Here is a news article: Steven Spielberg has often been likened to Alfred Hitchcock — they’re among the handful of directors who have become household names, with themes and techniques and personality quirks that resonate across their respective filmographies — but “Bridge of Spies” may be the first time since “Jaws” that Spielberg could be accused of doing a Hitchcock. Not one of the Master of Suspense’s classic thrillers, but the top-heavy international late-career Hitch of “Topaz” and “Torn Curtain.” And there’s Tom Hanks pretending to be middle-aged Jimmy Stewart in the middle of it all.

 Hanks is playing New York insurance lawyer James Donovan, a complacent “Mad Men”-era innocent who gets yanked into Cold War intrigue much the way Stewart or Cary Grant found themselves at the wrong end of a runaway crop-duster. The catch is that “Bridge of Spies” is based on a true story, and the real Donovan did find himself defending a Soviet agent in court and later airlifted to East Berlin as a secret negotiator in the U-2 spy plane incident of the early 1960s.

 This sounds like a recipe for high-octane huggermugger and loaded MacGuffins, but the movie is surprisingly low on energy if long on smarts. It’s plush, professional, tonally wobbly, and very watchable. Spielberg and his collaborators (Hanks, longtime cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, production designer Adam Stockhausen of “Grand Budapest Hotel” fame) wallow in the pleasures of craft. But compact and to the point it’s not, and you may be forgiven if your mind more than once wanders to the laundry.

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 “Bridge of Spies” opens slyly and well, with a little gray man — a weekend landscape painter haunting the parks of 1957 Brooklyn — arrested by the FBI and revealed to be Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, a Welsh-accented spy for the USSR. Those of us who got addicted to the miniseries “Wolf Hall” will envy audiences coming to actor Mark Rylance for the first time and realizing that this human smudge with the flyaway eyebrows can make the doing of nothing seem perfectly, completely riveting. Rylance’s Abel, fastidious and bleak, is the mystery at the heart of an otherwise stouthearted movie, and your hopes rise whenever he’s onscreen.

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 When he’s not, you’re content to hang with Hanks, who is fine company as the deceptively bland Donovan. Coerced by his law partner (a shifty Alan Alda) to represent Abel in court — to prove to the communists that the US justice system is fair — Donovan finds himself drawn to the enemy spy’s calm and professional pride, and he defends him in good faith even as his neighbors, his wife (Amy Ryan, criminally underused), strangers on the subway, and even the judge in the case (Dakin Matthews) would as soon hang the Soviet from the highest lamppost. The irony, unsubtle but irresistible, is that in a country obsessed with preserving the American Way, Donovan’s the only one living it.

 Which gets his family shot at and, in one scene right out of Hitchcock’s “Foreign Correspondent,” dodging a mysterious man wielding an umbrella during a heavy downpour. If Hitchcock’s movies were often about the perils of being “the wrong man,” “Bridge of Spies” celebrates Jim Donovan as the right man for a paranoid time, with native diplomatic skills and a stubborn moral code that renders him superior to the CIA spooks and enemy apparatchiks hoping to use him for their own agendas.

 Halfway through, “Bridge of Spies” sends the hero to Berlin to negotiate a spy swap, Abel for Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), whose high-tech spy plane has gone down over Soviet territory in the film’s most rousing action sequence. (Something has to go in the trailer.) This allows Spielberg and Kaminski to go all-out with a re-creation of the building of the Berlin Wall, not to mention the perils involved in trying to cross from East to West Berlin before, during, and after. And it puts Donovan in contact with a wonderful rogues’ gallery of rival Russians and Germans, played by actors with great character mugs like Sebastian Koch, Mikhail Gorevoy, Burghart Klaussner, and Max Mauff.

 You sense the hand(s) here of Joel and Ethan Coen, who share screenplay credit with Matt Charman and who reportedly took a whetstone to his original script. (It’s the most recent of the brothers’ works for hire, and more successful than last year’s “Unbroken.”) “Bridge of Spies” has a spiky, subversive wit that struggles to break free throughout and that often works at cross-purposes with more traditional themes of patriotism and American exceptionalism. The movie’s a muddle that has been handcrafted by experts, a spy thriller that insists on kindness, and an ensemble piece that knows enough to acknowledge a natural screen presence whenever Rylance is in view.

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 Most bewildering of all, “Bridge of Spies” is a moral drama driven by an insurance lawyer. That it works at all is a miracle — or would be, if anyone other than St. Steven were involved.

 Movie Review

 ★★★

 BRIDGE OF SPIES

 Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by Matt Charman, Joel Coen, and Ethan Coen. Starring Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan, Austin Stowell, Will Rogers. At Boston Common, Fenway, Kendall Square, West Newton, suburbs. 142 minutes. PG-13 (some strong language, injury images, brief nudity)

 Ty Burr can be reached at tburr@globe.com . Follow him on Twitter @tyburr ||||| In this image released by Disney, Tom Hanks appears in a scene from "Bridge of Spies." (Jaap Buitendijk/DreamWorks Pictures/Fox 2000 PIctures via AP) (Associated Press)

 Steven Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies," much like its misunderstood litigator, is a film that plays the long game. This complex Cold War drama soaked in shadows, blues, greys and furrowed brows, is a slow burn that challenges the audience to trust where it's going.

 In this fictional rendering of how a Brooklyn insurance lawyer ended up negotiating a high-stakes prisoner exchange at the height of the Cold War, Spielberg and writers Matt Charman and Joel and Ethan Coen toss details at you, shake them all around and piece them back together in the third act, when the form of the puzzle starts to take shape. Only then can you begin to fully appreciate just how lean and purposeful every moment is.

 Suddenly that seemingly random conversation about clients and incidents from the first act isn't an outlier after all — it means everything. As a first time viewing experience, it's like not realizing you've been playing a game of chess until you've already lost.

 That's all to say that "Bridge of Spies," which waxes poetic — and occasionally cynically — on patriotism, honor, and duty, echoes in your mind long after the credits roll and begs for a second viewing.

 On the page, "Bridge of Spies" is the story of everyman James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks), a lawyer and family man who takes on the thankless task of representing Soviet Agent Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) in a trial, only to then be called on to negotiate his exchange for a detained U.S. soldier on behalf of the CIA. But that's just scratching the surface of this very thoughtful meditation on doing the right thing — embodied in the burgeoning friendship between Abel and Donovan.

 Donovan fights for Abel despite the scorn of the public, the indifference of the legal system and the danger to his family. When he goes to Berlin to negotiate the exchange of Abel for a detained U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), Donovan decides, against the wishes of the U.S., to try to tack on the release of another imprisoned American as well.

 This all makes Donovan sound like a martyr. The film fights against that cozy idea, though. Donovan is not sentimentalized or propped up in an unbelievable way. In Hanks' hands, Donovan is a real person, runny nose, doubts and all. Reality, tedium and wit supersede the hyperbole of the great man myth. In this way, it makes "Bridge of Spies" feel like a spiritual companion to "Lincoln."

 Perhaps most unexpected, though, is how Rylance sneaks up on you and proves himself to be the heart, soul, and standout of the film.

 The Shakespearean actor is actually the first person we meet, in an elegant, nearly dialogue-free opening showing the FBI's real time pursuit and arrest of Abel. Cold War-era fears want to paint him as the face of the enemy, but Rylance makes Abel sympathetic, and even docile. He plays him as a highly intelligent foot soldier who's seen enough to know that even possible execution isn't enough to get worked up over. It's impossible not to like him.

 But the story's focus on Abel is juxtaposed with near indifference to Francis Gary Powers and the detained American student Frederic Pryor (Will Rogers). Donovan wants to get them both out, and is confident enough in his negotiating skills to defy the CIA in the process, but the film doesn't seem to care if you care about them — at least not in the way it does for Abel.

 It's in these unexpected details and choices that Spielberg continues to defy our skeptical movie expectations. He has a point of view, he has a plan, and he remains in a class of his own in his ability to both execute those ambitions and entertain in the process.

 "Bridge of Spies," a Walt Disney Studios release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for "some violence and brief strong language." Running time: 142 minutes. Three stars out of four.

 ___

 MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

 ___

 Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr ||||| Published on Sep 16, 2015

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 Bridge of Spies Official Trailer #2 (2015) - Tom Hanks Cold War Thriller HD

 A dramatic thriller set against the backdrop of a series of historic events, BRIDGE OF SPIES tells the story of James Donovan (Hanks), a Brooklyn lawyer who finds himself thrust into the centre of the Cold War when the CIA sends him on the near-impossible task to negotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot. Screenwriters Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen have woven this remarkable experience in Donovan’s life into a story inspired by true events that captures the essence of a man who risked everything and vividly brings his personal journey to life.

 The Fandango MOVIECLIPS Trailers channel is your destination for the hottest new trailers the second they drop. Whether it's the latest studio release, an indie horror flick, an evocative documentary, or that new RomCom you've been waiting for, the Fandango MOVIECLIPS team is here day and night to make sure all the best new movie trailers are here for you the moment they're released.

 In addition to being the #1 Movie Trailers Channel on YouTube, we deliver amazing and engaging original videos each week. Watch our exclusive Ultimate Trailers, Showdowns, Instant Trailer Reviews, Monthly MashUps, Movie News, and so much more to keep you in the know.

 Here at Fandango MOVIECLIPS, we love movies as much as you! ||||| Directed by Steven Spielberg, "Bridge of Spies" is based on the true story of the 1960 U-2 incident. Brooklyn lawyer James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks) is thrust into the center of the Cold War as he negotiates the release of a pilot, whose spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. ( / Lionsgate)

 An air of wholesome, stolid assurance pervades “Bridge of Spies,” a handsome, sober-minded Cold War thriller about a little-known chapter of American history. And why not? This absorbing tale of tradecraft, political ideals and unimpeachable moral character has been brought to the screen by no less a craftsman than Steven Spielberg, here directing from a script written by Joel and Ethan Coen, with Matt Charman.

