The company modifies its rules and says it will add more staff to vet flagged tweets, after an outcry in Britain over tweeted rape and bomb threats to female journalists and a member of Parliament.

 A tweeted bomb threat received by Time magazine Europe Editor Catherine Mayer. A member of Parliament also received a rape threat by way of Twitter. (Credit: Time

 Twitter has updated its rules for users and is adding more staff to police abusive tweets after an uproar and an arrest in the U.K. over rape and bomb threats, and a day before a scheduled boycott of the service.

 Twitter U.K. sent a tweet this morning pointing users to a blog post that announces the rules and staffing changes and reiterates that a "report abuse" button will be added to mobile and Web versions of the site. And Twitter U.K. General Manager Tony Wang later confirmed that the changes were being made worldwide.

 Related story Twitter to simplify the reporting of abusive tweets, after outcry over rape threats

 "I personally apologize to the women who have experienced abuse on Twitter and for what they have gone through," Wang wrote in a series of follow-up tweets. "The abuse they've received is simply not acceptable. It's not acceptable in the real world, and it's not acceptable on Twitter...There is more we can and will be doing to protect our users against abuse. That is our commitment."

 The new rules include an Abuse and Spam section that addresses targeted abuse:

 Targeted Abuse: You may not engage in targeted abuse or harassment. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be targeted abuse or harassment are: ♦ if you are sending messages to a user from multiple accounts;

 ♦ if the sole purpose of your account is to send abusive messages to others;

 ♦ if the reported behavior is one-sided or includes threats.

 The blog post also mentions additional measures that Twitter UK, specifically, is taking. The UK branch will work with the UK Safer Internet Center to "expand user resources on digital citizenship and staying safe online" and will also "use the Twitter platform -- including Promoted Tweets and a Promoted Trend" to publicize the center and its resources.

 The moves follow outcry in Britain over abuse on the site. Earlier this month, freelance journalist and feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez was subjected to a blizzard of abusive tweets, including rape threats, after she and others successfully lobbied to have novelist Jane Austen featured on a U.K. banknote.

 Criado-Perez and others called on Twitter to simplify the reporting of abuse and to take more responsibility for content on its site, and Scotland Yard arrested a 21-year-old man in connection with abusive tweets.

 Others caught in the crossfire included Member of Parliament Stella Creasy, who also received a tweeted rape threat, and several female journalists, including Time magazine Europe Editor Catherine Mayer, who received tweeted bomb threats. Those threats came even after the Scotland Yard arrest.

 The situation led to a volley of commentary by members of the British press, including a call from Times of London columnist Caitlin Moran to boycott Twitter on August 4, International Friendship Day, for a #trolliday.

 Britain's Labor Party had also criticized Twitter's initial response to the abusive tweets against Criado-Perez, with Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper writing to the company, "social media platforms also have a responsibility for the platform they give users. And in particular they have a responsibility not to tolerate this kind of abuse, rape threats, and potentially criminal behavior...The response by Twitter has clearly been inadequate and fails not only Caroline, but many more women and girls who have faced similar abuse." ||||| After rape and bomb threats, site to updates rules, roll out 'report abuse' button more widely and use extra staff to police tweets

 Twitter has issued new rules to try to clamp down on abusive behaviour in the wake of rape and bomb threats made against female journalists, an MP and a feminist campaigner.

 In a message posted on the Twitter UK blog on Saturday, the senior director for trust and safety, Del Harvey, and UK general manager, Tony Wang, said the microblogging site had updated its rules to make it clear that abuse would not be tolerated.

 Extra staff had been put in place to handle reports of abuse and from next month an in-tweet "report abuse" button, already available on some mobile devices, would be rolled out on the main Twitter website and apps.

 "We want people to feel safe on Twitter, and we want the Twitter rules to send a clear message to anyone who thought that such behaviour was, or could ever be, acceptable," they wrote.

 The announcement came after police revealed they were investigating allegations by eight people of abuse or threatening behaviour on the site. Scotland Yard said its e-crime unit was looking into the claims, three of which involved incidents outside London.

 Twitter found itself in the spotlight after three female journalists, including the Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman, said they had been the subject of bomb threats on the site, while the Labour MP Stella Creasy and the campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez received threats of rape.

 The threats provoked a backlash online, and a petition calling for Twitter to add a "report abuse" button to tweets attracted more than 120,000 signatures.

 Twitter said it was working with the UK Safer Internet Centre, which promotes the safe and responsible use of technology.

 The bomb threat tweet was sent to Freeman, the Europe editor of Time magazine, Catherine Mayer, and the Independent columnist Grace Dent, who took a screen grab of the tweet and posted it for her Twitter followers to see. The message was also sent to a number of other women.

 In separate incidents, Creasy and Criado-Perez, who successfully fought for a woman's face to appear on £10 banknotes, were threatened on Twitter with rape. Two arrests have already been made in relation to those threats.

 In a statement, the Metropolitan police said an investigation into eight allegations had been launched into all the claims.

 "Detectives from the specialist organised and economic crime command have taken responsibility for the investigations into a number of allegations recently made to the MPS relating to allegations of malicious communication made on the social networking site Twitter.

 "The police central e-crime unit (PCeU), who hold the police national cybercrime remit, is now investigating allegations made by eight people that they have been subject to harassment, malicious communication or bomb threats.

 "Whilst outside PCeU's cyber operational remit, the MPS has taken the decision to centralise the individual investigations, including three that are outside London, to make the most effective use of resources avoid duplication."

 The anonymous Twitter accounts from which the bomb threats originated were suspended.

 Steve White, of the Police Federation, said on Saturday that the problem was "unpoliceable" and more needed to be done by social media organisations.

 He told BBC Breakfast: "The organisations that run these social media platforms probably need to take a long hard look, they need to take some responsibility. It's much like when you go into a shop – there are prevention measures within shops, whether it be security guards or things locked away that you can't get to, which is going to prevent crime – and I think social media sites need to think long and hard about being able to prevent it from happening in the first place." ||||| After an outcry from the United Kingdom in response to online threats against women, Twitter is revising its policy on how to handle abuse.

 The Twitter bird in the company's official logo. (Photo: Twitter) Story Highlights Twitter updates policy on abuse following backlash in U.K.

 Twitter is introducing "in-tweet" report abuse button

 More than 125,000 signed a petition for a zero tolerance policy on abuse

 Twitter announced plans to crack down on abusive behavior in response to recent online threats against women in the United Kingdom.

 Police in the U.K. are investigating rape threats made on Twitter against feminist Caroline Criado-Perez and Labour Party politician Stella Creasy, and bomb threats against several female journalists, including Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman, The Guardian reports.

 A post on the U.K. Twitter blog mentioned plans to add additional staff to the teams that handle abuse reports and updates to the Twitter Rules.

 An "in-tweet" report abuse button had been introduced in the Twitter app on Apple devices and the mobile website. Next month the button will also be available in the Android app and on Twitter.com.

 More than 125,000 signed a petition on Change.org demanding that Twitter add the abuse-reporting button to tweets and adopt a zero tolerance policy on abuse.

 "Abuse on Twitter is common; sadly, too common. And it frequently goes ignored," the petition reads.

 "It comes down to this: People deserve to feel safe on Twitter," Del Harvey, senior director of trust and safety, and Tony Wang, Twitter's U.K. general manager posted to the U.K. Twitter blog. "Over the past week, we've been listening to your feedback on how we can improve our service. You told us that we need to make our rules clearer, simplify our abuse-reporting process, and promote the responsible use of Twitter."

 In a series of tweets from his personal account, Wang says, "I personally apologize to the women who have experienced abuse on Twitter and for what they have gone through."

 "The abuse they've received is simply not acceptable. It's not acceptable in the real world, and it's not acceptable on Twitter."

 "There is more we can and will be doing to protect our users against abuse. That is our commitment."

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1cyFn47 |||||

Write a summary.

– Twitter is finally cracking down on abuse after a number of incidents in the UK where high-profile women were threatened via tweet. Both a feminist activist and a politician were threatened with rape last month, while several female journalists were tweeted bomb threats, reports USA Today. After an online petition garnered 125,000 signatures calling for Twitter to take "a zero tolerance policy on abuse," and criticism from British journalists and politicians, the social media service has announced it will change its rules and add a "report abuse" button for tweets, the Guardian reports. The new rules state that users "may not engage in targeted abuse or harassment," especially if "the reported behavior is one-sided or includes threats," CNET reports. In a blog post by Twitter UK, the service says it will also add extra staff members to handle abuse complaints, and will work with the UK Safer Internet Centre "to expand our user resources on digital citizenship and staying safe online."


