, Jane Glenn Cannon, Dale Denwalt and Kyle Schwab

 Related to this story Show more 25 |||||

– On Wednesday, Oklahoma state Sen. Ralph Shortey was suspended for "disorderly behavior." On Thursday, more details emerged as Shortey was charged with three felonies involving child prostitution, the Oklahoman reports. The charges came out of a police bust on March 9, when cops say they found Shortey at a Super 8 motel in Moore with a 17-year-old boy in a room stinking of pot. An investigation was kicked off after the boy's girlfriend called his dad, who in turn contacted the authorities, per the Tulsa World. Police say they came across a text on one of the teen's devices that indicated the boy was looking to make money for spring break, to which they believe Shortey, using a screen name, responded, "Would you be interested in 'sexual' stuff?" Cops say they also found an open pack of condoms with Shortey's belongings; the teen told them he'd known the senator for a year or so and that they'd hooked up through a Craigslist personal ad, per the court affidavit. A judge has set bail for the 35-year-old Shortey, who's married with children, at $100,000, though he hasn't yet turned himself in. (Cleveland County prosecutors say he'll be arrested if he doesn't.) Shortey has been charged with engaging in child prostitution, engaging in prostitution within 1,000 feet of a church, and transporting a minor for prostitution. Meanwhile, Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb is asking for the GOP senator's resignation, noting that "Oklahomans deserve to be represented by those above reproach." (Some think child prostitutes are the ones who should be arrested.)


Summarize this article:

But he did say that adult-child sexual relationships might be "possibly beneficial to both parties," according to an unidentified woman who told the FBI she had an "online relationship" with Lanza for years before the Dec. 14, 2012, slaughter. She recalled Lanza saying he may be asexual. ||||| A newly released FBI profile of Adam Lanza concludes that he did not just “snap” when he shot his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, but instead had engaged in careful, methodical planning that started 21 months earlier.

 When FBI profiler Andre Simon met in 2014 with families of some of the victims killed at the Newtown school, he provided a summary of his findings that included a reference to Lanza “contemplating the attack as early as March of 2011.” Documents released by the FBI Tuesday do not reveal how Simon came to that conclusion.

 The summary of the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit’s assessment of Lanza is among more than 1,500 pages of documents related to the shooting at the Newtown school that left 26 dead, including 20 first-graders. Lanza shot the students and six school employees at the school after shooting and killing his mother, Nancy, in their home.

 The documents include FBI interviews with neighbors of Adam Lanza and friends of his family, and an hour-long interview with a woman who communicated online with Lanza for more than two years.

 The unidentified woman recounted for two FBI special agents how Lanza wrote about his meticulous spreadsheet of mass killers, professed his love of Harry Potter books and told her about a nightmare of being in a mall during a mass shooting.

 The woman told FBI agents that she first “met” Lanza online more than two years before the shooting after spotting his postings on a website related to the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School. They communicated about once a month after that, but the woman said she did not know Lanza’s real name or where he lived.

 She told agents that he referred to the spreadsheet he created “meticulously documenting the details of hundreds of spree killings and mass murders.” She said Lanza wrote about mass killers with respect and understanding, saying such attacks were merely the symptoms of a broken society.

 She told the FBI Lanza rarely spoke about his family or personal life, but said he once wrote that he liked the Harry Potter stories, and in particular the “idea that at the age of eleven, the kids were taken away from their families.” She told the FBI he was “the most fixated and disturbed internet associate she had ever encountered.”

 The newly released documents show that the FBI opened a grand jury within days of the shooting to collect information from internet sites that Adam Lanza frequented. There also are field notes from agents who canvassed the Yogananda Street neighborhood in Newtown where Lanza lived.

 One neighbor told agents that the FBI had visited the Lanza home several years earlier because Adam had hacked into a government computer system when he was in ninth grade. The neighbor said that Lanza made it through the second level of the unnamed government computer system before federal agents showed up at the house.