 In case that pedigree isn’t convincing enough, Tom Hanks stars as the film’s inspiring lead character, a quietly heroic New York lawyer who in another era would have been portrayed by James Stewart or Gary Cooper.

 Hanks is his generation’s answer to those paragons of rectitude, and in “Bridge of Spies” he reminds us why. As James Donovan, who in 1957 defended — unsuccessfully — accused Soviet spy Rudolf Abel at the behest of the U.S. government, Hanks exudes modesty, high principles and simple fairness. When the plot thickens and he becomes involved in a swap of prisoners to take place in East Germany — Abel for U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers, whose U-2 was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960 — he shifts his trademark humility into overdrive, insisting to his Communist intermediaries that he has a cold and just wants “to go home and get into bed.” One of the many subtexts of the film’s low-key brinkmanship is how the Cold War kept from getting hot; Hanks has always been disarming, but in this case he’s literally as well as figuratively so.

 Hanks’s aw-shucks charm could easily curdle into smugness here, but Spielberg keeps the self-righteousness to a minimum. When he allows Donovan to speechify, it’s on behalf of constitutional due process and American fair play. These are clearly meant to resonate in the era of Guantanamo and mass surveillance — much as the fractiousness and executive strong-arming in Spielberg’s “Lincoln” chimed with realpolitik in 21st-century Washington. Mostly, though, the director simply follows the action, first as Donovan meets his client, Abel, a taciturn sleeper agent, and then as both men’s fates intertwine with the U-2 episode, an obscure American graduate student living in West Berlin and the emergent geopolitical identity of a brand-new East Germany.

 Filmed by longtime Spielberg cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, “Bridge of Spies” looks as if it’s been carved from granite and mist. Blues, grays and chilly puffs of white light are to Spielberg what syrupy ambers are to Woody Allen. Spielberg — himself a child of the duck-and-cover 1950s — adroitly establishes the heaviness and barely contained paranoia of the time, which he depicts with rich, unnostalgic atmosphere. He’s also done a good job of casting actors blessed with timeless features, especially Amy Ryan, who plays Donovan’s wife with understated elegance and a few particularly well-timed sidelong glances.

 With his aw-shucks charm kept under control by director Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks plays a lawyer who in another era would have been portrayed by James Stewart or Gary Cooper. (Jaap Buitendijk/DreamWorks /Twentieth Century Fox Film)

 It should come as no surprise that Spielberg moves viewers through Donovan’s story with good taste and practiced confidence. With the help of some clever cuts and dissolves from editor Michael Kahn, he imparts an enormous amount of information in a series of swift, graceful scenes that firmly establish the protagonist’s hard-nosed negotiating skills as well as his reflexive belief that America’s democratic values are its best weapon. The narrative of “Bridge of Spies” flags only when Donovan arrives in East Germany, where he embarks on a series of talky, often bizarre encounters with KGB apparatchiks and shadowy satellite figures, the most amusing of which involves members of Abel’s fake “family,” who implore the American attorney to free their husband and father. (As he often does, Spielberg also can’t seem to decide on an ending for “Bridge of Spies,” so he supplies three.)

 Part of the reason why the Germany sequences sag is that they don’t feature Abel, who is played by British actor Mark Rylance in what, with luck, will be a career-making performance. Many viewers may not have heard of Rylance, who recently played Thomas Cromwell in “Wolf Hall” on PBS. But his work in “Bridge of Spies” deserves to be widely recognized as an example of screen acting at its most subtle, poignant and exquisitely calibrated.

 In the film’s near-wordless opening section, during which Abel goes about his daily business as an unassuming painter, Rylance communicates volumes about his character’s discipline and isolation, simply by way of facial expression and body language. Later, as Abel and Donovan develop an alliance of mutual understanding and respect, he relaxes just enough to indulge a streak of deadpan, unmistakably Slavic humor.

 Rylance turns in a sensitive, deeply etched portrayal of a studiously nondescript criminal. Yet “Bridge of Spies” expands from being a smart, engrossing procedural to a carefully observed character study of Donovan, a particularly intriguing, heretofore overlooked American figure. Thanks to his own reflexive values, Spielberg can’t help but make the kind of inspiring, classically constructed drama that we keep being told Hollywood doesn’t produce anymore.

 Thank goodness he still does. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Tom Hanks took some time off from being awesome to star as an American attorney who must negotiate a prisoner swap in Soviet Russia in Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies. Critics and audiences are equally in love, giving the flick a 92% and 90% approval rating, respectively, on Rotten Tomatoes. Some highlights: "Spielberg can't help but make the kind of inspiring, classically constructed drama that we keep being told Hollywood doesn't produce anymore. Thank goodness he still does," writes Ann Hornaday writes at the Washington Post. British actor Mark Rylance gives "what, with luck, will be a career-making performance" as accused Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, she adds. He's "an example of screen acting at its most subtle, poignant and exquisitely calibrated." "Bridge of Spies isn't conventionally exciting, and isn't intended to be. Instead, it's satisfying—thoroughly and pleasurably so," writes Joe Morgenstern at the Wall Street Journal. It’s "a fascinating piece of fiction based on fact, a Cold War parable of moral principles colliding with the imperatives of national security," he adds. Hanks portrays James Donovan "with stirring conviction leavened by enjoyable zest," Morgenstern writes, while "Rylance's performance is a minimalist wonder." Essentially, the movie "is a moral drama driven by an insurance lawyer. That it works at all is a miracle—or would be, if anyone other than St. Steven were involved," writes Ty Burr at the Boston Globe. "Compact and to the point it's not," but it is "plush, professional, tonally wobbly, and very watchable," he says. He agrees Rylance can "make the doing of nothing seem perfectly, completely riveting," but adds Hanks is "fine company." Lindsey Bahr describes the film as "a slow burn." The filmmakers "toss details at you, shake them all around and piece them back together in the third act ... Only then can you begin to fully appreciate just how lean and purposeful every moment is," she writes at AP. "Spielberg continues to defy our skeptical movie expectations," she adds. This film "echoes in your mind long after the credits roll and begs for a second viewing."


News article:

about the condition of the woman who survived the shooting. tim gardner, husband of vicki gardner, spoke to us earlier this morning about his wife's condition. gardner who is the executive director of the smith mountain lake chamber of commerce, was speaking to wdbj7, when she was wounded. tim gardner says his wife is recovering, and they've both received a lot of support. "you know...it's har to explain but everybody has been right there for us" tim gardner says the best thing the community can do for support is continue to visit and enjoy smith mountain lake. the reality of what happened on the air

 MONETA, Va. -

 August 27 6:50 a.m. update: Vicki Gardner, a third victim in the shooting at Bridgewater Plaza, has been upgraded from stable condition to good condition, Thursday morning.

 Gardner was being interviewed by WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and her photojournalist Adam Ward when the shooting happened. Gardener is with the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce.

 Gardner was shot in the chest and taken to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital where she went through emergency surgery.

 She was in stable condition Wednesday night, continuing to recover according to a statement from Carilion.

 Alison Parker and Adam Ward did not survive the attack.

 Gardner is the executive director of the chamber and has been interviewed many times by our station.

 She was providing information about the 50th anniversary of the lake and the events scheduled to commemorate that milestone.

 Gardner has been leading the chamber since 2002 and serves on the boards of many local agencies and non-profits.

 Friends call her a passionate advocate for the lake and regional tourism as a whole.

 A prayer vigil for Vicki was held Wednesday night at Bethlehem United Methodist Church in Moneta.

 Vicki has always been ready, willing, and available to help us with stories here on WDBJ7 and on behalf of our news team, we send our thoughts, prayers and condolences to her family. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

 The gunman who shot two journalists to death during a live broadcast had a wig, six magazines of ammunition, and a to-do list in the car he was fleeing in before he killed himself, according to an inventory of items found in a search warrant return.

 Police also found 17 stamped letters, a briefcase that contained three license plates, a shawl, and an umbrella in Vester Flanagan's rental car, the search warrant return said.

 Police say Flanagan died at Innova Fairfax Hospital at 1:26 p.m. on Wednesday, hours after firing shots at a Moneta, Virginia, shopping center during Roanoke affiliate WDBJ's morning broadcast.

 According to a probable cause affidavit filed to search Flanagan's car, police said Flanagan texted a friend "making reference to having done something stupid" following the shooting of WDBJ reporter Alison Parker, photographer Adam Ward, and local chamber of commerce director Vicki Gardner, who was also shot and survived. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– After his death, police searched the rental car Vester Flanagan used to flee after allegedly shooting two journalists to death during a live broadcast. What they found, per NBC News and reporter Tom Winter: A Glock pistol and six magazines of ammunition A to-do list 17 stamped letters A briefcase holding three license plates, a wig, a shawl, an umbrella, and sunglasses "Assorted handwritten and typed letter/notes" A black hat A "bookbag w/ random papers / cards" An iPhone The Enterprise rental agreement More details are coming to light today, including the fact that WDBJ, the station where victims Alison Parker and Adam Ward worked, helped authorities identify Flanagan as the suspect. Ward had captured an image of Flanagan pointing his gun toward the camera, and "everybody who was gathered around it said, 'That's Vester,'" the station's general manager tells NBC. "I wasn't sure. They were"—and so the station contacted the county sheriff with the information. After Flanagan allegedly carried out the shooting, police say he texted a friend "making reference to having done something stupid." The third victim, who was shot while Parker was interviewing her on camera, was upgraded to good condition today, WDBJ reports.