Summarize this article:

A husband and wife returned home from a Caribbean cruise with identical souvenirs from their vacation: parasitic infections that caused itchy, red rashes on the couple's backsides, according to a report of their case.

 After sunbathing on a sandy beach in Martinique one afternoon, the wife said she felt a burning sensation on her rear end. By the next day, this irritation had blossomed into an extremely itchy rash with "red pinprick marks," according to the report, which was published Jan. 13 in the journal BMJ Case Reports.

 The woman's husband also developed a rash on his backside after spending time with his wife on the beach. So, the British couple sought help from the medical staff on the cruise ship, who prescribed antibiotics and anti-fungal medications, as well as a steroid cream to relieve the rash and quell the itchiness, the report said. [8 Awful Parasite Infections That Will Make Your Skin Crawl]

 But these treatments didn't help, so when the couple returned home from the cruise, they went to the hospital. By this point, it had been 10 days since they'd sat on the Martinique beach.

 When doctors at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, England, examined the 52-year-old woman, they saw a wavy, red rash on her bottom. Her husband had a similar-looking rash on his backside, and doctors diagnosed both of them with "cutaneous larva migrans," according to the case report.

 This is a skin condition caused by a hookworm infection. The most common culprit for the infection in the Caribbean is the hookworm Ancylostoma braziliense, according to the case report.

 People can pick up the parasite after encountering hookworm larvae; these can be excreted in the feces of an infected animal, typically a dog or cat, onto sandy beaches or moist soil, the report said.

 A high percentage of dogs and cats are infected with hookworm, especially strays, said Dr. Peter Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who was not involved in the couple's case. When these animals defecate on the beach, hookworm larvae can easily migrate through the sand, he said.

 But Caribbean beaches aren't the only places you can find hookworms; some beaches along the Gulf Coast of the U. S. and the Atlantic seaboard may also be teaming with the parasites, Hotez told Live Science. [10 Ways the Beach Can Kill You]

 For a person to become infected with hookworm, there has to be direct contact between the skin and the larvae of the worm, Hotez said. That means that walking barefoot on contaminated beach may cause the infection. Hotez said he speculates that this couple may have sat bare-bottomed on the sand, or the sand may have gotten into their bathing suits.

 Once a hookworm larva penetrates a person's skin, it can burrow around, leaving a trail-like rash of inflamed skin known as a "creeping eruption," Hotez said. Sometimes, the rash can have a winding appearance, as was the case for this couple, or sometimes it can look like lines on the skin, he noted. (The species of hookworm that is thought to have infected the couple can't reproduce in humans; as a result, when the worms infect humans, they typically burrow around in the skin until they die, Live Science previously reported.)

 Doctors prescribed anti-parasitic medication to the husband and wife, according to the report. But five days later, the woman went to the emergency room because she was experiencing shortness of breath, a dry cough and chest pain. Her husband also developed a dry cough.

 A small percentage of people with cutaneous larva migrans may get symptoms in their lungs, Hotez said. When this occurs, it means the larvae got into the bloodstream and were carried to the lungs, he said.

 A chest X-ray can show if the larvae have infiltrated the lungs, Hotez said. And indeed, there was evidence of this in both the man and the woman, according to the case report.

 Lung-related symptoms tend to happen when there is significant exposure to hookworm larvae, Hotez noted; in other words, a person would have to be infected with a large number of larvae.

 The couple was given a second dose of anti-parasitic medication, and the treatment quickly helped clear up their skin as well as their lungs, according to the case report.

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 49/50 9 January 2018 Prime Minister Theresa May leads her first cabinet meeting of the new year at 10 Downing street. PA ||||| Web archive data from a crawl of open access PDF URLs provided by Unpaywall. ||||| An estimated 576-740 million people in the world are infected with hookworm. Hookworm was once widespread in the United States, particularly in the southeastern region, but improvements in living conditions have greatly reduced hookworm infections. Hookworm, Ascaris, and whipworm are known as soil-transmitted helminths (parasitic worms). Together, they account for a major burden of disease worldwide.

 Hookworms live in the small intestine. Hookworm eggs are passed in the feces of an infected person. If the infected person defecates outside (near bushes, in a garden, or field) of if the feces of an infected person are used as fertilizer, eggs are deposited on soil. They can then mature and hatch, releasing larvae (immature worms). The larvae mature into a form that can penetrate the skin of humans. Hookworm infection is mainly acquired by walking barefoot on contaminated soil. One kind of hookworm can also be transmitted through the ingestion of larvae.

 Most people infected with hookworms have no symptoms. Some have gastrointestinal symptoms, especially persons who are infected for the first time. The most serious effects of hookworm infection are blood loss leading to anemia, in addition to protein loss. Hookworm infections are treatable with medication prescribed by your health care provider.

 Image: L: Filariform (L3) hookworm larva in a wet mount. R: Hookworm rhabditiform larva (wet preparation). Credit: DPDx ||||| Medical and scientific journals withdraw or retract articles on a regular basis, usually because of errors discovered or questions raised about the research described. A few days ago, however, a highly unusual “correction” appeared in the prestigious British Medical Journal announcing the withdrawal of a case study titled “Cutaneous larva migrans with pulmonary involvement.”

 The article, which was not retracted, contained no errors. The BMJ simply said in the undated note that “with no admission of liability, BMJ has removed this article voluntarily at the request of the patient concerned.”

 Here’s what happened.

 While sunbathing on a beach in Martinique, a British woman suddenly felt a burning sensation on her backside. The next day, she woke up to find a nasty rash of “red pinprick marks” on her bottom.

 Soon her husband broke out with the same rash in the same unfortunate place.

 While they received treatment in Martinique in the form of steroid cream, antibiotics and antifungal medication, the irritation did not subside. The voyage home, 10 days on a cruise ship, must have been uncomfortable.

 Nor was the rash gone when they got home.

 So they went for treatment at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, England. Doctors there found their backsides “infested by worms,” as the Cambridge News reported. The couple found relief from a combination of medications.

 The doctors thought their case so interesting they wrote it up for the British Medical Journal. The journal did not use the name of the patients. But as journals often do in case studies, it accompanied the text with photos — in this case, of their backsides, from different angles, in full color.

 The couple gave their permission and were warned that journal articles were often read by journalists as well as medical professionals, the BMJ said in an email to The Washington Post. But the couple apparently had not anticipated the potential for tabloid interest.

 By mid-January, their buttocks were spread across Britain and, indeed the world, with headlines such as “Til Rash Do Us Part” in The Sun and “Caribbean getaway leaves a nasty souvenir” in the Daily Mail.

 These were not your typical titillating tabloid photos. They were shots from various distances of behinds bearing inflamed red blotches.

 Many tabloid readers found them gross.

 “A description would have done,” commented one reader of Britain’s Daily Mail, adding that “we didnt need to see the evidence.”

 “Does the DM pixelator have a day off today?!?,” wrote another.

 “Thanks — that’s put me right off my cheese & ham toastie,” wrote a third.

 Like the journal article, the stories did not include the names of the patients or say where they lived or when they visited Martinique.

 But there was enough information — the age of the woman, the island, the cruise, the hospital — that the couple apparently felt that acquaintances conceivably could have made the connection.

 One of the patients — the journal didn’t say which one — got in touch with BMJ and “explained that they were concerned about being identified by close friends and/or colleagues, as a result of the subsequent media coverage,” the publication said in a statement emailed to The Post.

 “Prior to publication of the article, written consent from the patient was obtained,” said the statement. “By signing the consent form, the patient indicated their understanding that complete anonymity could not be guaranteed and it was also made clear in the consent form that BMJ publications are viewed by many non-doctors, including journalists.”

 “The patient’s concerns did not amount to a legal threat,” it added. “… Nevertheless, the journal took the editorial decision to remove the article, because of the distress the patient had suffered.

 ” … To be clear, the removal of the article does not amount to a retraction and the journal stands by its factual content.”

 A spokesman for the hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals, also issued a statement: “The case study was shared with the BMJ with the aim of medical advancement, to aid other clinicians, and potentially help the treatment of future patients with similar conditions. Because the article was being picked up in nonmedical publications, a request was made for it to be removed.”

 In fairness to the tabloids, there was some news and public service value to the stories useful to people planning on visits to tropical or subtropical beaches.

 The diagnosis, as described by Livescience, quoting the no-longer-accessible case study, was “cutaneous larva migrans,” otherwise known as a hookworm infection.

 According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people pick up this nasty parasite from the feces of dogs and cats. If those dogs and cats leave their waste on a beach, sunbathers can contract the infection.