 The neighbor said that Nancy Lanza said the agents remarked that Adam was so smart “he could have a job with them someday.”

 FBI agents assisted the state police in the aftermath of the shooting. The documents released Tuesday are mostly redacted grand jury subpoenas and interviews agents conducted, as well as records they obtained from schools and health providers.

 The investigators’ hand-written field notes on the day of the massacre show how the agents, during their initial canvass of witnesses, gathered a wide range of information about Nancy and Adam Lanza’s relationship that would later shed light on his increasingly isolated existence in the weeks before the murders.

 One unidentified person told agents that Nancy Lanza had confided that Adam Lanza had not left his bedroom in three months and that she only communicated with him via e-mail. Several mentioned that Adam Lanza had been upset when their home lost power for days after Superstorm Sandy.

 “He had no real friends,” an investigator noted, “and would not go out of the house to a hotel when electricity [was] out during Hurricane Sandy.”

 Another family friend told agents that while in school, Adam Lanza was “bullied, but not excessively, for his social awkwardness and his physical gait.” Lanza weighed only 111 pounds at the time of his death.

 The FBI profiler, after reviewing Lanza’s journal writings and internet posts and interviewing the few relatives who knew him, concluded Lanza had an “extremely rigid and inflexible worldview.”

 The profiler concluded:

 In the weeks and months preceding the attack, Lanza’s deteriorating relationship with his mother was a significant challenge and stressor in his life.

 There was no evidence to suggest that Lanza viewed the attack as a “video game” or as a game.

 Lanza was fascinated with past shootings and researched them thoroughly.

 There is evidence to suggest that Lanza had an interest in children that could be categorized as pedophilia. Although the profiler acknowledged there is no evidence Lanza ever acted on that interest.

 The unidentified woman’s online conversations with Lanza expounded on his loneliness and social awkwardness. She told federal agents, according to their summary, “Lanza seemed to have no friends or people he could turn to for support or assistance and did not appear to have any enjoyment of life.”

 In his postings, Lanza expressed displeasure over natural light, the taste and texture of food, and the feel of clothing.

 The woman said Lanza at least once had “casually mentioned suicide” and saw death as an escape from his joyless existence. But she told the FBI Lanza never directly expressed an interest in killing himself. The woman also told agents it was clear Lanza was knowledgeable about guns, but never indicated that he owned weapons and never suggested he would hurt others

 She said Lanza also wrote about his nightmares.

 Lanza wrote that he dreamed he was in a mall during a mass shooting, and found himself alone in a shoe store with the shooter, trying to persuade him to commit suicide before the police could arrest him. In another, he described watching bullies emptying the backpack of a victim, who then pulled a gun and began shooting his tormentors. |||||

– "He was singularly focused and obsessed with mass murders," the FBI writes about Adam Lanza in a newly unsealed interview. The New York Daily News reports the FBI released more than 1,500 pages of documents on the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting Tuesday. Most of the heavily redacted files consist of grand jury subpoenas and interviews with neighbors and others regarding the shooter, Adam Lanza, who killed 26 people, including 20 first-graders, according to the Hartford Courant. Lanza, 20, killed himself during the 2012 shooting. Here are some of the details revealed in the unsealed documents:


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– Happy St. Patrick's Day, Hendrix. United Airlines accidentally shipped the pooch from Newark to Ireland this week, instead of his home destination of Phoenix, reports CNN via local affiliate KNXV. After the English springer spaniel touched down in Eire, he got to stretch his legs before being sent back in the other direction, making for about 24 hours cooped up in a plane's cargo hold. United has given the family a refund, but the owner wants somebody to get fired, too. "My dog got sent to frickin Ireland?" says Edith Albach.

It was dog, gone.

 That's what happened to an English Springer Spaniel named "Hendrix" who was scheduled to fly from Newark to Phoenix this week and was put on the wrong flight -- to Ireland.