Summarize this article:

Britain sent a Royal Air Force plane to crisis-hit Cyprus on Tuesday carrying one million euros ($1.3 million) in emergency loans for British military personnel, the defence ministry said.

 The cash cargo flight was a "contingency" plan in case banks in Cyprus stopped giving out money as the island deals with the fallout from a controversial eurozone bailout deal, a spokesman said.

 "An RAF flight left for Cyprus this afternoon with one million euros on board as a contingency measure to provide military personnel and their families with emergency loans," the spokesman said in a statement to AFP.

 "The MoD is proactively approaching personnel to ask if they want their March, and future months' salaries paid into UK bank accounts, rather than Cypriot accounts."

 The British government reaffirmed earlier Tuesday that it would fully refund any military or government personnel whose Cyprus bank accounts were subject to an EU levy that was part of the bailout deal.

 "We're determined to do everything we can to minimise the impact of the Cyprus banking crisis on our people," the spokesman added.

 Britain does not use the euro, having stuck with the pound as its national currency.

 Around 3,000 British troops are based at two military bases in Cyprus, which are used by Britain as a strategic foothold in the Mediterranean, with around 500 civilian personnel. ||||| The RAF flight left the UK earlier this afternoon, with the money onboard designated for emergency loans in the event that cash machines and debit cards stop working on the crisis-hit Mediterranean island.

 The MoD said it is determined to minimise the impact of Cyprus' banking problems on “our people” and it will consider further shipments if required.

 The announcement comes amid moves by the Government today to re-assure British troops posted to Cyprus that they will be fully compensated for any plans to raid their savings.

 The MoD said that as well as sending out the emergency fund, it is asking personnel if they would prefer this and future months' salaries to be paid into UK bank accounts.

 In a statement released today, the MoD said: “An RAF flight left for Cyprus this afternoon with one million euro on board as a contingency measure to provide military personnel and their families with emergency loans in the event that cash machines and debit cards stop working completely...We will keep this under review and consider further shipments if required.“

 It added: ”The MoD is proactively approaching personnel to ask if they want their March, and future months' salaries paid into UK bank accounts, rather than Cypriot accounts...We're determined to do everything we can to minimise the impact of the Cyprus banking crisis on our people.”

 The position of more than 3,000 British service personnel was thrown into doubt yesterday when Treasury Minister Greg Clark only went as far as saying that they would not suffer “unreasonable losses” as a result of the planned levy.

 However, George Osborne told Cabinet that UK Armed Forces personnel and civil servants posted to Cyprus will be “compensated in full” for any losses as a result of the planned levy on savings.

 The Chancellor's comments confirm a pledge he made on Sunday that “people who are doing their duty for our country in Cyprus will be protected from this Cypriot bank tax”.

 The Cypriot government is planning to impose the levy to secure an international rescue of the country's troubled banks. EU ministers and officials have said 5.8 billion euro (£4.9 billion) of the 15.8 billion euro (£13.5 billion) rescue package must be raised by Cyprus.

 After prompting an outcry from depositors, Cypriot politicians have been considering the possibility that savers with smaller deposits should escape having to pay.

 The country's banks remain closed until Thursday, and analysts are warning that the plans set a troubling precedent, undermine confidence and could trigger an exodus of money.

 Outlining today's Cabinet discussion, Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokesman said: “The Chancellor set out the position that both he and the Foreign Secretary made clear at the weekend, which is that all UK personnel will be compensated in full for any losses as a result of the decisions that may be taken with regard to the Cyprus banking situation.

 “The Chancellor was clear on Sunday that UK personnel will be compensated in full. He reminded the Cabinet of that position.”

 Unlike the previous rescues for Greece, Portugal, Ireland, and Spanish banks, the proposed Cypriot bailout is the first one that dips into people's bank accounts to finance the measures.

 Suggestions have been made that eurozone leaders, particularly in Germany, insisted on the levy because of the large amount of Russian capital kept in Cypriot banks, amid fears of money-laundering.

 The bailout package involves the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Central Bank and European Union.

 Former UK chancellor Alistair Darling told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that the plans involve “everything you shouldn't do when you are trying to solve a problem like this”.

 He said: “They have actually now said to people 'We will come after your deposits, no matter how small your savings are' and that seems to me to make it more likely that, if you are a saver in Spain or in Italy, for example, and you have just the sniff of the EU or the IMF coming your way, you will take your money out and you will get a run on the bank.”

 Tristan Cooper, fixed income sovereign credit analyst at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, said confidence in the security of bank deposits in Cyprus could have been “fatally undermined”.

 He said: “This will likely prompt capital flight once the banks reopen and may necessitate the sustained imposition of capital controls in order to stem an escalating banking crisis.”

 Former Central Bank of Cyprus chief Athanasios Orphanides claimed the government is essentially being “blackmailed” into taking savers' cash.

 He told Bloomberg Television: “What we are witnessing is the slow death of the European Project...

 “What we have seen in the last few days is a very serious blunder by European governments that are essentially blackmailing the government of Cyprus to confiscate the money that belongs rightfully to depositors in the banking sector in Cyprus.” |||||

– How's this for a tangible sign of the banking mess in Cyprus: Britain's Royal Air Force is flying in a plane loaded with 1 million euros so its troops stationed there don't get stuck without cash, reports the Independent. The defense ministry made the move after the crisis raised fears that ATMs and debit cards would stop working. Troops also get the option of having their pay deposited into UK bank accounts instead of Cypriot ones. "We're determined to do everything we can to minimize the impact of the Cyprus banking crisis on our people," says a ministry spokesman. Britain, which doesn't even use the euro as its national currency, has about 3,000 troops and 500 civilian personnel in Cyprus, reports Yahoo News.


– A pair of witnesses support a woman's claim that Bill Cosby sexually abused her when she was 15, her lawyer says in a court filing. Lawyer Marc Strecker says he's seen pictures of his client, Judy Huth, at the Playboy Mansion with Bill Cosby in the 1970s, reports the Hollywood Reporter, information that matches her story. The filing doesn't offer specifics of what the witnesses know, the AP reports, but it does contain a psychologist's assessment that there's "a reasonable basis to believe that Ms. Huth has been subject to childhood sexual abuse." Cosby, whose wife recently reacted to sex assault reports against him, isn't named in the psychological assessment. Meanwhile, yet another woman has come forward with allegations against Cosby, saying he drugged her at another Playboy Mansion party just six years ago, when she was 18. The timing means Cosby could still be criminally charged for the incident, the Hollywood Reporter notes. Chloe Goins plans to report the incident to police, the Daily Mail reports. She says she went to a party at the mansion, where she was introduced to Cosby, who gave her a drink, though she was underage. Feeling dizzy, she lay down in a room offered by Hugh Hefner, she says. Cosby allegedly guided her to the room, and when she woke up, she says, she was naked and he was licking her toes and masturbating. "This isn't something I really wanted out there about myself," she says, but after so many women have come forward, "I feel he needs to pay for it."

Expand this summary.

A lawyer for a woman who says Bill Cosby sexually abused her when she was 15 stated in a recent court filing that he has interviewed two witnesses who corroborate her story.

 Attorney Marc Strecker wrote in a sworn declaration filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday that he has reviewed photographs of his client, Judy Huth, with Cosby at the Playboy Mansion in the mid-1970s, the place and time she says the abuse happened.

 Huth's sexual battery lawsuit against Cosby comes amid a flurry of allegations that he drugged and sexually assaulted more than a dozen women.

 Read more Three Bill Cosby Accusers Detail Sexual Assault at Gloria Allred Press Conference

 Cosby's attorney Martin Singer is seeking to dismiss the suit and has called it an extortion attempt. He says Huth tried to sell her story to a tabloid 10 years ago and contends that undercuts her claim of recently discovered psychological damage. Singer did not return a phone message from The Associated Press seeking comment Monday.

 The AP doesn't normally identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse, but Huth has come forward publicly in the lawsuit and at a news conference.

 Strecker's declaration does not provide details about how the witnesses corroborate Huth's story, but her lawsuit states she and a 16-year-old female friend were taken to the Playboy Mansion by Cosby sometime around 1974. The lawsuit states that they met him at a film shoot, and he later gave them alcohol while they played pool, before he took them to the mansion.

 Strecker's filing also includes a declaration from Dr. Anthony E. Reading, a clinical psychologist who interviewed Huth and stated there is "a reasonable basis to believe that Ms. Huth has been subject to childhood sexual abuse." Reading's statement does not mention Cosby. Strecker didn't return a call from AP.

 Los Angeles police are investigating Huth's allegations.

 She appeared at a news conference Dec. 5 with attorney Gloria Allred, who held up decades-old photographs of Huth with Cosby. Allred wrote in an email Monday that the photos were taken at the Playboy Mansion. ||||| The sexual assault allegedly happened within California’s statute of limitations for filing criminal charges

 A new sexual assault claim against Bill Cosby has surfaced from a woman who said she was drugged at the Playboy Mansion and woke to find the comedian licking and kissing her toes. The attack allegedly happened in 2008, which puts the claim within California’s statute of limitations for criminal charges.

 Chloe Goins told the Daily Mail she plans to make a full statement to Los Angeles police. An LAPD representative could not be reached for comment.

 Goins said she was 18 years old when she attended a party with a girlfriend at the famous Los Angeles home of Hugh Hefner. There, Goins said Hefner introduced the women to Cosby, who engaged them in conversation and allegedly gave them drinks.