 In the case of the British couple, the infection found its way into their lungs, causing coughing, and in the woman, shortness of breath and pain.

 The advice from the CDC for those visiting such beaches: “wear shoes and use protecting mats or other coverings to prevent direct skin contact with sand or soil.”

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– After suffering painful red rashes on their backsides, a husband and wife were left red in the face—so much so that a case study of their ordeal has now been pulled from the prestigious British Medical Journal. As BMJ tells the Washington Post, the British pair whose bottoms became infested with hookworm larvae on a beach in Martinique initially agreed to the Jan. 13 publication of their case, as well as photos of "red pinprick marks" on their backsides. Though their names were never mentioned, the pair "indicated their understanding that complete anonymity could not be guaranteed" and were warned journalists might pick up the story, BMJ says. But when that happened—with headlines like "His and Her Hookworm: Same Rash Strikes Couple on the Rear"—the pair had a change of heart. With the spread of photos and case details—including the woman's age, the couple's Caribbean destination, the cruise line on which they traveled, and the Cambridge hospital they visited—one of the pair asked that the article be withdrawn over concerns "about being identified by close friends and/or colleagues," BMJ says. In what the Post calls a "highly unusual 'correction,'" the journal then announced it was pulling the article despite standing by its content. As the Independent reports, the article was meant to helpful in combating a lack of familiarity in the medical community with hookworm infections. According to the CDC, such infections can be passed through contact with soil or sand contaminated with feces. As the BMJ study explained, the British couple were infected when they sat on a sandy, and apparently unsanitary, beach.


Federal authorities have determined how 13 bald eagles found dead on the Eastern Shore have died, but will only say publicly that they have ruled out natural causes.

 The focus of the investigation is now on prosecuting anyone responsible for the deaths — Maryland's largest single die off of the eagles in at least three decades.

 Ruling out disease, which the eagles could have caught from chickens at the numerous poultry farms that dot the area or from migrating birds, was an important step in the case, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Catherine Hibbard said.

 Hibbard said in an email that while investigators have determined how the eagles died they won't release more information — including about any suspects — for fear of compromising the investigation.

 The birds were found in February by a man roaming farm fields near Federalsburg looking for deer antlers. Maryland Natural Resources Police are working with federal authorities on the case and a $25,000 reward has been offered for information that leads to a conviction.

 The birds showed no signs of trauma, indicating that they might have fallen prey to illness or poison.

 iduncan@baltsun.com

 twitter.com/iduncan ||||| The 13 bald eagles that were found dead last month on Maryland's Eastern Shore didn't die of natural causes, wildlife officials said Thursday, and authorities are offering a $25,000 reward to help find whoever killed them.

 The birds showed no signs of trauma when they were found Feb. 20 on a farm and in the woods in the town of Federalsburg in what Maryland Natural Resources police said was the biggest die-off of bald eagles in the state in 30 years.

 Investigators initially speculated that they might have eaten poisoned animal carcasses put out to control rodents, but the owner of the farm told NBC Washington at the time that he didn't use poison.

 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday that necropsies had also ruled out diseases, such as avian influenza, a major threat in the region because of its many poultry farms and migratory birds.

 "Our investigation is now focused on human causes," said Catherine J. Hibbard, a spokeswoman for the agency, who said she couldn't release any more information to protect the investigation.

 Bald eagles were removed from the endangered species list in 2007, but they're still listed as "protected," and killing one is a crime punishable by up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

 The Fish and Wildlife Service and Maryland Natural Resources police said a $25,000 reward has been posted for information leading to the conviction of the suspected wildlife offenders. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– A bald eagle mass murder? The US Fish and Wildlife Service says it has tested 13 bald eagles found dead near a Maryland farm last month and concluded that they were killed by humans, NBC News reports. An agency spokeswoman tells the Baltimore Sun that avian influenza and other diseases were ruled out in the state's biggest die-off of the birds in at least 30 years, and the investigation is now focused on "human causes" and bringing the offenders to justice. The birds showed no sign of trauma and the Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman says investigators know how they died, but that information will not be released to avoid compromising the investigation. Bald eagles are a protected species and the reward leading to the culprits in this case has been raised to $25,000.


Write an article based on this summary:

– Donald Trump seems to have a big new target in his sights: Amazon.com and its founder, Jeff Bezos. In a Thursday interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Trump accused Bezos of using his Washington Post to try to keep Trump out of the White House. Why? He said Amazon has a "huge antitrust problem" and Bezos is afraid that Trump will go after the company as president. He also said the site is "getting away with murder tax-wise" and that Bezos is using the Post "for power so that the politicians in Washington don't tax Amazon like they should be taxed," reports Reuters. As Fox News points out, the allegations stem from what sounds like a major investigation the Post is conducting into Trump. On Wednesday, the newspaper's Bob Woodward told the National Association of Realtors that "we're going to do a book, we're doing articles about every phase of his life," and that 20 reporters have been put on the story. Trump is preemptively attacking the effort, telling Hannity the book would be filled with "false stuff," per USA Today. "Every hour we're getting calls from reporters from the Washington Post asking ridiculous questions," he said.

Trump: Bezos using 'Washington Post' to protect Amazon monopoly

 CLOSE Two of our political reporters sit down for an honest conversation about Donald Trump and all the media coverage he's received.Video provided by Newsy Newslook

 Once again Donald Trump has kindled the fires of conspiracy.

 The soon-to-be Republican nominee for president says Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO who owns The Washington Post, is using the paper to attack him and the other political enemies who would force the massive online retailer to pay more in taxes.

 Trump told Sean Hannity in an interview Thursday that Bezos is using the Post "like a toy" and "for power so that the politicians in Washington don't tax Amazon like they should be taxed."

 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Lynden, Wash. (Photo: Elaine Thompson, AP)

 Bezos believes "I would go after him for anti-trust because he has a huge anti-trust problem," Trump said. In his effort tp keep Trump out of the White House and protect his monopoly, the Amazon founder has assigned more than 20 Washington Post reporters to look at every aspect of his life, Trump said.

 "We can't let him get away with it," Trump told Hannity.

 "Every hour we're getting calls from reporters from the Washington Post asking ridiculous questions," Trump said. The stories are "bad" and "wrong" and "in many cases they have no proper information," he added.

 "They're slopping them together and they're going to do a book," he predicted. "And the book is going to be all false stuff because the stories are so wrong."

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/27iCZej ||||| Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump lashed out at Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos Thursday, claiming that the founder of Amazon.com was using the newspaper as a tool to influence corporate tax policy.

 "Every hour we're getting calls from reporters from The Washington Post asking ridiculous questions," Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity. "And I will tell you, this is owned as a toy by Jeff Bezos ... Amazon is getting away with murder, tax-wise. He's using The Washington Post for power so that the politicians in Washington don't tax Amazon like they should be taxed."

 Trump was responding to Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward's disclosure that the newspaper has assigned 20 reporters to investigate the real estate mogul's life.

 "We're going to do a book, we're doing articles about every phase of his life," Woodward told the National Association of Realtors convention Wednesday. The veteran reporter, best known for investigating the Watergate break-in that led to Richard Nixon's resignation, said he had begun investigating Trump's real estate deals in New York, which he called "more complex than the CIA."

 Bezos, who bought the Post in 2013 from longtime owners the Graham family, has donated to both Democratic and Republican elected officials. According to the website OpenSecrets, Bezos and his wife gave $4,800 each to Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., in 2009. The couple also gave $2.5 million to support a 2012 referendum legalizing gay marraige in Washington state.

 More recently, however, Bezos donated $2,700 this past September to Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.

 "He thinks I'll go after him for antitrust," Trump said Thursday. "Because he's got a huge antitrust problem because he's controlling so much, Amazon is controlling so much of what they are doing.

 "He's using The Washington Post, which is peanuts, he's using that for political purposes to save Amazon in terms of taxes and in terms of antitrust."

 Neither Bezos nor Amazon had any immediate comment in response to Trump's claims.

 Woodward said Wendesday that Bezos had urged the Post to run as many stories as possible about all the presidential candidates so that voters can't say they were uninformed when they select the next president.

 "He said, 'Look, the job at the Washington Post has to be tell us everything about who the eventual nominee will be in both parties,'" Woodward said. "'15-part, 16-part series, 20-part series, we want to look at every part of their lives. And we're never going to get the whole story, of course, but we can get the best attainable." |||||


AFP - Philippine authorities Thursday reacted angrily over "Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown's portrayal of Manila as "the gates of hell" in his latest novel.

 The book "Inferno" includes a character who describes the capital as a city of horrible traffic jams, suffocating pollution, massive poverty and a thriving child sex trade.