 Six-year-old Hendrix was traveling in cargo on United Airlines on Thursday when he was put on the wrong flight, United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said Friday.

 When the airline realized the dog had been put on the wrong flight, immediate steps were taken to return Hendrix to his owner, she said.

 The first word owner Meredith Grant, got about the mix-up was in a phone call from the airline 10 minutes before the flight Hendrix was supposed to be on landed in Phoenix.

 "I felt like somebody punched me in the stomach. I mean, that's my dog. That's like my child," Grant said.

 While on the unexpected detour, Hendrix was walked and fed by United staff, and he was able to spend time with his owner when he returned to Newark before departing for his original destination of Phoenix, McCarthy said.

 Hendrix was scheduled to arrive in Phoenix Friday night, according to the airline.

 United apologized and offered a full refund, Grant said.

 But she says she isn't so sure Hendrix will be flying again anytime soon.

 "I wasn't even looking for a refund. I just wanted somebody to say we screwed up," she said. "That's not what they said."

 "Obviously they take better care of people's bags than they do dogs. To them it's just an animal. What do they care?" Grant added. ||||| Story highlights Hendrix, a 6-year-old dog, was put on the wrong flight in Newark, United Airlines says

 The dog was supposed to fly to Phoenix and ended up instead in Shannon, Ireland

 United's staff walked and fed the dog until he was reunited with his owner, the airline says

 It was dog, gone.

 That's what happened to an English springer spaniel named Hendrix that was scheduled to fly from Newark to Phoenix this week and was put on the wrong flight -- to Ireland.

 Six-year-old Hendrix was traveling in cargo on United Airlines on Thursday when he was put on the wrong flight, United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said Friday.

 When the airline realized the dog had been put on the wrong flight, immediate steps were taken to return Hendrix to his owner, she said.

 The first word owner Edith Albach got about the mix-up was in a phone call from the airline 10 minutes before the flight Hendrix was supposed to be on landed in Phoenix.

 "I felt like somebody punched me in the stomach. I mean, that's my dog. That's like my child," Albach said.

 While on the unexpected detour, Hendrix was walked and fed by United staff, and he was able to spend time with his owner when he returned to Newark before departing for his original destination of Phoenix, McCarthy said.

 Hendrix landed safely in Phoenix Friday night, affiliate KNXV reported. Albach's daughter Meredith Grant was there to let the very excited spaniel out of the kennel upon landing.

 "When my mom called me I was like 'my dog got sent to frickin Ireland? How Ireland? Not even like he went to Florida...he's in Ireland,'" she told KNXV.

 United apologized and offered a full refund, Albach said.

 But she says she isn't so sure Hendrix will be flying again anytime soon.

 "I wasn't even looking for a refund. I just wanted somebody to say we screwed up," she said. "That's not what they said."

 Grant is happy to have her dog back, but wants United to punish the person responsible.

 "They should not have their job anymore, I mean, he's been on a plane for 24 hours."

 Meredith's father Joe felt helpless for his family during the ordeal.

 "What do you say, except, 'I hope he gets some Guinness and corned beef and cabbage,'" he told KNXV. |||||


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Flagship Android smartphone has dual cameras, spatial audio and aluminium body, but will be relying on brand nostalgia to stand out against rivals

 Nokia 8 hopes to beat Apple and Samsung with 'bothie', a new version of the selfie

 Nokia has launched the most important new handset in its attempts to revitalise the once world-beating brand for the modern smartphone era dominated by Samsung, Apple and China’s Huawei.

 The Nokia 8 marks the culmination of efforts to bring the Finnish telecoms brand back to the mainstream handset market, which kicked off six months ago with the nostalgia-inducing remake of the classic Nokia 3310 feature phone.

 Nokia 3310 review: blast from the past, sore thumbs and all Read more

 The Android flagship smartphone, designed to compete with the likes of the iPhone 7 and Samsung’s Galaxy S8, features a polished aluminium body, Carl Zeiss cameras, spatial audio pulled from Nokia’s high-end 360-degree camera and a high-resolution 5.3-inch screen.