 “I wasn't really supposed to drink because of my age, but I was like, okay, cool. I thought I'd got a drink on the side,” Goins told the newspaper, then “everything kind of went a little foggy, I started feeling sick to my stomach and just dizzy.”

 Goins said Cosby escorted her to one of the mansion’s many bedrooms so she could rest, but she does not remember entering the bedroom. Goins said her next memory was waking up “butt naked” on a bed with a half-naked Cosby hunched over her, licking her toes and pleasuring himself.

 Read more Bill Cosby Accuser Beverly Johnson "Felt Such a Loss" After He Allegedly Drugged Her

 “I came to and remember seeing this big man crouched over me. It was Bill Cosby, and he was at my feet, kind of licking and kissing them and I think he bit my toe as that's what woke me up,” Goins told the Daily Mail.

 Cosby allegedly jumped up, pulled up his pants and left the room. Goins said she believed Cosby had groped her body and licked her breasts.

 More than 20 women have publicly claimed the comedian drugged and/or sexually assaulted them over a period spanning several decades. One of those women has filed a police report and lawsuit in Los Angeles against Cosby, alleging he assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion in 1974, when she was 15 years old.

 Cosby’s lawyer, Martin Singer, has denied the women’s claims and questioned the accusers' credibility. Singer did not respond to a request for comment on Goins’ claim.

 Cosby has remained mostly silent about the allegations, though he commented in an interview over the weekend that the “black media” should remain “neutral” on the charges against him.

 On Monday, Cosby's wife, Camille, issued a statement defending her husband as “the man you thought you knew.” ||||| FILE - In this Friday, Dec. 5, 2014 file photo, Judy Huth appears at a press conference with attorney Gloria Allred, not shown, outside the Los Angeles Police Department's Wilshire Division station in... (Associated Press)

 LOS ANGELES (AP) — A lawyer for a woman who says Bill Cosby sexually abused her when she was 15 stated in a recent court filing that he has interviewed two witnesses who corroborate her story.

 Attorney Marc Strecker wrote in a sworn declaration filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday that he has reviewed photographs of his client, Judy Huth, with Cosby at the Playboy Mansion in the mid-1970s, the place and time she says the abuse happened.

 Huth's sexual battery lawsuit against Cosby comes amid a flurry of allegations that he drugged and sexually assaulted more than a dozen women. He has never been charged in connection with any of the accusations, and his lawyers deny many of the allegations. He settled with a Pennsylvania woman who in a 2005 lawsuit said Cosby drugged and molested her in 2004.

 Cosby's attorney Martin Singer is seeking to dismiss Huth's suit and has called it an extortion attempt. He says Huth tried to sell her story to a tabloid 10 years ago and contends that undercuts her claim of recently discovered psychological damage. Singer did not return a phone message from The Associated Press seeking comment Monday.

 The AP doesn't normally identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse, but Huth has come forward publicly in the lawsuit and at a news conference.

 Strecker's declaration does not provide details about how the witnesses corroborate Huth's story, but her lawsuit states she and a 16-year-old female friend were taken to the Playboy Mansion by Cosby sometime around 1974. The lawsuit states that they met him at a film shoot, and he later gave them alcohol while they played pool, before he took them to the mansion.

 Strecker's filing also includes a declaration from Dr. Anthony E. Reading, a clinical psychologist who interviewed Huth and stated there is "a reasonable basis to believe that Ms. Huth has been subject to childhood sexual abuse." Reading's statement does not mention Cosby. Strecker didn't return a call from AP.

 Many of the allegations against Cosby are blocked from court by statutes of limitations, but Los Angeles police are investigating Huth's claims.

 She appeared at a news conference Dec. 5 with attorney Gloria Allred, who held up decades-old photographs of Huth with Cosby. Allred wrote in an email Monday that the photos were taken at the Playboy Mansion.

 ___

 Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP ||||| Bill Cosby is facing damaging new allegations that he drugged and sexually assaulted an 18-year-old girl at the Playboy Mansion just six years ago, MailOnline can reveal.

 Chloe Goins, will make a full statement to police over the attack, a chilling sexual assault she has described to MailOnline.

 The allegation is the latest to hit the comedian, 77, who has seen his reputation as one of America's most significant comedy figures eviscerated in recent weeks.

 He is now facing more than 20 separate allegations of rape or sexual assault – many dating back 30 or 40 years - but until now all appeared to be covered by statutes of limitation.

 The Los Angeles Police Department has opened an inquiry into allegations that the star drugged and raped Judy Huth at the Playboy mansion in 1974 when she was aged just 15, but that had appeared to be covered by the statue.

 Goins, however, says she was attacked in 2008, well inside the statue of limitations in California.

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 Ordeal: Chloe Goins has waived her right to anonymity to speak publicly and describe being drugged at a Playboy mansion party. She woke up naked being touched by Bill Cosby, she told MailOnline

 Speaking out: Chloe Goins is the latest woman to speak of being drugged and attacked by Cosby. However her case is so recent that it is not covered by any statutes of limitation, which affects other allegations

 Venue: Cosby has long been a regular at the Playboy Mansion in Beverley Hills, where Hugh Hefner, his longtime friend, has been holding parties since the 1960s

 She claims Cosby spiked her drink with a sedative before luring her to a bedroom in the Playboy mansion where he sexually assaulted her.

 Goins says she wants the star to 'pay' for all the women he has allegedly attacked and is coming forward to bring them justice.

 In California sexual assault carries a maximum 48 months jail sentence, as well as a possible $10,000 fine, depending on mitigating and aggravating factors.

 Goins' lawyer has told MailOnline has already made contact with the LAPD and Goins will likely meet with detectives to give a statement in the coming days.

 Goins, a model and lap dancer originally from San Diego but currently working in Las Vegas, says she felt compelled to come forward to add her voice to the dozens of women who have already made allegations against Cosby, 78.

 She said reading some of the victim's accounts in the media brought back the chilling memories of that night.

 This weekend Cosby broke his silence to say that he wants the 'black media' to 'stay neutral'

 'Let me say this. I only expect the black media to uphold the standards of excellence in journalism and when you do that you have to go in with a neutral mind,' Cosby told Page Six.

 He also praised his wife for her 'love and strength'.

 However he now faces fresh allegations of recent misconduct which are being made to the LAPD.

 Speaking exclusively to MailOnline Goins, now 24, said she was attacked after a girlfriend invited her to one of Hugh Hefner's infamous summer parties in 2008.

 Both were living in Las Vegas at the time and traveled to Los Angeles.

 Friends: Hefner and Cosby have been close since the 1960s but last weekend the Playboy creator issued a statement distancing himself from the comedian, saying of the allegations: 'The mere thought is saddening.'

 She recalls: 'My girlfriend got an invite to a Playboy party and asked me to go with her. I remember being excited about it.

 'We stayed at the W Hotel in Hollywood which is one of my favorites and were both looking forward to the party. We got all dressed up, we were going to the Playboy mansion after all.

 'I was a wearing a cute little red dress and my friend was wearing a strapless tan dress.

 'I remember we got to the house and it was like a bigger party so there was a lot going on, lots of girls wearing not very much.

 'They checked our ID at the door so I knew drinking was off limits.'

 Goins says the party was in full swing when they arrived at the mansion at around 11pm.

 Within a few minutes of walking in they were introduced to Hugh Hefner himself.

 'We were running late but we were quickly introduced to Hef when we got there. It was the first time I had met him, I was excited and all focus was on him. Me and my friend were two cute blondes, he liked us.

 'We were talking to Hef for a while and that's when Bill Cosby walked up. I kind of recognized him from TV, I know he was on a TV show where he played a family guy, but he was a little bit before my time.

 'Hef introduced him as his good friend, they seemed really close. He seemed like a really nice guy, really funny.

 'We were talking, laughing and having fun.'

 Police: Chloe Goins is to make a statement to detectives after her lawyer made contact with the Los Angeles Police Department. She said she feels all the woman affected by Cosby deserve 'justice'

 Under pressure: Cosby has now been accused by 25 women of attacking him. One also alleged that he also attacked 12 Playboy Bunnies who have not come forward in public

 As the conversation began to flow Goins remembers Cosby giving her lots of attention.

 Then when Hef was in the middle of telling a story, Cosby slipped away and came back with two drinks for the girls.

 Goins said: 'He kind of just left and we were talking and he came back with drinks. He gave me a vodka mixer I think.

 'I wasn't really supposed to drink because of my age but I was like, 'okay, cool'. I thought I'd got a drink on the side.

 'I remember the drink being kind of strong but it didn't taste funny or anything like that.

 'I think I finished most of it, I didn't set my glass down I was holding it the whole time.'

 But then out of nowhere Chloe claims she began to feel 'dizzy' and unsteady on her feet.

 'Everything kind of went a little foggy, I started feeling sick to my stomach, and just dizzy,' she said.

 'I started telling my friend and I was like where's the bathroom, but I could tell my friend just wanted to hang out, we were still talking to Hef.'

 At that point Hefner, realizing Goins wasn't feeling well, offered the use of one of his many spare bedrooms so she could lie down.

 Goins said: 'Then Bill offered to show me the room, he said he knew the way. He seemed nice and I don't remember feeling nervous or that it was weird.

 'He had his arm around me to show me the way and I did notice he had been paying me a little more attention than my friend, but never thought anything of it.'

 That was the last thing Goins remembers. She doesn't recall entering the room.

 She claims she woke up completely naked on a bed and alleges Cosby was hunched over her licking her toes. She knew she was still in the Playboy mansion because she could hear music playing.

 Disturbingly, Goins said the then 70-year-old had his trousers around his ankles and was pleasuring himself.

 'I was butt naked lying on my back on a bed and didn't have any idea where I was.