 The chairman of the government agency managing Manila, Francis Tolentino, sent a letter to Brown and his publishers criticising the "inaccurate portrayal of our beloved metropolis".

 While the book is fictional, an excerpt on the American author's website stresses that "all artwork, literature, science, and historical references in this novel are real".

 "I've run through the gates of hell," the character says after her experiences in Manila.

 In his letter, copies of which were made public, Tolentino said he was "displeased" by the depiction of the capital, home to more than 1.65 million people.

 He did not deny its huge slums and grinding poverty but said Brown had disregarded the strong Catholic faith of many residents as well as their "good character and compassion towards each other".

 "Truly our place is an entry to heaven," the letter added.

 Tolentino conceded this was not the first conflict between Brown and Manila. In 2006, the Manila city council banned screenings of the film adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code", saying it was offensive to the Catholic church.

 Brown's works have also previously come under fire in the largely Roman Catholic Philippines, with bishops calling them "sacrilegious" for undermining church teachings.

 However on cyberspace, some Filipinos were in agreement with the author's portrayal.

 "It looks like (Tolentino) is the one who hasn't been to Manila," one person tweeted.

 Last month, the government announced that despite years of economic growth, 27.9 percent of the Philippine population lived in poverty, a figure practically unchanged since 2006. ||||| 'Dan Brown has never been to PH'

 Posted at 05/23/2013 5:47 PM | Updated as of 05/24/2013 12:54 PM

 Manila needs massive rehab – new Manila mayor’s son

 MANILA, Philippines -- American author Dan Brown has never been to the Philippines, according to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority's (MMDA) chairman, Francis Tolentino.

 Tolentino told radio dzMM on Thursday that he browsed through records from the Bureau of Immigration and found out that Brown has never been to the Philippines.

 “Kaya nagtataka ako kung bakit sinabi nyang pugad ito ng masasama,” he said.

 Tolentino said he already wrote to the author, who describes Manila in his latest novel "Inferno" as the “gates of hell.” His office sent a letter through fax to Brown’s publisher and agent on Thursday noon.

 “So he should have received it by now,” he told radio dzMM.

 Tolentino wants the best-selling author to rectify his portrayal of Manila in his newest book, which is based on Dante's "The Divine Comedy."

 For the MMDA chief, Manila is the “doorway to heaven” because of its religious beliefs. It is also where the “cradle of Catholicism” is found.

 In his letter to Brown, Tolentino said: “More than your portrayal of it, Metro Manila is the center of Filipino spirit, faith and hope. Our faith in God binds us as a nation and we believe that Manila citizens are more than capable of exemplifying good character and compassion towards each other, something that your novel has failed to acknowledge. Truly, our place is an entry to heaven.”

 In an interview with ABS-CBN News, Tolentino said: “Pinapalabas niya ang Metro Manila puro kadumihan. We surmise that Mr. Brown is not familiar with Manila or Metro Manila. [This is where the cradle of Catholicism is] as well as other religions.”

 He also accused Brown of publishing lies. “Kahit fiction, ituwid naman nya. Ang balita ko pa, magiging bestseller na sa New York,” he said.

 A wonderland?

 Senator-elect JV Ejercito said, however, that it’s about time for the City of Manila to undergo a "massive rehabilitation."

 “Napag-iwanan na talaga ang Maynila…Massive rehabilitation is needed, tanggalin ang red tape,” said Ejercito, a former mayor of San Juan.

 Ejercito’s father, former President Joseph Estrada, has recently been elected as mayor of Manila. During his campaign, Estrada promised to bring back Manila to its former glory.

 In "Inferno," the fourth part in Harvard art professor Robert Langdon’s adventures, one of the characters goes through "the gates of hell" in Manila.

 The description of the city is from the first-hand account of one of the fictional characters, the messianic Dr. Sienna Brooks, who works with humanitarian groups. She goes to the Philippines for a mission to supposedly feed poor fishermen and farmers in the countryside.

 She expects the Philippines to be a “wonderland of geological beauty, with vibrant seabeds and dazzling plains.”

 But after setting foot in Manila, Brooks gapes in "horror" as she has "never seen poverty on this scale," slamming Manila’s "six-hour traffic jams, suffocating pollution, horrifying sex trade."

 Tolentino, who is also the traffic czar, said Manila’s traffic is only around two hours long -- at most.

 ‘Diabolic’

 But what got Tolentino really upset is the book's “religious insinuations” against Manila that may have a “negative implication” on the faith of Filipinos.

 He called Brown’s account was a “diabolic description” of Manila.

 This is not the first time that a Dan Brown book miffed Tolentino. In 2006, he wrote an article for the Manila Bulletin slamming "The Da Vinci Code," the book that catapulted Brown as a bestselling author.

 Tolentino even asked local theaters not to show the movie version of the book, with Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks as Langdon.

 This time, Tolentino wants Brown to come to the Philippines and realize that what he wrote in "Inferno" was wrong.

 “Bisitahin nya ang Metro Manila, Makita nya ang hospitality ng Filipino,” the MMDA chief said. |||||

Write a summary.

– Manila officials were probably excited to learn that one of the characters in Dan Brown's latest sure-to-be blockbuster visits the city. That is, until they read the descriptions of the child-sex trade, pollution, and poverty, all of which prompted the character in Inferno to declare, "I've run through the gates of hell." Well. Manila official Francis Tolentino has written a strongly worded letter to Brown and his publisher complaining of the "inaccurate portrayal of our beloved metropolis" and demanding a correction of some kind, reports AFP. Tolentino even pored over Philippines travel records and declared that Brown has never visited the country. If he had, says Tolentino, Brown would know that instead of being the "gates of hell," Manila is actually ... wait for it ... the "doorway to heaven," reports ABS-CBN. (And people call Brown a hack.) No word yet in response from the Da Vinci Code author.


News article:

A Southern California man has been charged with murder in the death of a 63-year-old woman who was mauled to death by a pack of pit bulls earlier this month.

 Alex Donald Jackson, 29, was arrested Thursday morning and charged with one count of murder in the fatal mauling of 63-year-old Pamela Devitt, who was out for a jog in the Mojave desert on May 9 when she was attacked. Passing motorists witnessed the mauling and called 911.

 "When the deputy showed up, Dewitt was still alive. Paramedics thought she would live," Lt. John Corina of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Homicide Division told ABCNews.com. But she died on the way to the hospital, Corina said.

 An autopsy revealed that Devitt had died of blood loss attributed to sharp-force trauma. She sustained approximately 150 to 200 puncture wounds, Corina said.

 When an officer arrived at the scene, one of the dogs was still mauling Devitt, according to Corina. The deputy approached, and the dog ran off but soon turned around and came at the officer. He fired a shot, and the dog ran off again, only to turn around a moment later and come at the officer a second time. The officer fired a second shot, and the dog again took off, Corina said.

 Acting on information, sheriff' and animal-control officials obtained a warrant and searched Jackson's home, located about a block from the site of the attack. Eight dogs, six pit bulls and two mixed-breeds, were taken from the home.

 Jackson will be arraigned Friday at Los Angeles Superior Court, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. He's being held on $1 million bail.

 Deputy District Attorney Samantha MacDonald said that since January authorities had received at least three other reports of Jackson's pit bulls attacking people.

 Corina said that the fence around the property was only 3- to 4-feet feet high, and the dogs could easily hop over it. He said that police found other people who had similar stories, and area residents told ABC's Los Angeles station KABC-TV they feared the dogs.

 "It's really scary," Diane Huffman told KABC-TV. "I don't know what to think. I really think I'm going to be getting a gun to protect myself.

 "They'd be walking past the house, and the dogs would attack them or their livestock, he said. "In one instance, they were attacking a guy on a horse. [Jackson} encouraged it. When he tried to stop the dogs, [Jackson] threw rocks at him, and said to leave his dogs alone."

 Jackson, who allegedly ran a marijuana operation at his home, according to the Los Angeles County DA, was also charged with cultivating marijuana, possession of marijuana for sale, possession for sale of a controlled substance, and assault with a deadly weapon.

 Corina said that the dogs, which appear to be of varying ages, were all fully grown. He said that they were currently with the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Control, and would likely be euthanized. ||||| Pamela Devitt was taking a morning walk through her neighborhood earlier this month when a pack of pit bulls mauled her.

 The retired office manager suffered 150 to 200 puncture wounds in the fatal attack. When the first sheriff's deputy arrived on the scene in the Antelope Valley town of Littlerock, he saw Devitt on the ground with one of the dogs still mauling her.

 On Thursday, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office charged the dogs' owner with murder. Prosecutors could not recall ever filing a similar murder case, but said the incident warranted such serious charges because the owner's dogs had attacked others before mauling Devitt.