 Nokia handsets are being revived by HMD Global, a private equity-backed firm led by former employees of the Finnish company.

 The company is pushing what it calls the “bothie” as the next evolution of the selfie, using Nokia’s Dual Sight technology to fire up both the rear and front-facing cameras at the same time, shooting video or photos of a subject and the smartphone operator simultaneously, which can be shared live directly to Facebook or YouTube.

 “We know that fans are creating and sharing live content more than ever before, with millions of photos and videos shared every minute on social media,” said Juho Sarvikas, HMD chief product officer. “People are inspired by the content they consume and are looking for new ways to create their own.”

 The 7.9 mm-thick smartphone has similar specifications to other top-end rivals, but lacks the super-slim bezel designs of the best devices from 2017, with large panels above and below the screen, which have been eliminated by rivals.

 Nokia’s rekindled partnership with Zeiss has produced dual 13-megapixel cameras for the back of the phone. The new so-called computational photography technique is similar to that employed by Apple, Google, Huawei and LG in their latest smartphones.

 The new phone has spatial audio technology that was previously used in Nokia’s high-end OZO 360 camera, which can play back sound in multiple directions, imitating how it was captured during recording.

 Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight, said: “The Nokia 8 has some innovative features including the dual-sight function on the camera and the 360-degree audio recording but it’s not yet clear whether these are game-changing features that will lure consumers away from established rivals such as Apple and Samsung.”

 Coming off the back of the launches of the Nokia 3, 5 and 6 smartphones aimed at the low-end smartphone market, HMD said the Nokia 8 will cost €599 (£546) and will go on sale in early September, placing it in the middle of the launch season for new smartphones from both Samsung and Apple.

 Wood said that aggressive pricing and marketing would be needed for the Nokia 8 to successfully compete with established market leaders. He said: “The Nokia 8 is an extremely important product for HMD Global: its first attempt to move into the more lucrative, higher-tier smartphone segment, a notoriously challenging part of the market dominated by Apple and Samsung.

 “The company will be hoping that the widely recognised Nokia brand will help it stand out from rivals such as HTC, Huawei, LG and Sony, which are also trying to compete with Apple and Samsung.”

 The launch of the Nokia 8 comes a week before Samsung is expected to unveil its next top-end Note smartphone, following on from the disastrous Note 7 debacle in 2016, which caught fire due to battery issues and had to be recalled and discontinued. Apple is also expected to announce a new version of its iPhone in September.

 From boom to bust

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mikhail Gorbachev speaks on a Nokia Mobira Cityman phone in Helsinki, Oct 1989. Photograph: Lehtikuva OY/Rex

 Nokia dominated the mobile phone market for the more than a decade from the late 1990s, but was left trailing behind Apple and Samsung in the smartphone era following the launch of the iPhone in 2007. The Finnish company sold its loss-making mobile devices division to Microsoft in 2013 to focus on its telecoms network equipment business.

 Now a group of former Nokia executives, backed by private equity, have formed a new company called HMD Global and bought back their former employer’s feature phone business from Microsoft, aiming to bring the Nokia handset brand back to its former glory with a range of new smartphones.

 Nokia was founded in 1865 as a pulp mill near the town of Tampere and once made everything from toilet paper to car tyres, before the Espoo-headquartered company moved in to communications technology in the 1980s. In 1985 Nokia launched its first mobile phone, the Mobira Talkman, but it was 1987’s Cityman which shot to fame when pictured in use by Mikhail Gorbachev.

 By 1998, Nokia had overtaken mobile phone pioneer Motorola to become the bestselling global mobile phone brand, manufacturing its 100-millionth phone by December that year, with revenues of $20bn (then £13bn) and 55,000 staff by the year 2000.