 Attack: The Playboy Mansion is where Chloe Goins alleges she was molested in a bedroom by Cosby. She says she was first handed a drugged drink at a party by the comedian, who she thought was a kindly older man

 Long association: Hefner and Cosby together. However the Playboy creator has distanced himself from his friend

 'I was in a bedroom and presumed it was in the mansion because I could hear music, I don't think it was Hef's room, it was just a nice room.

 'I came to and remember seeing this big man crouched over me. It was Bill Cosby and he was at my feet, kind of licking and kissing them and I think he bit my toe as that's what woke me up.

 'I kind of thank God for that because that's what woke me up and I came to.

 'I was shocked, I said, 'hey, what's going on', he didn't really say anything, didn't explain anything or give a reason.

 'He jumped up, pulled his pants back up quickly and left. He had seen that I was alert and bolted out of there, I was left in the room by myself.'

 Goins said she is sure Cosby had been licking her breasts and groping her body as well.

 She said: 'I remember waking up and feeling moist all over, like he had been licking all over me.

 'He wasn't on my breasts when I woke, but I could feel, you know, the saliva on them and that he'd been licking on me.

 'I felt embarrassed, it was a gross, icky feeling, I felt very violated and humiliated.

 'I was scared, I was just 18 and he was an old man, I was not very sexually experienced and I didn't really know what had happened, it was violating.'

 Party time: Another 2008 party at the mansion, with Hefner posing with female guests

 Goins says she doesn't think she had been raped or molested in any other way, but added: 'I can't be 100% sure what he did to me, I was completely out of it.'

 Goins admits she was in a daze when she came around in the bedroom but says she is sure that the man molesting her was comedy legend Bill Cosby.

 She said she hadn't been drinking that night other than the vodka drink Cosby had given her.

 She also said she had not taken any kind of drugs or medication that night.

 'Someone spiked my drink, I have no doubt about that, it was my first drink of the night,' she said.

 After Cosby left the room Goins picked herself off the bed and got dressed.

 'I found my dress but I couldn't find my panties anywhere, I don't know if he had them or not.

 'I just got out of there as fast as I could and found my girlfriend downstairs.

 'She looked at me and said I didn't seem right so she was like, 'let's go'. I think she could tell something was wrong.

 On the way back to the hotel Chloe confided in her friend and told her what had happened.

 'I told her I was scared and didn't know what to do, I told her I didn't think I had been raped, but what happened to me wasn't right, at the very least he was groping and molesting me.

 'She consoled me and said she felt bad about it, but neither of us thought about telling anyone.'

 Goins said she had always wanted to be a model and singer from a young age and had aspired to appear in Playboy magazine.

 Playboy victim: Former Playboy bunny Carla Ferrigno in circa 1980 in Los Angeles, California, with her husband, actor and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno. She claims Cosby assaulted her too

 Another Playboy victim: Victoria Valentino, a former Playboy Playmate in 1963, has come out to say Bill Cosby raped her as well.

 'We were young, we wanted to be Playboy models. I was scared about saying anything about what happened, especially as it was at the Playboy mansion because it's known for naughty stuff.

 'I didn't want to get in trouble and maybe ruin my modeling career and nor did my friend as she was getting the invites to the parties.

 'Bill Cosby was on TV and had a family man image, I thought to hurt that, he would come after me, try to ruin me.'

 Unsurprisingly, Goins has never been back to the Playboy mansion since.

 She says the experience changed her view of men and she finds it hard to trust.

 This isn't something I really wanted out there about myself, but I saw all the women who had come forward, over 20 women and it grossed me out. I feel he needs to pay for it, he deserves to pay for it. I don't think he raped me so I am one of the lucky ones, but at the same time it was a f***ed up situation.' Chloe Goins

 Goins said: 'It's definitely messed up my sexuality and how I look at men, I have a very hard time trusting them, so yes it has traumatized me.'

 Goins says she feels strongly that her and other women should have the courage to come forward.

 'I confided in a friend one night and he said I should come forward,' she explained.

 'I never really thought about it before, but I definitely want to give a statement to the police.

 'This isn't something I really wanted out there about myself, but I saw all the women who had come forward, over 20 women and it grossed me out. I feel he needs to pay for it, he deserves to pay for it.

 'Unlike many of those women, I don't think he raped me so I am one of the lucky ones, but at the same time it was a f***ed up situation.'

 The MailOnline has interviewed the friend who was with Goins at the Playboy mansion that night and she has confirmed Goins' version of events.

 The friend has asked not to be identified for this article. She said it was her who had invited Goins to the party in LA as her plus one.

 The friend, who is a few years older than Goins and was also an aspiring model, recalled: 'I had been to the mansion before and I invited Chloe this time. Through my friends we were talking with Hef and that's when Bill Cosby came over.

 'He got us drinks and we were talking away and that's when Chloe started to feel unwell.'

 The friend says Hefner said he had a room which Goins could use to have a lie down. When she agreed to go to the room Cosby piped up and offered to show her where it was.

 The friend said: 'Even though I've been there a few times I don't know the mansion very well, but Bill Cosby seemed like he did.

 'He was being nice, he was very old, I thought he was taking care of her and Hef was good with it so I thought, 'wow, that's nice, he's a big celebrity and he's taking care of my friend'.

 The friend says 45 minutes to an hour passed but she never thought for a second Goins was in danger.

 'When she came back I knew there was something wrong, that's when I got her out of there and she told me what he did to her.

 'I can't say what happened in that room, I wasn't there, but Chloe is a good friend.'

 She added: 'I feel bad about the whole thing, I'm the one who took her there. I feel bad because I didn't take care of her that night.'

 'Bill Cosby has been a good friend for many years and the mere thought of these allegations is truly saddening. I would never tolerate this kind of behavior, regardless of who was involved Hugh Hefner last weekend

 Cosby is currently being investigated by police over rape and drug allegations as one of his 20 accusers filed a police report.

 Two detectives met with Judy Huth who claims the revered entertainer drugged and raped her at Hugh Hefner's mansion in 1974 when she was 15.

 Her accusation prompted Cosby's lawyers to file a lawsuit against Huth branding her a liar.

 But earlier this month the now-55-year-old responded by filing a police report which has sparked an LAPD investigation.

 Huth is not the only accuser to claim she was attacked at the Playboy mansion.

 Then, former Playboy bunny P.J. Masten claimed she was given a drugged drink and raped by Cosby at the Playboy Club in Chicago in 1979.

 Masten said she believes there are other former Bunnies who are too ashamed to come forward with their own stories.

 Earlier this month, Hugh Hefner released a statement about the allegations against Cosby and his personal connection.

 'Bill Cosby has been a good friend for many years and the mere thought of these allegations is truly saddening,' Hefner said.

 'I would never tolerate this kind of behavior, regardless of who was involved.'

 Cosby's lawyer, Marty Singer, did not respond to a request for comment from MailOnline. Playboy did not respond to a request for comment either. |||||


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– Two ships have begun a race against time to try to find the black boxes of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 before the data recorder's battery-powered pinger ceases transmission. An Australian navy ship towing a pinger locator and a British survey vessel are searching a 150-mile track where the plane could have gone down, reports Reuters. "The area of highest probability as to where the aircraft might have entered the water is the area where the underwater search will commence," search chief Angus Houston told reporters. "On best advice the locator beacon will last about a month before it ceases its transmissions so we're now getting pretty close to the time when it might expire." The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8, so the search teams may now have just a few days to locate the signal, the BBC notes. Some 14 planes and nine ships are still searching an area of the southern Indian Ocean for floating wreckage, and Houston says there is still a strong possibility of finding debris like lifejackets. "This is a vast area, an area that’s quite remote, and we’ll continue the surface search for a good deal more time," he says. "If we find a piece of wreckage on the surface ... that gives us a much better datum to start the underwater search than we’ve currently got."

Media caption Richard Westcott reports on the use of a pinger locator to find a black box

 The hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 moved into a new phase on Friday with the deployment of a towed pinger locator to find the black box.

 Two ships with locator capabilities are searching a 240km (150 mile) path in a bid to retrieve the data recorder.

 But Australia's search chief said it was a race against time as the battery-powered signal fades after 30 days.

 The plane disappeared on 8 March en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It was carrying 239 people.

 It is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, although no confirmed debris has been found from the plane.

 The search is being co-ordinated from the city of Perth in Western Australia.

 Fourteen aircraft and 11 ships were involved in Friday's search activities.

 Ships sighted a number of objects in the area but none were associated with the missing plane, the coordination agency said.

 'Highest probability'

 Angus Houston, head of the Joint Agencies Coordination Centre (JACC) leading the search, said that two ships had "commenced the sub-surface search for emissions from [the] black box pinger".

 Australia naval vessel Ocean Shield was using a towed pinger locator from the US Navy, while HMS Echo, which had similar capabilities, was also searching.

 But the former military chief now coordinating the eight-nation search said it was "getting pretty close to the time when it might expire."

 Beacons in the black box emit "pings" so they can be more easily found but the batteries only last for about a month.

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Officials said there was "some hope" the locators would be able to find the black box

 "The two ships will search a single 240km track converging on each other," Air Chief Marshal Houston, who is retired, said.

 ACM Houston said that the area had been picked on the basis of analysis of the satellite data.

 MH370 - Facts at a glance 8 March: Malaysia Airlines Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight carrying 239 people disappears

 Malaysia Airlines Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight carrying 239 people disappears Plane's transponder, which communicates with ground radar, was switched off as it left Malaysian airspace

 Satellite 'pings' indicate plane was still flying seven hours after satellite contact was lost

 24 March: Based on new calculations, Malaysian PM says "beyond reasonable doubt" that plane crashed in southern Indian Ocean with no survivors What we know The search for flight MH370

 It was based on work regarding "how the aircraft might have performed and how it might have been flown", to choose the "area of highest probability as to where it might have entered the water".