 DISCUSSION: Should dog owner face murder charge?

 District attorney spokeswoman Jane Robison said authorities had received at least three reports of attacks by dogs belonging to Alex Donald Jackson, 29, since January.

 "We believe there was evidence that he was aware the dogs were vicious and they have attacked before and he knew of the danger they posed," Robison said.

 Jackson, who authorities say was growing marijuana in his home, was arrested Thursday and is being held on $1,050,000 bail. He is expected to be arraigned Friday.

 Devitt, 63, died en route to a hospital, and the attack sparked outrage in the neighborhood and beyond. Sheriff's officials said detectives found Devitt's blood on the muzzle and coats of four of Jackson's eight dogs.

 "There's no way I can get the brutality of this out of my head," Devitt's husband, Ben Devitt, told The Times. "The fact that there's animals out there roaming around with that kind of killer instinct, it's just kind of something I can't shake."

 Animal control officials took custody of Jackson's dogs.

 Murder cases involving dog attacks remain extremely rare, despite an increasing willingness by prosecutors throughout the country to file other types of charges, such as manslaughter and child endangerment, said Donald Cleary, a spokesman for the National Canine Research Council. The organization, which tracks dog attack cases, documented 34 dog-related fatalities last year. Six resulted in prosecutions; none involved murder charges.

 Cleary said fatal dog attacks tend to occur in outlying locations much like Littlerock, a desert community of about 1,400 where chain-link fences surround scattered homes and signs caution trespassers and warn that dogs are present.

 "It happens on the fringes of society — where people live to avoid others," he said.

 Littlerock residents complained Thursday about stray dogs roaming the neighborhood. Kimberly Eslick, 29, said her cat was killed by a stray dog in the area.

 "It doesn't surprise me at all," she said of Devitt's death, adding that she does not allow her kindergarten-age daughter out front alone anymore.

 Another resident, Jane Hammer, 60, said she carries a pistol with a hot-pink handle whenever she leaves the house as protection against bands of wild dogs she has seen in the area.

 The state's highest-profile dog-mauling murder case was tried in Los Angeles about a decade ago when a San Francisco judge moved a Bay Area case south in reaction to local outrage at the victim's death. In that case, a pair of Presa Canarios fatally mauled a woman in the hallway of her Pacific Heights apartment complex, leaving her with 77 bite marks.

 A Los Angeles jury convicted the dog's owner, Marjorie Knoller, of second-degree murder and her husband of involuntary manslaughter. A judge reduced Knoller's conviction to involuntary manslaughter, but the jury's verdict was reinstated following an appeal.

 To prove murder in a dog-mauling case, prosecutors must show that a dog owner knew the animal could endanger someone's life and acted in a way that showed a conscious disregard for that danger. The key is to show jurors that the animal's owner was previously warned that the animal was capable of killing, said Jim Hammer, who successfully prosecuted Knoller.

 "What this case will turn on is the prior incidents," said Hammer, who is now in private practice and is not related to Jane Hammer. "These are preventable deaths. I applaud any prosecutor who pursues such a case." |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– The owner of a pack of pit bulls that mauled a 63-year-old woman to death this month has been charged with murder, in a case that has rocked the town of Littlerock, California. Alex Jackson, 29, was yesterday charged in the death of Pamela Devitt, who died after suffering as many as 200 puncture wounds while walking near her home on the morning of May 9. Though the Los Angeles Times reports such a charge is extremely rare in connection with a dog attack, "we believe there was evidence that [Jackson] was aware the dogs were vicious and they have attacked before and he knew of the danger they posed," says a rep for the DA. Police found eight dogs in Jackson's home—six pit bulls and two mixed-breeds; four had Devitt's blood on them. "There's no way I can get the brutality of this out of my head," Devitt's husband tells the Times. Jackson faces an array of charges in addition to murder, including an assault charge tied to a separate dog-related incident: He's alleged to have on Jan. 13 heaved a rock at a rider whose horse was attacked by his dogs. One witness to that event tells ABC News that Jackson "encouraged" the dogs, saying that when the man on the horse "tried to stop the dogs, [Jackson] threw rocks at him, and said to leave his dogs alone." Jackson's bail is set at $1.05 million.


A rare blue moon dominated a clear sky Tuesday night, prompting many to take photos.

 The moon rises over the New York skyline in its full stage under a phenomenon called the blue moon, as seen from West Orange, N.J., on Tuesday. (Photo: By Julio Cortez, AP) Story Highlights The phrase 'Blue Moon' refers to the second blue moon in a month

 The next Blue Moon will not take place until 2015

 The traditional Blue Moon is not really blue, but there have been blue moons

 It's been the motivation for romantic songs and popular phrases, and if you're not doing anything tonight, you should head outside or get yourself to a window so you can see it for yourself.

 The last Blue Moon that we'll see until 2015 is up in the sky until Wednesday morning. It's not really blue. The phrase "blue moon" for many people commonly refers to a rare second full moon in a month, although the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, while noting disagreement among the public, describes it as, " ... the third full moon to in an astronomical season in which four full moons fall." This kind of moon appears only once every three years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

 On social media, amateur and professional photographers took advantage of the clear night and snapped and shared photos of the pristine moon against a navy sky. The buzz came from news organizations to every day people to folks like actor John Cusack, who retweeted a photo of the Blue Moon.

 People had jokes too, tweeting photos of Belgian White Blue Moon ale and video of 1961's "Blue Moon" by The Marcels.

 The Blue Moon also is known as the Full Sturgeon Moon, Green Corn Moon, Grain Moon orFull Red Moon. Initially, the phrase referred to the third full moon in a month, but an incorrect explanation in a 1943 edition of Sky and Telescope magazine stuck, according to space.com.

 By the way, although tonight's Blue Moon is not actually blue, there have been blue moons in history, according to NOAA. The last one, however, appeared over Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1950 and was due to moon light traveling through a cloud of particles from forest fires in Canada, NOAA says.

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/169QXvH ||||| A blue moon rising tonight is the first full moon of August, yet it is still considered "blue." (Photo: Reuters)

 A blue moon will illuminate the night sky tonight. Pop quiz: what is a blue moon? If you said "a moon that is blue," you'd be pretty wrong, but also sort of right. If you said "the second full moon in a calendar month," with a self-satisfied grin, you'd be sort of right, but should also probably be taken down a notch. If you said "a pretty decent wheat beer," you'd be technically right, but would be off topic.

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 It turns out that the scientific definition of a blue moon is a bit confusing. So here's the deal.

 Though tonight's full moon is the first of August, it is actually a blue moon. That's because the original definition of a blue moon is the third of four full moons in a season, and that is still the most valid definition of a blue moon.

 A little light math is necessary here. The lunation, or lunar cycle, is 29.53 days; one solar year is 365.25 days. This means there are 12.37 lunar cycles every solar year -- a number slightly larger than cycle of 12 months that makes up our calendar year. That means that 12 calendar months (or one year) are about 11 days longer than 12 lunar cycles. These "extra" 11 days accumulate, so that every two to three years there end up being an additional full moon in a season.

 A new definition of a blue moon emerged in 1946, and all because of a mistake in an astronomy magazine Sky & Telescope. In the article "Once in a Blue Moon," amateur astronomer James Hugh Pruett quoted the 1937 Maine Farmer's Almanac (which is unrelated to the more famous Farmer's Almanac), saying that the moon sometimes "comes full thirteen times in a year."

 "Seven times in 19 years there were -- and still are -- 13 full moons in a year," Pruett extrapolated from that quote. "This gives 11 months with one full moon each and one with two. This second in a month, so I interpret it, was called Blue Moon."

 That's the definition, "two full moons in one calendar month," that has stuck for most people. (It's also a far less complicated definition to understand, so maybe that helped too.)

 Then there is the other literal definition of a blue moon, in which the moon appears to be, well, blue. That can occur when particles in the atmosphere cause the moon to take on a hue.

 For instance, when Krakatoa erupted in 1883, the moon appeared to be blue for almost two years.

 "There was a time, not long ago, when people saw blue moons almost every night. Full moons, half moons, crescent moons--they were all blue, except some nights when they were green," wrote Tony Phillips on NASA's Solar System Exploration site. Large ash particles from Krakatoa "[scatted] red light, while allowing other colors to pass. White moonbeams shining through the clouds emerged blue and sometimes green."

 Similar "blue moons" occurred in 1983 in Chiapas, Mexico, after the eruption of the El Chichon volcano, and in Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991.

 Now that the confusion is cleared up, go enjoy your blue moon tonight. The next one won't be until July 31, 2015, if you go by the "mistake" definition, or on May 21, 2016, if you go by the original definition.