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nokia’s first smartphone was the Communicator 9000 from 1996. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

 The Nokia 3310 was launched in 2000, with the world’s bestselling phone of all time, the Nokia 1100, appearing in 2003. Nokia also launched the first camera phone in the US in 2003, partnering with the German optics manufacturer Carl Zeiss in 2005.

 Nokia launched the world’s first smartphone in 1996 – the Nokia 9000 Communicator – and a series of popular smartphones using its Symbian operating system followed in the early 2000s. But Nokia’s long slide from relevance started with the launch of Apple’s iPhone, which used superior touchscreen technology and left the Finnish firm’s keypad-based handsets looking decidedly vintage.

 Nokia struggled to make competitive Symbian-based smartphones and in 2011 partnered with Microsoft to develop handsets using the Windows Phone operating system, such as the Lumia 800. But with shrinking market share and mounting losses, Nokia bowed out of the mobile handset business two years later. Microsoft discontinued the Nokia brand for mobile phones in November 2014. ||||| Allow me to introduce you to "the bothie." It's not a selfie, nor a normal photo (which all the cool kids call a "youie"), but a hybrid of the two. It's a composite shot from both cameras on your phone, showing both you and whatever else is out there. It's a bothie.

 Crazy idea? Maybe. And yet, if history is any indication, you'll scoff at the bothie now and then while you're not looking they will take over the world.

 Now, allow me to introduce you to The Bothie Phone. Technically, it's called the Nokia 8. Either way it's the first flagship phone from HMD Global, the Finnish company that now owns the Nokia smartphone name. The Nokia 8, in addition to its Bothie-ness, offers most of the trappings of a good phone: 4 gigs of RAM, 64 gigs of storage, brand-spankin'-new processor, crisp 5.3-inch screen, pure Android. It's not waterproof and it doesn't have a tiny bezel, but it does have some of the standard Nokia design flair. It's a clean, slim, softly rounded device that comes in a bunch of cool colors, like blue and orange. It does all the things a good phone should.

 But its bothie-bilities set the 8 apart. At least, HMD Global hopes so. The company made the camera rig with the help of longtime Nokia partner Carl Zeiss, and made the phone for the YouTubers and Instagrammers of the world. The phone has three cameras: two 13-megapixel sensors on the back, one color and one monochrome, and another 13-megapixel shooter on the front. Even the audio has been tuned for 360-degree sound. You can fire up the camera, switch to dual-sight mode, and either capture or livestream both views from your device. Viewers will see a split-screen live feed on YouTube or Facebook, so make sure you don't absent-mindedly pick your nose or anything.

 Such camera-melding techniques are hardly new. The app Frontback offered a similar effect, albeit a more manual one. Samsung, for a while, let you snap a selfie and then drop it into the frame of a photo. You could also make the case that 360 photos are bothies and then some. (Everythingies?) In theory, the feature offers a way to be part of a scene without interrupting it. And since it's right next to the most important buttons in your camera app, HMD hopes you'll make it part of your social routine.

 The Nokia 8 won't be available in the US, which will surely disappoint at least a few creators. It'll be available in Europe and elsewhere for about 599 euros, which puts the 8 into nearly the top tier of smartphones everywhere. That's a lot of pressure to put on the 8's camera, its only truly unique feature. HMD's smart to emphasize the camera, which has become more and more important to all smartphone users in the Snapchat and Instagram era. But if people do like the feature, other manufacturers and developers can likely copy it quickly. Still, HMD had to make phones for someone, and it picked people who love selfies. That might be the biggest market of them all. ||||| HMD Global, the Finnish company that licensed the rights to produce Nokia phones, is revealing the company’s first Nokia-branded Android flagship phone today. The new Nokia 8 will be available in early September across Europe, priced at 599 euros ($705). As we saw with the leaks, the Nokia 8 has a 5.3-inch display (2560 x 1440), and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage.