 He pointed out that this data was continuing to be refined, but the current search was based on the "best data that is available".

 Given the progress in data evaluation and calculation, "there is some hope we will find the aircraft in the area we are searching", he added.

 The two ships will be moving at reduced speeds, of around three knots, in their attempt to detect any signal from the pinger.

 Commodore Peter Leavy, Commander of Joint Task Force 658, said that search operations generally preferred to use "physical evidence" and "drift modelling" to locate a plane.

 However, "no hard evidence has been found to date so we have made the decision to search a sub-surface area on which the analysis has predicted MH370 is likely to have flown," he said.

 In a statement, JACC said the focus was now on a search area of about 217,000 sq km (84,000 sq miles), 1,700 km (1,000 miles) north west of Perth.

 Media caption Malaysia Airlines ex-steward Patrick Chow says the cabin crew he knew could not be responsible for the plane's disappearance

 Meeting staff involved in the search on Friday, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said: "It is probably the most difficult search that's ever been mounted."

 "A large aircraft seems like something that would be easy enough to locate - but a large aircraft that all but disappeared and disappeared into inaccessible oceans is an extraordinary, extraordinary challenge that you're faced with."

 ACM Houston said there was still a "great possibility of finding something on the surface [of the ocean]".

 "There's lots of things in aircraft that float," he said, citing previous searches where life jackets from planes were found. ||||| 1 of 7. Japan's Maritime Self-Defence Force Commander Hidetsugu Iwamasa is pictured in front of one of their P-3C Orion aircraft currently at RAAF Base Pearce near Perth, April 4, 2014. On Monday it will be 30 days since the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 lost communications and disappeared from civilian radar less than an hour into an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.

 PERTH (Reuters) - The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in remote seas off Australia headed underwater on Friday, with a U.S. Navy high tech "black box" locator deployed for the first time as the battery life of the cockpit data recorder dwindles.

 Australian authorities said the so-called Towed Pinger Locator will be pulled behind navy ship HMAS Ocean Shield, searching a converging course on a 240 km (150 miles) track with British hydrographic survey ship HMS Echo.

 "The area of highest probability as to where the aircraft might have entered the water is the area where the underwater search will commence," Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the head of the Australian agency coordinating the operation, told reporters in Perth.

 "On best advice the locator beacon will last about a month before it ceases its transmissions so we're now getting pretty close to the time when it might expire."

 On Monday it will be 30 days since the jetliner lost communications and disappeared from civilian radar less than an hour into an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.

 The Boeing 777 was briefly picked up on military radar on the other side of Malaysia and analysis of subsequent hourly electronic "handshakes" exchanged with a satellite led investigators to conclude the plane crashed far off the west Australian coast hours later.

 Sonar may help find the plane's black box voice and data recorders that are key to unlocking what happened on the flight. The black box is equipped with a locator beacon that transmits "pings" when underwater, but which only has an expected battery life of around 30 days.

 Experts have warned the Towed Pinger Locator may be of little use unless investigators can get a much better idea of exactly where the plane went into water, because its limited range and the slow speed at which it must be pulled behind the ship mean it cannot cover large areas of ocean quickly.

 Houston said the start of the underwater search in earnest did not override the need to keep searching for surface wreckage of the plane, as a find would be the most effective way to pinpoint a sub-sea hunt.

 "This is a vast area, an area that's quite remote. We will continue the surface search for a good deal more time," he said.

 "I think there's still a great possibility of finding something on the surface," he said. "There's lots of things in aircraft that float. In previous searches life jackets have appeared which can be connected to the aircraft that was lost."

 HUGE SEARCH AREA

 On Friday, up to 14 planes and nine ships were scouring the search area of about 223,000 sq km (86,000 sq miles) - roughly the size of the U.S. state of Minnesota - some 1,680 km (1,040 miles) west-north-west of Perth, he said.

 Britain is also sending HMS Tireless, a Trafalgar-class nuclear submarine with sonar capabilities and a Malaysian frigate was due to arrive in the search area on Saturday.

 Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Thursday joined his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott in a tour of RAAF Base Pearce, near Perth, where aircrews from seven countries have been flying dozens of missions deep into the southern Indian Ocean.

 Malaysian authorities have faced heavy criticism, particularly from China, for mismanaging the search, now in its fourth fruitless week, and holding back information. Most of the 239 people on board the flight were Chinese.

 "The world expects us to do our level best, and I'm very confident we will indeed show what we can do together as a group of nations; that we want to find answers, that we want to provide comfort to the families and we will not rest until answers are indeed found," Najib said.

 Authorities have not ruled out mechanical problems as causing the disappearance, but say all the evidence suggests the plane was deliberately diverted from its scheduled route.

 Malaysia's police chief said the investigation was focusing on the cabin crew and pilots, after clearing all 227 passengers of possible involvement in hijacking, sabotage or having personal or psychological problems that could have been connected to the disappearance.

 (Additional reporting by Niluksi Koswanage in KUALA LUMPUR and Jane Wardell in SYDNEY; Writing by Jane Wardell; Editing by Alex Richardson) |||||


News article:

Author of 4 books including - The Snowball Effect - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LB3K75C . PM at PVG ||||| Some Twitter users suspected the image was fake — but the couple said the photo is 100% real. A second image shows the water level rising in a corner of the room. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– One of the most widely circulated images to come out of the Texas flooding on Sunday showed several elderly residents of a nursing home sitting in waist-deep water. "Need help asap emergency services please RETWEET," tweeted Timothy McIntosh. That's exactly what people did, and Galveston County Daily News reports that 15 elderly residents and three others from the La Vita Bella nursing home in Dickinson were rescued from the facility within hours. "We were air-lifting grandmothers and grandfathers," says the chief of emergency management in Dickinson. The New York Daily News provides background on the tweet. McIntosh lives in Tampa, Florida, but his mother-in-law in Texas, Trudy Lampson, owns the nursing home and sent the image to him and his wife. He quickly put it online. "Thanks to all the true believers that re-tweeted and got the news organizations involved," McIntosh wrote in a follow-up tweet after the rescue. "It pushed La Vita Bella to #1 on the priority list." The myth-busting site Snopes looked into the veracity of the image and reports nothing fishy about it.


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– Hillary Clinton says she lost the 2016 election due in part to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee. Emmanuel Macron, on the other hand, looks poised to become France's next president despite a seemingly similar effort to derail his campaign. According to cybersecurity firm Trend Micro, Macron—who will compete against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the May 7 election—appears to have been targeted by the same Russian hackers who took aim at Clinton's campaign, though officials say they didn’t manage to steal staffers’ email passwords, per the New York Times. The scheme involved emails sent to campaign officials with links to web addresses almost identical to those of Macron's party, CNN reports. Trend Micro—which also claims the hackers targeted groups linked to political parties in Germany, per the Hill—says it traced those addresses to Fancy Bear, the same group US intelligence has blamed for the DNC hack. The Macron campaign had previously suggested Russia might be behind a "highly sophisticated" effort to access campaign emails using shady web pages that were "pixel perfect" matches to originals, with only tiny differences in URLs. In response to the report, however, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin says Russia has "never interfered" in foreign elections and the latest charges are "a reminder of the accusations that were heard from Washington just recently and that have remained unconfirmed to this day."

The hackers behind the Democratic National Committee (DNC) email breach appear to have made similar attacks against Emmanuel Macron, a French candidate for president, as well as groups associated with German political parties, according to a new report.

 The security firm Trend Micro reports that the hacking groups known as Fancy Bear, APT 28 and Pawn Storm attacked the French and German targets using similar phishing schemes to the one that caught the DNC. U.S. intelligence, as well as the bulk of experts, believe Fancy Bear is a Russian espionage operation.

 “Pawn Storm has been making these types of attacks for a long time – we wrote our first report about them in 2014,” said Ed Cabrera, chief cybersecurity officer at Trend Micro.

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 Trend Micro believes the attackers contacted the Macron campaign using the domain “onedrive-en-marche.fr.” En Marche!, or “Forward!,” is a nickname of Macron’s political party, Association pour le renouvellement de la vie politique. The domain would therefore appear to be the En Marche! account for Microsoft’s file-hosting service, OneDrive.

 In the DNC case, the hackers used the domain “actblues.com,” which was meant to be confused with the Democratic fundraising site ActBlue.

 Macron, a centrist, is facing right-wing nationalist Marine Le Pen in a contentious French presidential race already compared to the U.S. race of 2016. Le Pen, a pro-President Trump, anti-NATO candidate who has backed Russia’s annexation of Crimea, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month during a trip to Moscow.

 The Macron attack is one of three new attacks outlined in the report, released early Tuesday. Fancy Bear, reports Trend Micro, also attacked the German political group Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, associated with Angela Merkel’s political party the Christian Democratic Union, and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, associated with the Social Democratic Party. Like France, Germany has federal elections in 2017.

 Fancy Bear is known to use phishing attacks as an entry point for sophisticated malware exclusive to the group, known as X-Agent. It is one of a few ways the group can be tracked — Fancy Bear routs attacks through servers around the world that the organization reuses.

 According to the Trend Micro report, those servers have stayed active over the past three years an average of six months apiece, with 10 lasting for more than a year. That is a long lifespan for these types of servers, which Trend Micro believes is emblematic of a unique characteristic of Fancy Bear: It does not mind being caught.

 “Most espionage groups have tradecraft to stay low and slow, and remain in a system as long as possible. This group is loud and fast," Cabrera said.