 READ MORE:

 National Park On The Moon: Lunar Act Would Protect Artifacts In Space

 Pluto Moons Named Styx And Kerberos, Despite Overwhelming Vote for 'Vulcan'

 Supermoon Live Stream: Where To Watch 2013's Brightest Full Moon [VIDEO] |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Photographers were out in force last night to capture a rare blue moon. No, blue moons aren't actually blue (although there have been moons that were blue, most recently in 1950); rather, the term refers to the second full moon in a month, USA Today reports. But wait, you exclaim! Last night was August's first full moon, so something must be amiss, right? International Science Times clears things up: The first (and, in its telling, "most valid") definition of a blue moon is the third of four full moons that occur in a single season. A season would typically have only three, and this extra moon comes about every two to three years. The next will be in 2015.


– James Carville offered an entertainingly disparaging take on the GOP presidential race today, saying that nothing stood in Mitt Romney’s way to getting the nomination—he may be a “serial windsock,” constantly changing his positions, but his opponents are inept. “The best thing Rick Perry can do for himself and his family and his friends is get out of the race and go back to Texas,” Carville told George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America. “This man is evidently not up to this.” As for Herman Cain, Carville said, he “says funny things” but “is not gonna be the Republican nomination for president.” Politico was especially struck by Carville’s reaction to Cain’s bizarre smoking aide ad. “If that guy wasn’t drunk, I haven’t taken a drink in my life!” Carville declared. “He was drunk or stoned. You know, some kind of chemical, I guarantee you that.” Stephanopoulos just laughed—as Mediaite notes, the two were cohorts during Bill Clinton's campaign and administration, so there's a whiff of liberal bias here.

Expand this summary.

Transcript for James Carville: Herman Cain Stands 'Zero Chance'

 And with Mitt Romney this flip flopping charge is -- -- -- Rick Perry hitting him on ABC the Obama campaign. Getting -- -- -- is this the single biggest hurdle between him and the nomination. I don't... See More

 And with Mitt Romney this flip flopping charge is -- -- -- Rick Perry hitting him on ABC the Obama campaign. Getting -- -- -- is this the single biggest hurdle between him and the nomination. I don't even know if there's a hurdle left but yes demand as a stereo when -- I mean any damage your turn around -- it did get something out of it and watching He uses any kind adjective in front have that you know -- get credit for popped up. He it is very committed to that means that he's gonna tank positions -- at -- -- 110% of the substance that may very little bit later He essentially -- the beginning this do you think there might be nothing in standing between him in the nomination. I don't think so. RRK I can't imagine I mean that repairs completely blown himself up there's there's zero chance that that that -- against the Vietnam it got it in less. Don't think -- I can see if the Republicans just don't like him enough. -- He can't accumulate. Half the delegates to pick out who did that that -- -- -- -- gone in and -- become -- -- -- that that He can't close a deal with that's almost impossible but GCR Perry trying to come back this week he's at the 20%. Flat tax and talked about the other day -- He also seemed to step in and a little bit. By at first questioning. Whether president Obama's birth certificate as authentic seeming to question. You have the best thing -- could do for himself and his family and friends get operation go back -- this man is is evidently not opted yes. He had when He can't just to do it. He can't debate He can't give a speech He can't pole position Paper He can't go on television got fifteen million dollars in the bank James got you -- He could have a hundred. -- fifty million dollars in the back. He is incapable of running for president He can't do the things that an -- run for president he's behind Newt Gingrich in the polls now. He's just in something that that that He should have never gotten him to. He's you know we're here it's not -- evident to me -- seven -- 95% of the republic and no one else is getting in this race. -- and -- maybe I don't know what's gonna happen if -- If -- had just been able to all the 50% I guess there's -- -- -- stopping but -- -- great resistance every time the city -- Ron -- get about 25 to. They don't wanna -- for Romney it is perfectly clear everybody goes up everybody goes out -- state to state. They do seem to want to be for Herman Cain I want to ask you about that because he's right behind her. Romney and an all these polls and we saw that ad showed his campaign manager. Smoking earlier this week I heard -- saw one person call -- post modern genius others think it's amateur hour where do you come down. Come down effect Assad government statement that -- -- dropped a hand it to drink in my life He -- how is He could -- -- -- -- what gets me it. He may or drop us -- He was it gives up I definitely cannot guarantee that. I just -- -- -- it it didn't let it Herman Cain says funny things Herman Cain is not going to be the Republican nomination for president. I mean he's what He had to them at national distraction maybe not a bad when in the middle of this horrific recession but -- bit -- -- -- up. Rove -- locked -- my probably burn out -- my New York Times. Not He said it I thought the smartest thing anybody says they've done what you -- sheriff -- I don't doubt Watson when you eliminate impossible you left what is the improbable hello admit that the may have all right yeah I'll put you down as a vote for amateur and James -- -- on this.

 This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate. ||||| Democratic strategist James Carville appeared on Good Morning America this morning to assess the current crop of front runners in the GOP presidential field and was not shy in his both predictable and entertainingly harsh criticism of his ideological foes. Herman Cain and Mitt Romney were both targeted, but it was Texas Governor Rick Perry, who has seen a rather enormous dip in recent polls, that received the most merciless review.

 In Carville’s purview, Romney isn’t so much a “flip-flopper” but more of a “a serial wind sock” adding “every time you turn around, it’s something else.” On Herman Cain, Carville declared that he “is not going to be the Republican nomination for president,” before calling him a “national distraction,” which might be a welcome one in the middle of this “horrific recession.”

 But he saved the best/worst for Perry, saying of the one time belle of the GOP ball “The best thing Rick Perrry can do for himself and his friends and family is get out of the race and go back to Texas, adding “this man is evidently not up to this. He had plenty of chances to do it. He can’t debate. He can’t give a speech. He can’t hold a position paper. He can’t go on television….he’s in over his head.”

 GMA host George Stephanopoulos served as a sort of straight man for Carville’s partisan punditry that likely reminded many viewers of the typically non-partisan ABC News offering that these two worked hand-in-hand in Bill Clinton‘s campaign and administration. Since tephanopoulos never really challenged Carville on his take — and there was never an opportunity given to a dissenting point of view — this segment is sure to give rise to the predictable charge of “liberal media bias” (thunder crack!)

 Watch the clip below, courtesy of ABC News:

 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| James Carville says the Herman Cain adviser who raised eyebrows this week by puffing on a cigarette in a campaign video was either “drunk or stoned.”

 “If that guy wasn’t drunk, I haven’t taken a drink in my life! He was as high as he could be. He was drunk or stoned. You know, some kind of chemical, I guarantee you that,” Carville said, laughing about Cain adviser Mark Block on ABC Thursday morning.

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 reset Carville: Aide 'drunk or stoned' POLITICO 44

 The video was “funny,” Carville continued, just like Cain’s bid for the Republican nomination, which Carville made clear was not to be taken seriously.

 Herman Cain “is not going to be” the Republican nominee, Carville said. “What he is is a national distraction, maybe not a bad one, in the middle of this horrific recession,” he said. “But let’s be real.”

 Carville had even sharper words for another Republican candidate in the race.

 “The best thing Rick Perry can do for himself and his family and his friends is get out of the race and go back to Texas. This man is evidently not up to this. He had plenty of chances to do it. He can’t debate. He can’t give a speech. … He can’t go on television,” the former Clinton aide said. He added that the amount that the Texas governor has in his war chest is irrelevant.

 “He can have $150 million dollars in the bank — he is incapable of running for president. He can’t do the things that are necessary to run for president,” he said. “He’s just in something that he should have never gotten into. He’s in over his head.”

 The Democratic strategist said there was not much standing between Mitt Romney and the nomination.

 “I mean, Rick Perry’s completely blown himself up. There’s zero chance that Herman Cain’s going to be the nominee.” |||||


Here is a news article: In this Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 photo, Indonesian transvestites perform a dance for small change in Jakarta, Indonesia. Indonesia's attitude toward transgenders is complex. Nobody knows how many of them... (Associated Press)

 Once, long ago, Evie looked after "Barry" Obama, the kid who would grow up to become the world's most powerful man. Now, his transgender former nanny has given up her tight, flowery dresses, her brocade vest and her bras, and is living in fear on Indonesia's streets.

 Evie, who was born a man but believes she is really a woman, has endured a lifetime of taunts and beatings because of her identity. She describes how soldiers once shaved her long, black hair to the scalp and smashed out glowing cigarettes onto her hands and arms.