 The specs are mostly what you’d expect from any top phone this year, but HMD is sticking with capacitive keys and larger display bezels despite an emerging industry trend to slim bezels down and move the fingerprint sensor to the rear. In terms of design, the Nokia 8 is slim at 7.3mm on average across its curved frame, and it places the antennas at the top and bottom with a full aluminum back like we’ve seen from Meizu, Apple, and even OnePlus / Oppo. There are glossy blue and copper colors, and matte blue and grey options too. During a brief closer look at the handset, I personally preferred the matte colors.

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 HMD offers camera tricks instead of superior design

 Instead of design superiority, HMD is offering some camera tricks. This is the first Nokia-branded Android phone to feature Zeiss optics on the front and rear cameras. Both are 13-megapixel sensors, with a dual-camera array at the rear that also includes a monochrome camera. HMD isn’t customizing the camera software very heavily here, but it has added what it calls a “bothie” mode.

 The bothie mode (yes, really) is similar to what we’ve seen Samsung and LG do in the past, and it will activate both the front and rear cameras to capture photos or video. What’s slightly different here is that the Nokia 8 will also broadcast this video (with the front and rear cameras) to Facebook or YouTube natively through the camera interface. Ultimately it’s a camera gimmick, especially with the bothie naming, but it could prove popular for sports scenarios or even people attending and streaming protests.

 The Nokia 8 has Ozo audio

 The Nokia 8 also includes another trick, thanks to the integration of Nokia’s Ozo Audio. Ozo has typically been reserved for Nokia’s futuristic camera for filming virtual reality, but HMD is now bringing the audio portion over to the Nokia 8. In real terms, it means that videos will capture 360-degree audio, allowing for it to be broadcast live on streams. If you’re listening to a Facebook live stream with headphones, you’ll be able to hear the 360 audio.

 Nokia was one of the first phone makers to embrace notifications and information on a phone display when it’s off, and while others have followed HMD is now bringing back the always-on display. The Nokia 8 includes an LCD display, so this makes things more tricky than an OLED equivalent, but HMD has built a proprietary solution with a low-power mode for a small section of the display. It will show calls, emails, and text messages, and HMD plans to add social network notifications in the future.

 After my brief time with the Nokia 8, I wasn’t left blown away by the handset. It’s very much an average “flagship” compared to what we’re expecting from Apple this year, and what we’ve seen Samsung achieve with the Galaxy S8. HMD isn’t setting the bar high here with an uninspiring design, a lack of waterproofing or wireless charging, and a price point that doesn’t make this a cheap Android phone with good specs. That’s especially relevant when HMD has competition like the OnePlus 5.

 HMD’s Nokia 8 joins the existing mid-range Nokia 6, Nokia 5, and Nokia 3 devices as the flagship handset in the range. It will go on sale across Europe in September priced at 599 euros ($705), but it’s not clear if this handset will reach US shores like the Nokia 6 did. |||||

– If we're being honest, the selfie is passé. Today's discerning Instagrammers require a new way to document their every waking moment. Enter the Nokia 8 and its "bothie." Nokia's attempt to compete with Samsung and Apple in the high-end smartphone market hits stores in Europe in September. Wired reports the Nokia 8 is standard stuff for a high-end smartphone; it's got 64 gigs of storage, 4 gigs of RAM, a 5.3-inch screen, and so on. And the Verge came away fairly unimpressed by the phone, calling it "average," especially compared to what Apple apparently has planned for its new phone. The one thing the Nokia 8 does have, and what it could live or die on, is the bothie. The bothie uses Dual Sight technology to let users take photos or videos using both the front and rear cameras at the same time, the Guardian explains. The resulting video or image shows whatever is in front of the user alongside the user's reaction to it. Those photos and videos can then be shared directly to Facebook or YouTube. Wired calls the bothie the Nokia 8's "only truly unique feature," meaning the phone was made "for the YouTubers and Instagrammers of the world." And they'll have to embrace the bothie if Nokia has any chance of competing with Apple and Samsung. Meanwhile, the future of the American bothie is unclear, as Nokia has not announced plans to bring the phone to the US.