 Trend Micro has tracked an increase in the number of command-and-control servers being used by Fancy Bear. In late 2013, there were only five second-stage servers, which typically connect to the victim’s computer. That number exploded in early 2016, when it first crossed 15. In October, there were 26. Trend Micro believes this means the group has ramped up operations.

 “Normal cybercriminals often don’t like media attention and even suspend their activities temporarily when their actions are discovered and written about,” concludes the report. "Pawn Storm doesn’t slow down at all. On the contrary: a lot has been written about Pawn Storm since fall of 2014, and their activities have only grown, both in aggressiveness and number.” ||||| Story highlights Macron's digital campaign manager says attempted hacks were unsuccessful

 Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied any interest in interfering with the elections in France

 (CNN) French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron's campaign was targeted in recent weeks by hackers, using methods similar to the hacks in the United States targeting the Democratic National Committee last year, according to a new report by cybersecurity researchers.

 Tokyo-based cybersecurity firm Trend Micro says it discovered four phony Web domain names that were very similar to the domain names of the Macron campaign -- presumably to try to trick careless campaign workers into accidentally compromising their email accounts. For example, a fake domain called mail-en-marche.fr was set up on April 12. Macron's party is En Marche!

 JUST WATCHED What to know about Emmanuel Macron Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH What to know about Emmanuel Macron 01:32

 The firm was unable to tell whether any campaign staffers actually fell into any traps, or whether any campaign materials were compromised.

 Macron's digital campaign manager, Mounir Mahjoubi, confirmed there had been attempted hacks, but said they weren't successful.

 "These are usual cyberattack tactics. We have set up a security team and every member of the staff is trained to report these attempts," he told CNN, assuring no party supporters' information had been compromised. ||||| The campaign of the French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron has been targeted by what appear to be the same Russian operatives responsible for hacks of Democratic campaign officials before last year’s American presidential election, a cybersecurity firm warns in a new report.

 The report has heightened concerns that Russia may turn its playbook on France in an effort to harm Mr. Macron’s candidacy and bolster that of Mr. Macron’s rival, the National Front leader Marine Le Pen, in the final weeks of the French presidential campaign.

 Security researchers at the cybersecurity firm, Trend Micro, said that on March 15 they spotted a hacking group they believe to be a Russian intelligence unit turn its weapons on Mr. Macron’s campaign — sending emails to campaign officials and others with links to fake websites designed to bait them into turning over passwords.

 The group began registering several decoy internet addresses last month and as recently as April 15, naming one onedrive-en-marche.fr and another mail-en-marche.fr to mimic the name of Mr. Macron’s political party, En Marche. |||||


A man convicted of a 2015 window peeping incident in Grand Rapids is now accused of sexually assaulting women in two separate incidents.

 Xavier Jajuan Davis, 31, was arraigned earlier this week on three counts of criminal sexual conduct. He is being held in the Kent County Jail on a $400,000 bond.

 Tips generated from a composite drawing released by police earlier this month led to his arrest.

 Davis is charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct for an Oct. 25 incident at 303 Monroe Avenue NW, which is the address of DeVos Place. Davis lists his employer as DeVos Place, court records show.

 Details of the assault have not been released.

 He also faces two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, a potential life offense, for a Dec. 28th incident on Oak Park Drive west of Kalamazoo Avenue SE. Details of that case also have not been disclosed.

 A probable cause hearing on both cases is set for Jan. 30 in Grand Rapids District Court.

 Davis has a 2012 home invasion conviction in Ottawa County. He was charged in that case after his arrest for a window peeping incident near Grand Valley State University.

 Davis was again accused of window peeping for incidents that occurred over the span of several weeks near downtown Grand Rapids in 2015. His image was caught by surveillance video at a home on East Fulton Street.

 Davis was convicted of disorderly person-window peeping and sentenced to several months in the Kent County Jail. Court documents at the time indicated that Davis was a suspect in other window peeping incidents in which college-age women were targeted.

 ►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the WZZM 13 app now.

 Have a news tip? Email news@wzzm13.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. ||||| Man cleared of rape charges sues city Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Xavier Davis speaks with 24 Hour News 8 on Aug. 21, 2018. [ + - ] Video

 GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A man arrested and held in jail for 129 days before he was cleared on sexual assault charges is suing the City of Grand Rapids and three members of the police department.

 The lawsuit claims police targeted a man and refused to release him even after they had proof he was not their suspect.

 The 24-page complaint filed in Grand Rapids Federal Court Friday details what Xavier Davis says were violations of his rights that include unlawful imprisonment, arrest and prosecution.

 In January, Davis was featured in media stories when he was arrested for a publicized sexual assault in Grand Rapids

 “It was all over social media, Internet,” said Davis

 A Grand Rapids woman said she was the victim of a sexual assault at gunpoint around 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 28 in the 4200 block of Oak Park Drive SE.

 Police put out a sketch looking for tips and say the victim identified Davis from a photo lineup, which was enough to lead police to arrest Davis as he was at the bus station on Jan. 14.

 “The worst part for me, I think, is still reliving, I have dreams and stuff, of how the arrest went down at the bus station,” Davis said.

 In January, Davis strongly denied the charges, saying he was nowhere near where the assault occurred.

 “Hey, what are you guys gonna do when you realize you’ve messed up? Basically telling them on-camera in the interrogation that you guys are gonna be sued after this if you don’t fix this,” Davis told police during his interrogation.

 Davis had a criminal past that included time in prison in 2012 for a home invasion and three months in jail in 2015 for a window peeping charge.

 Xavier would remain in jail through May, even as evidence came in in March that included cell phone and Uber records that indicated he was not at the scene, and DNA tests showed it was someone else’s DNA evidence at the scene.

 “When they had what’s called exculpatory evidence, they sat on it. A lot of this information – Uber records, cell phone records, DNA records – they had by the latest, the end of March,” Davis said.

 The lawsuit says it was this failure to release that is the most damning.

 “Where the false imprisonment, wrongful imprisonment will come in is because they had the information and did nothing with it,” Davis said.

 While in jail, Davis was assaulted and had to be put in protective custody.

 He lost his two jobs, his home and after he was released had to spend time in a homeless shelter.

 “When the judge signed the PR bond, I was overwhelmed with excitement but at the same time I was nervous, what are people gonna think, what are people gonna say,” Davis said.

 Davis has been able to get a new job and a new place to live.

 He is seeking an undetermined amount of damages.

 The city said Sunday it had not yet been served with the lawsuit. Once it is, it has 21 days to respond. ||||| GRAND RAPIDS, MI - A man accused of sexually assaulting two women, including one at gunpoint, has filed a federal lawsuit after DNA evidence failed to link him to the crimes.

 Xavier Jajuan Davis of Grand Rapids contends he was suspected based on a police sketch that he says bears little resemblance to him.

 "I'm telling them, 'You have the wrong person. There's gotta be a mistake. You guys are making a mistake,'" Davis, 32, told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press.

 "For whatever reason, they decided Xavier Davis was the guy," his attorney, Mark Linton said.

 "They just seemed to have it out for him."

 Charges dropped against man accused of sexually assaulting woman at gunpoint

 The Police Department said: "As is the case with any lawsuit against the police department or an officer acting in the capacity of his or her duties, all inquiries will be forwarded to the City Attorney's Office."

 The city has not yet been served with the lawsuit, Assistant City Attorney Kristen Rewa said.

 Davis is suing the city and three investigators.

 He said he was under investigation, but not charged, in a burglary and arson when he was arrested for the gunpoint rape. He contends police convinced the woman that he was responsible based on a police sketch.

 He says that investigators learned beginning in February that Davis was not in the area of the armed sex assault and that DNA tests excluded him as the suspect. Phone records and Uber records also supported his case, he said. He was released from jail, and placed on electronic tether, on May 22.

 "Defendants knew or should have known that there was not probable cause to arrest and charge Mr. Davis, causing him to be held in jail for 129 days and then placed on a tether for another 61 days," Linton wrote in the lawsuit.

 "The actions of Defendants in light of this knowledge were extreme and outrageous."

 Once he got out of jail, Davis was evicted from his rental home and lost jobs at DeVos Place and The B.O.B., he said.

 Charges were dropped just as Davis was set for trial July 23 in Kent County Circuit Court.

 Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said "witness issues" and a lack of a DNA match led to the dismissal in the case involving the gun. An unrelated sex-assault case was also dropped.

 Davis says he became a suspect in the sex assault in 2017 after he complained to city officials that he was unfairly targeted in the burglary and arson. He said he was at work when the crimes occurred.

 He said Detective Adam Bayliss was upset and told him he was only doing his job.

 Lt. Kristen Rogers then told Davis that the burglary and arson cases had been closed, the lawsuit said. Detective Kevin Snyder, however, suggested to Rogers that police obtain a DNA sample from Davis to determine if it matched evidence found at the rape scene, the lawsuit said.

 Davis had been in trouble before. He was sentenced in 2012 to 15 months in prison for attempted home invasion and has twice been convicted of window peeping.

 On Jan. 14, Davis was arrested by U.S. Marshals at the Greyhound bus station. He was told he was arrested for multiple sex-assault charges. Detectives questioned him and obtained a DNA sample.

 Linton said that the "primary basis for having Mr. Davis publicly arrested was that the officers compared his picture to a sketch draft based on a description (by) the victim in a rape case ... ."

 He said that the victim could not identify her attacker but after suggestions by police agreed that it could have been Davis. The victim in that case was raped during the early morning Dec. 28 in her parked car on Kalamazoo Avenue SE.