 The turning point came when she found a transgender friend's bloated body floating in a backed-up sewage canal two decades ago. She grabbed all her girlie clothes in her arms and stuffed them into two big boxes. Half-used lipstick, powder, eye makeup _ she gave them all away.

 "I knew in my heart I was a woman, but I didn't want to die like that," says Evie, now 66, her lips trembling slightly as the memories flood back. "So I decided to just accept it. ... I've been living like this, a man, ever since."

 Indonesia's attitude toward transgenders is complex.

 Nobody knows how many of them live in the sprawling archipelagic nation of 240 million, but activists estimate 7 million. Because Indonesia is home to more Muslims than any other country in the world, the pervasiveness of men who live as women and vice versa often catches newcomers by surprise. They hold the occasional pageant, work as singers or at salons and include well-known celebrity talk show host Dorce Gamalama.

 However, societal disdain still runs deep _ when transgenders act in TV comedies, they are invariably the brunt of the joke. They have taken a much lower profile in recent years, following a series of attacks by Muslim hard-liners. And the country's highest Islamic body has decreed that they are required to live as they were born because each gender has obligations to fulfill, such as reproduction.

 "They must learn to accept their nature," says Ichwan Syam, a prominent Muslim cleric at the influential Indonesian Ulema Council. "If they are not willing to cure themselves medically and religiously" they have "to accept their fate to be ridiculed and harassed."

 Many transgenders turn to prostitution because jobs are hard to find and because they want to live according to what they believe is their true gender. In doing so, they put themselves at risk of contracting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

 Some, like Evie, have decided it's better to hide their feelings. Others are pushing back. Last month, a 50-year-old Indonesian transvestite applied to be the next leader of the national human rights commission, showing up in a borrowed luxury vehicle with paparazzi cameras flashing as she stepped out.

 "I'm too ugly to be a prostitute," Yuli Retoblaut said, chuckling. "But I can be their bodyguard."

 The threat of violence is very real: Indonesia's National Commission for Human Rights receives about 1,000 reports of abuses per year, ranging from murder and rape to the disruption to group activities. Worldwide, at least one person is killed every other day, according to the Trans Murder Monitoring Project, which collects homicide reports.

 Evie says she chose her current name because she thought it sounded sweet. But she adds, as she pulls out her national identification card, her official name is Turdi and gender male. Several longtime residents of Obama's old Menteng neighborhood confirmed that Turdi had worked there as his nanny for two years, also caring for his baby sister Maya. When asked about the nanny, the White House had no comment.

 Evie, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, now lives in a closet-sized hovel in a tightly packed slum in an eastern corner of Jakarta, collecting and scrubbing dirty laundry to pay for food. She wears baggy blue jeans and a white T-shirt advertising a tranquil beach resort far away in a place she's never been. She speaks softly, politely, and a deep worry line is etched between her eyes.

 As a child, Evie was often beaten by a father who couldn't stand having such a "sissy" for a son.

 "He wanted me to act like a boy, even though I didn't feel it in my soul," she says.

 Teased and bullied, she dropped out of school after the third grade and decided to learn how to cook.

 As it turned out, she was pretty good at it, making her way into the kitchens of several high-ranking officials by the time she was a teenager, she recalls with a smile and a wink. And so it was, at a cocktail party in 1969, that she met Ann Dunham, Barack Obama's mother, who had arrived in the country two years earlier after marrying her second husband, Indonesian Lolo Soetoro.

 Dunham was so impressed by Evie's beef steak and fried rice that she offered her a job in the family home. It didn't take long before Evie also was 8-year-old Barry's caretaker, playing with him and bringing him to and from school.

 Neighbors recalled that they often saw Evie leave the house in the evening fully made up and dressed in drag. But she says it's doubtful Barry ever knew.

 "He was so young," says Evie. "And I never let him see me wearing women's clothes. But he did see me trying on his mother's lipstick, sometimes. That used to really crack him up."

 When the family left in the early 1970s, things started going downhill. She moved in with a boyfriend. That relationship ended three years later, and she became a sex worker.

 "I tried to get a job as a maid, but no one would hire me," says Evie. "I needed money to buy food, get a place to stay."

 It was a cat-and-mouse game with security guards and _ because the country was still under the dictatorship of Gen. Suharto _ soldiers. They often rounded up "banshees" or "warias," as they are known locally, loaded them into trucks, and brought them to a field where they were kicked, hit and otherwise abused.

 The raid that changed everything came in 1985. She and her friends scattered into dark alleys to escape the swinging batons. One particularly beautiful girl, Susi, jumped into a canal strewn with garbage.

 When things quieted, those who ran went back to look for her.

 "We searched all night," says Evie, who is still haunted by the memory of her friend's face. "Finally ... we found her. It was horrible. Her body swollen, face bashed in."

 Today Evie seeks solace in religion, going regularly to the mosque and praying five times a day. She says she's just waiting to die.

 "I don't have a future anymore."

 She says she didn't know the boy she helped raise won the 2008 U.S. presidential election until she saw a picture of the family in local newspapers and on TV. She blurted out that she knew him.

 "I couldn't believe my eyes," she says, breaking into a huge grin.

 Her friends at first laughed and thought she was crazy, but those who live in the family's old neighborhood say it's true.

 "Many neighbors would remember Turdi ... she was popular here at that time," says Rudy Yara, who still lives across the street from Obama's former house. "She was a nice person and was always patient and caring in keeping young Barry."

 Evie hopes her former charge will use his power to fight for people like her. Obama named Amanda Simpson, the first openly transgender appointee, as a senior technical adviser in the Commerce Department in 2010.

 For Evie, who's now just trying to earn enough to survive each day on Jakarta's streets, the election victory itself was enough to give her a reason _ for the first time in a long time _ to feel proud.

 "Now when people call me scum," she says, "I can just say: 'But I was the nanny for the President of the United States!'"

 ____

 Associated Press writer Robin McDowell contributed from Jakarta. ||||| Once, long ago, Evie looked after "Barry" Obama, the kid who would grow up to become the world's most powerful man. Now, his transgender former nanny has given up her tight, flowery dresses, her brocade vest and her bras, and is living in fear on Indonesia's streets.

 In this Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 photo, Evie, also known as Turdi, the former nanny of U.S. President Barack Obama, irons laundry in her room at a boarding house in a slum in Jakarta, Indonesia. Evie, who... (Associated Press)

 In this Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 photo, Evie, also known as Turdi, the former nanny of U.S. President Barack Obama, stands at the doorway of her room at a boarding house in a slum in Jakarta, Indonesia.... (Associated Press)

 In this Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 photo, Evie, also known as Turdi, the former nanny of U.S. President Barack Obama, shows a picture of herself, left, dressed as a woman with an unidentified friend in a pageant,... (Associated Press)

 In this Friday, Jan. 20, 2012 photo, an Indonesian transvestite Yulianus Retoblaut who is also known as Mami Yulie, center, is accompanied by fellow transvestites as she is interviewed by a local TV after... (Associated Press)

 In this Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 photo, Indonesian transvestites perform a dance for small change in Jakarta, Indonesia. Indonesia's attitude toward transgenders is complex. Nobody knows how many of them... (Associated Press)

 Evie, who was born a man but believes she is really a woman, has endured a lifetime of taunts and beatings because of her identity. She describes how soldiers once shaved her long, black hair to the scalp and smashed out glowing cigarettes onto her hands and arms.

 The turning point came when she found a transgender friend's bloated body floating in a backed-up sewage canal two decades ago. She grabbed all her girlie clothes in her arms and stuffed them into two big boxes. Half-used lipstick, powder, eye makeup _ she gave them all away.

 "I knew in my heart I was a woman, but I didn't want to die like that," says Evie, now 66, her lips trembling slightly as the memories flood back. "So I decided to just accept it. ... I've been living like this, a man, ever since."

 Indonesia's attitude toward transgenders is complex.

 Nobody knows how many of them live in the sprawling archipelagic nation of 240 million, but activists estimate 7 million. Because Indonesia is home to more Muslims than any other country in the world, the pervasiveness of men who live as women and vice versa often catches newcomers by surprise. They hold the occasional pageant, work as singers or at salons and include well-known celebrity talk show host Dorce Gamalama.

 However, societal disdain still runs deep _ when transgenders act in TV comedies, they are invariably the brunt of the joke. They have taken a much lower profile in recent years, following a series of attacks by Muslim hard-liners. And the country's highest Islamic body has decreed that they are required to live as they were born because each gender has obligations to fulfill, such as reproduction.

 "They must learn to accept their nature," says Ichwan Syam, a prominent Muslim cleric at the influential Indonesian Ulema Council. "If they are not willing to cure themselves medically and religiously" they have "to accept their fate to be ridiculed and harassed."