 At his Jan. 17 arraignment, Davis was also charged with an unrelated sexual assault that happened at DeVos Place. The victim told police that a worker sexually assaulted her in a utility room, the lawsuit said.

 Davis was suspected after a detective recalled that Davis worked at DeVos Place. But Davis started working there a month after the assault was reported, his attorney said.

 The lawsuit contends that Snyder "unduly coerced" the victim in the DeVos Place to agree it was possible Davis committed the assault.

 "Despite having clear exculpatory evidence for the rape case dating back to February of 2018, the charges against Mr. Davis were not dismissed until July 23, 2018," Linton wrote in the lawsuit.

 Davis, once held on $400,000 bond, was assaulted at the Kent County Jail shortly after his arrest and put into a one-man cell for his safety, the lawsuit said.

 His case was reported in local media. His booking photo and the police sketch were put on Grand Rapids Police Department's Facebook page, the lawsuit said.

 Allegations in the lawsuit include malicious prosecution, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– "For whatever reason, they decided Xavier Davis was the guy." That from the lawyer for 31-year-old Davis, arrested in January as the suspect in a sexual assault in Grand Rapids, Mich. The problem: DNA evidence and Uber and phone records showed Davis wasn't the guy, and charges against him were dropped in July, per MLive.com. Before that, though, he was in prison for 129 days, then attached to an e-tether for two months, and now he's suing the City of Grand Rapids and three cops for false imprisonment and defamation, among other allegations, per WOOD. "I'm telling them, 'You have the wrong person,'" Davis says of his arrest, which he says was based on a sketch that doesn't even look like him; WZZM has a picture of it. It gets a bit complicated: Davis was already under investigation for a burglary and arson when he was arrested for the rape of a woman in her car in late December. At his January arraignment, Davis—who was sent to prison for more than a year in 2012 for a home invasion and also has been convicted of window peeping—was then charged with another sexual assault at his workplace, though his lawyer says he started working there after the assault report. In both cases, Davis contends police led the victims to believe he was their attacker, and that even after the DNA and other evidence started to surface in February showing he wasn't in the car case, he was still incarcerated for months. He also says his face and name were plastered everywhere after his arrest, and he lost his two jobs and was evicted from his home after he got out of jail, per WOOD. He said he told cops during his initial questioning: "You guys are gonna be sued after this if you don't fix this." Charges in both cases were dropped, and WOOD notes Davis has since secured a new job and place to live. (Cops hope DNA will lead them to the Zodiac Killer.)


Canned foods may contain BPA because the chemical leaches from the liner into the food.

 Credit: Canned food photo via Shutterstock View full size image

 The chemicals bisphenol A and phthalates are linked to obesity and insulin resistance in adolescents in two new studies, but the findings cannot yet answer whether the hotly debated hormone-like compounds are causing the negative health effects they are linked with, experts say.

 In one study, the researchers measured the levels of DEHP, a phthalate found in processed foods, in the urine of 766 adolescents ages 12 to 19. They found that teens with higher amounts of DEHP in their urine had increased rates of insulin resistance, a condition that can lead to Type 2 diabetes.

 The results held when the researchers controlled for some other risk factors for insulin resistance, such as the teens' calorie intake and weight. The researchers didn't find an association between insulin resistance and other kinds of phthalates that are found in cosmetics and personal care products such as shampoos.

 "In laboratory studies, phthalates influence the expression of genes related to how we respond to sugar ingestion with insulin secretion," said study researcher Dr. Leonardo Trasande, professor of environmental medicine and pediatrics at New York University.

 "A previous study has identified an association between phthalates and insulin resistance in adult males," so in the new study the researchers examined this relationship in adolescents, Trasande said. [9 Weird Ways Kids Can Get Hurt]

 However, the study does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship. It is possible that insulin-resistant teens tended to eat food with higher phthalates content, or that they excreted more DEHP in their urine compared to healthy children, the researchers said in their study, which was published today (Aug. 19) in the journal Pediatrics.

 Evidence for BPA and obesity link

 Another study published in the same journal examined the relationship between bisphenol A (BPA) and obesity in more than 10,000 children ages 6 to18. Children with the highest amounts of BPA in their urine had double the risk of being obese, compared with children with the lowest urinary BPA levels.

 In this study too, the researchers recommended cautious interpretation of the results. BPA is found in higher concentrations in fat tissue compared to other body tissues, so it is possible that people with more body fat store more BPA from food, and excrete more in urine, said study researcher Dr. Joyce Lee, professor of pediatrics and endocrinology at University of Michigan.

 Another possibility is that people who are obese are merely eating more BPA-containing food, Lee said. [5 Ways to Limit BPA in Your Life]

 Still far from a consensus

 Both BPA and phthalates have been the focus of intense research in recent years because of concerns raised over their potential to act like hormones in people who are expose to them through food packaging, but studies have been inconclusive and scientists have not reached a consensus.

 In a commentary published along with the new studies, Dr. Robert Brent, professor of pediatrics at Thomas Jefferson University and an expert on environmental toxicology, questioned the methods commonly used in studying exposure to such chemicals, particularly BPA. He said that chemical content of the urine may not be a good measure of a person's actual exposure to the chemical.

 Humans metabolize BPA rapidly and eliminate it via the urine, keeping only low amounts of the chemical in the blood, which is where it can have biological effects, Brent said.

 Previous studies have tested people who ate foods with high BPA content, and saw that even though they excreted higher amounts of BPA through their urine, their blood levels of BPA were still at the lowest detectable amounts, Brent wrote in the commentary.

 Moreover, research has suggested that metabolism destroys the ability of BPA to disrupt the endocrine (hormone) system. "After it gets into the blood, it doesn't even have the ability to attach to an endocrine receptor," Brent told LiveScience. "Yet, it's shown to be linked with a whole host of diseases. Autism, diabetes, genital malformation, cancer, you name it."

 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has maintained that toxicity tests show current levels of adults' exposure to BPA is low and safe. However, in July 2012, the agency announced a ban on using BPA in baby bottles and cups after the chemical industry requested the ban, and as the industry was phasing out BPA use. BPA is more highly regulated in several countries, including Canada, as precautionary measures, but officials also generally acknowledge the lack of evidence about BPA's effects.

 Email Bahar Gholipour or follow her @alterwired. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience. ||||| There are many reasons why the world is ensnared in an obesity epidemic, and they don't only involve the quantity of food people are eating (though that's a big part of it). In some cases, toxic substances found in products we encounter everyday are contributing to the problem--along with genetically modified food, forks, and countless other factors. Today's obesity epidemic has also led to a diabetes epidemic--today, 25.8 million people in the U.S. (that's more than 8% of the population) have diabetes.

 In a study published recently in the journal Pediatrics, researchers from New York University School of Medicine found a strong link between insulin resistance in U.S. teens and their urinary concentration of DEHP, a chemical (specifically a type of phthalate) used in medical equipment and packaged food. Researchers have previously seen links between insulin resistance--a precursor to diabetes that can trigger weight gain--and DEHP levels in both adults and animals.

 When the body becomes insulin resistant, it's akin to having rusty keys that won't turn.

 Using a national survey, the researchers collected data from a sample of teenagers related to glucose levels, fasting insulin, height, weight, poverty, ethnicity, and other factors. Phthalate levels were measured using a urine sample.

 Their results: Higher phthalate levels were linked to insulin resistance. The researchers write that more studies are needed:

 While dietary sources are likely to be the chief source of exposure, given the uses of DEHP in other products, we cannot rule out nondietary sources as contributors to the associations identified here...Knowledge gaps also persist in understanding food contamination with DEHP. A comprehensive review suggests that most studies are dated and may not represent current exposures.

 Insulin resistance is, according to diabetes educator Gary Scheiner, "the root cause of almost all cases of Type 2 diabetes." Insulin (a hormone generated in the pancreas) regulates the amount of sugar in the bloodstream by directing glucose into fat, muscle, and liver cells. It's like a key that unlocks access to these cells, Scheiner explained to the Chicago Tribune. When the body becomes insulin resistant, it's akin to having rusty keys that won't turn--glucose can't get into cells, and the body panics at the rise of blood sugar in the pancreas, producing even more insulin. Blood sugar eventually rises to untenable levels, and diabetes occurs.

 In a study earlier this year, Dr. Leonardo Trasande--the lead author on the DEHP paper--also found that low-molecular weight phthalates, often found in cosmetics, lotion, and creams, are linked to increased body mass among African American children. Phthalate exposure, the report explained, could be responsible for a 1.7 pound increase in body weight in children.

 There are ways to avoid phthalate exposure in daily life. Don't use unnecessary personal care products, for starters. And the researchers suggest that it's possible to avoid some DEHP exposure by opting for fresh foods instead of foods that are canned or wrapped in plastic--a move that can reduce DEHP metabolites up to 56%. Certain kinds of packaging, like wax paper and aluminum wrap, don't contain DEHP at all. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– It might not just be the foods teens are eating that lead to obesity and type 2 diabetes, but the wrappers and cans they come in, two studies published recently in Pediatrics suggest. In one, researchers found that higher levels of DEHP, a phthalate found in processed foods, their packaging, medical equipment, and other products, correlated strongly with greater insulin resistance, a key precursor to diabetes. The other linked the infamous-yet-ubiquitous BPA with obesity, LiveScience reports. The DEHP link held true even after correcting for things like economic status, ethnicity, and glucose levels. "While dietary sources are likely to be the chief source of exposure, given the uses of DEHP in other products, we cannot rule out nondietary sources," researchers wrote, according to Fast Company. But both teams added that their results didn't prove causation, and one doctor commenting on the study complained that they relied on urine analysis, which isn't necessarily indicative of how much of the chemicals remained in the blood.