 Many transgenders turn to prostitution because jobs are hard to find and because they want to live according to what they believe is their true gender. In doing so, they put themselves at risk of contracting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

 Some, like Evie, have decided it's better to hide their feelings. Others are pushing back. Last month, a 50-year-old Indonesian transvestite applied to be the next leader of the national human rights commission, showing up in a borrowed luxury vehicle with paparazzi cameras flashing as she stepped out.

 "I'm too ugly to be a prostitute," Yuli Retoblaut said, chuckling. "But I can be their bodyguard."

 The threat of violence is very real: Indonesia's National Commission for Human Rights receives about 1,000 reports of abuses per year, ranging from murder and rape to the disruption to group activities. Worldwide, at least one person is killed every other day, according to the Trans Murder Monitoring Project, which collects homicide reports.

 Evie says she chose her current name because she thought it sounded sweet. But she adds, as she pulls out her national identification card, her official name is Turdi and gender male. Several longtime residents of Obama's old Menteng neighborhood confirmed that Turdi had worked there as his nanny for two years, also caring for his baby sister Maya. When asked about the nanny, the White House had no comment.

 Evie, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, now lives in a closet-sized hovel in a tightly packed slum in an eastern corner of Jakarta, collecting and scrubbing dirty laundry to pay for food. She wears baggy blue jeans and a white T-shirt advertising a tranquil beach resort far away in a place she's never been. She speaks softly, politely, and a deep worry line is etched between her eyes.

 As a child, Evie was often beaten by a father who couldn't stand having such a "sissy" for a son.

 "He wanted me to act like a boy, even though I didn't feel it in my soul," she says.

 Teased and bullied, she dropped out of school after the third grade and decided to learn how to cook.

 As it turned out, she was pretty good at it, making her way into the kitchens of several high-ranking officials by the time she was a teenager, she recalls with a smile and a wink. And so it was, at a cocktail party in 1969, that she met Ann Dunham, Barack Obama's mother, who had arrived in the country two years earlier after marrying her second husband, Indonesian Lolo Soetoro.

 Dunham was so impressed by Evie's beef steak and fried rice that she offered her a job in the family home. It didn't take long before Evie also was 8-year-old Barry's caretaker, playing with him and bringing him to and from school.

 Neighbors recalled that they often saw Evie leave the house in the evening fully made up and dressed in drag. But she says it's doubtful Barry ever knew.

 "He was so young," says Evie. "And I never let him see me wearing women's clothes. But he did see me trying on his mother's lipstick, sometimes. That used to really crack him up."

 When the family left in the early 1970s, things started going downhill. She moved in with a boyfriend. That relationship ended three years later, and she became a sex worker.

 "I tried to get a job as a maid, but no one would hire me," says Evie. "I needed money to buy food, get a place to stay."

 It was a cat-and-mouse game with security guards and _ because the country was still under the dictatorship of Gen. Suharto _ soldiers. They often rounded up "banshees" or "warias," as they are known locally, loaded them into trucks, and brought them to a field where they were kicked, hit and otherwise abused.

 The raid that changed everything came in 1985. She and her friends scattered into dark alleys to escape the swinging batons. One particularly beautiful girl, Susi, jumped into a canal strewn with garbage.

 When things quieted, those who ran went back to look for her.

 "We searched all night," says Evie, who is still haunted by the memory of her friend's face. "Finally ... we found her. It was horrible. Her body swollen, face bashed in."

 Today Evie seeks solace in religion, going regularly to the mosque and praying five times a day. She says she's just waiting to die.

 "I don't have a future anymore."

 She says she didn't know the boy she helped raise won the 2008 U.S. presidential election until she saw a picture of the family in local newspapers and on TV. She blurted out that she knew him.

 "I couldn't believe my eyes," she says, breaking into a huge grin.

 Her friends at first laughed and thought she was crazy, but those who live in the family's old neighborhood say it's true.

 "Many neighbors would remember Turdi ... she was popular here at that time," says Rudy Yara, who still lives across the street from Obama's former house. "She was a nice person and was always patient and caring in keeping young Barry."

 Evie hopes her former charge will use his power to fight for people like her. Obama named Amanda Simpson, the first openly transgender appointee, as a senior technical adviser in the Commerce Department in 2010.

 For Evie, who's now just trying to earn enough to survive each day on Jakarta's streets, the election victory itself was enough to give her a reason _ for the first time in a long time _ to feel proud.

 "Now when people call me scum," she says, "I can just say: 'But I was the nanny for the President of the United States!'"

 ____

 Associated Press writer Robin McDowell contributed from Jakarta. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Indonesia is home to 7 million transgendered people who face ongoing harassment, rape, and murder—and Barack Obama's former nanny is among their ranks. Following years of abuse, Evie, born a man, decided to leave cross-dressing behind after a friend was brutally murdered in 1985, the AP reports, in an exclusive look at her predicament and the situation in Indonesia at large. Though the lifestyle is very much in the public eye—a major talk-show host is transgendered—attacks have mounted in recent years, and the country's top Islamic organization has condemned the transgender lifestyle, the AP reports. "They must learn to accept their nature" or "accept their fate to be ridiculed and harassed," says a top cleric. As a child, Evie dropped out of school and pursued a career in cooking, eventually finding work as a cook for Obama's mother in 1969. During that time, she became a de facto nanny to an 8-year-old Barack and sister Maya. And though she often went out at night dressed as a woman, "I never let him see me wearing women's clothes. But he did see me trying on his mother's lipstick, sometimes. That used to really crack him up." But after the family moved away, Evie fell on hard times and ultimately became a sex worker. Today, she says she doesn't "have a future anymore" and is simply counting down the days until she dies. Still, when she found out that Obama had become president, "I couldn't believe my eyes," she notes. "Now when people call me scum, I can just say: 'But I was the nanny for the president of the United States!'"


– Workers in Australia's Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services were saved some work Wednesday morning, and they've apparently got a young humpback whale to thank. Responding to help an adult whale beached on a sandbar, the workers found that she had managed to free herself before they got there. The incoming tide surely helped, but both the BBC and Australia's ABC report that her young calf appeared to be trying to nudge her off the sandbar near North Stradbroke Island, about 60 miles south of Brisbane. (See this video.) "The mother was a bit tired and distressed," says a QPWS spokesperson. Whales are a common sight off the Queensland coast this time of year, as they migrate north from their Antarctic habitats to give birth to new calves. Australian scientists have been using drones to study the migration, mating, and behavioral patterns of whales, the West Australian reports. (Humpbacks have been known to save other animals from killer whales.)

Expand this summary.

Whale frees itself following stranding off Queensland's Stradbroke Island

 Updated

 A whale has finally managed to free itself after spending hours stranded on a sandbar in waters off Stradbroke Island, east of Brisbane.

 A Queensland Parks and Wildlife (QPW) spokesman said they first received reports on Thursday night of a mother and calf stranded on the sandbar at Dunwich, on North Stradbroke Island.

 He said they managed to free themselves before the mother was re-stranded closer to shore this morning.

 Footage shot earlier this morning showed the distressed calf swimming nearby and apparently trying to push it off.

 At about 8:15am the mother managed to free itself.

 A QPW boat is trailing the whales to help herd them out to sea and away from shallow waters.

 Topics: animals, human-interest, qld

 First posted ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Whale calf 'helps' push its stranded mother to safety

 A humpback whale which was stranded on an Australian sandbank has freed itself after its calf was seen apparently nudging it into deeper water.

 The whale was spotted near North Stradbroke Island, about 80km (50 miles) east of Brisbane, early on Wednesday morning.

 Her distressed calf was later seen apparently pushing her as she splashed in the water to get free.

 About 40 minutes after getting stuck, the whale was able to dislodge herself.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Whale calf tries to push its stranded mother to safety

 Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services (QPWS) personnel were despatched to help the pair and planned to stabilise them until a team from Sea World, further along the coast, could arrive to help free them.

 But incoming tides and the efforts of the young whale helped the mother get off the sandbank before they arrived.

 Image copyright QPWS Image caption The pair are also believed to have been stranded nearby overnight, before becoming stuck again

 "The whale was able to free itself and the adult and the calf were able to swim away," a spokesperson for QPWS told the BBC, adding that they successfully helped the pair out through shallow waters to the open sea.

 "The mother was a bit tired and distressed".

 Image copyright QPWS Image caption QPWS followed the pair to help them make it to deep water and avoid "restranding"

 Whales are common at this time of year on the Queensland coast, where many go to give birth and begin rearing their calves before heading back to Antarctic waters. ||||| Rating is available when the video has been rented.

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